Eireamhon, after being a year in the joint sovereignty of Ireland with Eibhear, held the full sovereignty for fourteen years after Eibhear was slain in the Battle of Airgeadros, according to some seanchas, as this stanza says:
However, the common opinion of seanchas is, that it was not in the Battle of Airgeadros that Eibhear was slain, but in the Battle of Geisill, as we have stated above. It was in the time of Eireamhon that the following events took place. The Battle of Cuil Caicheir, a year after the death of Eibhear, it was there that Caicher, leader of the followers of Eibhear, fell by Aimhirgin son of Milidh; a year after that Aimhirgin was slain by Eireamhon in the Battle of Bile Theineadh in Cuil Breagh; and in that year also the nine Brosnas of Eile and the three Uinnses of Ui nOiliolla burst over land in Ireland. The third year after that Fulman and Manntan, two leaders of the followers of Eibhear, feIl by Eireamhon in the Battle of Breoghan in Freamhainn. Eight lakes burst over land in Ireland in the reign of Eireamhon,
- Fourteen years, I know it,
Did Eireamhon hold chief sovereignty
After the Battle of Airgeadros with valour,
Where Eibhear fell outright.
Some seanchas assert that it was Eireamhon who portioned the five provinces of Ireland among some of the leaders who were with him after the death of Eibhear. First he gave the province of Leinster to Criomhthann Sciathbheal of the Domhnanncha, a noble of the relicts of the Fir Bolg. He gave, moreover, the two provinces of Munster to the four sons of Eibhear, to wit, Er, Orba, Fearon, and Feargna. He gave besides the province of Connaught to Un son of Oige and to Eatan, two leaders who had come with him from Spain. Similarly he left the province of Ulster to Eibhear son of Ir, his own brother's son.
It was in the reign of Eireamhon also that the Cruithnigh, or Picts, a tribe who came from Thrace, arrived in Ireland; and according to Cormac son of Cuileannan, in his Psaltair, the reason of their leaving Thrace was that Policornus, king of Thrace, designed to force a beautiful marriageable daughter of Gud, chief of the Cruithnigh, while these latter were at free quarters in the country. When, however, Gud and his Cruithnigh suspected that the king was about to force the maiden, they slew him, and accordingly quitted the country, and went from country to country till they reached France, where they were quartered and got lands from the king of the French, and there they built a city called Pictavium, from the Picts or Cruithnigh who built it. And when the king of the French heard of the fame of the maiden's
The leaders of that fleet were Gud and his son Cathluan; and the reason why Criomhthann entered into friendship with them was because some British nobles, who were called Tuatha Fiodhgha, were making conquests in the Fotharta on either side of the mouth of the Slaney. Such were these people that the weapons of every one of them were poisoned, so that, be the wound inflicted by them small or great, no remedy whatever availed the wounded man, but he must die. Criomhthann heard that there was a skilful druid called Trostan amongst the Cruithnigh who could furnish himself and his people with an antidote against the poison with which the weapons of the Tuatha Fiodhgha were wont to be charged; and he asked Triostan what remedy he should use against the poison of the weapons of those people we have mentioned. Get thrice fifty white hornless cows milked, said Trostan, and let the milk got from them be placed in a
- Ard Leamhnachta in the southern country
Each noble and bard may inquire
Whence is derived the name of the land
Which it has borne from the time of Criomhthann;- Criomhthann Sciaithbheal it was who fought,
To prevent the slaughter of his warriors,
Protecting them from the sharp poison of the weapons
Of the hateful, horrid giants.- Six of the Cruithnigh, God so ordained,
Came from the land of Thrace,
Soilen, Ulpia, Neachtain the noble,
Aonghus, Leathan, and Trostan.- God granted them, through might
To heal them from the sharp poison of the wounds,
And to protect them from the bitter venom of the weapons
Of the powerful, very fierce giants.- The true knowledge obtained for them
By the druid of the Cruithnigh, at once, was
That thrice fifty hornless cows of the plain
Be milked in one deep hollow.- The battle was pressingly fought
Around the hollow where the new milk was,
And the battle went strongly against
The giants of high Banbha.
Now as to the Cruithnigh, that is, Gud and his son Cathluan, they resolved to invade Leinster; and when
- The Cruithnigh seized it after that,
When they had come from the land of Erin;
Ten and sixty very noble kings
Of those ruled the land of the Cruithnigh.- Cathluan, the first of these kings,
I will tell you briefly;
The last king of them was
The stout champion Constantin.
But Trostan the Druid and the five other Cruithnigh mentioned in the above poem, remained in Ireland after