named Sheen, (that is, _storm_,) whom he had once put
away at the instance of his spiritual adviser, but whom
he had not the courage--though brave as a lion in battle--to
keep away (A.D. 527). TUATHAL, "the Rough," succeeded
and reigned for seven years, when he was assassinated by
the tutor of DERMID, son of Kerbel, a rival whom he had
driven into exile. DERMID immediately seized on the throne
(A.D. 534), and for twenty eventful years bore sway over
all Erin. He appears to have had quite as much of the
old leaven of Paganism in his composition--at least in
his youth and prime--as either Lewy or Leary. He kept
Druids about his person, despised "the right of sanctuary"
claimed by the Christian clergy, and observed, with all
the ancient superstitious ceremonial, the national games
at Tailteen. In his reign, the most remarkable event was
the public curse pronounced on Tara, by a Saint whose
sanctuary the reckless monarch had violated, in dragging
a prisoner from the very horns of the altar, and putting
him to death. For this offence--the crowning act of a
series of aggressions on the immunities claimed by the
clergy--the Saint, whose name was Ruadan, and the site
of whose sanctuary is still known as Temple-Ruadan in
Tipperary, proceeded to Tara, accompanied by his clergy,
and, walking round the royal rath, solemnly excommunicated
the monarch, and anathematized the place. The far-reaching
consequences of this awful exercise of spiritual power
are traceable for a thousand years through Irish history.
No king after Dermid resided permanently upon the hill
of Tara. Other royal houses there were in Meath--at
Tailteen, at the hill of Usna, and on the margin of the