[1] Moore's genius has stereotyped amongst us the term Red Branch knight, which, however, has too much flavour of the mediæval about it. The Irish is curadh, "hero." The Irish for "Knight" in the appellations White Knight, Knight of the Glen, etc., is Ridire (pronounced "Rĭd-ĭr-yă," in Connacht sometimes corruptly "Rud-ir-ya"), which is evidently the mediæval "Ritter," i.e., Rider.
[2] Moore helped to bring this word into common use under the form of Finnian in his melody, "The wine-cup is circling in Alvin's hall." It is probable that he derived the word from Finn, and meant by it "followers of Finn mac Cool." The Irish word is Fiann (pronounced "Fee-an") and has nothing to do with Finn mac Cúmhail. In the genitive it is nà Féine (na Fayna). It is a noun of multitude, and means the Fenian body in general. The individual Fenian was called Féinnidhe, i.e., a member of the Fenian force. The bands of militia were called Fianna [Fee-ăn-a], The word is declined An Fhiann, na Féinne, do'n Fhéinn [In Eean, nă Fayn-a, don Aen] and its resemblance to the proper name Finn is only accidental. The English translation of Keating made early in the last century, by Dermot O'Conor, does not use the term "Fenian" at all, but translates the word by "Irish Militia." Nor does O'Halloran, in 1778, when he published his history, seem to have known the term. The first person who appears to have used it is Miss Brooke, as early as 1796: in her translation of some Ossianic pieces, I find the lines—
"He cursed in rage the Fenian chief
And all the Fenian race."
I have been told that Macpherson had already used the word, but I have looked carefully through his Ossian and have not been able to find it. Halliday in his edition of Keating, in 1808, talks in a foot-note of "Fenian heroes." It was John O'Mahony the head-centre of the Irish Republican Brotherhood, a brilliant Irish scholar and translator of Keating, who succeeded in perpetuating the ancient historic memory by christening the "men of '68" the "Fenians."
[3] Cormac mac Art came to the throne, A.D. 227, according to the "Four Masters"; A.D. 213, according to Keating.
[5] The word is long obsolete. Goll is a stock character in Fenian folk-lore, a kind of Ajax.
[6] Contained in the Leabhar na h-Uidhre, a volume copied about the year 1100, and printed in "Revue Celtique," vol. ii. p. 86.
[7] With this thunderous description, all sound and fury, and signifying very little, compare the Homeric description of a like scene, clear, accurate, cut like a gem:
τοῖσιν δ᾿ἴκμενον οὖρον ἵει ἑκάεργος Ἀπόλλων,
οἱ δ᾿ἱστὸν στήσαντ᾿, ἀνά θ᾿ ἱστία λευκὰ πέτασσαν
ἐν δ᾿άνεμος πρῆσεν μέσον ἱστίον, ἀμφὶ δὲ κῦμα
στείρῃ πορφύρεον μεγάλ᾿ ἴαχε, νηὸς ἰούσης
῾η δ᾿ ἔθεεν κατὰ κῦμα, διαπρήσσυσα κέλευθα.
ILIAD I., p. 480.