TARA
Tara, which attained the climax of its fame under Cormac, is said to have been rounded by
the Firbolgs, and been the seat of kings thenceforth. Ollam Fodla first gave it historic
fame by founding the Feis or Triennial Parliament, there, seven or eight centuries before
Christ. It is said it was under, or after, Eremon, the first Milesian high king that it,
one of the three pleasantest hills in Ireland, came to be named Tara - a corruption of the
genitive form of the compound word, Tea Mur - meaning "the burial place of Tea"
the wife of Eremon, and daughter of a king of Spain. In its heyday Tara must have been
impressive. The great, beautiful hill was dotted with seven duns, and in every dun were
many buildings - all of them, of course, of wood, in those days - or of wood and metal.
The greatest structure was the Mi Cuarta, the great banqueting hall, which was on the Ard
Righ’s own dun. Each of the provincial kings had, on Tara, a house that was set aside
for him when he came up to attend the great Parliament. There was a Grianan (sun house)
for the provincial queens, and their attendants. The great Feis was held at Samain
(Hallowday). It lasted for three days before Samain and three days after. But the Aonach
or great fair, the assembly of the people in general, which was a most important
accompaniment of the Feis, seems to have begun much earlier. At this Feis the ancient laws
were recited and confirmed, new laws were enacted, disputes were settled, grievances
adjusted, wrongs righted. And in accordance with the usual form at all such assemblies,
the ancient history of the land was recited, probably by the high king’s seanachie,
who had the many other critical seanachies attending to his every word, and who,
accordingly, dare not seriously distort or prevaricate. This highly efficient method of
recording and transmitting the country’s history, in verse, too, which was practised
for a thousand years before the introduction of writing, and the introduction of
Christianity and which continued to be practised for long centuries after these events was
a highly practical method, which effectively preserved for us the large facts of our
country’s history throughout a thousand of the years of dim antiquity when the
history of most other countries is a dreary blank.
As from the great heart and centre of the Irish Kingdom, five great arteries or roads
radiated from Tara to the various parts of the country the Slighe Cualann, which ran
toward the present County Wicklow, the Slighe Mor, the great Western road, which ran via
Dublin to Galway, the Slight Asail which ran near the present Mullingar, the Slighe Dala
which ran southwest, and the Slighe Midluachra, the Northern road. "Great, noble and
beautiful truly was our Tara of the Kings."
FIONN AND THE FIAN
It is only recently that we have realised the all important part played by legendary lore
in forming and stamping a nation’s character. A people’s character and a
people’s heritage of tradition act and react upon each other, down the ages, the
outstanding qualities of both getting ever more and more alike - so long as their racial
traditions are cherished as an intimate part of their life. Of all the great bodies of
ancient Irish Legendary lore, none other, with the possible exception of the Red Branch
cycle, has had such developing, uplifting, and educational effect upon the Irish people,
through the ages, as the wonderful body of Fenian tales in both prose and verse, rich in
quality and rich in quantity. Fionn MacCumail, leader of the Fian (Fenians), in the time
of Cormac MacArt, is the great central figure of these tales. The man Fionn lived and died
in the third century of the Christian Era. It was in the reign of Conn, at the very end of
the second century, that was founded the Fian - a great standing army of picked and
specially trained, daring warriors, whose duty was to carry out the mandates of the high
kin - "To uphold justice and put down injustice, on the part of the kings and lords
of Ireland - and to guard the harbors from foreign invaders". From this latter we
might conjecture that an expected Roman invasion first called the Fian into existence.
