Page:Athletics and Manly Sport (1890).djvu/214

Rh IV.

MILITARY ATHLETES OF ANCIENT IRELAND. is no reliable authority for the existence of any national military organization or profession of fighting-men in Ireland, other than chiefs, down to the reign of Conn "of the hundred battles," who was monarch at Tara from A. D. 123 to 157, in which year he was slain. Still, it is stated that Conn himself came to the throne from the command of the celebrated national militia, popularly known as the Fianna Eireann, of whom Finn Mac Cumhaill, and his father, Cumhall, were the most famous commanders.

This militia of ancient Ireland is highly interesting in the history of athletics. Its members were tested athletes to a man, and their preparation and competition for enlistment were most arduous and remarkable.

The name Fianna (hence the modern Fenians) is explained in an antique glossary preserved in a volume of Brehon Laws. This is the translation from the Gaelic:—

"Fianna, a Venatione, id est. It was from the hunting which they practised they were so named.  Or, Fianna, that is