458 Proceedings of the Royal Irhh Academy. 



legends hang well together, marking a giadiial advance. OilioU Oloni slays 

 the King of Aine. Cormac Ca^s fights a desperate battle at Samhain, west of 

 Kilmalloek, between it and Bruree. Mog Corb resides at Claire, on Sliabh 

 riach; Fercorb takes Brui-ee ; Aengus is called "the land-taker"; Lughaidh 

 conquers northward from Carnarry : Connall "of the swift steed" consolidates 

 his father's gains .: a group of colonists settle on them under Eanna Airgthech 

 after A.D. 400. In later days, about a.d. 570, the Dal Cais princes established 

 themselves in the Shannon YaUey under Cragliath, about Killaloe and the 

 later Ui Toirdhealbhaigh. They subsequently got suzerainty over the other 

 tribes, the Corca ilodruadh, Tradraighe, Corea Bhaiscoinn, and Tuath 

 Echtghe. The princes of the Dal Cais were all of the line of Dioma from 

 about A.D. 620 till about A.D. 820 : then the ISTorsemen ravaged all Eastern 

 Limerick, and the line disappears. About 840, the Cragliath chief, Lachtua, 

 got recognized by King Felimidh of Cashel.' His race beat the foreigners, 

 by water and by land, getting ever more powerful. At last their obscure Une 

 claimed,' and, a generation later, won, the throne of Cashel, about a.d. 951; 

 then that same generation and its successors usurped the High Kingship of 

 Ireland. In later days they checked the power of the Xormans, and, after 

 a hundred years of war, swept them out of Lughaidh's swordland, by 1334. 

 They defeated the Lord of Desmond, sacked Limerick, became the flattered 

 aUies of the Tudore and Stuarts, and loomed large in all subsequent history 

 as the "O'Briens." 



Legekds of the Forts. 



As the legends of Oilioll Olom may be dealt with better in connexion with 

 the forts of Dun gClaire, Aine, and Brughrigh, and that of Cormac Cass with 

 DuntrUeague, I wiU not give them here in detail. Some are from a late 

 mediaeval work, Agallamh na Senorach,' but it has the merit of giving early 

 material with little alteration, and showing the minute interest in topography 

 and folk-lore of the Dind Senchas itself. The " Battle of Magh Mueramha " 

 gives us the legend of Oiholl's ^'iolence to ALine, and the vengeance of her 

 brother Ferfi, through OUioll's stepson, Lughaidh MacCon. The Agallamh 

 tells us of OilioU 's connexion with Bruree, and his death and burial on the 

 sum m it above Dun gClaire.* The early poet GioUa Coemhain mentions 



» " Book of Munster " sis. R. I. Acad., see Journal R. S. A. Ii-.. vol. xsiii, pp. 192-3. 

 "Story of an Irish Sept " (Dr. N. C. MacNamara), pp. 71, 72. 



-"Cathreim Ceallachain Caisil " (ed. Bugge), p. 59. 



2 "The Colloquy of the Ancients" in " Silva Gadelica " (transl. S. H. O'Grady), 

 vol. ii, pp. 373-378, from " Book of Bally mote," and addenda " Irische Texte " (Stokes 

 and Windisch) iv. 



* Loc. cit., p. 127. 



