Wes'vhopf- Larger Cliff Forts of West Coast of Co. Mai/o. 13 



hero Fiachra, riding on the famous " water-horse," the l.juikler uf Dun riaclu'a, 

 may be the great tribal ancestor of the Ui Fiachrach. Tlie Clan Umoir plays 

 a much greater part in the Connacht legend than in that of Mac Liag, a 

 North Munster poet of about a.d. 1000, whose poem on their settlements we 

 had recently to study in connexion with Aran. In the latter poet, they are 

 a small family settled at Cruach Oigle, or Cruachan Aigle,' at or on Croagh 

 Patrick, whose huge blue peak is the central feature of all the scenery south of 

 Achill, with which our later paper is concerned. All we can take out of the 

 legend here is that a tenth- century bard told how, about the beginning of our 

 era, their names attached to Aigle and Modh, the great group of some three 

 hundred islets in Clew Bay. I find no evidence to support the suggestion 

 connecting the name of Modh with Dunnamo. The name means more 

 probably " Fort of the cattle," as forts named from animals are of frequent 

 occurrence m Ireland. 



In the fourth century, we touch firmer ground in the history of the north 

 of Mayo. Eochu Mughmheadoin, High King of Erin, about a.d. 358, married 

 Mongfionn. Her attempt to secure the kingship for her sons by poisoning 

 her brother, the High King Crimthann mac Fidach, about 377, failed,^ but it 

 put its mark on southern history in giving part of the present county Clare 

 as an " eric " to Crimthann's foster-son Connall Eachluath, the ancestor of the 

 Daleassian Princes.' Fiachra was a mighty warrior. He again and again 

 overran this " monstrous eantle " assigned to Munster out of his ancestral 

 province. He penetrated the old territory of Thomond as far as Kenry 

 and Cahernarry ; but he fell in the former district in a pitched battle at the 

 moment of victory. His body was brought away and buried, the Munster 

 hostages being buried alive round his grave. 



From him, in Christian times, tribal genealogists derived the chiefs, and 

 later writers the entire races of Ui Fiachrach and Tir Fiachrach (or Tireragh), 

 and from his son Amhalgaidh, the Tir Amhalgadha (or Tirawley). 

 Amhalgaidh had a son Corb, or Corbri, probably commemorated on the 

 oldest written record of the clan, the great pillar stone of Breastagh, erected 

 to a " son of Corbri, son of Awley," " Maqu Corrbri Maq Ammlongatt.'"* 



' See Mr. Knox, Roy. Soc.Antt. Ir. Journal, xxxi. p. 35. Tiiechandisiinguishesthe " ci'uacban" 

 from the'higli hill over it. Murrisu Aigli is the shore district below it. 



- "Book of Ballymote " ; see Silva Gadelica (S. H. O'Grady), vol. ii., p. 373. 



^ Some regarded Lugad and his son Conall Eachluath as Kings of the Ui Catbar and Ui Corra 

 already settled in the later county Clare ; but the idea of " Clare" being rent from Connacht and 

 the "Lugad" tales colour all belief in Munster and Southern Connacht from the earliest times. 

 They even originate a tabu of the King of Connacht, in the " Book of Eights " : "to the heath of 

 Luchaid let him not go in a speckled cloak." The event lay so close to the introduction of 

 Christianity and written records as to be essentially historic. 



* Journal Roy. Soc. Antiqq. Ir., vol. sxviii., p. 272, and plate. The son's name is possibly 

 Eolaing (gen. luleug), " Ulengenqu." 



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