They prevented robberies, exacted fines and tributes, put down public enemies and every
kind of evil that might afflict the country. Moreover they moved about from place to place
all over the island. Fionn, being a chieftain himself in his own right, had a residence on
the hill of Allen in Kildare. The Fianna (bodies of the Fian) recruited at Tara, Uisnech
and Taillte fairs. The greatest discrimination was used in choosing the eligible ones from
amongst the candidate throng - which throng included in plenty sons of chieftains and
princes. Many and hard were the tests for him who sought to be one of this noble body. One
of the first tests was literary for no candidate was possible who had not mastered the
twelve books of poetry. So skilful must he be in wood running, and so agile, that in the
flight no single braid of his hair is losed by a hanging branch. His step must be so light
that underfoot he breaks no withered branch. In facing the greatest odds the weapon must
not shake in his hand . When a candidate had passed these tests and was approved as fit
for his heroic band, there were also vows to be taken as the final condition of his
admission. There were three cathas (battalions) of the Fian - three thousand in each
catha. This was in time of peace. In time of war the quota was seven cathas. Although the
Fianna were supposed to uphold the power of the Ard Righ, their oath of fealty was not to
him, but to their own chief, Fionn. The best stories of the Fian are preserved to us in
the poems of Oisin, the son of Fionn, the chief bard of the fian, in the Agallamh na
Seanorach (Colloquy of the Ancients) of olden time. This is by far the finest collection
of Fenian tales, and is supposed to be an account of the Fian’s great doings, given
in to Patrick by Oisin and Caoilte, another of Fionn’s trusted lieutenants, more than
150 years after. After the overthrow of the Fian, in the battle of Gabra in the year 280
A.D.,Caoilte is supposed to have lived with the Tuatha de Dannann, under the hills - until
the coming of St. Patrick. Oisin had been carried away to the Land of mortal existence,
and to Ireland, when Patrick is in the land, winning it from Crom Cruach to Christ.
THE BREAK OF ULSTER
Of the line of Ir, son of Milesius, to whom Ulster had been apportioned, that Branch
called the Clan na Rory (after its great founder, Fory, who had been King of Ulster, and
also High King of Ireland) now ruled the province for nearly 700 years, namely, for more
than 300 years before the Christian Era, and more than 300 years after. And their capital
city and the king’s seat had been at Emain Macha. During practially all of ths time,
from that fort’s first founding by Queen Macha, the royal Court of Ulster had been a
court of splenour, and ever noted as a centre of chivalry and the home of poetry. But in
the beginning of the fourth century, Ulster’s power was irrevocably broken, and by
far the greater portion of her territory wrested from her - her people driven into
miserably narrow bounds from which, ever after, they can hardly be said to have emerged.
It was when Muiredeach Tireach, grandson of Carbri of the Liffey, was High King of
Ireland, that Ulster was despoiled and broken by his nephews, the three Collas, who, on
the ruins of the old kingdom of Uladh, founded a new kingdom - of Oirgialla (Oriel) which
was henceforth for nearly a thousand years to play an important part in the history of
Northern Ireland. The ostensible cause of their attach upon Ulster was the ancient grudge
borne that province because many generations before, the Ulster king, tiobraide, had sent
to Tara fifty robbers discuised as women, who had slain Conn of the Hundred Battles and
because, a generation later, the Ulster prince, Fergus Blacktooth, had, by setting fire to
his hair at a feast, put a blemish upon Cormac MacArt, which, for a time, debarred him
from the throne which Fergus then usurped. The Collas first went to their kin in Connaught
and there gathered a great army for the invasion of Ulster. On the plain of Farney in
Monaghan they met the Ulstermen under their king, Fergus, and on seven successive days
broke battle upon them, finally slaying Fergus and putting the Ultach (Ulstermen) to
complete rout. Of the conquered portion of Ulster, from Louth in the south to Derry in the
north, and from Loch Neagh to Loch Erne, the Collas made themselves the new kingdom of
Oirgialla (Oriel).
NIALL OF THE NINE HOSTAGES
Niall of the Nine Hostages was the greatest king that Ireland knew between the time of
Cormac MacArt and the coming of Patrick. His reign was epochal. He not only ruled Ireland
greatly and strongly, but carried the name and the fame, and the power and the fear, of
Ireland into all neighbouring nations. He was, moreover, founder of the longest, most
important, and most powerful Irish dynasty. Almost without interruption his descendants
were Ard Righs of Ireland for 600 years. Under him the spirit of pagan Ireland upleaped in
its last great red flame of military glory, a flame that, in another generation, was to be
superseded by a great white flame, far less fierce but far more powerful and the bounds of
neighbouring nations to the uttermost bounds of Europe. That is the great flame that
Patrick was to kindle, and which was to expand and grow, ever mounting higher and
spreading farther, year by year, for three hundred years.
