Note 33 — INTRODUCTION. (continued 2)
Thomas Maclauchlan translation
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.”