It is said[78] to have been built by a celebrated "king and oracle" of the people known as the Tuatha Dé, Dea, or De Danann, and to have been the residence of himself and others of his race. This chief (Eochaid Ollathair) is usually referred to as "the Dagda," or "the Daghda Mòr"; and of his nation it is asserted that, after having invaded Ireland and conquered its native "Fir-Bolgs," they were themselves conquered in turn by a later race of immigrants, the Gaels. This "Brugh," therefore, is said to have been the residence of the Dagda, and, after him, of Angus, one of his sons. Consequently, it is very frequently styled "the Brugh of Angus, son of the Dagda," an appellation which assumes various forms.[79] Latterly, it seems to have been most generally known as "the Brugh" (par excellence), or, more simply still, as "Brugh." In the Book of Leinster it is specified as one of "Ireland's three undeniable eminences [dindgna]"[80]; while "an ancient poem by Mac Nia, son of Oenna (in the Book of Ballymote, fol. 190 b.)," styles it "a king's mansion" and a "sídh." The same MS. (32 a b) gives the variant Sídh an Bhrogha, rendered by Dr. Standish O'Grady "the fairy fort of the Brugh upon the Boyne."[81] This word "sídh," which was applied—probably in the first place—to hollow mounds such as this, but which was also applied to the dwellers in them, gave the Tuatha De Danann their most popular name. Because it was on account of their residence in "the green mounds, known by the name of Sídh," that they were called "the Fir Sídhe [i.e., men of the sídhs], or Fairies, of Ireland."[82] The one word, indeed (sídh), became indifferently applied to the dwellings and the dwellers. Whichever was the earliest meaning of that word, there is little dubiety as to the etymology of Siabhra. In one copy of the Leabhar na h-Uidhre,[83] it is stated that the Tuatha De Danann "were called Siabhras." O'Reilly defines siabhra as "a fairy," and siabhrach as "fairy-like"; while "a fairy mansion" is siabhrugh. With Connellan, again, siabhrog is "a fairy." It seems quite evident that these are all corruptions of sídh-bhrugh (otherwise Sídh an Bhrogha, as above), and that Siabhra, as applied to the dwellers, was simply a transference from the name denoting their dwellings.
Numerous as are the references to this mound as a "dwelling-place," its name figures prominently in the list of the ancient cemeteries of Ireland. Relec in Broga, "the Cemetery of the Brugh," is referred to as one of "the three cemeteries of Idolaters," in an Irish manuscript of the twelfth century (or earlier), the Leabhar na h-Uidhre cited above. Of the two others, one is "the Cemetery of Cruachan"; and, by glancing at it, in the first place, we shall obtain a good idea of the Cemetery of the Brugh. "We find that the monuments within the cemetery at Rathcroghan,"[84] says Mr. Petrie, "are small circular mounds, which, when examined, are found to cover rude, sepulchral chambers formed of stone, without cement of any kind, and containing unburned bones."[85] And the twelfth-century scribe whom Mr. Petrie largely quotes, says that there were fifty such mounds (cnoc) in the cemetery at Cruachan. This mediæval scholar has copied a poem on the subject, "ascribed to Dorban, a poet of West Connaught," wherein it is said that it is not in the power of poets or of sages to reckon the number of heroes under the Cruachan mounds, and that there is not a hillock (cnoc) in that cemetery "which is not the grave of a king or royal prince, or of a woman, or warlike poet." In another verse, he says that each of the fifty mounds had a warrior under it; and, altogether, it appears that, although their number could doubtless be "reckoned," yet the burial mounds of Cruachan, in or about the twelfth century, much exceeded fifty in number. "Fifty" is simply used by the poet and his commentator to show that, like the two other cemeteries of the triad (each of which is also said to have had fifty) the Cemetery of Cruachan contained about a third of the pagan notables of Ireland.
