School: Milltown (roll number 942)

Location:
Milltown, Co. Westmeath
Teacher:
Sean O'Casey
Browse
The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0742, Page 032

Archival Reference

The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0742, Page 032

Image and data © National Folklore Collection, UCD.

See copyright details.

Download

Open data

Available under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

  1. XML School: Milltown
  2. XML Page 032
  3. XML “Notes on the Probable Site of the Battlefield of Gairech and Ilgairech”

Note: We will soon deprecate our XML Application Programming Interface and a new, comprehensive JSON API will be made available. Keep an eye on our website for further details.

On this page

  1. (continued from previous page)
    The Battle of Gaireach and Ilgaireach (con.d) d
    wild spiky thorn, Cuchullain lay, held in his sick man's bed by hooks and ties and crooks" "I heard a great shout then said Mac Roth "eastwards to the battle and westwards to the battle " Fergus said "I know that shout, that is Cuchullain coming to advance to to proclaim battle, after having risen from the sod of his lowly sick bed in Fort Sciath" There is a pillar stone on Skeagh Hill around which a number of human bones were found deep down in the soil about 10 years ago. The pillar stone may be the resting place of Sciath, daughter of Deagath. Between the hills of Skeagh and Clare is a large extent of hight table land including the the town-lands of Corr, Ballymoren, New Bristy. Cappajuan, Rathcarra sloping to Halston and Washford. In Ballymorren is a conscpicuous moat- 1 mile from the Rathconrath one. These townlands would be just the place for a great battle. The tale relates that "the four great provinces of Erin established a "Dún" & and encampment in Clothra that night. Mac Roth, (Maeve's courier) saw a great array on Slanemore coming from the north east. While the main army of Queen Maeve was in Clare hill, the advance guard would be in Corr - New Bristy, formerly called Mullach na Sleibhe - whilst the Ulster forces would in the great plain of Balgarret & Kilpatrick leading up to Rathconrath with Skeagh Hill on their right wing.
    The passages quoted are of importance in investigating the "Táin" topography. I hope to advance further reasons later
    (20 X '34)
    Transcribed by a member of our volunteer transcription project.
    Language
    English