RAINBOW FARMS AUSTRALIA
10 BC - 00.BC
9 BC
*77.Lewy Sriabh - n Dearg the Celtic
Gaelic Milesian
Heremonian Ui Cobhthaigh
98th
King of Tara
/ Erinn, who
was married to
Dervorgilla
/ Dearbhorgaill
the daughter of the
King of Denmark / Lochlann, was to meet his end by falling on his own sword
due to the
immense sorrow he was experiencing over her demise.
9 BC - 8 BC
Conor
/ Conchobar
Abradruad
was to be the Celtic Gaelic
Milesian Heremonian Ui
Laoghaire Ui Lughaidh 99th King of Tara / Erinn.
8 BC
By the time Cu Chulann,
from the
Red Branch Knights of Ulster,
was to reach
17 years of age he had been fully educated and given his own personal spear, shield,
javelin and sword, and was also to establish his personal fortress at Dundalk in
Co. Louth
in the north - east of
Northern Leinster, which
held a commanding position over the
Ulster Gap, and he
would continue his training at Eighter in
Co. Cavan
in
Southern Ulster
where he was to be well known for
the usual Celtic aristocratic warrior temperament,
as when
he came under the immediate pressure of battle conditions he could become
very hot tempered and furious
in his overall manner.
76.Maeve / Medb the Heberian Queen of
Connacht and her spouse the younger
Ailill came into dispute over who had the
most individual wealth, of which their cattle were
always to be the greater
part, as unbeknown to 76.Maeve
one of her bull calves,
who was truly outstanding, had joined in with
Ailill’s herd instead, and
in the meantime
had drunk from the Well of Uaran Garad in Sreng's Fifth
/ Connacht and had grown into a beautiful specimen and became
famous throughout Ireland as Ailill's White Horned Bull
/
Finn Bheannach. Not to be
outdone 76.Maeve ordered her chief courier,
Mac
Roth to advise her where she too could secure such an
outstanding bull for herself
in
Ireland that would be more then equal to Ailill's
White Horned Bull and he was to advise her that Daire,
the son of Fachtna, who had his territory in Cooley /
Cualgne in
the Ulster
Province
had
the most outstanding bull there at this time, known as the Brown Bull of
Cooley
/
Donn Chulaigne, so she instructed him to go and get him as a
loan for one year, and promise Daire that she would return him with 50 heifers.
She also told him to inform his owner that if he
objected to lending
the bull then he could come with the bull himself and she would give him as much
territory as he now had in
Ulster at Magh Ai
(The Plain of
Roscommon)
situated in the Connacht Province
plus a chariot worth thrice seven cumals, 63 cows and
her friendship. Mac Roth went to see
Daire mac Fachtna who readily agreed to accept
such generous terms, but
then one of the
9 couriers who had accompanied Mac Roth
ran off at
the mouth and stated that he had better agree
or else, and Daire on hearing this became indignant
and decided to change his mind, Mac Roth
returned to Connacht and
advised 76.Maeve of what had happened, and
so she decided
instead to use physical force on Daire to bring it
all about and although Fidelma the prophetess
had told her that her
future expedition against Ulster to
obtain the Brown Bull of Cooley would be a disaster,
she was determined to go ahead anyway. Together
with all of her sons and the 7 sons of
Maghach, she called on
the Septs
from the
Munster
Province
and the
Leinster
Province
to support her quest in Ulster by telling them that this would be a good opportunity
to bring repercussions back on Ulster
for all of their old transgressions
against those two Provinces and also by this time there were
in addition other men from
Ulster in her service
who had also gone into exile for the previous treachery that
64.Conor
mac Nessa
the Gaelic Milesian Irian King of Ulster had committed against the 3 sons of
Uisneach.