Niall was grandson of Muiredeach Tireach. His father, Eochaid Muig Medon, son of
Muiredeach, became Ard Rich mid way of the fourth century. By his wife, Carthann, daughter
of a British king, Eochaid had the son Niall. By another wife, Mon Fionn, daughter of the
King of Munster, Eochaid had four sons, Brian, Fiachar, Ailill, and Fergus. Mong Fionn was
a bitter, jealous and ambitious woman, who set her heart upon having her son, Brian,
succeed his father as Ard Righ. As Niall was his father’s favourite, Mong Fionn did
not rest until she had outcast him and his mother, Carthann, and made Carthann her menial,
carrying water to the court. The child was rescued by a great poet of that time, Torna,
who reared and educated him. When he had reached budding manhood, Torna brought him back
to court to take his rightful place - much to his father’s joy. Then Niall, showing
strength of character, even in his early youth, took his mother from her menial task, and
restored her to her place. Of Niall’s youth there are many legends, but one in
particular show the working of his destiny. One day, the five brothers being in the
smith’s forge when it took fire, they were commanded to run and save what they could.
Their father, who was looking on (and who, say some, designedly caused the fire, to test
his sons), observed with interest Neill’s distinctiveness of character, his good
sense and good judgement. While Brian saved the cariots from the fire, Ailill a shield and
a sword, Fiachra the old forge trough, and Fergus only a bundle of firewood, Niall carried
out the bellows, the sledges, the anvil, and anvil block - saved the soul of the forge,
and saved the smith from ruin. Then his father said: "It is Niall who should succeed
me as Ard Righ of Eirinn".
Niall’s first expedition was into Alba to subdue the Picts. The little Irish (Scotic)
colony in that part of Alba just opposite to Antrim had gradually been growing in numbers,
strength, and prestige - until they excited the jealousy and enmity of the Picts, who
tried to crush them. Niall fitted out a large fleet and sailed to the assistance of his
people. Joined then by the Irish in Alba, he marched against the Picts, overcame them,
took hostages from them and had Argyle and Cantire settled upon the Albanach Irish. After
obtaining obedience from the Picts, his next foreign raid was into Britain. When Maximus
and his Roman legions were, in consequence of the barbarian pressure upon the Continental
Roman Empire, withdrawing from Britain, Niall, with his Irish hosts and Pictish allies,
treaded upon their hurrying heels. Yet did the Romans claim victory over Niall. For it is
said his was the host referred to by the Roman poet, Claudian, when in praising the Roman
general, Stilicho, he says Britain was protected by this bold general.
"When Scots came thundering from the Irish shores,
And ocean trembled stuck by hostile oars".
Niall must have made many incursions into Britain and probably several into Gaul. He
carried back hostages, many captives, and great booty from these expeditions. Yet how
often out of evil cometh good. It was in one of these Gallic expeditions that the lad
Succat, destined under his later name of Patrick to be the greatest and noblest figure
Ireland ever knew, was taken in a sweep of captives, carried to Ireland and to Antrim,
there to herd the swine of the chieftain, Milcho. Many and many a time, in Alba, in
Britain, and in Gaul, must Niall have measured his leadership against the best leadership
of Rome, and pitted the courage and wild daring of his Scotic hosts against the skill of
the Imperial Legions. Yet his fall in a foreign land was to be compassed, not by the
strategy or might of the foreign enemy, but by the treachery of one of his own. He fell on
the banks of the River Loire, in France, by the hand of Eochaid, the son of Enna
Ceannselaigh, King of Leinster, who, from ambush, with an arrow, shot dead the great king.