A Literary History of Ireland, from Earliest Times to the Present DayHyde, Douglas
History
A Literary History of Ireland, from Earliest Times to the Present Day
Hyde, Douglas
Civilization, Celtic, in literature; Irish literature -- History and criticism; Language and culture -- Ireland
The Gael of Connacht knew that Moycullen, near Galway, was so named
from Uillin, a grandson of the Tuatha De Danann king Nuada; and Loch
Corrib from Orbsen, the other name of the sea-god Manannán, slain
there by this Uillin, and each of the provinces was studded with such
memorials.
The early Milesian invaders left their names just as closely imprinted
upon our topography as did their predecessors the Tuatha De Danann.
The great plain of Bregia in Meath was so called from Brega, son of
that Breogan who built Brigantia. Slieve Cualann in Wicklow--now
hideously and absurdly called the Great Sugar Loaf!--is named from
Cuala, another son of Breogan; Slieve Bladhma, or Bloom, is called from
another son of the same; and from yet another is named the Plain of
Muirthemni, where was fought the great battle in which fell Cuchulain
"fortissimus heros Scotorum." The south of Munster is called Corca
Luighe from Lughaidh, son of Ith, nephew of Milesius. The harbour of
Drogheda was called Inver Colpa, from Colpa of the sword, another son
of Milesius, who was there drowned when trying to effect a landing.
The Carlingford Mountains were called Slieve Cualgni, and a well-known
mountain in Armagh Slieve Fuad, from two more sons of Breogan of
Brigantia, slain after the second battle with the Tuatha De Danann,
while they followed up the chase. The sandhills in the west of Munster,
where Donn, the eldest son of Milesius, was shipwrecked and lost his
life--as did his whole crew consisting as is said of twenty-four
warriors, five chiefs, twelve women, four servants, eight rowers, and
fifty youths-in-training--is called Donn's House. So vivid is this
tradition even still, that we find a Munster poet as late as the last
century addressing a poem to this Donn as the tutelary divinity of the
place, and asking him to take him into his sidh [shee] or fairy mound
and become his patron. This poem is remarkable, as showing that in
popular opinion the early Milesians shared the character of sub-gods,
fairies, or beings of supernatural power, in common with the Tuatha De
Danann themselves, for the poet treats him as still living and reigning
in state, as peer of Angus of the Boyne, and cousin of Cliona, queen
of the Munster fairies.[11] Wherever he turned the Gael was thus
confronted with scenes from his own past, or with customs--like the
August games at Tailltin--deliberately established to perpetuate them.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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