[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_.
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