92 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. 



Chiiigeadh Mumhan must beloiig to a comparatively late tradition. Hence 

 no doubt the varying accounts of the twofold division of Munster. In one 

 version the dividing line runs north and south, in another east and west. 

 Neither version can be fitted into the story which makes Uisnech in the middle 

 of Ireland the meeting-point of the five Fifths. A synonym for Coiced Lagen 

 Tuath-Gabair is Coiced Coirpri Niath Per. Coirpre is king of Tara, and north 

 Leinster in the Ulster cycle, his brother Find being king of south Leinster. 



98. Keating (Forus Feasa, ed. Comyn, p. 214) says that tuath is equivalent 

 to tighcarnas, and the proverb " is treisc tuath nd tigherna " shows that this 

 interpretation is correct — at least as regards later usage. Keating also (ib., 

 p. 112) speaks of a tuath as smaller in extent than a triocha cead. The Glens 

 of Antrim, i.e. the baronies of Upper Glenarm, Lower Glenarm, and Cary, are 

 called seacht dtuatha na nGlinne in nearly modern documents. Each of these 

 tuatha would occupy a square of about five or six miles. But I find no 

 indication that the tuath in early usage at all corresponded to the population of 

 such an area. It was in fact a division of people — not of land — and must have 

 been very variable in extent. 



99. That the whole population was regarded as made up of tuatha may be 

 inferred from the words of " Fiacc's Hymn," " tuatha adoxtais side," though 

 again the same poem speaks of the Irish as one tuath, "for tuaith Hermvn bai 

 temel." The former phrase may have reference to a particular worship in each 

 tuath, and that each of them venerated special gods is evident from the oath- 

 formula " tongu na tongat mo thuath" " tongu do dia toinges mo thuath." This 

 formula also shows that the tuath was the chief population-group with which 

 the individual felt himself to be associated. Further instances of the use of 

 the term follow here. 



100. Gorco Athrach ainm na tuaithi arafuil Caisil ucus ise sea a fad A. o 

 Thihraid Foraind. ac MaAnistir Uachtair Lamand co Duma nDresa don tail 

 bothuaid do Chnoc GrafoAul ocus do sit Aimirgin meic Miled Espaine di. Lecan, 

 p. 458. " Corcu Athrach is the name of the tuath on which Cashel is, and 

 this is its extent, from -Tipra Foraind at Holy Cross Abbey to Duma Dresa 

 on the northern side of Cnoc Grafann, and it is of the race of Amergen son of 

 Mil of Spain." 



101. This is an important passage, confirming the tradition that Cashel 

 was a comparatively late seat of the Eoganachta. Not only was the name of 

 the tuath previously in possession remembered, but this tuath is spoken of as 

 a contemporary people, whose ancestry has to be accounted for. Apparently 

 the territory of this ancient people is still represented by the barony of 

 Middlethird, of which the most northern point is at Holy Cross, and the most 

 southern puiut near Cnoc Grafann about two miles uortli of Cahir. All this 



