Rude Stone Monuments in All Countries: Their Age and UsesFergusson, James
History
Rude Stone Monuments in All Countries: Their Age and Uses
Fergusson, James
Megalithic monuments
If this is so, there is little difficulty in determining who were
buried here. Besides the testimony of the poem just quoted, it is
stated in the Book of the 'Cemeteries'--"At Tailten the kings of Ulster
were used to bury vig^t. Ollamh Fodhla with his descendants down to
Conchobhar, who wished to be carried to a place between Slea and the
sea, with his face to the east, on account of the faith which he had
embraced." This conversion of Conchobhar is one of the most famous
legends in Irish ancient history. He was wounded in the head by a ball
that remained there, and was ordered by his physician to remain quiet
and avoid all excitement as his only chance of surviving. For seven
years he followed this advice; but when he saw the eclipse of the sun,
and felt the great convulsion that came over nature, the day that
Christ was crucified, he turned to his Druid and asked, "What is this?"
To which Bacrach, the Druid, replied: "It is true, indeed, Christ, the
Son of God, is this day crucified by the Jews." "At the recital of
this enormity, Conchobhar felt so indignant that he went nearly mad:
his excitement was so great that the ball burst from his head, and he
died on the very Friday on which the crucifixion took place."[254] All
this may be silly enough, as the electric telegraph was not then in
use, but it is worth quoting here, as it seems that it was to establish
this synchronism that the chronology of the period was falsified to
the extent of half a century at least. Conchobhar and Crimthann were
the two kings of the two great dynasties then reigning in Ireland
whom the annalists strive to synchronize with Christ, and though they
fail in that, they establish beyond much doubt that those kings were
contemporaries. If to this we add the fact so often repeated by the
authorities quoted above, that Conchobhar was the last of his race
buried at Talten, and that Crimthann was the first of his line buried
at Brugh, we obtain a tolerably clear idea of the history of these
cemeteries. Brugh, in fact, succeeded to Talten on the decline of the
Ultonian dynasty and the rise of Tuatha de Danann after the victories
at Moytura had established their supremacy and they had settled
themselves at Tara.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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