Note 206 — Chapter IV · ETHNOLOGY OF BRITAIN.

The turning-point appears to be the battle of Ocha, which was fought in the year 478 by Lughaidh, son of that Laogaire who appears as king of Ireland in the Acts of St. Patrick;—Murcertach MacErca, Fiachna, king of Dalaradia, and Crimthan, king of Leinster, against Olioll Molt, son of Dathi, king of Ireland. It is made an era by most of the annalists, and undoubtedly was viewed as accomplishing a revolution which secured the throne of Ireland to the Hy Neill, or descendants of Niall Mor of the nine hostages. There is also a marked difference in the annals that precede and follow it, as those incidents which evidently belong to a mythic period—such as the death of Dathi by a flash of lightning at the foot of the Alps, and that of Laogaire by the elements, because he had violated an oath he had sworn by them—here come to an end. Murcertach MacErca, too, who followed the short reign of Lugliaidh, was the first Christian monarch of Ireland. The author considers that the real chronological history of Ireland begins here, and that the previous annals are an artificially-constructed history, in which some fragments of genuine annals, and some historic tales founded on fact, are imbedded in a mass of tradition, legend, and fable.