188 Proceedings of the Uoyal Irish Academy. 



plantation, even within my recollection, so caution is always necessary unless 

 the massive character or size of the fort marks it as of early origin. Clare 

 (like Kerry) is singularly devoid of large earthworks or, indeed, tumuli. The 

 existing forts were probably all courts or cattle-pens, few sepulchral, none 

 probably " castles " or "forts" in a military sense, as for holding down an 

 imperfectly subdued country' or keeping out invaders. They were merely 

 fenced protection during the endless raids of our history.* 



The Dal gCais. 



An important question may be faced here, for the history of the Killaloe 

 forts makes it very relevant to this survey. How far is the received belief 

 about the early importance of the Dalcassian Chiefs true to history ? The 

 silence of all our Annals (even those of Innisfallen) as to this subsequently 

 great house before the Danish wars (about 812) is most striking.' The great 

 difficulty, or break, of their chiefs' pedigree at Core is equally marked ; so is 

 the lack of recognition of the Dal gCais as a power in Clare. About 840, the 

 Ui Cormaic of Central Clare, when cruelly pressed by the great tribe of 

 Corcavaskin along the Atlantic, turned for help to Felim (Fcidlimid), the 

 Eoghanacht King of Cashel,* not to Lachtna or Lorcau of the Dal gCais. Only 

 gradually, and that in no " pre-Danish " record, do we find the assertion of 

 the double succession of the Dal gCais and Eoghanachts. No examples can be 

 produced, even from Dalcassian ex parte statements, save Aed Caemh, about 

 560, and Lorcan in the ninth century, and, as to these, there was an 

 Eoghanacht, Aed of Cashel, contemporary with the Dalcassian "Aed of 

 Cragliath," while the most reliable king-lists give no King Aed of Cashel 

 within three or four generations of the mid-sixth century. The " Lorcan sou 

 of Conligan," who was actually King of Cashel, is clearly not Lorcan son of 

 Lachtna ; the latter is only King of Thomond in the best attested records, but 

 the later O'Briens alleged him to have ruled at Cashel.* The evident weakness 



' This use was not unknown, however; cf. Uath rids na Eig (Todd Lecture, Series 6), p. 9, 

 "The warriors' hands are occupied with making dunadhs and dindgiias in the territories of 

 strangers.'' — Poem of the Norse period : " the waniors " were Irish. 



- Professor MacNeill points out, however, that the raids have a weighty significance as denoting 

 (1) claims to tribute, (2) repudiation of such claim, (3) attempted enforcement, (4) a means of testing 

 he prowess of young aspirants to the chiefship ; " the tirst raid of a young lord" being proverbial. 



•■ The entries relating to Thomond in the Annals of Ulster record Corcovaskin, 704 ; Corcumroe, 

 from 743 ; Tomgraney, 739 ; but the Princes of the Dalgcais are not named till the time of Cenedid. 

 Annals of Inislallen give Kiugs of Cashel from 585, and records of Cliach from 697, Hua Fidginte 

 from 720, Corca Duibhne from 771, the Dalgcais only from 91S (recte 938); but incidentally men- 

 lion Lorcan as father of Cinedid. 



* Eugene O'Curry's " Manners and Customs of the Irish,'' vol. iii, p. 262. 



^ So O'Dubhagain: see Keating, History (ed. Dinneen, Irish Texts), vol. iii., p. 197. Keating 

 (p. 199) emphatically stales that Cormac's will was not carried out. 



