Extract from Ordnance Survey Letters by O’Donovan and Others 2 1838

This plain is celebrated in all the Irish histories and authentic Annals as the site of a bloody battle between Looee Mac Con and Art the Solitary, Kings of Ireland, in which Art was defeated and afterwards pursued to a brook in Aidhne, situated between Moyweela and Kilcornan, where he was killed.

The account of this battle forms one of the popular stories of the ancient Irish. I have an extract from a very rude copy of it now before me, but I find nothing in it to point out the situation of Magh Mucroimhe. O’Fleherty, who lived at a period when old Irish traditions were very vivid and who had many excellent Irish MSS. in his possession, writes in part III, C. ll of Ogygia that Moy Mucroimhe was situated near Athenry eight miles from Galway, and in his account of Iar Connaught he states that Looee Mac Con defeated the Monarch Art at Athenry within eight miles of Galway. (Athenry is actually eleven miles from Galway but they reckoned very long miles in O’Flaherty’s time).

Where did O’Flaherty find, or from what did he infer that Athenry was in Moy Mucroimhe or Moy-Mucroimhe near Athenry? Try the Annals and all the copies of the account of the battle. Where did he find that King Art was slain at the little river of Turlach Airt in Aidhne? I made every enquiry in the Parish of Athenry to see if the name Moy-Mucroimhe were still in existence but found that no such is remembered; and what I am more surprised at, the name Turlach Airt (situated between Moyweela and Kilcornan) which was generally known in O’Flaherty’s time, is now blotted from the memory of the people. Does any such name occur in the Connaught Inquisitions?

That Magh Mucrimha was a well-known plain in ancient times appears from a legend concerning it in the Dinnseanchus in which its name is derived from a magical herd of swine which was disenchanted there by Queen Meave. From the manner in which this plain is mentioned in the Dinnseanchus it would appear to have been rather the name of a fertile district than of a small field or townland :-

Magh Mucrima molos cach

Magh a ragam co ro gnath etc., etc.

The Plain of Mucrima which all have praised,

A plain which I have oft with joy traversed

A plain of houses, ploughmen and of herds

Which Eochy Fin’s great tribe have long possessed

A land so smooth (reidh) so rugged (aimhreidh!) and so tilled (ro-ar)

Extensive (fairsing) wide (ro-leathan) and splendid (ro-ghlan) grassy green,

A plain (clar) in which bright swords (cloidmhi creasa) and belts abound,

A plain in which large oaks (dairdhib) and nuts (dair mheasa) are found.

Comes next to be examined: Whence its name

No bard has sung; no Ollav has removed

The brooding (murky) cloud which the old hand of time

Has drawn o’er its history (upon its face) no fiery lay

Nor Ecstacy divine (1) nor teinim laeghdha

Has yet dispelled this sable murky gloom

From Cruachain’s cave (a huaimh Chruachain) a magic herd of swine,

Of blackest hue, once issued forth, when Maeve

And Ellill ruled the men of Olnegmact.

This herd of hogs (pigs) was wonderful indeed

For should an hundred men ascend one hill

To count their number, and continue so

To reckon them for ever, they would fail

To calculate the number in this herd

Which demons sent from Cruachain’s gloomy cave

They spoiled the grass and withered the green corn

Throughout Connactia’s province of fair men (Cendfind)

In which soon thirst and dreadful dearth prevailed

At length Queen Mab and Ellill, King, set out

To hunt this herd and count them one by one

For this once done, their power to hurt was o’er

And found them on Freechmagh, auspicious plain,

They chased them westwards to the Pass of Fert (Bealaoch Fheart)

Where Meave in close pursuit took hold of one

Of those huge boars (conus gob Medhbh ar mor chois) by his hind leg (2) – great feat!

But he could not be held; he dragged his leg

From her strong grasp and left the skin behind (Cos fhácaibh a leathar ina leath láimh)

And fled away – but whither no one knows

Now Meave did count their number os they passed

Across the Plain of Froechmhagh, and from this

That plain has since been callad Hagh Huc-rimha, which means

The Plain of Reckoning the pigs (Muc-rimhadh!) and this

Is sealed (re selaibh) its true and everlasting name.