beautiful Lough Ennell, near the present Castlepollard,
and at one or other of these, after monarchs held occasional
court; but those of the northern race made their habitual
home in their own patrimony near Armagh, or on the
celebrated hill of Aileach. The date of the malediction
which left Tara desolate is the year of our Lord, 554.
The end of this self-willed semi-Pagan (Dermid) was in
unison with his life; he was slain in battle by Black
Hugh, Prince of Ulster, two years after the desolation
of Tara.

Four kings, all fierce competitors for the succession,
reigned and fell, within ten years of the death of Dermid,
and then we come to the really interesting and important
reign of Hugh the Second, which lasted twenty-seven years
(A.D. 566 to 593), and was marked by the establishment
of the Independence of the Scoto-Irish Colony in North
Britain, and by other noteworthy events. But these
twenty-seven years deserve a chapter to themselves.




CHAPTER V.

REIGN OF HUGH II.--THE IRISH COLONY IN SCOTLAND OBTAINS
ITS INDEPENDENCE.

Twenty-seven years is a long reign, and the years of
King-Hugh II. were marked with striking events. One