The National Militia of Ireland

The Fiana Eireann or National Militia of Ireland under Fionn mac Cumhaill were in their heyday at that period. The Liana were quartered on the men of Ireland from Samhain to Bealtaine. Their duty was to uphold justice and prevent injustice, to guard and preserve the harbours of Ireland from the violence of foreigners. From Bealtaine to Samhain they were engaged in hunting and the chase and in such other duties as preventing robbery, exacting the payment of tribute, and putting down malefactors. At this season they were obliged to depend solely on the products of their hunting and of the chase as maintenance and remuneration from the king of Ireland. Thus they were to have the flesh for food and the skins of the wild animals as their reward. They took but one meal every twenty-four hours, and that in the afternoon. What had been killed in the morning’s hunt they usually sent by their attendants about noon to an appointed hnl having wood and moorland in the vicinity. There they kindled raging fires, and into them they put a number of er^eTy stoties. Then they dug two pits in the yellow clay ‘i the moorland. Portion of the meat they put on spits to »L Delore the fire, another part they bound with sugans anc set to boil in the larger pit, plying it with stones from the j»e so that it seethed until cooked.