What Loss to Gain a King!
A Druid asks for what he himself wants:
Though he seeks the best for you,
– or so it seems when from him you hear –
What he wants you to do…
Crafty Dil (of the Crecraighe) bade
Eoghan to share the bed of his daughter
Eoghan agreed – on his way to a fight
Was to perish in the slaughter…
His daughter, Muncha, to please her father
Slept with Eoghan as she by Dil was bade:
It was her deathbed, the flag of stone
To give birth to Fiacha, she on there lay…
A cruel man, Dil foresaw it all –
Lost mother and father to their son:
But his grandson would be king of all:
The Druid who lost all, had won!
Background –
The foundation story of the Clan Eoghanachta, with the tragic death of Eoghan, and the craftiness of Díl the Druid…Díl was from Ossory, and was “of the kindred of Fergus”, displaced Ulaidh settled in the south of Ireland as subject tribes. This is possibly the justification that the Úi Neill used for having the Clan Eoghancht banned from ever being High Kings of Ireland?