PLATES XVII., XVIII., AND XIX.--_Brugh of the Boyne, New
Grange, County Meath._
The diagrams here shown are from drawings by Mr. W.F. Wakeman, the
veteran Irish archæologist.[76] With reference to the spiral carvings at
the doorway of the Brugh, it may be mentioned that "the same kind of
ornament appears on a stone found amidst a heap which had once been a
'Pict's-house' in the island of Eday, Orkney;"[77] and that in Orkney,
also, there has been found, in an underground house, a large stone
"saucer," or "tray," resembling the two shown in the ground plan of the
Brugh. (There appears to be no settled opinion as to the uses of those
"saucers.")
In connection with the identification of this mound with the "Brugh of
the Boyne" of ancient Irish history, the following remarks may be
quoted. The Rev. Father O'Laverty, in the Journal of the Royal Society
of Antiquaries of Ireland (December, 1892, p. 430) thus observes:--
"In his very valuable work, _The Boyne and Blackwater_, Sir William
Wilde appears to me to have used convincing arguments to prove that
_Brugh-na-Boinne_ ... was ... on the left bank of the Boyne,
convenient to the ford of _Ros-na-righ_ (Rossnaree) at Knowth,
Dowth, and Newgrange. To Sir William's arguments one point only was
wanting: the old name had disappeared.... It is now more than
thirty years since I went to Newgrange for the special purpose of
investigating that matter. I explained to Mr. Maguire, then of
Newgrange, and to his son, that _Brugh-na-Boinne_ signified 'the
town, or dwelling-place, on the Boyne,' that the word _Brugh_ would
assume the modern form _Bro_, as in Brughshane (pronounced
Broshane), and many other townland names, and that _na-Boinne_, 'of
the Boyne,' would probably cease to be used as unnecessary at the
site. I need not say that I was greatly pleased when they informed
me that the field in which is the mound of Newgrange is called the
_Bro-Park_, while in the immediate vicinity are the _Bro-Farm_, the
_Bro-Mill_, and the _Bro-Cottage_." [And also, they might have
added, the mansion of _Broe House_.]
Any one, therefore, who duly considers the matter, in relation to the
statements of both of these writers, will see that the mound at New
Grange is the _Brugh-na-Boinne_ of Irish history and tradition. And this
name, says Father O'Laverty, "signified 'the town, or dwelling-place, on
the Boyne.'" What, then, are the earliest associations with this "town
or dwelling-place?"
It is said[78] to have been built by a celebrated "king and oracle" of
the people known as the Tuatha Dé, Dea, or De Danann, and to have been
the residence of himself and others of his race. This chief (Eochaid
_Ollathair_) is usually referred to as "the Dagda," or "the Daghda Mòr";
and of his nation it is asserted that, after having invaded Ireland and
conquered its native "Fir-Bolgs," they were themselves conquered in
turn by a later race of immigrants, the Gaels. This "Brugh," therefore,
is said to have been the residence of the Dagda, and, after him, of
Angus, one of his sons. Consequently, it is very frequently styled "the
Brugh of Angus, son of the Dagda," an appellation which assumes various
forms.[79] Latterly, it seems to have been most generally known as "the
Brugh" (_par excellence_), or, more simply still, as "Brugh." In the
Book of Leinster it is specified as one of "Ireland's three undeniable
eminences [_dindgna_]"[80]; while "an ancient poem by Mac Nia, son of
Oenna (in the Book of Ballymote, fol. 190 b.)," styles it "a king's
mansion" and a "_sídh_." The same MS. (32 _a b_) gives the variant _Sídh
an Bhrogha_, rendered by Dr. Standish O'Grady "the fairy fort of the
_Brugh_ upon the Boyne."[81] This word "_sídh_," which was
applied--probably in the first place--to hollow mounds such as this, but
which was also applied to the dwellers in them, gave the Tuatha De
Danann their most popular name. Because it was on account of their
residence in "the green mounds, known by the name of _Sídh_," that they
were called "the _Fir Sídhe_ [_i.e._, men of the _sídhs_], or Fairies,
of Ireland."[82] The one word, indeed (_sídh_), became indifferently
applied to the dwellings and the dwellers. Whichever was the earliest
meaning of that word, there is little dubiety as to the etymology of
_Siabhra_. In one copy of the _Leabhar na h-Uidhre_,[83] it is stated
that the Tuatha De Danann "were called _Siabhras_." O'Reilly defines
_siabhra_ as "a fairy," and _siabhrach_ as "fairy-like"; while "a fairy
mansion" is _siabhrugh_. With Connellan, again, _siabhrog_ is "a fairy."
