O'Donovan in this scrappy letter is tired of old Offaly and wants to get the job done and move to the western side of the county nearer Clonmacnoise. Here he talks of a possible older name for the Tullamore river, of Killurin and Ballintogher.

ORDNANCE SURVEY LETTERS KING'S COUNTY

[ Letter no. 13 from John O'Donovan ]

Tullamore,
January 5th 1838.

Dear Sir,

I am now tired of the bogs and plains of Offaly and intend to move westwards towards the Shannon in search of something like hard ground. The Plain of Offaly is thus most remarkably described in the Dinnseanchus:- ...

Plain and bog, bog and wood,
Wood and bog, bog and plain!

The Bard here manages his lively description by the figure Permutation! But by whatever figure he rendered such composition tolerable, he describes the surface of the country to my entire satisfaction. The Fee is now nearly all removed.

I have attempted in vain to determine the situation of Magh Dumhach in this weather of floods, in this country of bogs, but if I had the dog-days to dry the bogs, I would not give it (up) so easily, for I have more antiquarian perseverance than any one could believe. Should any one after me attempt to look for this field of the tumuli the following instructions may guide him to the spot:-

A battle was fought on this field of the tumuli, in the year of the world 3501, between two brothers, the two great ancestors of the northern and southern Milesians (these are the Romulus and Remus of Irish history). Heremon and Heber (or, as the names are now modernized, Irvine, Erwine and Ivor, Ever) in which Heber, the elder, was conquered and slain. All our old Irish authorities agree in placing the site of this battle on the brink of Bri Damh, at the causeway between the two plains in Geisill.

We are informed by the writers of the Dinnsencus that the site of this battle was called Magh nDumhach, Campulus Tumulorum, from the mounds which were raised on it over the bodies of the heroes slain. I translate it here verbatim:-

"Magh nDumhach, whence named? Non difficile. A battle was fought there between Heber and Heremon, the two sons of Milesius, about the possession of the three best hills in Ireland viz., Druim Creasach and Druim Beitheach in Heremon's portion. (He omits Druim Fingin lying in Heber's portion). Heber was not pleased that one only of these Drums should be placed in the southern division while two were in the northern, but Heremon said that he would not grant (give) him one of his two. A battle was fought between them, in which Heber was defeated and himself slain, as was on the other side Palap, the son of Heremon, by Conmael, the son of hever. Tumuli were raised over the heroes there slain. Unde Magh nDumhach. Magh Nenusa was its first name." - Book of Ballymote, fol. 193.

The prose account says no more on the subject, but the poem which follows is much more diffuse and states that the battle took place at the tochar between the two plains, at the brink of Bri-Damh in Geisill in Ui Failghe "that many were slain between the two plains and that Heber was interred in the mound to the east of the road and that his monument is there." And it adds moreover, what shews the prose account to be very imperfect, that "many an earthen mound was raised there over the hosts that were slain." ...

Between two plains here countless heroes fell
Among the rest proud Heber lost his life,
And was interred beneath that grassy mound
Which eastward lies of Geshill's royal road
Moy-Doo on which now heavy oxen feed,
Has many a green, round grassy mound of earth,
The tombs of heroes slaughtered in this fight,
Between the two great fathers of the Scots.

All the great battles between the northern and southern Milesians took place somewhere near the Esker Riada; Mogha Nuadhat struggled with Con of the Hundred Battles near it, as did also Cormac Mac Cullennan and O'Brien, the representatives of Heber, with the northern Kings, who were the heirs of Heremon.

The Four Masters give the account as follows:-

"A.D. 3501. This was the year in which Heremon and Heber assumed the joint sovereignty of Ireland and they divided the island in two equal parts, but towards the end of the year, a dispute arose between them about the three most beautiful hills in Ireland, viz., Druim Clasaigh in Tir Maine, Druim Beithe in Moinmoy and Druim Fingin in Munster. A battle was fought between them in consequence, on the brink of Bridamh at Tochar-Ider-Da-Mhaigh (the Tochar or Causeway between the Two Plains). This was called the Battle of Geisill.

I am of opinion that the Bridamh here mentioned is the name of a river and that it is the one which rises in the Barony of Geisill and passes through Tullamore, but this is not very certain, as the name Bri Damh may signify "Hill of Oxen". The only reason for my supposing it the name of a river is that the Annalists place the word Bru before it, which means generally the bank of a river or margin of a lake.

The next clue to the site of this battle is the Tochar of Baile an Tochair, now Ballintogher in the Parish of Geishill. I see no other feature in the Barony of Geshill but this which would at all agree with the tochar between the two plains mentioned by the Irish writers.

Perhaps Tuath-Da-Mhuighe, the Territory of the Two Plains, which I have proved to have been the name of the district now comprising the Baronies of Coolestown and Warrenstown, has some connexion with this tochar between the two plains and that the field of the tumuli lies on the east or northeast boundary of the Barony of Geshill.

Perhaps the Officer who surveyed Geshill could, by the assistance of the Plans, examine this neighbourhood of Ballintogher (Town of the Causeway) before the names are engraved. It would go very far to prove the authenticity of the early Irish history, so long considered fabulous, if the sepulchral mounds on the Plain of the Doos or tumuli were found to exist at the present day.

I have not the power to examine all the ancient features of Geshill in this very wet weather, in which the land is so much flooded and in many instances impassible. Is Geisill or Bridamh or Bri Eile given in the Dinnseanchus?

In the Townland of Killurin, in the west of the Barony of Geishill, are the ruins of the old Church of Cill Iurain and the entrenchments which surround an ancient castle which stood there in the year 1532. This castle is mentioned by the Four Masters at that year, but I must see more about it before I give their words. It is also shewn on the old Map of "Leax and Ophaly." Is Cill Iurain mentioned in the Calendar or by Colgan?

There is an old castle at Geshill Village, of which I have no record whatever. I think it was built by the Fitzgeralds, as Lady Offaly, who is said to have been a Fitzgerald, is the principal personage whom tradition recollects in connexion with it. Can any record of the erection or subsequent history of this castle be found?

Lanigan states that Clonfertmulloe is the name of a Parish in the King's County, but I have no such Parish on any map of the King's County now before me. The Liber Regalis Visitationis places it in the Deanery of Ely, from which I infer either that it mus be an alias name of some Parish in the King's Co. or that it may lie either in Tipperary or the Queen's County, close to the Slieve Bloom Range of Mountains. It appears from a passage quoted by Usher that Clonfert Molua was on the conterraneous boundaries of Ossory, Ely and Leix, from which it appears at once that it must lie somewhere in the Slieve Bloom Mountains. I always took for granted that Clonfertmulloe was well known, but I cannot meet any one here that ever heard of it. (It is well known; see farther on). - J.O'D., April 25th '38.