From this we see that, about the twelfth century, the Cemetery of the Brugh contained at least fifty sepulchral mounds such as those described by Mr. Petrie at Cruachan. Mr. Petrie further quotes two passages from the Dinnsenchus, which specify in the following terms some of the most famous of those "monuments" at the Brugh:—
"The Grave [or Stone Cairn, Leacht] of the Dagda; the Grave of Aedh Luirgnech, son of the Dagda; the Graves of Cirr and Cuirrell, wives of the Dagda—'these are two hillocks [da cnoc]'; the Grave of Esclam, the Dagda's Brehon, 'which is called Fert-Patric at this day'; the Cashel [or Stone Enclosure] of Angus, son of Crunmael; the Cave [Derc] of Buailcc Bec; the Stone Cairn [Leacht] of Cellach, son of Maelcobha; the Stone Cairn [Leacht] of the steed of Cinaedh, son of Irgalach; the Prison [Carcar] of Liath-Macha; the 'Glen' of the Mata; the Pillar Stone of Buidi, the son of Muiredh, where his head is interred; the Stone of Benn; the Grave of Boinn, the wife of Nechtan; the 'Bed' of the daughter of Forann; the Barc of Crimthann Nianar, in which he was interred; the Grave of Fedelmidh, the Lawgiver; the Cumot of Cairbre Lifeachair; the Fulacht of Fiachna Sraiphtine."
These, of course, are only some of the most famous of the sepulchral monuments which existed in the Cemetery of the Brugh eight or nine centuries ago. Since that time, most of them have disappeared, their stones having been presumably built into castles, mansions, cottages and walls, while the bones of the queens and heroes have fertilised the soil of the neighbouring farms. But there still remain a few "standing-stones" and "moats" in the vicinity of the Brugh, all of which may be included in the above list.
I have cited that list for the reason that modern antiquaries, or many of them, have assumed that Síd in Broga and Relec in Broga are synonymous terms, and that when a king or hero is recorded to have been buried "at Brugh," that means that he was buried in the Brugh itself. In other words, that a place which was known as Fert-Patrick in or about the twelfth century, as also the "cashel" and the many hillocks, graves, and cairns mentioned in the list—not to speak of innumerable others—were all situated in the chamber which is shown in Plate XIX. It does not require a moment's reflection to convince one that this is an erroneous assumption. Nor is it warranted by the "History of the Cemeteries" itself, which always speaks of the burials having been "at Brugh."[86]
One other statement, however, must be referred to. In another verse of Dorban's poem, mentioned above, it is said that "the host of Meath" are buried "ar lár in Broga tuathaig." This is rendered by Petrie, "in the middle of the lordly Brugh." The translation is no doubt good; and it is open to any one to deduce therefrom that the chamber shown in the plan contained at one time the skeletons of the host of Meath. In that case, the "host" must have been very limited in number; and anyone who has crawled along the sixty-foot passage into the Brugh, and who adopts this view, must wonder a little as to how the corpses were conveyed along that passage, and as to the reasons which must have induced some people (prior to 1699, when the chamber was almost, if not altogether, void of such relics)[87] to drag all those bones out again, at much personal inconvenience. But "ar lár in Broga" may also mean "in the [burying-] ground of the Brugh"; and the descriptions quoted above from the Dinnsenchus show quite clearly that the ground in which "the host of Meath" were buried embraced a considerable tract of land, dotted over with mounds and monuments, differing only in degree from those of a modern cemetery.[88]
The twelfth-century commentator of Dorban's poem states:
"The nobles of the Tuatha De Danann (with the exception of seven of them who were interred at Talten [which was the third 'Cemetery of the Idolaters']) were buried at Brugh, i.e., Lugh, and Oe, son of Ollamh, and Ogma, and Carpre, son of Etan, and Etan (the poetess) herself, and the Dagda and his three sons (i.e., Aedh, and Oengus, and Cermait), and a great many others besides of the Tuatha De Dananns, and Firbolgs and others."[89]
But, afterwards, "the race of Heremon, i.e., the kings of Tara," who used to bury at Cruachan (because that was the chief seat in their special principality of Connaught) came to bury at Brugh. "The first king of them that was interred at Brugh" was a certain Crimthann, surnamed Nianar, the son of Lughaidh Riabh-n-derg;[90] and the reason why Crimthann decided to abandon the burying-place of his forefathers was "because his wife Nar was of the Tuatha Dea, and it was she solicited him that he should adopt Brugh as a burial-place for himself and his descendants, and this was the cause that they did not bury at Cruachan."[91] It would appear that the ruling dynasty of the Tuatha Dea had ended in a female, both on account of Nar's action in this matter, and because her husband became known by her name—as Nianar (Niadk-Náir) or "Nar's Champion."