1904-1905.] 315 



rounded by some minor ones, which have yielded up evidences 

 of human interments, and the rude ornaments and imple- 

 ments such as are usually associated with this Age. Who, 

 then, w-ere these people ? This is the great debatable ques- 

 tion, on which most antiquarians hold their own opinions. 

 We often hear, when some rath or circle is under discussion, 

 tEkt it was the work of the Danes — a Danish fort. The 

 Danes as we know them were not fort builders, and assuredly 

 not permanent fortress constructors; they loved to plunder 

 and be gone. That was a good breezy game and paid them 

 better than settling down to cultivation as peace-abiding 

 country gentlemen. We know that a race of people called 

 the Firbolgs took possession of the country and ruled it, 

 roughly estimated at about 1,000 years or so B.C. Perhaps 

 they did not meet with resistance, but colonised the island 

 and wanted to live peaceably, and did for some time, until 

 a race of men known as the Tuath-de-Danans " landed at 

 Murlough Bay on the coast of Antrim, and burnt their ships." 

 They had come to stay. Soon the poor Firbolgs were con- 

 quered, and reduced to vassalage, and driven as far west as 

 possible, where their descendants may still be traced. The 

 Danans were war-like, and great builders, and from the 

 Danans' fort to the Danes' fort is not a long cry, and must 

 be considered when settling the question of the builders of 

 Carrowmore. 



The Tuath-de-Danans ruled the kingdom for two centu- 

 ries, during which time it was called Innls-fail, the Isle of 

 Destiny, so termed from Lia-Fail, the Stone of Destiny, which 

 legend recounts they brought with them and held in highest 

 veneration. The last monarch crowned on this stone was no 

 less a person than the King of Great Britain and Ireland, 

 His Majesty Edward VII. The Tuath-de-Danans were in 

 turn conquered by the Milesians, the last of the " prehistoric" 

 invaders, but it is said " the Tuath-de-Danans were great 

 necromancers, skilled in all magic, and excellent in all the 

 arts as builders, poets and musicians " (Berry), and as such 

 they became instructors to their conquerors, " who gradually 



