are the earliest associations with this "town
or dwelling-place?"

It is said[78] to have been built by a celebrated "king and oracle" of
the people known as the Tuatha De, Dea, or De Danann, and to have been
the residence of himself and others of his race. This chief (Eochaid
_Ollathair_) is usually referred to as "the Dagda," or "the Daghda Mor";
and of his nation it is asserted that, after having invaded Ireland and
conquered its native "Fir-Bolgs," they were themselves conquered in
turn by a later race of immigrants, the Gaels. This "Brugh," therefore,
is said to have been the residence of the Dagda, and, after him, of
Angus, one of his sons. Consequently, it is very frequently styled "the
Brugh of Angus, son of the Dagda," an appellation which assumes various
forms.[79] Latterly, it seems to have been most generally known as "the
Brugh" (_par excellence_), or, more simply still, as "Brugh." In the
Book of Leinster it is specified as one of "Ireland's three undeniable
eminences [_dindgna_]"[80]; while "an ancient poem by Mac Nia, son of
Oenna (in the Book of Ballymote, fol. 190 b.)," styles it "a king's
mansion" and a "_sidh_." The same MS. (32 _a b_) gives the variant _Sidh
an Bhrogha_, rendered by Dr. Standish O'Grady "the fairy fort of the
_Brugh_ upon the Boyne."[81] This word "_sidh_," which was
applied--probably in the first place--to hollow mounds such as this, but
which was also applied to the dwellers in them, gave the Tuatha De
Danann their most popular name. Because it was on account of their
residence in "the green mounds, known by the name of _Sidh_," that they
were called "the _Fir Sidhe_ [_i.e._, men of the _sidhs_], or Fairies,
of Ireland."[82] The one word, indeed (_sidh_), became indifferently
applied to the dwellings and the dwellers. Whichever was the earliest
meaning of that word, there is little dubiety as to the etymology of
_Siabhra_. In one copy of the _Leabhar na h-Uidhre_,[83] it is stated
that the Tuatha De Danann "were called _Siabhras_." O'Reilly defines
_siabhra_ as "a fairy," and _siabhrach_ as "fairy-like"; while "a fairy
mansion" is _siabhrugh_. With Connellan, again, _siabhrog_ is "a fairy."
It seems quite evident that these are all corruptions of _sidh-bhrugh_
(otherwise _Sidh an Bhrogha_, as above), and that _Siabhra_, as applied
to the _dwellers_, was simply a transference from the name denoting
their _dwellings_.

Numerous as are the references to this mound as a "dwelling-pla