Murtagh O'Brien's "Palace" (Limerick) and Grianan Aileach (Donegal)

Did stone from walls of the Cashel of the Kings of Ulster (known as Grianan Aileach in Co. Donegal); end up as part of the Bishop's Palace in Limerick?

"1101 It is probable that Murtagh O'Brien, King of Munster removed his residence to the city of Limerick after Kincora was destroyed. The first opportunity that offered he marched with a large army into Ulster, and demolished the Grennan of Ely in revenge for Kincora, and his soldiers brought the stone to Limerick where they were inserted on the parapet of the palace."

Pg 80 The Diocese of Limerick Ancient and Mediaeval - Begley

Dysert O'Dea and the O'Briens of Arra

We probably all remember the story of Robert Bruce and the spider in Rathlin Island. For me it was one of the stories told, maybe in our primary school history books.

He had suffered defeat in Scotland in 1306 and was licking his wounds supposedly in a cave on Rathlin Island off the Irish coast where he saw a spider building his spider web over and over again, never giving up. This is in legend is thought to have inspired him to try and free Scotland from the English again even after a number of set-backs. This he succeeded following the Battle of Bannockburn in 1314 and he was proclaimed King of Scotland.

Robert's brother Edward then proceeded to Ireland to help open up a 2nd front against the English. The Bruces had some claim to the Kingship of Ulster through their mothers side. He landed in Ulster with a large army and with the help of the O'Neills, Edward was proclaimed High King of Ireland.
The Scots and their Irish allies went to have some major victories over the Anglo-Norman magnates that were in control of the English colony and this encouraged the Gaelic Irish across the island to rebel.

For more detail on the above events
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_the_Bruce
http://www.culturenorthernireland.org/article/1313/robert-the-bruce-on-rathlin
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Bruce

One clan that did rebel so a sept of the O'Briens in Clare who at this time had lost much of their lands to the de Clares who were Anglo-Norman.
The de Clares were supported by one branch of the O'Briens know as "Clann Brian Rua" who wished to benefit by supporting them in receiving territory / land.

From "The History of Medieval Ireland" by Edward Curtis (pg194-195)

"Muchertach O'Brien succeeded his father Turloch 'of the Triumphs' who died in 1306, and in August 1317 his young brother Dermot slew Donnchad, chief of Clann Brian Rua, in a battle at Corcomroe.
Richard de Clare then invaded Thomond from his strong castle at Bunratty along with the next heir of Clann Brian Rua, Brian Bán, but at Dysert O'Dea was attacked first by Felim O'Connor of Corcomroe and Connor O'Dea, and then overwhelmed by Murchertach O'Brien himself, coming to the aid of his vassals, on May 10th 1318. According to the vivid account in the Cathréim, the Normans proved worthy of their old military repute. 'So stubborn was the hand-to-hand encounter that neither noble nor commander of the English left the field, but the greater part of them fell where they stood.' Brian Bán, however cut his way out, crossed the Shannon, and survived to found a branch of the royal race of Duithcre Arra which was called MacBrien of Arra."

Some of the knock-on effects of Dysert O'Dea are as follows:

As stated in Curtis (pg 195) "Thomond, which had been dominated by the Anglo-Irish since 1240, was now cleared of them at one stroke and till 1540 it remained a purely Irish country, the kingship of O'Brien".
What the effects were in Arra is not dealt with in Curtis's book.

However in Gleeson (1915, 7) (who isn't always the most accurate), records that the O'Donegans were the chiefs of Arra up to at least the 11th century. He describes them as being of Leinster stock.

He states that in the 11th century they supported "Donogh, King of Munster, and son of Brian Boroimhe. During Donogh's absence from Munster on a military expedition a rival of Donogh's Turlough O'Brien, severely punished the O'Donegans. It must have been after that time that the O'Ryans of Idrone, in Co. Carlow, obtained the Lordship of Owney, probably by inheritance. O'Donegans ancestors having came from the same district."  

