[ [33] The following passage is quoted by Petrie (Round Towers, p. 96) from an ancient tract termed the Senchas na Relec, preserved in the leabhar na h’uidhre, a MS. of the year 1100:—
“Cormac Mac Art was the third person who had believed in Erin before the arrival of St. Patrick; Conchobar Mac Nessa, to whom Œtno had told concerning the crucifixion of Christ, was the first; Moran, the son of Cairpre Cinncait, was the second; and Cormac was the third.”
Cairpre Cinncait was the leader of the Attachtuatha in the insurrection above referred to; and it is remarkable that the reign of Conchobar, in which Cuchullin and Curoi are said to have flourished, the era of the occupation of the country by the Attachtuatha, the descendants of the ante-Milesian population, and the reign of Cormac Mac Art, in which Finn Mac Cumhal and Goll Mac Morn are said to have lived and fought, should be connected by the link of a conversion to Christianity. It seems to synchronize these three periods in tradition with each other, and with the first introduction of Christianity into Ireland.
The same tract states, that the mythic King Cormac Mac Art “was slain by Siabhras, id est, the Tuatha De Danann, for they were called Siabhras.”
[ [34] A passage in one of the oldest of the MSS., deposited in the Library of the Faculty of Advocates, shows that the term Lochlan was anciently applied to the districts east of the Rhine. “Cæsar came with some entire legions of the ruthless youth of Italy into the rough land of Gallia, and the wide and long country of Lochlain. For these are one and the same country; but for the interposition of the clear current of the Rhine, which divides and sunders the two lands.”
[ [35] It is unnecessary here to repeat these references. They will be found in the Report of the Highland Society, page 21.
The quotation from Barbour shows that the name of Fingal was known long before the time of Macpherson; and as most Gaelic proper names had a corresponding name in English which resembled it in sound, and was held to represent it, as Hector for Eachin, or Hugh for Aodh, it is not unlikely that Fingal may have been known as the recognised representative in English of Finn.
In fact, Finn and Fingal are both real names, and closely related to each other.
Gal is a syllable of unknown origin and meaning, which enters largely into the composition of Gaelic proper names. Thus we have Aedgal, Aelgal, Angal, Ardgal, Artgal, Bodgal, Comgal, Congal, Donngal, Dubhgal, Dungal, Feargal, Fingal, Gormgal, Leargal, Maengal, Riagal, Saergal, Smiorgal. Some also take the form of galach; as Congalach, Dungalach, Fiangalach, Irgalach.
Those in which the first syllable expresses a colour appear both alone and with the affix gal, as Dubh and Dubhgal, Finn and Finngal, and are really the same name. The annals of the Four Masters mention several persons of the name of Finn, and, in 741, Finghal of Lismore.