Wkstkopp — Types of Ring -Forts remaining in Eastern Clare. 201 



that fatal quarrel at chess, between Murchad (Brian's son and intended 

 successor, the " Margad " of the Saga), and Maelmordha, King of Leinster, 

 which proved to be the " wrath " of the Irish Epic, that ended in the great 

 battle of Clontarf in 1014. Two j'ears later the Connacht men, no longer in 

 restraint, made a raid to " Kinkora, and King Bryan his Manor House was 

 broken down." The place was again rebuilt. In 1062, Aedh O'Conor 

 (Ua Chonchobhair), King of Connacht, after cutting down the Bill or venerated 

 tree of Magh Adhair (which had replaced that cut down in 982 by the 

 Ardrigh Maelsechlainn), advanced to Kincora. He stormed and levelled the 

 fort, broke down the weir, destroyed and choked the well, and (to add insult 

 to injury) cooked and ate the two " sacred " salmon kept there.^ Three years 

 later the fort was attacked in a civil war, and many of its inmates slain. In 

 1074 its bridge was rebuilt at Killaloe. Euadri O'Conor, King of Connacht, 

 twice invaded Thomond, destroying Kincora each time, in 1081 and 1084.- 

 His sickly and much-harassed enemy, Murchad (Muircheartach) O'Brien, 

 the titular Ardrigh, was, however, a man of " unconquerable will and study 

 of revenge." He doggedly set to work to repair liis own palace in 1086, and 

 having as far as possible set his home affairs right, he undertook a curious 

 vendetta. The King of Aileach had not only destroyed Kincora, but had 

 carried off enough timLier to roof his palace, the famous Grianan, in Inishowen. 

 Murchad, when his buildings were completed, marched across Connacht to 

 Co. Donegal, overthrew the Grianan of Aileach, and bade every soldier bring 

 a stone from it for the rampart of the king's port in Limerick. The king 

 with his advanced views had removed his capital to the Norse city of 

 Limerick, girt by the river and its stone walls. The foreign inhabitants had 

 given the O'Briens little trouble since its reduction after Mahon's and Brian's 

 victory at Sulchoid, and probably had been planted in the " cantred of the 

 Ostmen," which we find near its walls a century later. The cathedral of 

 St. Mary is supposed to stand on the site of the fort, but I rather suppose the 

 latter commanded the approach near St. Munchin's Church (where Prince 

 John built the castle and bridge), for King Donald, the founder, continued to 

 dwell in Limerick after the foundation of the cathedral, and therefore could 



i"Ann. Ulster," 1061, " Clironicon Scotorum" (1059), and "Annals of Tighernach." This 

 keeping of sacred fish in wells is not unknown even yet in Ireland. A case in 18.33, at a monastery 

 in Constantinople, is noted by Curzon (" Monasteries of the Levant," introduction). The Chrou. 

 Scot, says, " He burned all Cill Dalua, and demolished the Cathair of Cenn Coradh, and ate the tflo 

 salmon that were in the well of Cenn Coradh, and the well was afterwards closed up by him." 



^Chron. Sector. They pKmdered Emly, Lough Gur fort, Drumin TJi Clerchin, Bruree, and 

 Limerick, and destroyed Cenn Corad. The Ann. Ulster say, " The Conmaicni went into Thomond, 

 so that they burned duns and churches." The Annals of Ulster in 1086 tell of " the communion of 

 Tairrdelhach Ua Briain. Kinp; of Ireland ": he " died at Cenn Coradh, after partaking; of tiie body of 

 Christ, and of His blood," July 14th, aged seventv-seven. 



B.I.A. PKOO., VOL. XXIX., SECT. C. [28] 