Others state that the O'Donegans are actually from Cork
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donegan_(surname)

So I have yet to find exactly what occurred in Owney & Arra during this period where the Mac I Briens and O'Mulryans begain to dominate
.
However from Curtis we do seem to have a definite "push" factor for why the "Clann Brian Rua" branch of the O'Briens moved to Arra after Dysert O'Dea (becoming the Mac I Briens of Arra).

(This is complicated again by the fact that Gleeson (1915, 501) puts some of that clan in Arra as early as 1207 according to the Annal of Clonmacnoise & Four Masters. However I think he has misread this evidence.)

The Feast Day of Michaelmas in Tipperary

"In the long ago it was a Custom with the people of this district to kill the first goose of the season on St Michael's Eve, 28th September.
It was eaten on St. Michael's Day, 29th September and for that reason was always called the "Michaelmas Goose".
http://www.duchas.ie/en/cbes/4922260/4865099/5022402

Lackamore Wedge Tomb

Lackamore is a townland in Castletown Arra of 181 acres. Its name is thought to come from An Leaca Mhór which translates as the "Big or great hillside".

Arra's only confirmed wedge tomb is located prominently within the townland with views to the Clare Hills in the East on which there are other wedge tombs located and down to Youghal Bay which to me also stands out.

De Valera & O'Nuallain in "The Survey of the Megalithic Tombs of Ireland" suggest that this tomb and Cooleen near the Silvermines were evidence of a link between the wedge tombs of East Clare and the Kilcommon Group around Rearcross & Kilcommon area. They proposed that there may be there a mining link between the settlements that may have accompanied them.
I've always found this interesting considering the slate quarry industy that has been carried out in the locality up to the present day.

The half-barony of Arra must be unique in the variety of megalithic monuments still existing in the area. 

There is a wedge-tomb, stone row, stone pair, stone circle, possible portal tomb, rock art and possibly the remains of a court-tomb (Graves of the Leinstermen). 

The Turret at Doonass Falls

An abandoned castle on the Clare bank of the River Shannon near the "Leap of Doonass" close to Castleconnell. The castle today is very impressive, perched on a rock above the River and with rock cut paths leading up to it from the water side.

The Leap of Doonass was where the power of the River Shannon met its narrowest point and as a result were powerful rapids. Here most boats had to disembark and either carry on by foot to another waiting boat or lift the boat out and carry it with them. As such this was a very strategic point on the River. The river itself was a routeway into the midlands of Ireland and this point here controlled access to it via the boat.

It is likely that the current building is an 18th century folly known as "The Turret". At this site however there was likely to have been a much older castle. There is evidence of some medieval stone work which was probably reused in this brick and mortar folly.

It is thought that there may have been a much older fort known "Fort of the cataract" at this point. Doonas was a fording point of the river and is noted in the Annals of the Four Masters in 1124 when it is called "Eas-Danainne" and it is where Turlough O'Connor crossed the Shannon on his way to plundering the MacCarthy lands as far as Foynes in Desmond.

A 16th centurty McNamara castle was later built on the same site. In 1563 it was in the hands of  Conor O'Brien who was the 3rd Earl of Thomond. It was given to the Earl of Ormond around this time following rebellion by Conor O'Brien.

It was later recorded by Westropp, noting that it appears on the Down Survey maps and that it was built at the old fort of "Eas Danainn", or "the rock of Astanen".

The above comes from "The Castles and Tower-houses of Co. Clare" by Risteard Ua Croinin and Marting Breen.

Edit:
Old Photo of the Falls of Doonass
https://www.facebook.com/OldRiverShannon/photos/pcb.1977206348967699/1977206215634379/?type=3&theater

Magh Adhair, Dalcassian Inauguration Site

It was an inauguration site of the Dalcassians and it is likely to be where Brian Boru himself assumed his leadership in 976 upon his brothers death. It is located near Tulla in Co. Clare. Voices from teh Dawn has some brilliant information on it here. 

https://voicesfromthedawn.com/magh-adhair/

It must be 15 years or so since I last visited and I'm well overdue a revisit. There is a bullaun stone located near the mound and a standing stone on the other side of a river that runs near it. 