It seems quite evident that these are all corruptions of _sídh-bhrugh_
(otherwise _Sídh an Bhrogha_, as above), and that _Siabhra_, as applied
to the _dwellers_, was simply a transference from the name denoting
their _dwellings_.
Numerous as are the references to this mound as a "dwelling-place," its
name figures prominently in the list of the ancient cemeteries of
Ireland. _Relec in Broga_, "the Cemetery of the Brugh," is referred to
as one of "the three cemeteries of Idolaters," in an Irish manuscript of
the twelfth century (or earlier), the _Leabhar na h-Uidhre_ cited above.
Of the two others, one is "the Cemetery of Cruachan"; and, by glancing
at it, in the first place, we shall obtain a good idea of the Cemetery
of the Brugh. "We find that the monuments within the cemetery at
Rathcroghan,"[84] says Mr. Petrie, "are small circular mounds, which,
when examined, are found to cover rude, sepulchral chambers formed of
stone, without cement of any kind, and containing unburned bones."[85]
And the twelfth-century scribe whom Mr. Petrie largely quotes, says that
there were fifty such mounds (_cnoc_) in the cemetery at Cruachan. This
mediæval scholar has copied a poem on the subject, "ascribed to Dorban,
a poet of West Connaught," wherein it is said that it is not in the
power of poets or of sages to reckon the number of heroes under the
Cruachan mounds, and that there is not a hillock (_cnoc_) in that
cemetery "which is not the grave of a king or royal prince, or of a
woman, or warlike poet." In another verse, he says that _each_ of the
fifty mounds had a warrior under it; and, altogether, it appears that,
although their number could doubtless be "reckoned," yet the burial
mounds of Cruachan, in or about the twelfth century, much exceeded fifty
in number. "Fifty" is simply used by the poet and his commentator to
show that, like the two other cemeteries of the triad (each of which is
also said to have had fifty) the Cemetery of Cruachan contained about a
third of the pagan notables of Ireland.
From this we see that, about the twelfth century, the Cemetery of the
Brugh contained at least fifty sepulchral mounds such as those described
by Mr. Petrie at Cruachan. Mr. Petrie further quotes two passages from
the _Dinnsenchus_, which specify in the following terms some of the most
famous of those "monuments" at the Brugh:--
"The Grave [or Stone Cairn, _Leacht_] of the Dagda; the Grave of
Aedh Luirgnech, son of the Dagda; the Graves of Cirr and Cuirrell,
wives of the Dagda--'these are two hillocks [_da cnoc_]'; the Grave
of Esclam, the Dagda's Brehon, 'which is called _Fert-Patric_ at
this day'; the Cashel [or Stone Enclosure] of Angus, son of
Crunmael; the Cave [_Derc_] of Buailcc Bec; the Stone Cairn
[_Leacht_] of Cellach, son of Maelcobha; the Stone Cairn [_Leacht_]
of the steed of Cinaedh, son of Irgalach; the Prison [_Carcar_] of
Liath-Macha; the 'Glen' of the Mata; the Pillar Stone of Buidi, the
son of Muiredh, where his head is interred; the Stone of Benn; the
Grave of Boinn, the wife of Nechtan; the 'Bed' of the daughter of
Forann; the _Barc_ of Crimthann Nianar, in which he was interred;
the Grave of Fedelmidh, the Lawgiver; the _Cumot_ of Cairbre
Lifeachair; the _Fulacht_ of Fiachna Sraiphtine."
These, of course, are only some of the most famous of the sepulchral
monuments which existed in the Cemetery of the Brugh eight or nine
centuries ago. Since that time, most of them have disappeared, their
stones having been presumably built into castles, mansions, cottages and
walls, while the bones of the queens and heroes have fertilised the soil
of the neighbouring farms. But there still remain a few
"standing-stones" and "moats" in the vicinity of the Brugh, all of which
may be included in the above list.
