1350) describes King Torlough, about 1286, returning from a
successful raid, which has left its mark very clearly on the legal
rolls of the day, ravaging the English lands round the mountains
of eastern County Limerick and northern Tipperary, and march-
ing up the western (Clare) shore of Lough Derg. A lovely
maiden appeared, " modest, strange in aspect, glorious in form,
rosy-lipped, soft-taper-handed, pliant-wavy-haired, white-bosomed."
She was the " Sovereignty of Erin " come to rebuke the chief for
letting De Burgh dissuade him from attempting the reconquest oi
all Ireland, and vanished in a lustrous cloud. The author's
intent here is unmistakable. MacCraith has one other passage,
so suggestive and remarkable that it can only be regarded as
a literal statement of the beliefs of the warriors at the burial
of some of whom his father, Ruadri, presided, a few years later, in
13 1 7. Donchad, a prince of the Clan Torlough line, aided by
William de Burgh, gave his deadly enemy, Richard de Clare,
a severe defeat near Bunratty in 131 1. At the moment of victory
De Burgh was captured by the foe, and the victors fled in
indescribable confusion, — the English to their nearest castles, and
the Irish to their stone strongholds, the great terraced mountains
of Burren. De Clare and his protege, Prince Dermot, camped
on two ridges at Cruchwill and Tullycommaun, a long ridge capped
with tumuli, dolmens, and " forts." Donchad lay across the
valley and lake on the spurs of Slieve Carran opposite. The
soldiers of Donchad, we are told, " were disturbed by phantoms
and delusive dreams, lights shone on the fairy forts," the waves of
Erin ^ groaned, " the deep plaint resounded from the woods and
streams," shades were seen, and hollow groans were heard. This
is evidently a true tale of the reminiscences of the depressed
and anxious men who lay looking at the foes' camp fires opposite.
I have often heard with wonder on these lonely hills
" undescribed sounds That come a swooning over hollow grounds And wither drearily on barren moors,"
the noise of the winds in the rocks and bushes, the strange prattle of streams in crannies deep down in the rocks, the cry of night
^ Misfortune was foretold by great waves at four spots on the Irish coast, to which later belief added a fifth at Malbay in Clare.
