Westropp — Earthworks and Ring-walls in County LimericTi. 455 



Daimhgaire,^ or Knocklong, where three lesser motes rejnain. His son, Oilioll 

 riannbeg, was King of Munster, after Mogh Corb, son of Cormac Cass, and 

 had several sons. I need only note Lughaidh, ancestor of the Mac Carthys, and 

 Daire. The latter had two sons, Fidhach (father of the semi-historic King 

 Crimthann, poisoned in a.d. 377), and Fiacha Fidgeinti, ancestor of the Ui 

 Fidhgeinte, the Ui Sedna, and others. Fiacha's son Brian (brother of Sedna) 

 had a son Cairbre, whose sons were Cairbre Aobhdha, ancestor of the Ui 

 Cairbre, near Croom and Bruree ; Ere, ancestor of the O'Donovans ; Eccan, 

 of the Fir Tamhnaighe, of Magh Tamhnaighe or Mahoonagh ; Sedna, of the 

 Corca Muicheat of Corcamohide, and Cormac, of the Mae Caechluinge. Some 

 writers give him another son Cairbre, ancestor of Connal, of the Ui Chonaill, 

 who are elsewhere a branch of the Ui Fidhgeinti; evidently there was some 

 doubt as to the nearness of relationship of these tribes. 



The line with which we are more concerned were descendants of the 

 second son, Cormac Cass, and his wife, a daughter of the poet Oisin (from 

 whom Glenossheen, under Seefin, near Castle Oliver, is named), " A.D. 234- 

 260."- His son, Mogh Corb, King of Munster,^ was of the great fort of 

 Claire; he succeeded "a.d. 315," fought at the deadly field of G-abhra, "a.d. 

 285 ": slew Melge, King of Ireland (if he be the Mogcorb of one poet, cirm 

 B.C. 530), and died " a.d. 334." His son Fereorb slew Irereo at Brughrigh,' 

 and took his fort, " B.C. 495 to 487," rectt about a.d. ;-iOO.^ His son Aengus 

 Tireach, " the land-taker," had a son Lughaidh Meann. 



' " Forbais Droma Damhgaire " : see E,evue Celt., vol. xl, p. 44. Mogh Ruith, a 

 magician from Oilean Dairbhre ( Valencia), aided King Fiacha by his spells and counsel. 

 An extant poem by King Fedlimid, son of Crimthann (about a.d. 840), says that Fiacha 

 Muillethaii took hostages from Laoi to Crai, from Tara to Fafainn Rath Nai. " To the 

 King of Tech Duinn (the Bull Rock otf Bantry Bay) knelt Cormac, Conn's grandson." 

 Tech Duinn seems a curious title for a prince of Central Munster. Fiacha was called 

 " The man of two sorrows," from the tragic death of his parents before and at his birth. 

 Rev. Celt., vol. siii, p. 453. 



- Fiacha MuiUethan and Cormac Cass, the two Kings of Munster, are named in an 

 extract from the very ancient lost Book of UaCopghbhaile in Book of Ballymote : see 

 O'Curry, " Manuscript Materials," Appendix, p. 510. 



^ Knowing the extremely artificial character of the " received " list of High Kings, I 

 have dared to suggest that Mogcorb and his son Fereorb, mythical High Kings, being 

 connected with Claire and Brugh(righ), are more than probably the Dal Cais kings set back 

 into the remoter past to fill up an entirely unaistorical list confected "for the greater 

 glory of Ireland," and still followed by credulous compilers. In less sophisticated legends 

 King Mogh Corb (of the Dal Cais) pledged the security of Fermoy to Mogh Ruith : this 

 has verisimilitude, and favours that of the " alternate succession," as the grantor, Fiacha, 

 was of the senior branch, and Mogh Corb confirmed the grant on behalf of the junior, the 

 line of Cormac Cass. Irereo Fathach, " Iron Fighter the Wary," is evidently as purely 

 mythic as '• Giant Despair." 



■* Giolla Coemhain \oMtK 1072), "Book of Leinster" (Todd Lect. Ser., R. I. Acad., 

 No. iii., p. 143 ; for Fereorb see p. 187). To take one example of contradictory 



