WnsTRopp — Types of Ring -Forts remaining in Eastern Clare. 191 



KiLLALOE. 



The three forts of Grianan-Lachtna, Bealboruma, and Kincora lay close 

 to Killaloe. That place must have been a settlement from very early 

 times, being a comparatively strong and secluded position, and an important 

 pass, a glen hemmed in by great heathery domes and walls of mountains from 900 

 to 1,700 feet high (their flanks once thickly wooded), above rich plains and 

 slopes, and a fish-abounding river. At the second fort was a most important 

 pass between the two parts of the old Kingdom of Thomond, the ford of 

 Boruma. From it lay a highway for ships and boats up far between Connacht 

 and Leinster into Leitrim and Sligo. A great natural fortress, a long spur of 

 drift clay, commanded the ford, and on its extremity, probably for ages before 

 any entrenchment was dug, dwelt a colony of the Stone age. Traces of a 

 remote civilization met those who, to us, are the ancient inhabitants. Cragliath 

 was the holy hill of the great war goddess, the tutelar spirit of the Dal gCais, 

 Aibhinn, " the lovely one," akin to if not the actual war goddess of the Gauls, 

 " Catabodva."' Fert Fintan, on the eastern hills, was so ancient that the monks 

 could only symbolize their belief by regarding its hero as antediluvian. 

 Nevertheless, the historic Killaloe was made in the seventh century by two 

 clerics of the ruling line ; and its secular history only begins when the Norse 

 had trampled under foot the royal line and residences of the old capital at 

 Bruree, early in the ninth century. 



The Early Kings. — In dealing with the beginnings,^ I am painfully aware 

 of my own great, perhaps hurtful, limitations, so nothing is written here 

 dogmatically, but with the utmost reserve. Criticism has only now commenced 



' For her and other Clare banshees, see "Folk Lore," vol. xxi, p. 186. The Gaulish component 

 may he, however, " bodva," Tictorioiis, rather than " badbli." For llie war goddesses, see Cormac's 

 Glossary (Irish Glossaries, ed. Whitley Stokes, 1862), xxxv., pp. 8, 31. For her replacing the 

 Sybil in the Irish " Dies Irae," see mss. R. I. Acad., 23m27. 



- For helpful material in the collections of the E. I. Acad., see Hodges & Smith's Catalogue — 

 23e26, Firbolg territories ; 28g8, Boruma ; No. 153, Baile Boroimhe and its festive ari'angements , 

 23e26, p, 3.5, Cormac mac Cuileanan'a poem on Conall Eachluath, son of Lugad Meann, ante 900 ; 

 p. 41, poem on Lachtna and Felim of Cashel ; p. 42, King Flann's defeat at Magh Adhair ; p. 43, 

 the bard Flann's panegyric on King Lorcan and Essida, ante 891 ; p. 4 7, same on Lorcan's defeat 

 of the men of Connacht ; p. 49, anonymous poem (contemporary) on Cenedid son of Lorcan ; p 50, 

 panegyric on same, " Cenn Coradh where happens to be " ; p. 51, poem by the Coarb of Patrick on 

 Mathgamhnn, son of Cenedig, when he took the shield of O'Rorke of Breffni; p. 36, poem by 

 St. Brenan of Birrha on Aed Caemh of Cragliath, ante 570 ; ms. 23f16, Shane O'Dugan's poem on 

 the Kings of Cashel from 380 to 1367 [atUe 1372) ; one of 1020 by Douchad, son of Brian, vaui\ting 

 his father's fame. Dr. O'Brien, Bishop of Cloyne, " Essay on Tanistiy." Vallancey's "Collectanea," 

 vol. i, p. 456, from the Mac Bruodiu's manuscripts. The early '' Wars of the Gaedhill with 

 the Gaill," Rolls Series, a history of Kings Mahon and Brian, 970-1014. The Tract on the 

 Dal gCais has been first published in the North i\Iunster Archa3ol. Soc, vol. i, by Mr. Robert Twigge, 

 F.s.A. " The e.Kplication of the race of Cormac Cass." I cite it as " D,al gCais," with the pages 

 of the ti-anslation . 



