fineadha (families) because it was in tribes they were formed. Or, fianna, that is feinneadha (champions) because they were the champions of the Monarch of Erinn."
In a poem, written in Gaelic, by a bard named Cineadh O'Hartagan, in 975 A. D., while the remains of the royal palace at Tara were still distinct and intact, and while the written history of that famous hill was still clear and abundant, there is a description of a spacious barrack, at Tara, where seventy-five hundred of the Fianna were lodged.
The following are the stanzas of this most curious poem, which refer to the barrack at Tara:—
"The great house of thousands of soldiers,—
To generations it was widely known;
A beautiful fortress of brave men;
Seven hundred feet was its length.
It was not filled with the foolish and ignorant,
Nor over-crowded with the wily and arrogant;
It was a large work to plan its divisions:
Six times five cubits was its height.
The King had his place there, the King of Erinn.
Around whom the fairest wine was distributed.
It was a fortress, a castle, a wonder;
There were three times fifty compartments in it.
Three times fifty champions with swords
(No weak defence for a fortress),
That was the number, among the wonders,
Which occupied each compartment."
The whole of this highly interesting poem is
