The clue to the main path of Irish history during the partly obscure period of the first five centuries of the Christian era is the gradual expansion of the power of the Connacht dynasty over northern Ireland from the occupation of Uisneach until this year 483, when expansion reached the point of rupture. To trace this process and the concurrent or partly concurrent growth of the Eoghanacht power in Munster, has been the matter of my fourth, fifth, and sixth lectures. It is evident that the chronicler Cuanu, who wrote early in the eighth century, had some such general view before his mind of the history of this period based on the traditions and records known to him. His three epochs stand good as bearings for our guidance--first, the Pentarchy at the height of its traditional celebrity; second, the extension of the Connacht power to Tara, and the rise of the monarchy; and third, the disconnection of Connacht from Tara and the monarchy, and the dominant position acquired by the line of Niall. The old chronicler, with his three epochs, saw something more in the dim morning twilight of those centuries than a procession of names and dates and disconnected anecdotes. He saw something of a story with its sequence, a drama in three acts; and we are entitled to share in his satisfaction. GENEALOGY OF MONARCHY (5th CENTURY). Eochu, K.I. | +-----------+--------------+ Fiachra Niall, K.I. | +--------------------+ Nath-Í, K.I. Loiguire, K.I. Eogan | | | Ailill K.I. Luguid, K.I. Muiredach | Muirchertach, K.I. Niall | +--------------+--------+------+----------------+ Loiguire, K. Eogan Coirpre Conall Cremthainni | | | | Luguid, K. Muiredach Cormac Fergus Cerrbel | | | Muirchertach, K. Tuathal, K. Diarmait, K. VII. THE IRISH KINGDOM IN SCOTLAND