142
AN GAOḊAL.
count of the chief collections of annals or chroni¬
cles in which the skeleton of the events of Gaedh¬
lic History is preserved with greater or less com¬
pleteness; and that you may understand the value
and extent of the reliable records of this kind that
remain to us, it is the more necessary that I should
go into some details, because there is no published
account of, or guide to, this immense mass of his¬
torical materials. But I will not neglect to point out
to you also, how these dry records may be used in
the construction of a true history, as vivid as in
pictures of life, as accurate and trustworthy in its
records of action. And before this short course
terminates, I hope to satisfy you that collateral
materials exist also in rich abundance, for the ill¬
ustration and completion of that history in a way
fully as interesting to the general Irish reader as
to the philologist or antiquarian.
LECTURE VI.
[Delivered June 26. 1856.]
The Annals (continued). 7. The Chronicum Scot¬
orum of Duald Mac Firbis. Of Mac Firbis, his
life and death, and his works. 8. The Annals of
Lecain. Of the Story of Queen Gormlaith. 9.
The Annals of Clonmacnois.
If we followed exactly a cronological order, the
next great record which should claim our attention
would be the Annals of the Four Masters; but the
importance and extent of that great work demand
at least, the space of an entire lecture; and I shall,
accordingly, devote the greater part of the present
to the consideration of an almost contemporary
compilation, — the last but one of those I have al¬
ready named to you, — the Chronicum Scotorum of
the celebrated Duald Mac Firbis (Dubhaltach mac
Firbhisigh).
Of this chronicle there are three copies known
to me to be in existence. One, the autograph, in
the library of Trinity College, Dublin, and two
in the library of the Royal Irish Academy. Of the
latter, one is in the handwriting of John Conroy,
whose name has been mentioned in a former lect¬
ure, in connection with this tract and the Annals
of Tighernach; the second is a copy lately made
in Cork, by Paul O'Longan, from what source I
am not able to say with certainty, but I believe it
to have been from a copy made by his grandfather
Michael O'Longan, in Dublin, about the year 1780,
and if I am correct in this opinion, there are four
copies in Ireland, besides any which the present
O'Longans may have made and sold in England.
This chronicle has been already mentioned in
our account of the Annals of Tighernach, and as
nothing of its history is known to me but what
can be gathered from the book itself, and the au¬
tograph (or Trinity College copy) is written, pro¬
ceed without further delay to the consideration of
that manuscript.
The Trinity College MS. is written on paper of
foolscap size, like that upon which the Annals of
Tighernach in the same volume are written, but
apparently not so old. It is in the bold and most
accurate hand of Dubhaltach (sometimes called
Duvald, Duald, or Dudley) Mac Firbis, the last
of a long line of historians and chroniclers of Lec¬
ain Mac Fhirbhisigh, in the barony of Tir-Fhiach¬
radh, or Tireragh, in the county of Sligo.
Duald Mac Firbis appears to have been intend¬
ed for the hereditary profession of an antiquarian
and historian, or for that of Fenechas or ancient
native laws of the country (now improperly called
the Brehon Laws). To qualify him for either of
these ancient and honorable professions, and to
improve and perfect his education, young Mac Fir¬
bis appears at an early age to have passed into
Munster, and to have taken up his residence in the
School of law and history, then kept by the Mac
Ægans, Lecain, in Ormond, in the present county
of Tipperary. He studied also for some time, ei¬
ther before or this, but I believe after, in Burren,
in the present county of Clare, at the not less dis¬
tinguished literary and legal school of the O'Dav¬
orens; where we find him, with many other young
Irish gentlemen, about the year 1595, under the
presidency of Donnell O'Davoren.
The next place in which we meet Mac Firbis is
in the college of Saint Nicholas, in the ancient
town of Galway; where he compiled his large and
comprehensive volume of Pedigrees of ancient Ir¬
ish and Norman families, in the year 1650.
The autgraph of this great compilation is now
in the possession of the Earl of Roden, and a fec¬
simile copy of it was made by me for the Royal I¬
rish Academy in 1836. Of this invaluable work,
perhaps the best and shortest description that
could present you with, will be the simple transla¬
tion of the Title prefixed to it by the author, which
runs as follows:
"The Branches of Relationship and the Genea¬
logical Ramifications of every Colony that took
possession of Erinn, traced from this time up to
Adam (excepting only those of the Fomorians,
Lochlanns, and Saxon-Galls, of whom we, howev¬
er, treat, as they have settled in the country); to¬
gether with a Sanctilogium, and a Catalogue of
the Monarchs of Erinn; and finally, an Index,
which comprises, alphabetical order, the surnames
and the remarkable places mentioned in this book,
which was compiled by Dubhaltach Mac Firbhis¬
igh, of Lecain, 1650.
"Although the above is the customary way of
giving titles to book at the present time, we will
not depart from the following custom of our ances¬
tors, the ancient summary custom, because it is
the plainest; thus :
"The place, time, author, and cause of writing
this book, are :— the place, the College of St. Ni¬
cholas, in Galway; the time, the time of the reli¬
gious war between the Catholics of Ireland and the
Heretics of Ireland, Scotland, and England, parti¬
cularly the year 1650 ; the person or author, Dub¬
haltach, the son of Gilla Isa Mor Mac Firbhisigh,
historian, etc., of Lecain Mac Firbis, in Tireragh,
on the Moy; and the cause of writing the book is,
to increase the glory of God, and for the informa¬
tion of the people in general."
It was to Dr. Petrie that the Council of the Roy¬
al Irish Academy entrusted the care of having a
copy of this book made, which I have just alluded
to; and, afterwards, on the occasion of laying that
copy before them, he read an able paper, which is
published in the eighteenth volume of the Trans¬
actions of the Academy, on the character and his¬
toric value of the work, and of the little that was
known of the learned author's history.
In the course of his remarks, this accomplished
writer says; "To these are fact I can only
add that of his death, which, as we learn from
Charles O'Conor, was tragical, — for this last of
the Mac Firbises was unfortunately murdered at
Dubflin, in the county of Sligo, in the year 1670,
The circumstances connected with this event were
known to that gentleman, but a proper respect for
the feelings of the descendents of the murderer,
