Before leaving Heremon, we should take a look at the lineage of his wife. Tea Tephi, also known by the names Tamar Tephi and Teamhair, was a daughter of King Mattaniah Zedekiah of Judah. Zedekiah’s genealogy can also be traced back to Adam and Eve through Noah’s son, Shem. It was Shem’s line of descent which flowed through Abraham and on to Jacob, and his son Judah, from whom the Jewish branch of the Israelites sprang. The line continued through Judah’s son, Pharez, and on down through nine generations to King David and then to his son, King Solomon. Another sixteen generations brought the line to Mattaniah Zedekiah, King of Judah in the Sixth Century BC, at the time of the invasion of the land of Judah by the Chaldean/ Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar. It was in the year 587 BC that Jerusalem fell to the Babylonians and Judah became a Chaldean province. King Zedekiah, along with a great majority of the Judeans, was taken captive and forced to watch the killing of his sons; then his eyes were poked out and he spent the rest of his life a blind prisoner in Babylon. In the book of Jeremiah we read how Ishmael liberated a number of the captives, including the prophet Jeremiah and ‘the kings daughters’. Jeremiah was instructed by God to go to the lands which lay to the north and west of Judea; his destination was to be ‘the Isles’, which have traditionally been identified with the British Isles, including Eire or Ireland.
About the year 569 BC the prophet, Jeremiah arrived at Galacia, bringing with him a companion, Simon Berach, and Tea Tephi, the daughter of King Zedekiah. According to the legends, when King Milesius left Galacia and journeyed to the Middle East, he was accompanied by his son, Heremon. And it was while a sojourner in Judea, that Heremon met and fell in love with Tea Tephi, but she was left behind when Milesius and his kinsmen departed from the lands of their ancestors. Upon the arrival of Jeremiah and his party at Galacia, Heremon and Tea Tephi were reunited and married. According to certain accounts, Heremon was at Jerusalem when the siege of the Chaldeans took place, and that he and Tea Tephi were married there in the Holy Land in the year 585 BC.
(Now it needs to be noted that Tea / Tamar Tephi is sometimes confused with a princess by the name of Tamar the daughter of Ludhaidh, the son of Ith. That Tamar married a man known as Gede the Herremon. But that Tamar and Gede the Herremon lived at the time of King David, a few centuries earlier than Tea, the daughter of King Zedekiah and Heremon, the son of King Milesius.)
The Annals Of The Kingdom Of Ireland noted:
| "Tea, daughter of Lughaidh, son of Ith, whom Eremhon married in Spain, to the repudiation of Odhbha, was the Tea who requested of Eremhon a choice hill, as her dower, in whatever place she should select it, that she might be interred therein, and that her mound and her gravestone might be thereon raised, and where every prince ever to be born of her race should dwell. The guarantees who undertook to execute this for her were Amhergin Gluingeal and Emhear Finn. The hill she selected was Druim Caein, i.e. Teamhair. It is from her it was called, and in it was she interred." |
The hill, which was named for Tea / Tamar Tephi is still known by the name of Tara, and is honored as the traditional seat of the High Kings of Eire.
In addition to the people he brought with him, Jeremiah is believed to have brought the ‘Stone of Scone’, sometimes called the ‘Stone of Destiny’ or ‘Jacob’s Pillar Stone,’ from the Holy Land. The Stone of Scone is a block of hand-cut red sandstone, supposed to have originated near the Dead Sea, and upon which Jacob, who later became known as Israel, rested his head on the evening that he had a vision of angels ascending and descending the ladder to Heaven. The Ard Righ, or High Kings, of Eire were crowned while standing upon the Stone.
Heremon and Tea Tephi brought a child into the world, whom they named Irial Faidh. This son fought for and won the High Kingship of Eire as was noted in the Annals Of The Kingdom Of Ireland:
| "The Age of the World, 3517. The first year of the joint reign of Muimhne, Luighne, and Laighne, sons of Eremon, over Ireland. The Age of the World, 3519. At the end of these three years Muimhne died at Cruachain. Luighne and Laighne fell in the battle of Ard Ladhron by the sons of Emhear. Er, Orba, Fearon, and Fergen, the four sons of Emer, reigned half a year. This half year and the half year of Nuadhat Neacht make a full year; and to Nuadhat Neacht it is reckoned in the age of the world. These sons of Emer were slain by Irial Faidh, son of Eremon, in the battle of Cuil Marta, at the end of the half year aforesaid. The Age of the World, 3529. At the end of this, the tenth year of the reign of Irial Faidh, son of Eremon, he died at Magh Muaidhe. It was by this Irial Faidh the following battles were fought: the battle of Cuil Marta; the battle of Ard Inmaoith, in Teathbha, in which fell Stirne, son of Dubh, son of Fomhor; the battle of Tenmaighe, in which fell Eocha Echcheann, king of the Fomorians; the battle of Lochmaighe, in which fell Lughroth, son of Mofemis of the Firbolgs." |
Irial Faidh ruled in Eire for ten years, between 1680 and 1670 BC, and was succeeded by his son, Eithriall. Eithriall, in turn, ruled for twenty years, between 1670 and 1650 BC, until he was killed by Conmael, son of Emer. Conmael would eventually be killed by Tighernmas, grandson of Eithriall.
Tighernmas gained the kingship of Eire in 1590 BC when he defeated Conmael, son of Emer, at the battle of Aenach Macha. He would reign until his death in 1513 BC. The reign of Tighernmas, like that of all the kings of Eire, was one of almost constant warfare. But Tighernmas' reign also included some advances in science and the arts. Again, according to the Annals Of The Kingdom Of Ireland it was noted:
| "It was by Tighearnmas also that gold was first smelted in Ireland, in Foithre Airthir Liffe. It was Uchadan, an artificer of the Feara Cualann, that smelted it. It was by him that goblets and brooches were first covered with gold and silver in Ireland. It was by him that clothes were dyed purple, blue, and green." |
After Tighernmas died, Eire went seven years without a High King. About sixty generations passed between Tighernmas and a man by the name of Fergus Mor Mac Erc, more commonly known in Scottish history as Fergus I. The descendants of Heremon, a son of Milesius, continued to live in the northern part of Eire. Over time they lost the rights to the High Kingship over the whole of the country, but despite that, they still claimed kingship over Dal Riata.
