Westeopp — Earthworks and Ring-walls in County Limerick. 483 



Maige there, presumably on the brink of the Maigue. O'Huidhrin (a very 

 conservative writer) names Dim Cathair Chuirc. In the Agallamh we 

 have Aedan's fort on the stream and Oilioll's below it. Thus the one up the 

 river may be that attributed to Aedan, the second fort to OilioU ; the ring- 

 wall preceding the castle, if it be " Cathair Chuirc," to Core, son of Cass, son 

 of Oilioll, the King of Munster' named in some versions of the pedigree ; 

 perhaps the last is named from a later prince. Core, who is said to have been 

 on the committee for revising the ancient law code after the introduction of 

 Christianity. The Eagle Mount, or the upper fort, may have been the hmgli, 

 but I think the first is too far from the Brugh riogh group to be probably 

 such. 



History of Beueee. 



In history, Bruree appears as the seat of the Dalcassian kings of the line 

 of Dioma, from about a.d. 630 for two centuries. In later years it was the 

 chief fort of the Ui Fidhgeinte. It is not mentioned in St. Patrick's itinerary 

 as of importance,' and hardly figures even in the Agallamh na Senorach. 

 Dioma, whose date is only roughly fixed, was a successor of Aed, a.d. 575, 

 and Forannan, A.D. 620. Both these appear in the lists of kings of Thomond, 

 but the first more probably ruled the Shannon valley from Doonass up to 

 Loch Derg, the later Ui Thoirdhealbhaigh territory, and the second, eastern 

 and central Clare round TuUa. Forannan was a brother-in-law and creature 

 of King Guaire Aidhne, and seems to have been a pagan, or at least strongly 

 opposed to the Bishop Mochulla ; indeed, we find a prayer for the rescue from 

 idolatry of the people about that time, and the " Battle of Magh rath " (a 

 fanciful semi-history) presupposes a similar pagan survival, or reaction, several 

 centuries after St. Patrick. Dioma " the haughty," as we learn rather from 

 allusions than from any definite record, had to withstand the last great attempt 

 of Connaeht to regain "Lughaidh Bed Hand's rough swordland" as won in the 

 later fourth century. Possibly Forannan, as King of Ui gCaisin, gave free 

 passage to his brother-in-law King Guaire, and, as always in those days (as in 

 recent warfare), the invaders at first rush got into the heart of the land and 

 were then held up. Dioma marshalled his forces on Carnarry Hill. The 

 Connachtmen were disastrously beaten, so severely^ that they never again 

 (even under the powerful Guaire, in the height of his influence, in the middle 

 of that century) sought for their revanche. It may account for the subsequent 



1 If " Wars of the Gaedhil with the Gaill " be correct, p. 67, of. note 11. 



2 The Tripartite Life calling Caerthan (a.d. 434) '■' the senior of Clann Tairdelbaigh '' 

 betrays its late tradition, for the eponymus Toirdhealbach was father of St. Flannan, and 

 lived about a.d. 650. 



2 Keatiug's "History of Ireland" (Irish Texts Soc), vol. iii, p, 70, a.d. 622. 



E.I. A. i-KOC, VOL. XXXIII., SECT. C. [67] 



