12 Proceedings of the Roijal Irish Acadeing. 



(but only noted) by Dr. Charles Browne in these Proceedings ; Forth was 

 mentioned, in a rather misleading way, by Caesar Otway ; the greatest and 

 most complex of all, the Dun of Kilmore in Achillbeg, was accidentally 

 found in last August. To describe the remains of these four great duns 

 is the object of this paper. 



The District. 



There is the less reason at present to study at any great length the 

 topography of the districts in which these forts lie that O'Donovan has 

 given us his vast stores of knowledge in " The Tribes and Customs of Hy 

 Fiachrach," and Mr. Hubert T. Knox has again gone more fully and with 

 the aid of the Anglo-Norman records over the facts in the Journal of the 

 Eoyal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland, and in his still recent " History of 

 the county Mayo, to the close of the sixteenth century." 



The district' was essentially Domnonian, or, to use the more popular but 

 also more vague ethnological term, "Firbolg." Mr. Knox notes that the 

 term comprised Danonians ; but it was more properly restricted to the 

 Fir Domnon, Fir GaUeoiu, and Fir Bolg ; the last, in a definite sense, he inclines 

 to equate with the Bolg Tuath, who, with the Gabraighe, Cathraighe, and the 

 Cruithne of Croghan, are given by Mac Firbis as the tribes of Genann.^ We 

 may yet again recall the record of the Gann-Geuann tribes on the Atlas of 

 Ptolemy as the " Ganganoi." The Fir Gaileoin were regarded as " Cruithne," 

 and were identified by some with the Tuatha de Danann, which seems to 

 remove them into absolute myth. The Nemedians revi^'ed as the Firbolgs, 

 who invaded Ireland under the sons of Dela, and allotted Connacht to 

 Genann ; they have the repute of having been the first to establish Tara as 

 the royal seat. Avoiding the nets of legendary origins, we find at the dawn 

 of history the kingdom of Irrus-Domhnon, comprising the Clan Umoir tribes, 

 spread over northern Connacht ; the last echo of its name seems heard in the 

 baronial name " Erris." In this division lie the forts of Dunnamo, Dun 

 Fiachra, and Forth. The Gamanraighe and Clan Morna branches of Irrus 

 Domhnou were probably the source of the race whose monarchs Fiachra 

 Foltshnathach and Amalgaidh have left their mai-k on our maps in the 

 baronies of Tireragh and Tirawley. It is not impossible that the mighty 



• See "Tribes and Customs of Hy Fiachrach" (O'Donovan); "History of County Mayo" 

 (Mr. Knox) ; and articles by the latter in Eoy. Soe. Antt. Ir. Journal, vol. xxxi., p. 24, p. 365 ; 

 xxxii., p. 13'J, by Sir John Rhys ; ibid., vol. xxviii., p. 233 ; and Mr. J. MacNeill's " Study of 

 Oghams " in Proc. E.I. A., vol. xxvii., ji. 332 ; Sir S. Ferguson, " Ogham Inscriptions," pp. 68, 59 ; 

 Mr. E. A. S. Macalister, " Iiish Epigraphy," part i., pp. 73-75: see also Sir S. Ferguson, Proc. 

 R.I. A., ser. ii., vol. ii., p. 201. 



- Si-c '' Book (if Lfinsler," Todd Lecture series, vol. iii., No. 830, p. 119. 



