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Rh fineadha (families) because it was in tribes they were formed. Or, fianna, that is feinneadha (champions) because they were the champions of the Monarch of Erinn."

In a poem, written in Gaelic, by a bard named Cineadh O'Hartagan, in 975 A. D., while the remains of the royal palace at Tara were still distinct and intact, and while the written history of that famous hill was still clear and abundant, there is a description of a spacious barrack, at Tara, where seventy-five hundred of the Fianna were lodged.

The following are the stanzas of this most curious poem, which refer to the barrack at Tara:—

The whole of this highly interesting poem is