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IV. 



EAELY lEISH POPULATION-GROUPS: THEIE NOMENCLATURE, 

 CLASSIFICATION, AND CHRONOLOGY. 



By JOHN MAC NEILL. 



Read Januauv 23, 19U. Published April 28, 1911. 



CONTENTS. 



PAGE 



I. Plural Names, ... 59 

 II. Collective Names, . . 64 

 III. Sept Names, ... 82 



FAOE 



IV. The Tuath, .... 88 



V. The Trioha Get = Thirty Hundrede, 102 



I. Plukal Names. 



1. Among the continental Celts, each distinct population-group bore a plural 

 name, e.g. Haedui. The singular form denoted an individual member of the 

 community, e.g. Haeduus. This system of nomenclature, very general in 

 ancient Europe, might be expected to exist in the oldest Irish traditions. In 

 Ptolemy's description of Ireland, the sixteen peoples named all bear names of 

 this order. 



2. Most of the names given by Ptolemy lack identification in the native 

 Irish tradition. The absence of these from Irish writings may be accounted 

 for in more than one way. Some of the names may have been inaccurately 

 recorded by Ptolemy. Some may have been corrupted beyond recognition by 

 his copyists. Some may have designated peoples whose identity became 

 forgotten through conquest and dispersion, for there is ample evidence that 

 the period between Ptolemy's time (c. a.d. 150) and the beginning of con- 

 temporary records in Ireland was marked by great commotion, invohdng 

 widespread changes in distribution and relative status of the older elements of 

 the population. 



3. The Ogham inscriptions, as I have shown in an article on the word 

 Moccu (Ogham mucci) m Eriu, vol. iii., part i., sometimes record names not only 



K.I. A. PROC, VOL. XXIX., SECT. C. [10] 



