942
AN GAODHAL.
Macha having now consolidated her power, and
secured the throne against all claimants but the
sons of Dithorba, laid a plan for their destruction
and, with this intention, she went into Connacht,
where she soon discovered their retreat, captured
and carried them prisoners to Ulster. The Ulster
men demanded that they should be put to death,
but Macha said that that would make her reign
unrighteous, and that she would not consent to it,
but that she would enslave them, condemn them to
build a rath or court for her, which should be the
chief city of Ulster for ever. And she then mark¬
ed out the foundations of the court with her gold¬
en brooch, which she took from her breast, and
hence the name of Emain, or rather Eomuin, from
Eo a breast-pin or brooch, and Muin the neck, —
which when compounded make Eomuin, — now in¬
accurately Latinized Emania, instead of Eomania.
Ulster was then erected into a kingdom with Cim¬
baoth for its first king.
This occurred, according to some authorities,
405 years before the death of our Lord (O'Flinn's
poem makes it 450 years), and it was not till the
year 331 of the Christian era that Emania was
destroyed by the Collas, and the Ultonian dynasty
overthrown.
The princes known in the ancient Chronicles of
Erinn as the three Collas, make such an important
figure in history in connection with the destruction
of Emania, that it is but proper to give a brief
account of them.
Cairbre Lifechair succeeded his father the cel¬
ebrated Cormac Mac Art, in the sovereinty of Er¬
inn, A. D. 267. This Caibre, who was killed in the
Battle of Gabhra, or Gawra left three son, name¬
ly, Fiacha Stabtene, Eochaidh, and Eochaidh
Domhlen. Fiacha Srabtene succeded his father,
Cairbre, but his reign, though long, was not pea¬
ceable, being disturbed by the sons of his broth¬
er, Eochaidh Domlen, namely, the Three Collas
(Colla Uais, or the Noble, — Colla Mean, or the
Stammerer, — and Colla Fochri, or of the Earth,
earthy, claylike), who revolted against him, and
at last, at the head of a large number of followers,
gave him battle at Dubh-Chomar, near Tailltin,
(now Telltown, in the modern county of Meath),
where they overthrew and killed him, after which
Colla Uais assumed the monarchy of Erinn, which
he held for four years.
Fiacha, the late monarch, bad, however, left a
son, Muireadhach, who, in his turn, made war on
Colla Uais, drove him from the sovereignty, and
forced himself and his brothers and their follow¬
ers to fly into Scotland. Here they led such a life
turmoil and danger, that in three years time they
returned into Ireland, and surrendered themselves
up to their cousin, the monarch, to be punished
as he might think fit, for the death of his father.
Muireadhach, however, seeing that they were
brave men, declined to visit them with any pun¬
ishment, but, making friends with them, he took
them into his pay and confidence, gave them com¬
mand in his army. After some years, however, he
proposed to them to establish themselves in some
more independent position than they could attain
in his service, and pointed to the conquest of the
kingdom of Ulster as a project worthy of their
ambition. The Collas agreed to make war on Ul¬
ster, and for that purpose marched with a numer¬
ous band of followers into that country, and en¬
camped at the Carn of Achaidh Leith derg, in
Fearnmhaigh (Farney, in the modern county of
Monaghan). From this camp they ravaged the
country around them, until the Ulstermen, under
their king Fergus Fogha, came to meet them,
when a contested battle was fought for six days,
in which, at length, the Ulstermen were defeated,
and forced to abandon the field. They were foll¬
owed by their victorious enemies, and driven over
Glen Righe (the valley of the present Newry Wa¬
ter), into the district which forms the modern
counties of Down and Antrim, from which they
never after returned. The Collas destroyed Em¬
ania, and then took the whole of that part of Uls¬
ter (now forming the modern counties of Armagh,
Louth, Monaghan, and Fermanagh) into their own
hands as Swordlands, and it was held by their des¬
cendants, the Maguires, Mac Mahons, O'Hanlons,
and others, down to the confiscation of Ulster un¬
der the English king, James the First.
Thus ended the Ultonian dynasty, after a period
of more than seven hundred years' duration, and
the glories of Emania and of the House and
Knights of the Royal Branch were lost for ever.
LECTURE IV.
[Delivered March 22, 1855]
THE ANNALS (continued). 2. The Annals of lnis¬
fallen. 3. The Annals called the Annals of Boyle
The Poems of O Huidhrin, 4. The Annals o
Senait MocManus, called the Annals of Ulster.
According to the order I have prescribed for my¬
self, we proceed now to the consideration of the
Annals compiled subsequent to the period of Tigh¬
ernach.
It is generally supposed that a considerable in¬
terval of time elapsed between the year 1088, in
which this great historian died, and the appear¬
ance of any other body of historic composition de¬
serving the name of Annals, and it will be neces¬
ary for us to inquire whether any writers on Irish
affairs existed within this period requiring notice
at our hands, in order that we may follow the
chain of historic composition with some degree
of uniformity.
It is, however, to be observed here, that in the
existing copies of Tighernach we find the annals
continued to the year 1407, that is, to a date more
than three hundred years subsequent to Tighern¬
ach's own time. It is not improbable that the ori¬
ginal body of these annals was gradually and pro¬
gressively enlarged, but we have no reliable infor¬
mation as to the precise manner in which, or the
persons by whom, the earlier parts of the continu¬
ation were made.
In the commencement of the fifteenth century
we find recorded the death of a certain Augustin
MacGrady, who, it is well known, laboured at the
continuation of these annals, but we again find
them continued after his death, which happened
in 1405, down to the year 1407 (where they end
imperfect), though by what hand is not certain.
The following entry is found in the Annals them¬
selves at the end of the year 1405, —
"Augustin Ma Gradoidh, a canon of the canons
of the Island of the Saints in Loch Righ in the
Shannon], a Saoi (or Doctor) during his life, in
divine and worldly Wisdom, in Literature, in His¬
tory, and in various other Sciences in like manner,
and the Doctor (Ollamh) of good oratory, of west¬
ern Europe, — the man who compiled this book,
and many other books, both the Lives of the Saints
