484 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academij. 



feebleness of Foraiinau, who had even to beg a few soldiers from Guaire to 

 try and dislodge Mochulla and his monks from the hill of Tulla, beside his 

 own fort ' 



After Dioma "the haughty" we have a full pedigree, but no history, of tlie 

 DalCais of Brugli riogli. His sons were Dubhdiun, Aiudlid, and Ferdomnacli. 

 Cernach, son of Aindlid, follows and his son Torpa and two brothers, Donall and 

 Finachta, descendants of Ferdomnacli, tlirougli OilioU and Eachtighern. These 

 are stated to have reigned successively ; no doubt the Dal Cais were strong 

 and long-lived (witness the two centuries a.d. 810-1014 covered by only five 

 generations at Cragliatli), so it is possible ttiat these princes covered two 

 centuries with five generations. 



The pedigree" seems full for the Dioma line, but other parts are evidently 

 faulty. To bring out the difficulty, still to be elucidated, three generations 

 are crowded between a.d. 420 and 4.34 ; three spread from that to 57y. The 

 five generations from Cassin, son of Connall Eachluath, circa 400, to Forannan, 

 circa 620, cover 220 years. These examples seem to show that all the lines 

 are broken behind the year a.d. 600 ; but, if so, it is evidently such a break 

 as we find in the records of tlie Norman families in the same district from 

 1370 to 1580, where the same families hold the same lands, and nothing 

 important or at least subversive seems to have taken place in the interim. 

 After 620 the generations have a probable stretch, about twenty-four years 

 each. The Psalter of Cashel gives consistent descents of about twelve genera- 

 tions each, down to 900, in several of the lines from Dioma. The annals are 

 very defective ; perhaps the monks only began to write the bardic traditions 

 about A.D. 600 ; few places and secular persons are named before it. Dun 

 Blesc first appears, a.d. 580 ; Eath Ui Druaid, 597 ; Cathair cinn chonn, 637 ; 

 Aine, 666 ; the Ui Fidhgeinte chiefs, 642 ; Aedan, founder of Cluain Chlaidech, 

 625 ; and Kilmallock Monastery, 610. Evidently secular and monastic events 

 were being recorded from the last quarter of the sixth century, so all cannot 

 have perished in the early Norse attacks. 



The " king lists " are most defective, and in their later part grossly wrong 

 in some statements ; let it suffice that they have given Eebechan, son of 



' Analecta Bollandiana, vol. xvii, p. 1.35, Vita S. MochuUei episcopi. The scene is 

 laid not long before Forannan's death, which is (of course) miraculous, and by the curse 

 of the .saint. It is (|uite possible that Forannan and Dioma, in that ill-cemented realm 

 of Thomond, were contemporaries, ruling in North and South (new and old) Thomond 

 at the same time . 



-Chiefly from the tract on the Dal gCais in "Book of Ua Maine," from Saltair 

 of Cashel, and older sources, copied for Muircheartach Ua Ceallagh, Bishop of Clonfert 

 (1378-94), by Faolan mac an Gobhan. Also in "Book of Ballymote," and abstracts 

 Rawlinson B 502, and " Book of Leinster." 