I have cited that list for the reason that modern antiquaries, or many
of them, have assumed that _Síd in Broga_ and _Relec in Broga_ are
synonymous terms, and that when a king or hero is recorded to have been
buried "at Brugh," that means that he was buried _in_ the Brugh itself.
In other words, that a place which was known as Fert-Patrick in or about
the twelfth century, as also the "cashel" and the many hillocks, graves,
and cairns mentioned in the list--not to speak of innumerable
others--were all situated in the chamber which is shown in Plate XIX. It
does not require a moment's reflection to convince one that this is an
erroneous assumption. Nor is it warranted by the "History of the
Cemeteries" itself, which always speaks of the burials having been "_at_
Brugh."[86]
One other statement, however, must be referred to. In another verse of
Dorban's poem, mentioned above, it is said that "the host of Meath" are
buried "_ar lár in Broga tuathaig_." This is rendered by Petrie, "in the
middle of the lordly Brugh." The translation is no doubt good; and it is
open to any one to deduce therefrom that the chamber shown in the plan
contained at one time the skeletons of the host of Meath. In that case,
the "host" must have been very limited in number; and anyone who has
crawled along the sixty-foot passage into the Brugh, and who adopts this
view, must wonder a little as to how the corpses were conveyed along
that passage, and as to the reasons which must have induced some people
(prior to 1699, when the chamber was almost, if not altogether, void of
such relics)[87] to drag all those bones out again, at much personal
inconvenience. But "_ar lár in Broga_" may also mean "in the [burying-]
ground of the Brugh"; and the descriptions quoted above from the
_Dinnsenchus_ show quite clearly that the ground in which "the host of
Meath" were buried embraced a considerable tract of land, dotted over
with mounds and monuments, differing only in degree from those of a
modern cemetery.[88]
The twelfth-century commentator of Dorban's poem states:
"The nobles of the Tuatha De Danann (with the exception of seven of
them who were interred at Talten [which was the third 'Cemetery of
the Idolaters']) were buried at Brugh, _i.e._, Lugh, and Oe, son of
Ollamh, and Ogma, and Carpre, son of Etan, and Etan (the poetess)
herself, and the Dagda and his three sons (_i.e._, Aedh, and
Oengus, and Cermait), and a great many others besides of the
Tuatha De Dananns, and Firbolgs and others."[89]
But, afterwards, "the race of Heremon, _i.e._, the kings of Tara," who
used to bury at Cruachan (because that was the chief seat in their
special principality of Connaught) came to bury at Brugh. "The first
king of them that was interred at Brugh" was a certain Crimthann,
surnamed _Nianar_, the son of Lughaidh Riabh-n-derg;[90] and the reason
why Crimthann decided to abandon the burying-place of his forefathers
was "because his wife Nar was of the Tuatha Dea, and it was she
solicited him that he should adopt Brugh as a burial-place for himself
and his descendants, and this was the cause that they did not bury at
Cruachan."[91] It would appear that the ruling dynasty of the Tuatha Dea
had ended in a female, both on account of Nar's action in this matter,
and because her husband became known by her name--as Nianar
(_Niadk-Náir_) or "Nar's Champion."
This Nar is a very interesting personage in the present connection.
Because, being one of the Tuatha Dea, she was a _siabhra_, or woman of
the _sídhs_; otherwise, a _bean-síde_ (modernised into "banshee"). This
is plainly stated in two other Irish manuscripts, with an additional
explanation which is very apposite. It is said that Crimthann was called
Nar's Champion "because his wife Nar _thuathchaech_ out of the _sídhes_,
or of the Pict-folk [_a sídaib no do Chruithentuaith_], she it was that
took him off on an adventure." A companion statement is that made in
another manuscript to the effect that "Nar _thuathchaech_, the
daughter of Lotan of the Pict-folk [_Nár thuathchaech ingen Lotain do
Chruithentuaith_], was the mother of Feradach _finnfhechtnach_," or "the
brightly prosperous"--a king of Ireland.[92]
Incidentally, therefore, in considering the Brugh of the Boyne and the
people most associated with it, we find very distinct confirmation of
the main part of the contention in the foregoing treatise. From these
extracts it is evident that those early writers regarded _siabhra,
fear-sídh, bean-sídh_, and _daoine-sídh_ (words which may also be
interpreted "mound-dweller") as ordinary folk-names for the Picts; just
in the same way as any historian of the frontier wars in North America
would understand by "Red-skin" and "Greaser" the more classic "Indian"
and "Mexican."
