Above : One of Five Province “Munster“

A tradition dating from long before those seven dynasties divided Ireland into Five Provinces the ” Cuig Cuigi.” There is uncertainty as to what those traditional Provinces were, but they are generally given as Ulaidh, Connacht, Laighin, and the two Mumha.* When Tuathal founded the dynasty of Tara, it is said that he grouped parts of the others into a new Province, and that as the two provinces of Mumha coalesced about the same time, there still remained only five Provinces. The origin of the ” CU15 Cuigi,” or ” Five Fifths” is ascribed to the legendary Firbolgs. But their existence as political facts is inconsistent with the stories of the division between Heremon and Heber, the centralised power of Ollamh Fodhla, and the twenty-five fold division of Ugaine M6r—the latter lasting for centuries, and ending at an import­ant date just before the Tain, and not long before Tuathal founded or developed Tara. Of the extent of these Kingdoms we are told little but their respective coast boundaries, and that they all met at the Hill of Uisneach (in modern Co. Westmeath).