Matheson Collection > Fianaigecht

AILILL AULOM, MAC CON, AND FIND UA BAISCNE 33
So Ailill Mosaulum was thirty years in the kingship of Munster.
Sadb daughter of Conn was his queen. It is she who conceived and
who reared Mac Con son of Lugaid from his boyhood. Ninety years
was Ailill's entire age, viz. thirty years before he became king, thirty
years in kingship, and thirty years after his kingship. Mac Con it
was who deprived him of his kingship, and who slew tlie seven sons
of Ailill, his brothers, and the brother of his mother, viz. Art son of
Conn, in the battle of Mucrime. The lifetime of Mac Con, however,
was thirty years before he became king till the finding of the musical
instrument at Ess Mage, and seven years in Alba in exile, and thirty
years in the kingship of Ireland, and six months after coming from
Tara. 'Tis of this Mac Con that Sadb has said :
' It was heavy work to wage an equal battle with Mac Con ; there
was no one in Ireland with his splendour but Cairbre GolP the
poet.
'It was a heavy journey for Mac Con to come hither, to go
beyond : to cross the sea twice, that is what the king and poet*
did.
' To Lugaid's only son it was no hardship, as he was an offspring
of champions, to raise battle against Conn's son with the seven sons of
Mosaulum.
' Mac Con seized the land of Banba on every side as far as the
bright-coloured green sea : thirty years, glorious . . . , he was in the
kingship of Ireland.'
Again, of the harp Sadb has said :
' Woe to me this day, woe to Cliu,' that Fer 'I has been found in
his yew-tree ! whence Art mac Cuinn has perished, and the seven
sons of Mosaulum.'
Ailill was in Uachtar Clári (the Height of Clare), and the fort
of Ailill in Clare* is seen from afar and is not found near. He and
Art son of Conn of the hundred battles, son of Fedlimid, were
contemporaries.
Then the sons of Ailill went to seek their mother's brother, Art
son of Conn ; their foster-brother and their (uterine) brother was
* I take rig-Jili here as a dwandwa compound, like drúith-chathmíl below.
^ The eastern half of county Limerick.
* A bill in county Limerick near Duntrileague.