Pre-Christian Ireland (Notes)

[1] Tacitus, Agricola, xxiv.

[2] Keating, History of Ireland, ed. P. S. Dinneen (Irish Texts Society), i, 107, 109, 185. There is a comparatively late cycle of tales dealing with Eochaidh, which may reflect the ideas of later days about the High-kingship.

[3] Phases of Irish History. Professor MacNeill does not give references; but his argument seems to be founded on the late composite Leinster text, Cath Ruis na Ríg, ed. E. Hogan, pp. 23 seq., which has been copied by Keating.

[4] O’Curry, Manners and Customs, iii, App., 523-547.

[5] Keating, History of Ireland, ii, 245-253.

[6] Armstrong, Catalogue of Gold Ornaments, National Museum, Dublin; W. Ridgeway, Date of the Cuchulain Saga; Macalister, Ireland in Pre-Celtic Times (1921); G. Coffey, The Bronze Age in Ireland; and cf. article on “The Distribution of Gold Lunulæ in Ireland,” in Proceedings of the Royal lrish Academy, vol. xxvii, Section C.

[7] Book of Rights, ed. O’Donovan, xlii-xlviii, 2-25; Folklore, March 1901; R. A. S. Macalister, “Tara” in P.R.I.A. vol. Early Christian Irelandiv, Section C, No. 10.

[8] Kilkenny Archaeological Journal, vol. ii.

[9] Dá Derga, ed. Wh. Stokes, pp. 14, 17; Hull, Cuchulain Saga, pp. 231-32.

[10] Instructions of King Cormac mac Art, R.I.A. Todd Lect., vol. xv.

[12] Eoin MacNeill, Celtic Ireland, pp. 114-143

[13] Ancient Laws of Ireland, ii, pp. 147-103, 349.

[14] Ibid., p. 391.

[15] Anc. Laws, ii, 379, 387.

[16] Ibid., i, 85 seq.

[17] Ibid., i, 105-7.

[18] Togail Bruidne Dá Derga, ed. Wh. Stokes, p. 6.

[19] R. A. S. Macalister, Ireland in Pre-Celtic Times (1921). Cf. G. Fletcher, Ireland, pp. 82-94; H. J. E. Peake, The Bronze Age and the Celtic World; H. J. Fleure, The Races of England and Wales; G. Coffey, Bronze Age in Ireland.

[20] For the castes in Irish society see Ancient Laws of Ireland, vol. iv.

[21] Dr Pokorny suggests Ever as the true base of the name, which the Romans changed into Hibernia from the Iverni of Ptolemy.

[22] A. B. Scott, The Pictish Nation, People and Church (1918).

[23] Ammianus, xx, xxvi-xxviii; Gibbon, iii, 44-46 (Bury, 5th ed.)

[24] The Irish Version of Nennius, ed. J. H. Todd (Irish Archæological Society, 1848), p. 73.

[25] Muirchu, Life of St Patrick, ch. xxiii.

[26] Silva Gadelica, ed. S. H. O’Grady, ii, 355; Keating, History, ii, 281, and see ibid., p. 239.

[27] For this story see Y. Cymmrodor, xiv, 101-135; Anecdota from Irish Manuscripts, (1907), i, 15 seq.; Ériu, iii, 135 seq.

[28] Iolo Manuscripts, p. 78.

[29] Life of St Declan, ed. P. Power (Irish Texts Society), xvi, 34-37; Vitæ Sanc. Hib., ed. C. Plummer, i, 8, 55, 217-218, and ii, 40, 45.

[30] Martène and Durand, Thesaurus Novus Anecdotorum (Paris, 1717), iii, 991; Kuno Meyer, Learning in Ireland in the Fifth Century (1913), p. 23, note 17.

[31] Prosper, Lib. Cont. Collatorem, ch. xxi, 2 (Migne, Pat. Lat., li, 271); Bede, Eccl. Hist., Bk. I, ch. xiii.

[32] Keating, History, ii, 373. Niall’s son Eoghan married the daughter of a Saxon king; see Silva Gadelica, ed. S. H. O’Grady, ii, 516.