Westkopp — Earthworks and Ring- Walls in Co. Limerick. 17 



Dalcassian king seems to be named after Eochaidh (434) till after 600. The 

 only Saint's " Life " connected with Co. Limerick — that of St. Ita — has early 

 features. The Life of St. Senan (certainly based on authentic very early 

 material) tells us that Iniscatha and the Shannon Islands were ruled by 

 MacTail (King of Hui Fidgente, and the Islands of the Luimneach) and 

 another Prince, Nechtan " Long-head," of the same tribe. In the " Life of 

 St. Ita," the importance of the Hui Chonaill (IJi Fidgeinte) and their 

 extension to the Maigue, which runs out at the bounds of the Tuath 

 Luimneach, tallies with the earlier Life.' The Life of St. Maidoc has an 

 interesting account of a brief visit of the saint to our district, which we must 

 study later. In the actual Annals, the Ui Fidgeinte appear from a.d. 646 

 (perhaps their great victory over the Norse at Shanid preserved their Annals) 

 and Brurigh in 715. Mungret Abbey is named only in 845,- the Luimneach, 

 in 851, and Cluain Comharda (Cloneoraha or Colmanswell) in 844. Not a 

 single King of the Bruree line of the Dal gCais is named, nor any of the 

 Killaloe line till King Cenedid, in the middle of the tenth century. The 

 tale of the last effort of the kings of Connacht to retake, not only the 

 present Co. Clare, but evidently to sweep the Dal gCais out of their own 

 territory, and its frustration by King Dioma, about 620-640, is not in the 

 Annals, but only vaguely recoverable in the material collected by King 

 Oormac mac Cuilenan of Cashel at the close of the ninth century.' This 

 shows how little survived the great Norse raid of about 830, save legends 

 of prehistoric kings and dry tribal pedigrees.* 



The literature relating to the forts, however, is better than we might expect. 

 In the Tripartite Life in 434 forts at Mungret and Singland and Dun Bleise 

 (Doon, in Coonagh, " Dunleisg " in 1559), where Fintan founded a cell about 

 A..D. 580, are implied. In prehistoric legend Dungrot, Dun Claire, Duntri- 

 league, and Dun Eochair Maige, or Bruree, occur.^ The fort at Mungret is 

 called a cathair ; probably (as so often) it was given to the founder of the 

 church in its garth, in this case St. Neassan (mid-fifth century) ; Eath 



^ Neither Life alludes to the importance of the Dal gCais, which favours the antiquity 

 of their material. 



^It has records back to the fifth century, if the Tripartite Life, &c., are reliable. 



^ Perhaps the most serious loss to local (if not to Irish) history and archaeology is that 

 of the Psaltair of Cashel. It seems to have been extant in the early eighteenth century, 

 and was in Trinity College Library in 1726 (Introduction to Keating's History] ; later 

 citations may be from extracts. Much, however, may be extant, but its integrity is 

 always doubtful. 



^ A good idea of those tribal pedigrees is obtainable from the Tract on the Dalg Cais 

 in the Book of Ballymote, ed. by the late Mr. R. Twigge, F.S.A., in the North Munster 

 Archaeul. Soc. 



^Accounts of these will appear in a later section of this paper. 



K.I. A. PEOC. VOL. XXXIII., SECT. C, [3] 



