Westropp — The Earthworks, Sfc, of S. E. Co. Limerick. 159 



were eponymi of the tribes in Co. Clare and Connacht, called Gangnnoi by 

 Ptolemy. She was of the Tuatha De, and reared at Ciu'l Echtair, near Sid 

 Nennta. 1 Altogether, the important position taken by the Irish goddess 

 corresponds to the high position of the mortal women, queens, and warriors, 

 like Boudicca and Medb. It is notable that great sanctuaries, like Knoekainey 

 and Oenach Chuli, are called after women, and that Carman, Tea, Macha, 

 Tailti, and Maistiu loom so large at Carman, Tara, Telltown, Emania, and 

 Mullaghmast. Human sacrifice was offered at Emania, Tara, and Tailti, 

 perhaps to the mother goddesses of the harvest. 



Deda, Garban, and Febra. — The great plateau of Cen Febrat, or Slieve- 

 reagh, so prominent an object over all eastern Limerick, was, as we saw, the 

 chief cemetery of the Erann, or Ernai, the Clann Deda, and Corca Laegde. 

 All the outstanding names of their mythic ancestry, save Deda 2 and Curoi 

 (the latter presumably buried at Caherconrigh), are attached to its monuments 

 and mark it as the great cemetery of the Ernai at Temair Erann, 3 so wrongly 

 placed by O'Donovan as near Castle Island. In the later frantic attempt to 

 unite all the tribal genealogies, the Ernai and Muscraige are given " Ailill 

 Erann, the god of the bolg ga," 4 as common ancestor ; but, in most docu- 

 ments, the Clann Dedad Ernai derive from Deda, son of Sen. Sen 5 was 

 probably father of a large group of gods of Mountains and Lakes ; Deda gave 

 his name to the Clann Dedad, or Degaid, and to Luachair Dedad. c Sen was 

 son of the High King, Eochu Airiomh, " who was seventeenth in descent from 

 Ugaine Mor, and first dug a cave in Erin," 7 and reigned from " B.C. 125 to 110," 

 according to the chronologers. Deda and his brethren of the Clan Eudhraighe 

 were expelled by the line of Eremon from Ulster. They fled (in one story) s 

 to Duach, King of Minister, who gladly received so valuable an army and 

 gave them lands, so they became the Ernai (Ptolemy's Iouernoi). When 

 Duach died, the High King Eochu Feidlioch (Queen Medb's father), 



1 Some made her daughter of Deda, son of Sen (see infra). 



2 Are the Clanna Deagaidh of Deda's line the Clanna mac Deichead or Maqi Deceddaa 

 of the ogmic inscriptions >. (R. Soc. Antt. Ir., xxxii, p. 30, and It. I. Acad. Proc, xxvii. 

 p. 339.) 



3 Tract on the cemeteries. Cf. Metr. Dind S., x, p. 227. See section at end of this 

 paper. 



4 New Ir. Rev., xxvi, p. 133. He appears in three places in the tribal pedigree— at 

 the beginning, in the middle, and some generations after Deda — another proof of the 

 uncritical usage of old material by the genealogists. Keating makes him !lth in descent 

 from Ugaine and 8th in ascent from Sen. 



6 Sen was in some documents one of a triad Deitsin, Sin and Roisin, e.g., Killing ii, 

 p. 289. 



6 Vol. ii, pp. 229, 235, 237. 



7 Keating, ii, pp. 158, 184, 229. Todd Lect. Ser., iii, p. 197 ; Metr. Dinds., x, p. 241. 

 Keating ii, p. 158, p. 229 ; Ossianic Soc, v, p. 288n. 



B.I. A. PROO., VOL. XXXIV, SECT. C. |2I 



