emedh; Beothah, son of Iarbanel; Erglann, son of Beoan,
son of Starn; Simeon Brac, son of Starn; Ibath, son of Beothach; Britan
Mael, son of Fergus. This must be remembered, that not one of the
almost countless names that figure in the Irish mythology is of fanciful
origin. They all represent antique heroes and heroines, their names
being preserved in connection with those monuments which were raised for
purposes of sepulture or cult.

Wars now between the Clanna Nemedh and the second cycle of the Fomoroh,
led this time by Faebar and More, sons of Dela, and Coning, son of
Faebar; battles at Ros Freachan, now Rosreahan, barony of Murresk,
Co. Mayo, at Slieve Blahma [Note: Slieve Blahma, now Slieve Bloom, a
mountain range famous in our mythology; one of the peaks, Ard Erin,
sacred to Eire, a goddess of the Tuatha De Danan, who has given her name
to the island. The sites of all these mythological battles, where they
are not placed in the haunted mountains, will be found to be a place
of raths and cromlechs.] and Murbolg, in Dalaradia (Murbolg, i.e., the
stronghold of the giants,) also at Tor Coning, now Tory Island.

FIRBOLGS AND THIRD CYCLE OF THE FOMOROH.

1525 B.C. Age of the FIRBOLGS and third cycle of the Fomorians, once
gods, but expulsed from their sovereignty by the Tuatha De Danan, after
which they loom through the heroic literature as giants of the elder
time, overthrown by the gods. From the FIRBOLGS were descended, or
claimed to have descended, the Connaught warriors who fought with Queen
Meave against Cuculain, also the Clan Humor, appearing in the Second
Volume, also the heroes of Ossian, the Fianna Eireen. Even in the time
of Keating, Irish families traced thither their pedigrees. The great
chiefs of the FIR-BOLGIC dynasty were the five sons of Dela, Gann,
Genann, Sengann, Rury, and Slaney, with their wives Fuad, Edain, Anust,
Cnucha, and Libra; also their last and most potent king, EOCAIDH MAC
ERC, son of Ragnal, son of Genann, whose tomb or temple may be seen
to-day at Ballysadare, Co. Sligo, on the edge of the sea.

The Fomorians of this age were ruled over by Baler Beimenna and his wife
Kethlenn. Their grandson was Lu Lamada, one of the noblest of the Irish
gods.

The last of the mythological cycles is that of the Tuatha De Danan,
whose character, attributes, and history will, I hope, be rendered
interesting and intelligible in my account of Cuculain and the Red
Branch of Ulster.

Irish history ha