Westropp — The Earthworks, 6fc. f of S. E. Co. Limerick. 181 



goddess Nar, made his fort upon it (a.p. I), 1 and the Ernai, in the time of 

 Deda ("B.C. 130"), their great cemetery, Temair Erann, whose three tumuli 

 were dedicated to the Tuatha De Danann. These disjointed tales show how 

 large it loomed as a holy hill in the sight and belief of the peoples of the 

 plain. 



APPENDIX. 

 Temair Luachra. 



O'Donovan and O'Curry identify Temair Erann with Temair Luachra and 

 Temair Shuba. 2 They give no authority for the dictum, which, so far as I can 

 find, is (as so often) a mere guess. There is (as I have pointed out) some 

 mistake in the Mesca Ulad. The raiders pass through the (M)Airtine, into 

 Smertaine, with Loch Gur on their right, across the pool stream of Maig, to 

 Cliu, into Deise beg. They come to Aine Cliach, then to 'Oenach Clochair, 

 on by the road to Temair Luchra. The Cammoge, rather than the Maigue, 

 must be intended. Temair Luachra was on the east slope of the hills of 

 Luachair, at least twenty miles beyond the Maigue, and over thirty miles 

 from 'Oenach Clochair. As we have seen, the cemetery of Cush is the chief 

 cemetery of the Ernai and Claim Dedad ; it is therefore Temair Erann, and so 

 cannot be the other place. I know of no mention of Temair Shuba but the 

 incidental inclusion among the forts claimed by the King of Cashel, which 

 favours its identity with the once predominant Temair Luachra. We find 

 another curious tradition of the great importance of the latter in the same 

 book. The High King of Ireland, from the royal namesake Bregian Tara, hail 

 to send a cauldron to the King of Cashel, at Temair Luachra. It had ceased 

 to be chief centre of Minister in a prehistoric past, but the fact was not 

 forgotten. The King of Cashel indeed was expected to go to it with twenty 

 chariots, thirty vats of liquor, and food in proportion, "to eat the Feast of 

 the Ernai," and stay there for a week. 



As to my attempts to fix its site, 3 the last were partly based on O'Donovan's 

 identification of 'Oenach Clochair with Monasteranenagh, not with Cloudier. 

 This suggested that the route in the Mesca Ulad lay to the north and not to 

 the south of Knockfirina, as is evidently intended. This, however, does not 

 necessarily preclude the possibility of Dungan ville f ort being Curoi's fort; but 



1 The silver bow of Crimthann was carried by the Uladh, after the sack of Temair 

 Luachra, to Cenn Febrat, and they wrecked the ('.it hair and slew the king (kennes Dind 

 S., xvi, pp. 73, 78). Was it Bun Claire ? For other .illusions to Crimthann (other than 

 those connected with Howth), see Mesca Ulad, p. 5:i ; Keating, ii, pp. 2'i- 6, 242, and i. 

 p. 44. 



2 Book of Rights, p. 225. 3 Supra, xxvi, p. 62, and wxiii. p. l'iS 