76.Maeve now had 1500 warriors in
all who were put under the leadership of 64.Fergus
mac Roigh
and 64.Conor
mac Nessa's
other son,
65.Cormac
Conloingeas
who had also abandoned his father for what he had done, and they
then assembled their forces at Cruachan
in Co. Roscommon in the east of
the
Connacht Province under the overall leadership of
73.Maeve herself and moving onto Athlone they crossed over the River Shannon and marched
eastward through
Midhe
/ Meath /
Northern Leinster towards Kells near the
border of Co. Louth
in the north - east of Northern Leinster
where they set up their camp, and she was to also be accompanied by her husband, Ailill
and their daughter, Finnabair
-
of the Fair Brow. During the feasting that followed,
76.Maeve
was to try and create a further incentive among her followers when
she
secretly promised
the hand of her daughter, Finnabair in marriage
to all of her
Champions individually to carry out her wishes. 64.Fergus mac Roich
feeling for what might happen to his own people in the
Ulster Province had previously sent a message to
warn them that they were coming,
but
64.Conor
mac Nessa the
Irian King of
Ulster
and his Red Branch Warriors at Emania
at this time
were not quite with it, as they were suffering from some type of disabling malaise.
This meant that the initial defence of
Ulster was now to be left only to
Cu Chulann
who was meant to block their path to give them time to recover, as he was personally set up at the
Ulster Pass
in
Co. Louth,
as he alone, was not suffering from this
particular malaise, and
officially he was now acting as
64.Conor mac Nessa's Champion at the border
and also by chance this was where the Brown Bull of Cooley, who
76.Maeve
was desperately seeking, was at pasture. When 76.Maeve's
combined forces approached
him to allow them to go on by, Cu Chulann
demanded single combat under the
Irish
Celtic Code of Practice /
Fir Comhlainn, and that they were not to advance any further
until they had individually overcome him personally. 76.Maeve
inquired from the men of Ulster,
who were
among her followers, who this young brave warrior was, and they advised her of his previous
outstanding youthful exploits so she decided to offer the 17
year old Cu Chulann honours in her territory in
Connacht if he stopped supporting
64.Conor mac Nessa's cause,
but he refused, and she then sent him
further messages along the same lines until Cu Chulann was to finally warn her
not to send any more. To test him out she then agreed with Cu Chulann that he was to go up
against one of her
own Champions each day at the ford on the border until the advent of the beginning
of Spring, to see if he could
physically manage to continue to survive the ongoing ordeal of the various single conflicts
of one on one.
In his first combat he slew her Champion, Loch, with his special spear,
known as the Gae
Bolg, that had 30 barbs, and then began entering into a series of
other single combats against her individual Champions in which he continued to
be victorious on every occasion until he was finally wounded, and while he slept to
recover his strength a boy
troop from out of Emain Macha, who were Cu Chulann's
companions, came, who fought also, until they were all killed.
76,Maeve then asked
64.Fergus mac Roigh to personally fight Cu Chulann, who told her
that he would not fight his own foster - son, but she persisted, so he went to see
him, but did
not take his sword with him, and Cu Chulann told him it was not safe to come against him
without his sword, and 64.Fergus mac Roigh told him that
it did not matter as he would not use it anyway against him and instead asked Cu Chulann to
pretend to fight him and then run away, but he said he could not do that, so
64.Fergus mac Roigh continued to try and verbally
convince him to do it, by saying that if he did, he too would do the same in the future, and
they then agreed to do it, and 64.Fergus
mac Roich then returned to 76.Maeve and told
her
to stop asking him to fight Chu Culann. She then decided to send her wizard Calatin, and his
27 sons and grandsons, to take on Chu Culann, and
when
64.Fergus mac Roigh learnt of this he sent Fiacha
who was also an Ulster exile, to see what was to
occur and report back to him, but on arriving there Fiacha decided also to assist Cu Chulann
himself and they defeated all of these opponents too. 76.Maeve
in desperation now sent for Ferdia
/ Ferdiad the
Iberian Champion of the
Domnu, who had been a fellow
companion and pupil of Cu Chulann while he was overseas with Scathach, and as he
too did not want to fight Cu
Chulann, he went reluctantly to Cu Chulann
who advised him to go back, as he did not want to injure him, but he said he could not
as he really had no choice in the matter. They fought all day until Sunset and
then retired to their camp where they not only shared their food, but also their healing herbs
on their wounds, and on
the the second day it was more of the same, and also on the third day when they
decided to finally separate from each other, and on the fourth day Cu Chulann was to slay
Ferdia in mortal combat
with his special spear the Gae Bolg, and although Cu Chulann
by this time was feeling physically exhausted
and badly wounded he still felt great remorse at the death of his friend Ferdia,
so
he decided to carry his lifeless body back
to the other side of the stream to make out that he had made it across.
