[Footnote 216: It will be found at more length in E. O'Curry's 'Materials for Ancient Irish History,' pp. 247-250.] [Footnote 217: It was, according to the same authorities, "during this interval that Lugh, the then reigning king, established the fair at Tailtean, in commemoration of his foster-mother, the daughter of Magh Mor, king of Spain," "This fair," adds Dr. O'Donovan, "continued famous down to the time of Roderic O'Conor, last monarch of Ireland; and the traditions of it are still so vivid, that Telltown was till recently resorted to by the men of Meath for hurling, wrestling, and manly sports." It would be a wonderful instance of the stability of Irish institutions if a fair, established in a miserable inland village eighteen centuries before Christ, should flourish through the middle ages, and hardly now be extinct! It may have been established about the Christian era, but certainly not before, and thus becomes another piece of evidence as to the date of the events we are describing.--'Annals of the Four Masters,' p. 23.] [Footnote 218: 'Mon. Hist. Brit.' xcviii.] [Footnote 219: Madsen, 'Antiquités préhistoriques du Danemark.' Copenhagen, 1869.] [Footnote 220: Sjöborg Samlingar för Nordens Fornälskare,' i. p. 12.] [Footnote 221: 'Materials for Ancient Irish History,' p. 250.] [Footnote 222: 'Annals of the Four Masters,' translated by J. O'Donovan, i. p. 21.] [Footnote 223: O'Curry, 'Materials for Ancient Irish History,' p. 246.] [Footnote 224: O'Connor, ii. p. 1. O'Curry, 'Materials for Ancient Irish History,' p. 63.] [Footnote 225: 'Tighernachi Ann.' O'Connor, p. 11-23.] [Footnote 226: 'Annals of the Four Masters,' i. p. 99.] [Footnote 227: 'Essay on the Ancient Architecture of Ireland,' by G. Petrie, pp. 97-109.] [Footnote 228: Could this be the great Rath close to the Netterville domain? See Sir W. Wilde, 'The Boyne and the Blackwater,' p. 211.] [Footnote 229: Tighernach, O'Connor, ii. p. 23, "Carcobarus filius Nessæ obiit hoc anno--33."] [Footnote 230: In the 'Annals of the Four Masters' (i. p. 89) there is a king called Eochaid Aireamb. "Ideo dictus," says Lynch, translating Keating, "quod tumulos effodi primus in Hiberniâ curavit." I have no doubt the etymology is correct, and the fact also; but it would hardly do to base our argument upon it, though it accords perfectly with the conclusion I have arrived at from other circumstances. He lived, according to the 'Four Masters,' 118 B.C. According to the more correct Tighernach, 45 B.C.] [Footnote 231: The real name of the Daghda was, according to the 'Four Masters,' Eochaidh Ollathair; and Eochaid, or Eochy, is one of the most common names in Irish history, and constantly recurring.]