of the nation, every third year; first at Tara, and after Tara
was left to go to ruin in consequence of the curse of St. Ruadhan
in the sixth century, wherever the supreme monarch established
his residence.

The order of succession to the supreme power was the weakest point
of the Irish constitution, and became the cause of by far the
greatest portion of the nation's calamities. Theoretically the
eldest son--some say the eldest relative--of the monarch succeeded
him, when he had no blemish constituting a radical defect: the
supreme power, however, alternating in two families. To secure
the succession, the heir-apparent was always declared during the
life of the supreme king; but this constitutional arrangement
caused, perhaps, more crimes and wars than any other social
institution among the Celts. The truth is that, after the
heir-apparent, sustained by some provincial king, supplanted the
reigning monarch, one of the provincial chieftains claimed the
crown and succeeded to it by violence.

Yet the general rule that the monarch was to belong to the race
of Miledh was adhered to almost without exception. One hundred
and eighteen sovereigns, according to the moat accredited annals,
governed the whole island from the Milesian conquest to St. Patrick
in 432. Of these, sixty were of the family of Heremon, settled
in the northern part of the island; twenty-nine of the posterity
of Heber, settled in the south; twenty-four of that of Ir; three
issued from Lugaid, the son of Ith. All these were of the race of
Miledh; one only was a _firbolg_, or plebeian, and one a woman.

It is certainly very remarkable that for so long a time--nearly