76.Maeve continued to
send
further individual warriors against him until
she
finally
sent her particular individual Champions, still promising her daughter,
Finnabair to the one who would be able to kill Cu
Chullann,
and although
Sualtam his father, now came to try assist him against them, instead he was to
send him back to 64.Conor mac Nessa at
Emain Macha in the Ulster
Province, to advise him that he could no longer personally hold
out on his own, so Sualtam mounted Cu Chullann's war horse "The Grey of Macha" and returned to Emain
Macha and called out for further assistance to support Cu Chulann. Cathbad the Druid admonished him for waking
64.Conor mac Nessa, and Sualtam
in a rage jerked the mouth of "The Grey of Macha" who reared up and struck his shield,
which then struck his neck and decapitated his head. "The Grey of Macha" then
raced flat out back
into 64.Conor mac Nessa's fort, who was now
wide awake and he decided to
send for
reinforcements from all over Ulster and a great
battle was to then occur among the proponents and Cu Chulann on hearing the melee of the fighting called on
64.Fergus mac Roigh to honour his previous pledge to run off, and he did as he requested,
taking his personal warriors also with him. By this time 76.Maeve had run out of patience, and decided that she could wait no longer for a final
decision against Cu Chulann and so she sent some of her followers to search
out the whereabouts of the Brown Bull of Cooley and drive him and
50 heifers back into her camp, while she proceeded on with her retinue into
Ulster anyway, burning and ravaging the countryside right up to
64.Conor
mac Nessa's palace at
Emania
and on finding out that she had
finally gained possession
of the Brown Bull of Cooley
she set out with her retinue to return
down into the Midlands
/
Midhe / Meath in
Northern Leinster
where she set up her camp at Clarecastle
/
Clartha in Co. Westmeath
in the south - west
before making her way back to the west across the River
Shannon into her own territory in
Sreng's Fifth
/ Connacht Province.
64.Conor
mac Nessa and his Irian
Red Branch Ulster
warriors
now also
followed her there and took every opportunity to attack
76.Maeve’s forces
from behind
until they
finally
surrounded her camp in the Midlands where she was defeated,
but in the meantime the cause of all of this, the Brown Bull of Cooley, had been taken on to
Connacht where he came into conflict with
Ailill's White Horned Bull and killed him, and he then returned back to Cooley
/
Cualgne on his own volition where his heart was to burst while charging a
rock and he too also died.
Athairne who was the main poet of 64.Conor mac Nessa
the Irian King of Ulster had tremendous power in
the
Ulster Province. which was only exceeded by that of
64.Conor mac Nessa the
Irian King of Ulster himself,
as was demonstrated when he demanded one of the eyes of Eochy
mac Luchta the Ithian King
of Southern Munster who he
thought would offer him a ransom for it instead, but Eochy
had
simply plucked it out of its socket and handed it over to him, and with such a
blemish Eochy was also
to lose his hold on the Ithian Kingship.
Realising how powerful the authority of the individual poets /
filidh
had grown in
Ulster,
64.Conor mac Nessa decided to
break their monopoly that they had over legal language and knowledge, which upset
them no end when he especially demanded that they also use plain language for all to
understand the procedures and this opened the profession up to all freemen
creating
actual lawyers / brehons instead.
63.Conor mac Nessa
feeling himself and the
Ulster Province was now all powerful
turned his attention towards the Leinster
Province,
and towards this agenda he sent Athairne, his main
poet, down south to agitate Mesgedra the
King
of Leinster, who had his palace at Naas in Co.
