The Milesian King, Ollav Fōla
The most
distinguished Ollav of Ireland was also a king, the celebrated Ollav
Fōla, who is supposed to have been eighteenth from Eremon and to
have reigned about 1000 B.C. He was the Lycurgus or Solon of Ireland,
giving to the country a code of legislature, and also subdividing it,
under the High King at Tara, among the provincial chiefs, to each of
whom his proper rights and obligations were allotted. To Ollav Fōla
is also attributed the foundation of an institution which, whatever
its origin, became of great importance in Ireland—the great
triennial Fair or Festival at Tara, where the sub-kings and chiefs,
bards, historians, and musicians from all parts of Ireland assembled
to make up the genealogical records of the clan chieftainships, to
enact laws, hear disputed cases, settle succession, and so forth; all these political and legislative labours being lightened by
song and feast. It was a stringent law that at this season all
enmities must be laid aside; no man might lift his hand against
another, or even institute a legal process, while the Assembly at
Tara was in progress. Of all political and national institutions of
this kind Ollav Fōla was regarded as the traditional founder, just
as Goban the Smith was the founder of artistry and handicraft, and
Amergin of poetry. But whether the Milesian king had any more
objective reality than the other more obviously mythical figures it
is hard to say. He is supposed to have been buried in the great
tumulus at Loughcrew, in Westmeath.
