MacNeill — Early Irish Population-Groujjs. 109 



H. 3. 18, p. I'l." Bi ri(j here seems to be an etymological gloss on ruiri 

 = ro + ri. For " chief " and " chieftains," read " king" and "kings." 



166. The tradition that suzerainty over seven petty kings conferred a 

 special grade is elsewhere exemplified. Cp. §143, above, where, besides the 

 sons of Magu who were chiefs of the vassal Fir Domnann, the seven Maines 

 of Oonuacht are subject to Medb, and in Munster also there are seven uirrig. 

 The earlier and lesser Munster of the Erainn is here implied. In the defeat 

 of the Irish Picts by Ui Neill at Moin Daire Lothair (an. 562 AU), when the 

 Picts lost their territory west of the Bann, their king Aed Brece is spoken of 

 as leading seven other Pietish kings. In the Book of Eights, Ireland is 

 divided into seven chief kingdoms, whose kings have no suzerain except the 

 king of Ireland. This division seems to represent an ideal rather than an 

 actuality, for as far as one can judge from other evidences, the kings of 

 Osraige, Tuadmuma, Breifne, and Cenel Conaill, perhaps also the kings of 

 larmuma (Eoganacht Locha Lein) and Brega, were quite as independent as 

 the seven chief kings in the Book of Pdghts. In O'Maelconaire's Munster 

 Annals (E. I. A. copy), the kings of Oashel are usually called kings 

 of Cashel and Desmond, indicating that they were not suzerains of west 

 and north Munster. From an early period in the ninth century 

 the Aii'gialla seem to have admitted the suzerainty of Cenel nEogaiu: 

 Airgialla J. dacrgialla .i. Cenel nEogain rocwirsead fo dairchis iad o 

 cath Leitlm Cairn amach (BB 249 b 15, H. 3. 18, page 580, and see 

 AU 826) . Hence perhaps the absence of any statement of tributes due to the 

 king of Airgialla in the Book of Eights. Flanu Maiuistrech, in his poem 

 quoted by me (E. 1. A. Proceedings, xxvii, C. 6, p. 138), names seven chief 

 kings hi his time. Six of these accord with the Book of Eights. For the 

 seventh he omits Airgialla and substitutes Brega. Ouan Lothchain, 

 referring to the alleged contents of the " Psalter of Tara," says that it teUs of 

 " seven chief kings of Ireland," who are " the five kings of the Fifths, the kmg 

 of Ireland and her high king (subking)" BB 351 b 3 {ovxig is a marginal 

 amendment of airdri). Perhaps the peculiar designation, in Sechtmad, ' the 

 Seventh," applied to one of the petty kingdoms of Munster, had its origin in 

 this way (see § 106) 



[IGj 



