88 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. 



IV. The Tuath. 



81. We find the term tiMth variously handled by modern translatoi's. In 

 the Annals of Ulster, Dr. Mac Carthy regularly gives "territories" as the Enghsh 

 of tuatha. Others render tuath by " tribe," a conveniently vague word which 

 covers everything from an ancient subnation like the Ulaid to a comparatively 

 modern sept hke Clann Aodha Buidhe. It is true that by a familiar figure of 

 speech, timth is often used of a territorial area, just as Norfolk, which once meant 

 the N'orth-folk, came to mean the district they occupied. By a different 

 transference of idea, tuath came to signify the laity in contradistinction to 

 eclais the ecclesiastical body or cliar the clergy, and stUl retains that meaning 

 side by side with the meaning of " the country " in contradistinction to the 

 town. In both cases, tuath represents the ancient native tradition and the 

 native order existing under the Irish civil law clliged tuaithe, whereas the 

 Church lived under its own law, and the towns inherited in a modified form the 

 municipal law of Eome. 



82. Anciently tuath < *tdta, touta (teiita) appears to have denoted a civil 

 community, a people united under one government, a civitas. In Ireland and 

 Britain such communities retained the early form of kingly rule in an almost 

 patriarchal shape. The petty states of Gaul and Galatia, before their sub- 

 jugation by Eome, appear to have been for the most part republics, each ruled 

 by a senate. The Irish titath, then, must at one time have been a petty 

 kingdom, but at the beginning of the documentary period a new order has 

 already widely spread. Powerful families, aristocratic septs, have entered on 

 a career of conquest. The scope of their operations being practically limited 

 to Ireland, — for the only known exceptions are the temporary Irish acquisitions 

 in western Britain and permanent conquest of Scotland by the Dal Kiada, — 

 the consequence was the substitution of ascendant dynasties for the older petty 

 states throughout the greater part of Ireland. Thus the dynastic septs of 

 Ddl Guinn, comprising the Ui Neill, Ui Briuin, Ui Fiachrach, and Airgialla, 

 have acquired permanent authority over nearly aU the northern half of 

 the island. In Munster, the Eoganacht septs, Ui Fidgente, Ui Liathain 

 Ui Echach, etc., and in Leinster, the septs of Dal Niad Corb, especially the 

 Ui Cennselaig, have achieved a hke position. All these families have set up 

 many new kingdoms or petty states. Beside these states, and in a position of 

 inferiority marked by the payment of tribute and furnishing of armed forces 

 to them, a considerable number of small peoples remained, enjoying iaternal 

 freedom under the government of their own dynasties. This is the condition 

 of things described in the Book of Eights, and it will be noted there that, 

 except in the north-eastern proviace, where the old order was less disturbed. 



