The Lia Fail – Stone of Destiny
The Lia Fail, or Stone of Destiny was said to roar under each King of Ireland on his being chosen. It was in destiny, says Hector Boetius in his History of Scotland, that a king of the Scotic nation should reign wherever this stone was kept. Feargus the Great, son of Earc, having proposed to style himself king of Scotland, sent to his brother Muir-cheartach for the stone that he might sit on it for the purpose of being proclaimed King of Scotland. Muircheartach sent it,1 and Feargus was inaugurated first king of Scotland of the Scotic nation : theretofore the Pictish kings of Scotland had been under tax and tribute to the kings of Ireland from the time of Eireamhon.
Mentioned among the more distinguished of the Tuatha De Danann are three satirists, two female chiefs, a poetess, poet, artist, mechanic, smith and physician. Their king Nuaclh lost his hand in the first battle of Magh Tuireadh and his head in the second. They had, in all, nine kings, includ¬ing the three sons of Cearmad Milbheoil, who ruled at the coming of the Milesians, the Daghdha Mor who died at Brugh from the effects of a cast flung at him at the battle of Magh Tuireadh, and Lugh Lamhfhada who established the Fair of Tailltean. Lugh had been fostered and trained to bear arms by Taillte. In commemoration thereof he instituted games like the Olympiades a fortnight before Lughnasadh and a fortnight after. Taillte, married first to Eochaidh son of Earc last king of the Fir Bolg, was married subsequently to Eochaidh Garbh son of Duach Dall a chief of the Tuatha De Danann. Two hundred years but three was the length of the Tuatha De Danann sovereignty.
Concurrently another branch of the Gaelic race had been making its way towards Ireland by very slow and circuitous stages. Feineas Farsaidh, the Annals say, determined on reaching the throne of Scythia to become acquainted with the various tongues that arose out of the confusion at the Tower of Babel. Accordingly, he sent his delegates into the various countries then inhabited to learn their respective languages and return after seven years. At the end of that time Fcineas, his disciples, and a large number of the youths of Scythia went to the Plain of Seanair, leaving his son Neanul to rule in his stead. There he established the first school in the country of Babylon after the Confusion. Seanair he selected as its site that he might be with the people whose native language was Hebrew. Masters of Greek and Latin were associated with him also in the conduct of the schools, according to Ceannfhaolaidh the Learned, who wrote in the time of Cclm Cille.
