When Finn the son of Cumal grew up to man's estate, he succeeded to the position held by his father as leader of the Fena. But though he made peace with Gaul Mac Morna, and though Gaul submitted to his command, there was always a feeling of ill-concealed hatred and distrust between them.
When Carbri of the Liffey, son of Cormac Mac Art, ascended the throne of Ireland, one of his first acts was to disband and outlaw the Clann Baskin; and he took into his service in their place their rivals and deadly enemies, the Clann Morna from Connaught. Whereupon the Clann Baskin marched southwards, and entered the service of Fercorb, king of Munster, Finn's grandson, in direct disobedience to king Carbri's commands. This led to the bloody battle of Gavra, celebrated in Ossianic literature, which was fought a.d. 284, at Garristown, in the north-west of the county Dublin, where the rival clanns slaughtered each other almost to annihilation. In the heat of the battle, Carbri and Oscar met in single combat; and, after a long and terrible fight, the heroic Oscar fell pierced by Carbri's spear, and died on the evening of the same day. But Carbri himself was dreadfully wounded; and, while retiring from the field, his own kinsman, Semeon, whom he had previously banished from Tara, fell on him, and despatched him with a single blow.
This battle is the subject of a poem which the bards ascribe to Oisin, and which has been published, with translation, in the first volume of the Ossianic Transactions. In this poem there is an affecting description of the death of Oscar, surrounded by his few surviving companions, and in presence of his father Oisin.
LIST OF PROPER NAMES.
Alphabetical List of the Principal Proper Names occurring in this Volume, with their Original Gaelic Forms, and, in many cases, their Meanings.
Every writer who attempts to popularise the Gaelic literature of Ireland and Scotland, finds the proper names a serious difficulty. If they are given in their original Gaelic forms, they are not unfrequently unpronounceable and repulsive to the English reader; if they are written phonetically, they are often strange and barbarous looking. In this book, I have not followed any general principle in reducing the names to forms suitable to readers of English. I have dealt with each, as it were, on its own merits. Sometimes—very often, indeed—I have given the original spelling; sometimes I have given the names phonetically; and frequently I have mixed the two modes. But all through I have avoided any great departure from the original forms, as will be seen by a glance at the following list.
In all cases the names occurring through the book may be pronounced just as the letters would indicate to the English reader.