Ossian Collection > Poems of Ossian, the son of Fingal

24 DISSERTATION CONCERNING
tion into Connaught, and killed Cormul, the brother
of Crothar, who came to oppose his progress. Crothar
himself then took to arms, and either killed or expelled
Turloch, The war upon this became general between
the two nations : and the Gael were reduced to the last
€Xtrcmity. In thissituation they applied foraidtoTratb.al,
king of Morven, who sent his brother Cunar, alre?G3r
famous for his great exploits, to their relief. Conar,
upon his arrival m Ulster, was chosen king, by the un-
animous consent of the Caledonian tribes, who possessed
that country. The warwas renewed with great vigour and
success ; but the Firbolg appear to have been rather re-
pelled than sjbdued. In succeeding reigns, we leara
from episodes in the same poem, that the chiefs of Atha
made several efibrts to become monarchs of Ireland, and
to expel the race of Conar.
To Conar succeeded his son Cormac, [Book III.j
vi-ho appears to have reigned long. In his latter days
he seemed to have been driven to the last extremity,
by an incursion of the Firbolg, who supported the pre-
tensions of the chiets of Atha to the Irish throne. Fin-'
gal, who then was very young, came to the aid of Cor-
mac, totally defeated Colc-uUa, chief of Atha. and re-
established Cormac in the sole possession of all Ireland.
[Book IV.] It was then he fell in love with, and took
to wife, Ros crana, the daughter of Cormac, who was
the mother of Ossian.
Cormac was succeeded in the Irish throne by his son
Cairbar ; Cairbar, by Artho his son, who was the father
of that Cormac, in whose minority the invasion of Swa-
ran happened, which is the subject of the poem of Fingal.
The family of Atha, who had not relinquished their pre-
tensions to the Irish throne, rebelled in the minority of
Cormac, defeated his adherents, and murdered him in
the palace of Femora. [Book I.] Cairbar, Lord of A-
tha, upon this, mounted the throne. His usurpation
soon ended with his life ; for Fingal made an expedition
into Ireland, and restored, after various vicissitudes of
fortune, the family of Conar to the possession of tlve
kingdom. This war is the subject of Temora ; the c-