Ossian Collection > Poems of Ossian

20 Dissertation on
allow it; but they place the colony from Britain in
an improbable and remote sera. I shall easily admit
that the colony of the Firbolg, confessedly the Belgse
of Britain, settled in the south of Ireland before
the Gael, or Caledonians, discovered the north; but
it is not at all likely, that the migration of the
Firbolg to Ireland happened many centuries before
the Christian sera.
The poem of Temora throws considerable light
on this subject. The accounts given in it agree so
well with what the ancients have delivered concerning
the first population and inhabitants of Ireland, that
every unbiassed person will confess them more pro-
bable than the legends handed down by tradition
in that country. It appears that in the days of
Trathal, grandfather to Fingal, Ireland was possessed
by two nations; the Firbolg or Belg83 of Britain
who inhabited the south, and the Cael who passed
over from Caledonia and the Hebrides to Ulster.
The two nations, as is usual among an unpolished
and lately settled people, were divided into small
dynasties, subject to petty kings, or cliiefs, inde-
pendent of one another. In this situation, it is
probable, they continued long without any material
revolution in the state of the island, until Crothar,
lord of Atha, a country in Conuaught, the most
potent chief of the Firbolg, carried away Conlama,
the daughter of Cathmin, a chief of the Cael, who
possessed Ulster.
Conlama had been betrothed some time before
to Turloch, a chief of their own nation. Turloch
resented the affront offered him by Crothar, made
an irruption into Connaught, and killed Cormul,
the brother of Crothar, who came to oppose his
progress. Crothar himself then took up arms, and
either killed or expcUed Turloch. The war, upon
this, became general between the two nations ; and
the Cael were reduced to the last extremity. In
this situation, they applied for aid to Trathal, king