Kildare in Southern Leinster, hoping that Athairne's avaricious
nature would create trouble with Mesgedra the King and he
could use this as an excuse to intervene there to express his overall authority
further in Ireland. After being there for a year,
Athairne decided to make his move and get what he
could out of Mesgedra and then return to the Ulster Province, so he
arranged an audience with Mesgedra demanding a poet's fee of
300 head of cattle, to which
Mesgedra agreed, so he then demanded 600
sheep to which he also agreed, and pushing his luck further he also asked for 20
ounces of gold together with silks and he agreed to this also. Finally by then, feeling well in
control of the situation he also demanded 45
Leinster virgins as he well knew that
this last demand would completely upset the
Leinstermen
in the Assembly there who soon responded to this suggestion and were in an uproar, although in reality
once again he was hoping that
they would pay him a ransom instead of all of this booty, especially for the
45 young
women. Realising that he had by now gone too far
Athairne
sent a messenger back up to
Ulster
to convince 64.Conor mac Nessa
to come down with his Red Branch
Warriors
to protect him and the booty when he would eventually
reach the
Leinster / Ulster
border with his tribute.
The next day
Athairne gathered up all of his
booty and left to go to Slighe Cualann
where he intended to cross over the River Liffey and head out from there north to
Emania, but on arriving
at the first crossing he found that the River Liffey was in flood and the ford there could not be
crossed, and seeing nearby there was a small settlement, he soon went about destroying
it to gain the materials he needed, and cut bundles of hazel rods and from them constructed
large hurdles out of wattle to try and get the stock across to the other side, and
after he succeeded in this endeavour he then camped there, and this particular crossing
then became known
as
Baile Atha Cliath / The
Ford of the Hurdles. The next day after travelling a few miles further to the north
he met up with some of the
Red Branch Warriors from
Ulster near the border,
just as
Mesgedra's
Leinster
warriors came
at them from behind and drove them all back across the neck of land that
separated
Ben Eadair / Howth from the
Plain of Sorrows near Cluain Tarbh
where 64.Conor mac Nessa's Red Branch
warriors had already constructed a fort on the off
chance that they would need to take refuge behind it. Mesgedra
then began besieging this fort for several days, during which time the
Ulster
Warriors sent
several messengers north to obtain further assistance, and although they
still had the cattle, the gold and the booty, the 45 young women had already been
rescued by Mesgedra
during the first attack. In the meantime 64.Conor mac Nessa
in his hurry to assist Athairne,
had left 68.Conall Cernach
- of the VIctories
the leader of the Red Branch Warriors
to guard
Ulster,
and on reaching the battle scene he immediately went on the attack
against the Leinstermen and many on both
sides were ultimately killed.
During the conflicts Mesgedra
was to lose one of his hands, and as a consequence his
Leinster
warriors were driven off and he then fled southwards, by - passing Baile Atha Cliath,
and instead made for the old ford near Clane, as it was nearer to his palace at Naas,
and on reaching Clane he sought sanctuary in the Sacred Grove
/ nincadh nearby, but
64.Conall Cernach and his
Knights of the Red Branch Wrriors
of Ulster
warriors were
by now
also personally in
pursuit of Mesgedra
and
68.Conall Cernach
called on him to come out and fight one on one, to which
Mesgedra
replied that he now only had the one hand. 68.Conall Cernach
then
had some of his
Ulster
warriors bind one of his arms and he called on
Mesgedra
once again to come out and
Mesgedra
immediately drew his sword and came out going face to face with
68.Conall Cernach, and during the volatile conflict
that followed
Mesgedra's sword cut
through the binding on 68.Conall Cernach's
arm, so they halted proceedings and
68.Conall
Cearnach
had his hand re - bound and the same thing happened again, but this time he
did not hesitate and rushed forward and mortally wounded Mesgedra,
who as he was dying cursed all of the Ulstermen. 68.Conor Cernach cut off Mesgedra's
head placing it in his chariot and tied Mesgedra's
chariot behind his and started to head back north towards
Ulster where he
eventually came
upon
Mesgedra's wife.
Queen Buan,
who at this time was heading home with her chariots and hand maidens. after
visiting Tara,
68.Conall Cernach picked up
Mesgedra's head by
his hair and held it up for her to see, and she went into shock, but still
managed to ask 68.Conall
Cernach to
allow her to lament / caoine
Mesgedra's
passing before she moved on to return to Naas, and on viewing his total remains, all at once, along with her hand maidens
she let out a great wail that was so intense that she fell backwards and lay dead on the
road. 68.Conall Cernach
then interred her body there at Clane near the
River Liffey, but before he also interred
Mesgedra's head he took out
his brain, which he was to eventually mix with lime to make a tathlum
/ brain ball, which was mixed with blood and mud to create a solid deadly missile.