I had this picture on an external hard-drive that broke down on me. Thankfully I was able to have all the photos recovered, so The Tipperary Antiquarian's archive remains intact. (Including all the early out of focus ones from the early 2000s like this one!)

Barbaha Stone Row, Moon rise Alignment

The Moon appearing from out of a cloud on the horizon.

After a few days of cloudy sunsets around the Winter Solstice I wasn’t holding much hope of getting a picture of the Minor Winter Lunar Standstill Moonrise. Here is a link to what exactly a Lunar Standstill is https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lunar_standstill 

Clive Ruggles would be widely acknowledged as being one of the leading archaeoastronomers in the British Isles and he conducted a statistical analysis of the Stone Rows of Cork & Kerry in 1996 (see link for the paper http://articles.adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-iarticle_query?1996JHAS...27...55R&defaultprint=YES&filetype=.pdf) and from this he conclusively shows that they are aligned to the various standstills of the Moon at it’s Major & Minor points in the cycle. This cycle takes 18.6 years to complete, so the next time the moon will be back at this extreme in the cycle will be in 2033. Why the ancients were so concerned with the Moons cycle is anyone’s guess.

From using an app on my phone called Sunsurveyor & also a handy tool here at http://photoephemeris.com/ I calculated that the Stone Row at Barbaha in North Tipperary was possibly aligned to the Moonrise on the Winter Minor Lunar Standstill. As far as I can make out the Standstill is more of a “season” rather than one exact date (although statistically I’m sure there is a precise point in the cycle that is the exact Standstill) but sometimes moonrise or moonset occurs during the day and would not be possible to view as it is too bright. For the period around Christmas this year both the position the moon rises and the time of day makes it possible to view. The only other factor to consider is the weather.

So to take me back to the start of this, the weather has been pretty cloudy in Tipperary for the last few days and not conductive to celestial observations. The forecast for Christmas Day was terrible and the best shot at it I thought was Christmas Eve. I headed up to Barbaha on Christmas Eve and with a lot of cloud with a few small patches of sky it wasn’t looking very promising. I took a few photos up at the stone row before a hail / sleet shower came in and the whole sky turned grey. At this stage I decided it was best to leave it and head home to a warm house. I waited in the car with a nagging feeling not to go just yet. As luck would have it, I went to turn the car at a gate down from where I parked and on turning I saw the clouds where starting to be pushed away from the area where the moon was predicted to rise. I quickly donned all my wet gear and ran back up to the row. 

The Moon rose exactly where it was supposed to and due to the optical illusion known as the Moon Illusion the Moon appears much larger than in the photographs below and as such was visually even more accurate than my photos. It was great to finally get proof of something that I had long thought about and it looks as if this row can now be dubbed “The Moonstones of Tipperary”. It is also aligned to the Minor Standstill Summer Moonset in the other direction and hopefully there may be a few opportunities to confirm this later next year when it comes very close to the position for this alignment.  

On a less positive note, one of the stones here at Barbaha stone row fell in 2013, probably due to undermining of the soil around it by water (mainly rainfall) and possibly cattle rubbing up against it. It would be great now that this row has been shown to be of great importance to get the stone re-erected as it once stood only a short time ago. I understand it is mainly down to a question of funding for an excavation here. I would guess that the size of the area that would be excavated as part of a restoration would be quiet small and so you would hope that it wouldn’t be that costly. Perhaps if there are any benefactors out there or archaeologists that would be interested in pushing for funding etc I would certainly like to be of help in any way I can. 

The sky when I intially arrived at the hill.

Grey and starting to sleet and snow down.

My first zoomed in attempt with the camera. 

Disappearing behind a bank of cloud.

And reappearing again.

One last picture before it disappeared into grey clouds.