ANTIQUITIES OF LOUGH

Waikato Times, Volume XX, Issue 1676, 3 April 1883, Page 4

ANTIQUITIES OF LOUGH

The shoSfSMfeV'^y'^" 8 fotfvtoiH tfo arfs offish cijime, Ijavy bqwfj/lqng ,rapvo, .rc.inarkabjo in thp* in,*^ fW^nHc M vegmn, tr that th.> MJfer.. hftwo^loady ba^l^many, o^nturiM Wfore the TSrst ( .h^oncal .epnjbata ' to6k place in the sister island. On the eastern ajde,,,^ „the ,Qrcat L^e, won fouuht the two great engagements Known to legendary ip>*e ,upder thq titles, of , the Battles of 'North, and of South Moytura. These occurred, as tradition liath it, nnd as the antiqunrjans^till assort, in the 12th century n.C, but to understand the iiatneß ftndf origin pf.thejCQmb^tants it i«j nf<«»Bary; to go further back into remote ages, < .In the ]sth pr, 16th century, 8.C., tbjjr«; ca,ine ]to Irelaud the Foin^'riaus, jui AfirjifiiMi>!,or,perl}aps originally a Canaanite trfbe, who lorded it in Connaught expelled by, the Firblogs, who amved as settled from Belgium. These itf their turn were attacked by the Scythian or Pelasgic race called Tuatha do Danan, coming from Greece through Scandinavian' regions, and it was on the shores of Lough Mask that the decisive struggle took place. In the first battle of Moytura 10,000 Firblogs bit the dust, and in the second, ■which occurred thirty years after at a distance of fifty miles to the north, the supremacy of the strengers was finally asserted. The Firblogs— a race of giants but wpree armed than their invaders — nurtured undying purposes of revenge, and',' only two cdntnries after, recovered their independence by new intruders, who came under the name of Milesians, from Spain, nhd succeeded, with the aid of the surviving Firblogs, in driving the Daiian rulers out of Connaught. It is said that the name of this province is derived from the name of a Firblog queen, Chaegnacht ; and the derivation is not more improbable than many others which are accepted for names in the West of. Ireland.