The Ulstermen then
burnt and plundered Southern Leinster
taking women, cattle, gold and slaves, and later on when
68.Conall Cernach and his
Red Branch
Warriors
arrived back at Emain Macha
he placed his trophy, the prepared brain ball of
Mesgedra, in the Speckled
Hall in the armoury of the Knights of the Red
Branch.
64.Conor
mac Nessa had originally been married to the fiery
76.Maeve who later
became the Queen of Connacht,
and he had since
put aside and taken up with her sister,
76.Eithne who was of a
different nature altogether, gentle and sweet, but she had since died, and he
then married
Luaine, and after
the conflict with the
Leinster
Province there was peace for years during which
time the
Ulster Province
was to once again prosper,
Cet mac
Margach
- the Wolf of
Connacht Province crossed
over into the
Ulster Province in disguise
and came to
Emain Macha where
he saw 2 children playing with the brain ball of
Mesgedra and when
they threw it from one to the other he caught it instead and hid it and carried it with
him in anticipation of using it against one of the great
Ulster Red Branch
Warriors
themselves and he and his
followers then became involved in a cattle raid there and
65.Conor mac Nessa
and his
Red Branch
Warriors
came out to clash with them in battle just as both were to receive further
reinforcements, with the River Brosna flowing in between them, while the women
in the
Connacht
Province
watched on from the west bank cleaning and
sharpening the
weapons of the
Connacht warriors
in preparation.
It had been the Celtic custom that an
Irish King,
who had married the Earth, to outwardly display
himself to those women who were looking on if they requested it and this they did,
and
64.Conor mac Nessa
could not refuse as he was the
King of Ulster
and to do this he
walked towards them in his cloak, while fearing
nothing on his side of the river, while the women of
Connacht
assembled on their side of the river, In the meantime
Cet Margach had hid
in the bushes near the women of
Connacht
with the tathlum stone ready and waiting, and this
meant that
64.Connor mac Nessa
himself
was now also directly opposite to him, so
Cet
Magagh
leapt out with
Mesgedra's brain -
ball and let it fly and it struck 64.Conor
mac
Nessa
on the temple imbedding itself firmy in his skull and completely flattening him, and his
Ulster
followers rushed over and picked him up and
immedeiately fled the scene, The men of
Connacht
then crossed over the river and attacked the
fleeing
Ulstermen, slaying
many of them, as what is now known as
Cath Ath Nuachat
/ The Battle of the Ford of the Slingshot , and when the
fleeing
Ulstermen reached
Emain Macha,
Fingen their Chief
Physician discovered that the brain - ball was half buried in
64.Conor mac Nessa's skull,
and although it
was not fatal as yet, he was scared to remove it as it seemed that it would be
better to leave it were it
was, or it could be fatal.
Athairne
who had been
the main poet
in
Ulster Province along
with his sons
had by now completely run away with their own importance, and they had gone too
far when they propositioned and harassed
64.Conor mac Nessa's
young,
Queen Luaine, who
became so upset over their physical abuse of her that she too died of distress and
grief within a day, and because of this 64.Conor mac Nessa had his
Red Branch Warriors kill the whole family of Athairne and destroy their fort.
8 BC
- 9AD.
*78.Criffan / Crimthann
Niadh - Nar
was to be the Celtic
Gaelic Milesian Heremonian
Ui Cobhthaigh
100th King of Tara
/
Erinn, who was the son
of *77.Lewy
Sriabh - n Dearg
the previous
98th King of Tara
/ Erinn, and
after such a short time as the ruler of Erinn he was to die
of complications from a fall from his horse.
Previously he and
*Conaire
Mor 1st the previous
97th King of Tara / Erinn
had carried out expeditions to
Albion
/ Briton and Gaul (France and part of Spain) and had assisted the Celtic
Scythian
Gaelic
Picts and
Britons against the invading Romans.
*78.Criffan Niadh - Nar
had also brought back from
Briton a
highly ornamented, gilded war chariot, gold - hilted swords, a table studded
with 300 brilliant gems and a pair of greyhounds coupled together with a
splendid silver chain worth 100 cumal. (1 cumal = a maidservant), or
300 cows.
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