Fir Bolg

After ruling it for some time and dividing the island into provinces, they are overthrown by the invading Tuatha Dé Danann.

The Cath Maige Tuired says that they were forced to settle on poor, rocky land but that they made it into fertile fields by dumping great amounts of soil on it.

The seat of the high-kings is established at Tara, a site with significance through Medieval times as a source of religious and royal power.

During the battle, Sreng, the champion of the Fir Bolg, challenges Nuada to single combat.

[6] The Lebor Gabála adds the Fir Bolg into the scheme and increases the number of settlements to six.

[1] It is believed the goal of its writers was to provide an epic origin story for the Irish, like that of the Israelites, which reconciled native myth with the Christian view of history.

[8][9] Ireland's inhabitants (in this case the Fir Bolg) are likened to the Israelites by escaping from slavery and making a great journey to a 'Promised Land'.

Macalister suggests this expression had fallen out of use by the time the Lebor Gabála was written, and the writers tried to make sense of it by creating a story about men with bags.

have suggested that the writers named a fictional race, the Fir Bolg, after a real group, the Belgae.

[12][13] John Rhys and R. A. Stewart Macalister suggest that the Fir Bolg are the Fomorians (Fomoire) under another guise.

[10] The Tuath Dé fight two similar battles at Mag Tuired, one against the human Fir Bolg and one against the supernatural Fomorians.