Page:The Gaelic State in the Past & Future.djvu/22

 under heavy service, some had been comparatively free of service, to their respective provincial kings. We do not often hear after this time of these different obligations of service, nor do we find these great differences of size; and it is significant that this disappearance should occur at a time when we are told that Cormac created a new order over Ireland. He made a number of new units, uniform in size, grouped in the provinces, and leading up in ranks of authority through the provincial kingships to the monarchy.

The old stateships were known as Tuatha; the new were called Triocha Ced. The title Triocha Ced does not survive, while the older title of Tuatha does. Therefore it seems likely that the new Triocha Ced became known by the older and more familiar title of Tuatha; and, where an old Tuath of considerable size had a number of Triocha Ced created within it, that the new units became known as Tuatha, while the older stateship maintained its authority over the new units and became known by a new title that now comes into use, that of Mor-Thuath. That is conjecture; but it is a conjecture that conforms to the facts as we know them in the subsequent development of the system.

Such is the polity as it left Cormac's hands. He also established the Fianna Eireann as a standing militia in the provinces—except in Ulster, where the dynastic war had not ceased, and was not to cease till the burning of Emain Macha. The political system he created, with its central code of laws, was one that could continue itself without a central