connection with Gwydion, it is evident that Cairbre was one of the principal names of the Mercury of the ancient Irish; but the epic, so to say, in which he played the leading part has only come down to us in fragments appropriated by different tribes, though they are hardly more disconnected and inconsistent than one would naturally expect in such a case. In the first place, Cairbre is, as it were, split up into a number of brothers, mostly to meet the exigencies of tribal genealogies. Foremost among them stands Cairbre Musc, from whose descendants at least six different districts in Minister were called Muscraige, Anglicized Musery or Muskerry.[1] The next in importance was Cairbre Niafer, or C. the Champion of Men, and that significant designation[2] reminds one of the Culture Hero under his name Ogma, who was represented as the champion of the Tuatha Dé Danann. Cairbre Niafer was monarch of Erinn and dwelt at Tara of the Kings,[3] and he was father of Ere, who survived him at Tara[4] to figure in the story of Cúchulainn. This Cairbre is mentioned as one of the avengers of his father Conaire (p. 135), and it was in his reign that the Fir Bolg were
- ↑ See p. 255, above; also the Bk. of Rights, p. 42, note.
- ↑ The scribe of the story of the Déisi in the Bk. of the Dun, 54a, calls him Corpri Niad, which should mean Cairbre 'of Champions,' or 'of (the) Champion.'
- ↑ See a poem by a poet called O'Hartagan in the Bk. of Leinster, 161a, 161b; also O'Curry's edition of it in his MS. Materials, pp. 514-6. This clashes with other supposed facts, and it has been represented that Cairbre was only king of Leinster, and that he lived, not at Tara of the Kings, but at another Tara: see O'Curry, ibid. p. 507 and O'Donovan's note to his Battle of Magh Rath, p. 138; but there is no mistaking O'Hartagan's meaning.
- ↑ Windisch, p. 212; O'Curry's Manners, &c. ij. 199.
