Note 17 — INTRODUCTION.

It is usually supposed that true history in Ireland commences with the introduction of Christianity and the mission of St. Patrick, but this date is by no means certain. The author is more inclined to place the separation between those annals which may be depended on as consisting in the main of true history, and those which present the appearance of an artificial construction, into which fragments of history, legendary matter, and fabulous creations, have been interwoven, at the event termed the battle of Ocha, fought in 483. By that battle the dynasty of the Hy Neill was placed on the throne of Ireland. It separates the Pagan kings from the Christian. The marvellous and fanciful events which characterise the previous reigns here drop from the annals, and what follows has an air of probability and reality, and it was undoubtedly viewed as a great era by the older chroniclers; as, for instance, Flann of Bute, who wrote his Synchronisms in 1054, has ‘Forty-three years from the coming of St. Patrick to Erin to the battle of Ocha; twenty years from the battle of Ocha till the children of Erc, son of Echach Muindremair, passed over into Alban.’—Chron. Picts and Scots, p. 18.