342 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. 



Point (The Sacred Promontory), may well have been a sanctuary of some 

 kind; indeed, there is at Canisore Point itself a ring-wall, now consecrated by 

 the ruined chapel that bears the name of Mo-bheoc. 1 



When we recollect further that the plain round Temair is called Mag 

 Breg, after which Temair itself is named Temair Breg, and that in Ptolemy's 

 time Temair had ii"t yet attained a sufficient general importance to obtain a 



pi i his map : that there was a tradition, ualeat quantum, that Fal had 



been brought thither from somewhere called Inis Fail; and finally, when we 

 remember that it would, be quite possible to imagine the names Eire and 

 Inis Fail being transferred by advancing conquerors from the smaller island 

 to the larger, but that the reverse process is highly improbable, we see the 

 inference stated above confirmed. Ami having thus concluded that the 

 Slaney estuary Baw tie' first landing of the incoming Celts, we look up the 

 "official hist,, iie~" to see what they have to say on the subject. Here we find 

 it stated that the Milesians first came to land in ruber Slainge — the Slaney 

 try — though the druids of the TuaLha D6 Danann wore able to keep them 

 off by magically causing the country to disappear, so that they sailed round 

 it three time- without knowing what they were doing, ami finally came to 

 landinlnbei S to be Kenmare River). Whatever we may make 



of the latter part of this episode, the first pail certainly indicates a tradition 

 which agrees with our deductions. 



True, there i- another explanation for the island in the slaney estuary 

 being called " Little Ireland." We are told that [bar and Patrick having 

 quarrelled, the latter pronounced sentence that "Ibar Bhould never be in 



Ireland." " Ireland shall be the name of the place wherever I shall be," 

 • that he called the island of his exile " Little Ireland. "- 

 This reminds us of the curiou d to, that" ( !enannus 



was the name of every place where Fiachu built his house"; perhaps the 

 id of an advancing host , ituary for its culture-hero 



when it Df its man II gan's Om uutieon records only 



two pi ices of the latter name in Ireland (Kells in Meath and Kells in Ossory), 



and one in Scotland (Kells in i \ . There a ther places now called 



Kells in Antrim Clue Kerry, and Limerick. These data, however, are scarcely 

 sufficient to enable us to trace the Bpread of the cult of Fiachu. 



1 I have to acknowledge the kit I my friend the Re* I: FitzHeiiry, P.P., of 



Broadv tiding me over tin--- Beg J • There >- nothing, 



however, now to Ik- seen at the latter spot having any direct bearing on the subject of 

 this paper. 



- FfHire Oenguuo, Bradshaw ed., p. 118 



