mound on the western side, noticed by Mr. Westropp as being very similar to the one at Magh Adhair. The whole mote is surrounded by a fosse, varying in width from 16 feet, the far side of which is faced with dry stone masonry. In the accompanying photograph, the object on the top is an Ordnance Survey mark. The owner of the land told me that there is a souterrain running from the mote in the direction of the church, the entrance to which, as far as I could gather, is in the wall of the fosse. In his father's time this was open and people used to go in to see it, but one day some practical joker of the neighbourhood, hearing that a party of sightseers was coming, put a lighted candle in the chamber at the end, upon seeing which the people, thinking they were in a sidhe," turned and fled, and one man hit his head and hurt himself so badly that the entrance has since been closed up. And I very much regret that, owing to the exigencies of farming operations, I was unable 66 to persuade the owner to open it again for my inspection. I can, therefore, only give what he told me about it. He says the sides and top of the passage are composed of large blocks of stone, such as are to be found on the hill at the present day; that some way along the passage was a large stone making it a difficult matter to get any further-no doubt a defensive precaution such as exists in the Cashel at Inismurray. The passage towards the end takes a sharp turn before entering the chamber at the end. This is all I could learn from him; but from the description I should gather that the souterrain follows the usual form. On the south side of the hill, below the church, the ground is cut away very sharply in several places, making it appear as if there had been extensive earthworks extending round it at some time; but this may be mere conjecture; also on the west side of the hill below the mote is a deep ravine, which may also have been made by the hand of man for defensive purposes. The owner of the land told me that he had often turned up with the plough old swords, but they all crumbled away at once; and also quantities of bullets. Below the hill is St. Brigid's stream, at which stations used to be performed. I think enough has now been said to show that Faughart is entitled to a high position in the long list of historic places in Ireland; and its commanding position and the beauty of the surrounding country cannot fail to make it an object of interest, not only to all those who love to look on nature in her fairest mood, but also to that ever-increasing class to whom the ancient history of Ireland is such an absorbing study. It is a spot where the varying drama of human life is played before the mental vision, presenting a vivid picture of those old heroes, from Cuchulain with his shield-hand covered with twenty wounds killing the fourteen men of the Amazonian queen of Connaught, singlehanded, to the crash of mailed knights and the wild "Lamh dearg aboo" of O'Neill, as he comes to the onslaught through those passes at the head of kern and gallowglass; or again, sitting on his horse for hours on that wild January day, his astute mind weighing the promises of the English queen, brought to him by her ambassadors, during the great struggle between the Celt and Saxon for Ulster. The scene changes: the setting sun casts his rays on those early labourers for Christianity, carrying their frugal fare, gathered and garnered with their own hands, to the home built on the spot where that poor little waif, destined to become one of the greatest saints in the calendar, first saw the light. For the extracts above given from the "Four Masters," the "Féilire of Oenghus," and the "Táin Bo Cuailgne," I am indebted to the translations of Dr. O'Donovan, Dr. Whitley Stokes, and Miss Farraday, respectively. [Notices of Faughart, past and present, with illustrations, will be found in the "Journal" of the Louth Archæological Society, also in that of the Kildare Archæological Society, 1901 (vol. iii., pp. 217, 218), where there is a paper, by Major-General Stubbs, on the "Birthplace and Life of St. Brigit of Kildare," with a view of her well at Faughart.ED.] Miscellanea. Liamhain, now represented by Lyons, near Newcastle-Lyons.This identification was suggested to me by Mr. Charles M'Neill, in the discussion which followed the reading of my paper on Carman. The following grounds for considering his suggestion correct have occurred to me, and for these I alone am responsible : 1. Neither Liamhain nor Dun Liamhna would regularly yield Dunlavin, with which it has hitherto been identified. The stressed vowelsounds are quite different. Liamhain assonates with ar n-iarair and with bliadhain. 2. Newcastle-Lyons, or Newcastle de Leuan, as we find the name generally written throughout the thirteenth century, was a royal manor. Leuan would nearly represent the sound of Liamhain in this century, and the corruption to Lyons, probably pronounced at first like the French town, Lyon, is easy to follow. The Charter Roll of the 9th John contains a grant to "Dermot Mac Gilmeholmoc of all the land held by Gilleholmoc his father, namely Lymerhim (Liamhain), with 15 carucates of land in the vale of Dublin," saving to the king the cantred in the land of Limeric (a further corruption of Liamhain), which the king, when Earl of Morton, had given to the said Dermot (Sweetman's "Calendar," vol. i., No. 356). Another portion of the district called Limerun Kilmacdalowey, was afterwards taken into the king's hands for the improvement of the Manor of Newcastle (ibid., No. 569; and see Mr. Mills' Paper in our Journal, 1894, page 162). This grant of John's to Dermot Macgillamocholmog was probably not the first, but was confirmatory of a lost previous grant to his father Domhnall, who had sided with the Normans (see Song of Dermct, 1. 2283, et seq., and note). It is evident that Domhnall Macgillamocholmog was left in possession of his principal seat, and this was probably in the parish of Lyons, which seems to have been outside the Manor of Newcastle. Here, on the top of the Hill of Lyons, where I am told by Mr. M'Neill, faint earthworks may be traced, was probably the ancient Dun Liamhna. 