Volume 1

Tracts relating to Ireland.

Date:
1841-1843
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Tracts relating to Ireland. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    38/140 page 10
    gia,® went into the territories of Ossory and the Desies, and plundered and ravaged the entire country as far as Les Ruadhrach, so that the inhabitants sub- mitted to him. “ Muircheartach, the son of Niall, sailed with a fleet to the Insi Gall [the Hebrides] from which he carried off much plunder and booty, after having van- quished and subdued the inhabitants. “ The Desies were slaughtered by Callaghan, [King of Munster,] and the men of Munster, because they had submitted to Muircheartach, the son of Niall. He slew two thousand of them together with Ceilechar, the son of Cormac, Maolgorm, the son of Giphlechan, Segda, the son of Oebelan, and Cleireach, the son of Sesta, [all chiefs of the Desies]. “ The Desies and Ossorians gained a victory over the King of Cashel; during the battle many were slain. “ After hearing this, Muircheartach assembled the race of Conall and Eoghan, and all the inhabitants of the North, at Aileach, and he selected one thousand of the chosen heroes of Fochla*^ and made a circuit of Ireland, keeping his left hand to the sea until he arrived at Dublin, and he brought Sitric, the Danish Lord of Dublin, with him as a hostage. He afterwards proceeded into Leinster, where the Lagenians at flrst resolved to oppose him, but Anally agreed to submit to him. He took Lorcan, the King of Leinster, with him [as a hostage]. He next went to Munster, and the men of Munster were in readiness on his arrival to give him battle, but they ultimately resolved to give up their King, Cal- laghan, and Muircheartach put a fetter upon him. He afterwards proceeded to Connaught, where Concobhar, the son of Teige, came to meet him, but no fetter according to the topographical poem of O’Dugan. But the word pocLa also signi- fies the north, and is often applied by the annalists to designate the North of Ireland. It is not easy, however, to determine in what sense the annalist employs the word here. In the Annals of Clonmacnoise, as translated by Connell Mageoghegan, it is stated that Muircheartach went on this occasion, with the forces of the North, which might he a mistake of that translator, as the original annalist might have intended the word to apply to the territory of Fochla, in Meath. See note on line 38 of the poem. It would seem almost certain that in this passage the word Fochla must be em- ployed to signify the North of Ireland ; in the record of this transaction given in Mageoghe- gan’s Annals of Clonmacnoise, it is stated that itwas not themen of the North, but the King’s forces, which went with him to Cashel; but this is contrary to the evidence of this poem, which states that they were of the race of Eoghan, and consequently located in the North.
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