[CLXX.] Ulaid (pronounced Ulla), Ulster.
[CLXXI.] For Concobar and the Red Branch Knights, [see note 15] farther on: and for much fuller information, see my "Social History of Ancient Ireland," vol. i, page 83; or the Smaller Soc. Hist., page 38.
[CLXXII.] The druids professed to be able to foretell by observing the stars and clouds. See Smaller Social History, p. 98.
[CLXXIII.] "Deirdre" is said to mean "alarm."
[CLXXIV.] That is 1665. This inverted method of enumeration was often used in Ireland. But they also used direct enumeration like ours.
[CLXXV.] This and the other places named in Deirdre's Farewell are all in the west of Scotland.
[CLXXVI.] Irish name, Drum-Sailech; the ridge on which Armagh was afterwards built.
[CLXXVII.] These champions, as well as their wives, took care never to show any signs of fear or alarm even in the time of greatest danger: so Naisi and Deirdre kept playing quietly as if nothing was going on outside, though they heard the din of battle resounding.
[CLXXVIII.] The "Three Tonns or Waves of Erin" were the Wave of Tuath outside the mouth of the river Bann, off the coast of Derry; the Wave of Rury in Dundrum Bay, off the county Down; and the Wave of Cleena in Glandore Harbour in the south of Cork. In stormy weather, when the wind blows from certain directions, the sea at those places, as it tumbles over the sandbanks, or among the caves and fissures of the rocks, utters a loud and solemn roar, which in old times was believed to forebode the death of some king.
The legends also tell that the shield belonging to a king moaned when the person who wore it in battle—whether the king himself or a member of his family—was in danger of death: the moan was heard all over Ireland; and the "Three Waves of Erin" roared in response. See "Irish Names of Places," Vol. II., Chap. XVI.