196 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. 



he probablj led the men of Thomond in their naval victory over the Jforse, 

 fought on Lough Derg, in 812.' His sonLachtna,^ a strong and prudent man, 

 was evidently chief when redlimidh, King of Cashel, paid his half -hostile visit 

 to EjQIaloe before 847, but is nowhere called " Mng." His son, Lorcan, was 

 actual King of Thomond ; " Lore of the Lamp " is described as a brave, wise, 

 and successful prince. Dr. Todd, calculating at thirty years to the generation, 

 fixes his birth in 880, but three years before that he was evidently a man of 

 mature years, and forced the invading king riann Sunagh, " the Axd righ," to 

 come to terms after the skirmish of Magh Adhair. His son Kennedy 

 (Cennetigh^j, King of Thomond, was a man of the same type ; he fell fighting 

 the foreigners m. 951. These princes were evidently a long-lived and vigorous 

 race in every respect, and were honourable, self-sacrificing, and patriotic. 



HiSTOKT OF THE TOETS. — The "Book of Munster"^ gives us the first 

 fuU history of any important event in the life of the Dalcassian chiefs. 

 Premising that the race was free from tribute,^ and had maintained its 

 independence for thirty reigns of the Kings of Cashel, it teUs how Felim 

 (Fehmidh), King of Cashel, demanded submission and was refused. The tribe 

 was willing to fight, but desired the friendship of the pro^■incial king. They 

 had won their lands (which had never belonged to Munster) by their own 

 swords, and had resisted King Crimthann mac Fidhe, of the race of Fiachra, so 

 they were free from all clainxs of tribute, hostages or le\"ies from Cashel. The 

 heralds brought this message to FeUm, who at once prepared to invade the 

 Dalcassian tenitoiy. A brave man of the Dal gCais, Lachtna son of Core son 

 of Anluan, tried to persuade the " council " to let him confer with the enemy 

 first ; but they all sprang to their feet, drew their weapons, and determined 

 to fight. Lachtna took one attendant and went down to Lough Derg as if 

 to shoot a wild goose, for the place in which the " council " conferred lay on 

 the side of Cragliath, between it and the Borhomha. He then went on to 

 see the invader and arrived at a pUlar-stone, named Liag na S^easain, where 

 Felim had camped. The clerics were ringing and chiming bells, for the Mass 

 was being celebrated, so Lachtna waited till after the sendee, and then asked 



• See " Wars," p. 21, possibly the same battle. 



= See "Book of Munster" (ms. E. I.Acad., 23 e 26, p. 39), a late copy of ninth-century 

 documents. Also Journal E. S. Ant. Ir., xsiiL, p. 192. 



^ For Cennedig mac Lorcain, see " Cathreim Cellaehain Caisil " (ed. A. Bugge, 1905), sections 5, 

 10, &c., and Annals of Clonmacnoise, p. 169. He was made tanist of Mimster, a mark of the 

 growing importance of his house. In section 26, Cath. G.C., the Irish meet to expel the Iforse "from 

 their cathairs and duns." Also in " Wars of the Gaedhil." 



*Loc. cit.jp. 39. — I have to thank the late Professor O'Looney for the translation which I 

 condense. 



= This is recognized by a poem of King Cormac mac Cuileanan, ante 802, and the " Book of 

 Rights," pp. 43, 62, 69, 71, 81, 87, 2-50, and 561, giring all the rights of the tribe groups, also 

 Wars of the Gaedhil, p. 55. 



