Let it be noted that Cashel, the seat of the Munster kings in
Christian times, stands outside of ancient Munster. Keating relates an
ancient story telling how Cashel was "discovered" in the time of Corc,
king of Munster, _i.e._, about A.D. 400, and got a new name. This new
name was a Latin one, for Caiseal is the Irish representative of the
Latin word _castellum_, "fortress." These things show how late was the
use of Cashel as the seat of Munster sovereignty.
What and whence was this new ruling power in Munster, the Eoghanachta?
Their genealogies show that at one time they were worshippers of a god
named Segomo--one of their ancestors is named Nia Segomon, "Segomo's
champion." This god Segomo is unknown to Irish tradition, in which his
name is never found outside of the Eoghanacht genealogy. He was
known, however, and worshipped in Gaul, where he is commemorated in
several inscriptions of the Roman period. He was a war-god and is
equated, according to the fashion of Roman Gaul, with the Latin god
Mars--"Deus Mars Segomo." The descendants of Segomo's Champion are
named in three Ogham inscriptions, all found in the district of
Dungarvan and Ardmore, on the southern seaboard. The indications
therefore are that the Eoghanachta represent a relatively late Gaulish
settlement in that part of Ireland. The story of the Déisi Migration
mentions several bodies of Gaulish settlers.
The Migration of the Déisi is an evident sequel of the conquest of
Tara and eastern Meath under Cormac. Déisi means "vassal communities."
These particular vassal communities dwelt around Tara, and were
possibly identical with the Luaighni, who formed the chief fighting
force of North Leinster in Cú Chulainn's time. They quarrelled with
Cormac, we are told, and he drove them, or a large part of them, out
of Meath. They migrated in two bodies. One body crossed the sea and
settled in southern Wales where the descendants of their princes still
held sway in the eighth century. The other body settled for a time in
Leinster.
Later on this Leinster section entered into an alliance with the
Eoghanacht king, Oengus, whose queen was the daughter of their chief.
By their aid, Oengus conquered what is now the south-eastern part of
Munster, and he settled the Déisi as frontier colonists on the
conquered territory. Oengus flourished in St. Patrick's time, the
second and third quarter of the fifth century.
The loss of the large territories about the Boyne and the Suir reduced
Leinster to much smaller dimensions. What remained of the two ancient
Fifths was now united in one kingdom, ruled over by the line of the
ancient kings of South Leinster. This reduction and unification means
the final passing away of the Pentarchy described in the Ulster tales.
The seat of the Leinster kings is no longer either Tara or Dinn Riogh,
but Ailinn, which lies between them, on the southern side of the
Curragh of Kildare.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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