456 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. 



Lughaidh stands out so clearly after these misty princes, on the edge 

 of history, that, despite some fabulous details, he is probably the actual 

 conqueror of Co. Glare, the later Thomond ; earlier Thomond lay in Co. 

 Limerick, its northern point being Carn Fhearadhaigh, Carnarry.' He 

 extended his realm in " seven " fierce battles from Carn Fhearadhaigh to 

 Luchid,- still on the north boundary of Co. Clare. One of the venerable tabus 

 of the "Book of Eights" alludes to this event, enjoining on the King of 

 Connacht " in a spotted cloak let him not go to the heath of Luchaidh in 

 Dal Chais"; the prose adds "on a speckled horse";' very definite tradition 

 must lie behind this allusion. " He never even yielded a leveret to the tribe of 

 Tlaman Tuathbil, through contempt of the three great battalions of Connacht, 

 until he had gained seven battles over them and killed their king, and until 

 he pursued them from Carn Feradaich to Ath Lucait," writes another 

 early historian.^ The great tract torn from Connacht V7as the object of 

 many a counter-attack by its former owners, but even Fiachra Foltsnatach, 

 the great King of Irros Domhnonn,^ failed to wrench " Lughaidh Eed Hand's 

 rough swordland " from the Dal Cais. The last attempt of Connacht was so 

 late as about a.d. 622 in the battle of Carnarry. 



Gonall Eachluath,* son of Lughaidh, an able prince, on the boundary- 



chronology, the prehistoric Munster King, Nia Segamain (his descendants, Maqi Mucoi 

 Neta Segamonos appear on several ogham stones in Co. Waterford) is dated B.C. 316 and 

 97. How anyone can take our early chronology seriously passes imagination. Rev. Dr. 

 MacCarthy collects the contradictory dates of the Milesian landing as B.C. 1509, 1229, 

 1071, 554, and 331 ; and, as we see here, and in the Battle of Bealgadan, the same person 

 and event may be duplicated in annals and pedigrees. 



' Carn Fhearadaigh, not where the Ordnance Maps (following the strange oversight of 

 O'Donovan) place it, at Seefin, the extreme southern border, instead of the northern. It 

 is Carn Fhearadaigh (or Carnarry) in the Burke Rental, 1545 ; Kar(n)uerthy, 1182, in 

 Charter of Abbey De Magio. The Rolls series edition of Chronicum Scotorum strangely 

 places it at Knockainey, pp. 81, 117, 143. See also Trans. Ossianic Soc, 1857, p. 114, 

 and North Munster Archteol. Soc. Journal, vol. i, p. 168, by Mr. P. J. Lynch. 



" Connacht extended from Liac eassa Lomanaig (Limerick, Curragower fall) to Ess 

 Ruaidh (Assaroe fall) : see " Irische Texte," Stokes and Windisch, iv, p. 268. 



••"Book of Rights," pp. 5-21. Poem by Cuan O'Lochain, ante 1022. The tabus 

 are evidently pagan. 



^ " Wars of the Gaedhil with the Gaill," p. 07 . For Lughaidh see, inter alia, Rev. Celt., 

 vol. xxiv, p. 185. The Metrical Dindsenchas under Mag Femin (ed. Gwynn, Todd Lecture 

 Ser., R. I. Acad., vol. x, p. 201). He made a cairn at Lotan (Ludden), Co. Limerick, to 

 keep tally of his troops (cf. Rev. Celt, xxii, p. 169), on his way to battle, and made 

 Northern Munster the south part of his territory. 



'' For Dun Fiachrach see supra, vol. xxix, p. 79 ; Journal R. Soc. Antt. Ir., vol. xlii, 

 p. 199. For Fiachra as a fairy king of forts and ancient thorn trees, see " Ancient Cures," 

 p. 148. For his death and the burial alive of his hostages round his tomb, see " Silva 

 Gadelica," vol. ii, p. 377. 



" Conall evidently figured as an important chief outside the tribal pedigree, and King 

 Cormac of Cashel, in an extant poem (circa a.d. 900), represents him and King Crimthann 



