[17] It was O'Beirne Crowe, I think, who first translated this name by "Conn the Hundred-Fighter," "égal-à-cent-guerriers," as Jubainville has it, a translation which, since him, every one seems to have adopted. This translation makes the Irish adjective céadcathach exactly equivalent to the Greek ἑκατοντάμαχος, but it is certainly not correct, for Keating says distinctly that Conn was called céadcathach, or of the hundred battles, "from the hundreds of battles which he fought against the pentarchs or provincial kings of Ireland," quoting a verse from a bard by way of illustration.
[18] Pronounced "Eskkir Reeada."
[19] Pronounced "Ell-yull."
[20] Pronounced "Sive," but as Méadhbh is curiously pronounced like "Mow" in Connacht, so is Sadhbh pronounced "sow," rhyming to "cow." I heard a Galway woman in America, the mother of Miss Conway, of the Boston Pilot quote these lines, which she said she had often heard in her youth—
"Sow, Mow [i.e., Sive and Mève], Sorcha, Síghle,
Anmneacha cat agus madah na tíre."
I.e., "Sive, Mève, Sorcha and Sheela are the names of all the cats and dogs in the country," and hence by implication unsuited for human beings. This was part of the process of Anglicisation.
[21] Pronounced "Keean."
[22] Keating.
[23] I.e., the hall of "the circulation of mead."
[24] Also the O'Dowdas of Mayo, the O'Heynes, O'Clearys, and Kilkellies.