474 Proceedings of the Roi/al Irish Academy. 



was connected with some ceremonial ; oh that Mae Eaith had not confined his 

 lay to Cenn Febrat ! The fair-green at its foot, the fair at least older than 

 1655, may be the representative of an early oenach. The connexion of the 

 oenach with the sidh mound is common.' We know nothing of any 

 inauguration place of the southern Dal Cais ; it may haye been at Oenach 

 Culi ; if not, do we find it at Kilfinnan ? The northern Dal Cais, as all know, 

 inaugurated their princes at Magli Adhair, near Quin. Tliere a flat-topped 

 mound, like one of the Sliabh riach motes, with a large fosse and outer ring, 

 28 feet high, 6 feet lower than Kilfinnan, was used in the ceremonial; but the 

 platform was far larger, and the evidence for it having been a residential fort 

 on occasion is strong, as it was " besieged " and taken in a.d. 887.^ The more 

 one studies the Irish high motes, the more certain it becomes that no theory 

 can be based on their plan and shape ; their resemblance to the great 

 Hausbergs of central Europe of remote date,' to the supposed " feudal motes " 

 in France, now proved to be Gaulish and pre-Eoman, and to the great temple 

 mounds of the valleys of the Ohio and Mississippi, is shirked or put aside by 

 the exponents of the exclusive theory of feudal origin. Whether, therefore, 

 Kilfinnan Mote was a sidh or a residential fort I shall not decide. 'J'he Irish 

 certainly erected residential mounds,^ like Duma Selga. Of this last we are 

 told "Duma Selga, where the sons of Muredach used to dwell, now they are 

 gone, the King-mound {rig-duma) remains." I can readily accept the view, 

 though unrecorded, that the Norman colonists may have crowned it with a 

 very small bretasche^ to command the pass into Fermoy, but see no reason to 

 doubt its earlier origin, for whatever purpose it was at first designed. 



' See account of Oenach of Carman ; it had twenty-one raths, a cemetery, and three 

 markets (Book of Ballymote). Cashel was a sid/i , " Sid Druira " tBook of Rights, p. 29) ; 

 Knockainey, "Sid Chach" (Book of Fermoy, Ir. Texts, R. I. Acad., p. 9). Cruachan 

 had a sid (Tain bo Fraich, Ir. Texts, R. I. Acad., p. 167). The existing great fair of 

 Cahirmee was held at a mound containing a cist. Races were held near Mallow, at 

 Cnockan liss, a barrow, till the last century. The mound also contained a cist, with a 

 skeleton and a bronze sword (Rev. T. Olden). 



- Proc. R. I. Acad., vol. xxxii, p. 60: cf. vol. xxvii, p. 382, and Handbook VII of 

 Roy. Soc. Antt. Ir. The Cashel kings were also elected, and no doubt inaugurated, on a 

 duma (C'athreim Cellachaiii Caisel, p. 59). 



3 Dolmens of Ireland (Borlase), vol. iii, pp. 1127-8. Hoernes' "Primitive Man " (ed. 

 J. H. Loewe), p. 40 ; "Smithsonian Contributions," vol. i (1848), p. 82. 



* Ct. " Seel baili binnberlaig " (Rev. Celt., vol. xiii, p. 225). " They raised his tomb, 

 his rath, and his pillar-stone, and established funeral games." 



^ The bretagium of Carkenlys, in the same county, was guarded at a cost of £10 

 (Pipe Roll, xvii Edw. I, No. 20, Exchequer Accounts). There is a "Brittas" near the 

 place, .attempts to establish a type of bretasche earthwork have failed ; no rule was 

 observed at such works. 