3. To turn to the passages which indicate the position of Liamhain. The notes to the "Calendar of Oengus," May 3, inform us that wolves devoured Condlaed, Bishop of Kildare, "at Sciaich Condlaid, beside Liamain, in Mag Laigen." The district about Lyons was certainly in Magh Laighean, but the hilly country about Dunlavin could hardly have been included in any plain, even if Magh Laighean was regarded as coming so far south, for which I know no evidence. There is, too, a townland called Skeagh adjoining the parish of Lyons, which very probably represents Sciaich Condlaid, as there is no other townland commencing with this word in Dublin, Kildare, or Wicklow. 4. The same Calendar," December the 9th, mentions the two daughters of Ailill (son of Dunlang, King of Leinster) in airthir liphi, the east of Liffey, and the notes amplify this into "Celi Ingen Ailella, beside Liamain, in the east of the plain of Liffey" (though one мs. has, by mistake, in the west of the plain of Liffey). Now, Dunlavin is not in Magh Liffey at all, while Leuan (Lyons) is in the east of the plain of Liffey. It is tempting to regard Killininny, near Tallaght, as Cell Ingen Ailella; but a note in the same Calendar, October 26th, hesitatingly ascribes this church to the four daughters of Iar. It is more probable that Clonaglis (Cluain Eaglaise), a small parish "implicated in parish of Lyons, contained the church in question. The church is frequently mentioned in the Register of St. Thomas, Dublin. the 5. Muircheartach of the Leathern Cloaks, in his regular progress round Ireland, came to Liamain from Ath Cliath, and before reaching Aillenn, whence he went on to Belach-Mughna (Ballaghmoone) (" Circuit of Ireland," I.A.S., p. 37). If Liamain Leuan, this would be quite regular; but if Liamain = Dunlavin, it would involve an unaccountable doubling back on his route. (As to Glan-mama, see next note.) = 6. The references to Liamhain, in the "Book of Rights," all point to, or at least agree with, the identification of Liamhain with Leuan, while they present, apparently, insuperable difficulties to its identification with Dunlavin—(a) The King of Cashel, when King of Ireland, presents "thirty ships to the heroes of Liamhain " (p. 40); an appropriate gift to the lord of Ui Donnchadha, whose territory (including that of the usually subordinate tribes of Cualu), when not usurped by the Northmen, reached the sea-coast, but an unexplained mockery to the heroes of Dunlavin. Besides, if this whole section be carefully read, it will be seen that the king of each district mentioned is supposed to escort the King of Ireland in his progress to the next place mentioned. That "the King of the entrenched Ath Cliath" should perform this service as far as his neighbours the Ui Donnchadha, is intelligible, but he could hardly be expected to go right through Ui Faelain away down to Dunlavin (cf. Introd. "Book of Rights," p. xxxvi). (b) "Liamhain over the sea he shall pilot" (p. 203). Again pointing to a sea-board district. (c) When we come to the stipends payable to the reguli of Leinster, we find again—" Eight ships to the lord of Cualann" (p. 207). This is meant to include the district before denoted by Liamhain. For, whatever may have been the case in 1636 (O'Donovan's note, p. 13), it is quite certain that in earlier times Cualu extended up to the Liffey, for Dublin was called Ath Cliath Cualann. Besides, Ui Donnchadha must in this section be included in Cualu, otherwise it is not mentioned at all. Dunlavin, on the other hand, was, I presume, in Ui Muireadhaigh, a territory here, as elsewhere, denoted by Raeilinn (p. 210), or Rairiu (see v. 1., p. 286, Ri Rairend), identified with the fort of Mullaghreelion, or Reerin, about five miles south-east of Athy. (d) Then there is the section commencing p. 224, which could not have been written before the foreigners were in full possession of Ath Cliath (tenth century), and which, of course, contains a good deal of spurious history. Here Liamhain is spoken of as in the hands of the foreigners (pp. 228-230), as O'Donovan notices. That Leuan (Lyons) should have been at one time in their possession is what we might expect, e.g., when Domhnall Claen (of the Ui Donnchadha), King of Leinster, was taken prisoner by them (FM. 977); but that they ever settled in Dunlavin, or anywhere near it, is unsupported by anything we know about them.-GODDARD H. ORPEN. Site of the Battle of Glen-Mama.-The above location of Liamhain in the neighbourhood of Newcastle-Lyons involves a reconsideration of the site of Glen-mama. The only passage I know of that indicates this site (except so far as it can be inferred from the accounts of the battle itself) is the one already referred to in the "Circuit of Ireland," by Muircheartach MacNeill, a poem, according to O'Donovan, written in the year 942 by Cormacan Eigeas. After describing the stay of this Prince in Ath-Cliath, the poet continues: "We were a night at Liamhain ; There were many in pursuit behind us; The Lagenians (who assembled) at Glen-mama [outside of us, i múigh], A conspiracy (was formed) against us at Glen-mama By the Lagenians very boldly; (But) they durst not approach us When the bright day came. We were a night at the cold Aillinn," &c. Glen-mama appears, therefore, to have been near Liamhain (Lyons), or, at any rate, near the route between Liamhain and Knockaulin. Nevertheless, topographers, having assumed the identity of Liamhain and Dunlavin, have sought for the site of Brian's battle among the hills to the east of that town. Father Shearman, in particular, reconstructs the battle here with every incident, recorded or imaginary, connected with some spot of ground ("Wars of the G. and G.," p. cxliv). He says, indeed, that the name Glen-mama is unknown, or utterly forgotten, and relies merely on traditions of a great battle with the Danes. He never seems to have asked himself what induced Brian, who was marching from Munster to besiege Ath-Cliath, to entangle himself among the trackless hills to the east of Dunlavin, or what induced the Danes to defend their fortress by attacking Brian there. Now, if we read the account of the battle ("Wars of the G. and G.," p. 111) on the supposition that Glen-mama was near Leuan (Lyons), |