An Illustrated History of Ireland from AD 400 to 1800Cusack, Mary Francis
History
An Illustrated History of Ireland from AD 400 to 1800
Cusack, Mary Francis
Ireland -- History
The fifth, or Tuatha Dé Danann "taking" of Ireland, occurred in the
reign of Eochaidh, son of Erc, A.M. 3303. The Firbolgian dynasty was
terminated at the battle of _Magh Tuireadh_. Eochaidh fled from the
battle, and was killed on the strand of Traigh Eothailé, near
Ballysadare, co. Sligo. The cave where he was interred still exists, and
there is a curious tradition that the tide can never cover it.
The Tuatha Dé Danann king, Nuada, lost his hand in this battle, and
obtained the name of Nuada of the Silver Hand,[36] his artificer, Credne
Cert, having made a silver hand for him with joints. It is probable the
latter acquisition was the work of Mioch, the son of Diancecht, Nuada's
physician, as there is a tradition that he "took off the hand and
infused feeling and motion into every joint and finger of it, as if it
were a natural hand." We may doubt the "feeling," but it was probably
suggested by the "motion," and the fact that, in those ages, every act
of more than ordinary skill was attributed to supernatural causes,
though effected through human agents. Perhaps even, in the enlightened
nineteenth century, we might not be much the worse for the pious belief,
less the pagan cause to which it was attributed. It should be observed
here, that the Brehon Laws were probably then in force; for the
"blemish" of the monarch appears to have deprived him of his dignity, at
least until the silver hand could satisfy for the defective limb. The
Four Masters tell us briefly that the Tuatha Dé Dananns gave the
sovereignty to Breas, son of Ealathan, "while the hand of Nuada was
under cure," and mentions that Breas resigned the kingdom to him in the
seventh year after the cure of his hand.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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