[Footnote 76: Earlier illustrations, from drawings made in 1724 by Mr.
Samuel Molyneux, a Dublin student, may be seen in Part II. of "A Natural
History of Ireland," Dublin, 1726. Other eighteenth-century
representations of the same place occur in a volume of old plates,
belonging to the Society of Antiquaries (London). This volume is
endorsed "Celtic Remains; I," and its contents form part of (says the
fly-leaf) "a collection of plates from the Archæologia collected by Mr.
Akerman when the Society's Stock was sold off and arranged more or less
in Classes." The views of the Brugh will be found at pp. 239, 253, and
254 (Plates XIX.-XXII.). Colonel Forbes Leslie has two excellent plates,
from drawings of his own, in his _Early Races of Scotland_ (Edin. 1866),
vol. ii.; where he also refers to Wilde's _Boyne and Blackwater_ and
Wakeman's _Irish Antiquities_. A recent work, illustrating the same
subject, but which I have not yet had an opportunity of seeing, is Mr.
George Coffey's "Tumuli and Inscribed Stones at New Grange, Dowth, and
Knowth," Dublin, 1893.]
[Footnote 77: Forbes Leslie's _Early Races of Scotland_, vol. ii. p.
335, _note_.]
[Footnote 78: O'Curry's _Lectures_, Dublin, 1861, p. 505.]
[Footnote 79: For most of which see Dr. Standish O'Grady's _Silva
Gadelica_, pp. 102-3, 146, 233, 474, and 484.]
[Footnote 80: _Silva Gadelica_ (English translation), pp. 474 and 520.]
[Footnote 81: _Op. cit._ (English translation), p. 522.]
[Footnote 82: Skene's _Celtic Scotland_, vol. iii. pp. 106-7.]
[Footnote 83: Class H. 3, 17, Trinity College, Dublin. [I quote from Mr.
Petrie's "Round Towers," Trans, of Roy. Irish Acad., vol. xx. (Dublin,
1845), p. 98.]]
[Footnote 84: Rath Chruachain, Co. Roscommon: the cemetery was styled
_Relig na Riogh_, or the Cemetery of Kings.]
[Footnote 85: _Op. cit._, p. 106.]
[Footnote 86: "_Is in Brug, or Bruig_." Mr. Petrie invariably translates
this as "at" Brugh. But I observe that Dr. Standish O'Grady (_Silva
Gadelica_, p. 256; and p. 289 of English translation) renders the Gaelic
particle by English "in." To decide between two Gaelic scholars is not
within my province. But if Dr. O'Grady understands "the Brugh" to be
synonymous with _Sídh an Bhrogha_ (as perhaps he does not), the adoption
of his reading would lead to an inference which is opposed to common
sense.]
[Footnote 87: Molyneux, writing in 1725, says that "when first the cave
was opened, the bones of two dead bodies entire, not burnt, were found
upon the floor." Colonel Forbes Leslie remarks: "Llhuyd, the antiquary,
writing in 1699, makes no mention of any human remains being found in
it."]
[Footnote 88: Since the above was written, the quarterly number, June
1893, of the _Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland_
has been issued, and a note therein confirms the suspicion, indicated in
Mr. Wakeman's drawing, that the whole mound is not yet explored. But the
above remarks are applicable in any case.]
[Footnote 89: Petrie: _op. cit._, p. 106.]
[Footnote 90: That is, Lughaidh of the Red Stripes; "meaning that on his
person he had two such: one as girdle round his middle, another as
necklace round his neck." (_Silva Gadelica_, English translation, p.
544.)]
[Footnote 91: Petrie (_op. cit._, p. 101), quoting from the "History of
the Cemeteries" in the _Leabhar na h-Uidhre_.]
[Footnote 92: These two extracts are from _Silva Gadelica_, Eng.
transl., pp. 495 and 544; where the references are, respectively, "Book
of Ballymote, 250 _a b_," and "Kilbride No. 3, Advocates' Library,
Edinburgh, 5."]
[Illustration: PLATES XX. AND XXI.