AN GAOḊAL.
275
O'Curry's Lectures.
ON THE
MANUSCRIPT MATERIAL OF ANCIENT IRISH HIS¬
TORY.
(Continued.)
LECTURE VII.
[Delivered July 7, 1856.]
Of the other Works of the Four Masters. "The
Succession of the Kings." The "Book of Inva¬
sions." O'Cery's Glossary.
In my last lecture I concluded the subject of the
various regular Annals which have come down to
us. In connection with the subject of the last and
greatest of these invaluable compilations, the An¬
nals of the Four Masters, it became my duty, in
explaining how that noble work was undertaken,
to offer you some short account of the O'Clerys,
its principal authors, and their learned associates.
Before I pass, then, to an examination of the var¬
ious other sources from which the student will
have to draw the materials of the yet unwritten
history of Erinn, it will perhaps be convenient
that I should here conclude what I have to say
to you upon the other historical works handed
down to us by the Four Masters. These works
(alluded to in that preface of Colgan's which you
heard quoted at such length in the last lecture)
are all to a great extent parallel with that which
has engaged our attention. Their plan is not the
same; and, though a great number of facts are
recorded in all the several series of the O'Clerys'
writings, the details are rarely repeated; and each
of these books, contemporaneous in execution as
they were, must be studied as the necessary com¬
plement of the others of them. It is much to be
regretted, that none of them, as yet, has met with
the good fortune of the Annals, in being publish¬
ed in any form to the world; and I am sure when
you have become acquainted with their extent and
value, you will join with me in the hope that the
present generation may see these works also of
our great annalists brought out in a style worthy
of the splendid volumes edited by Dr O'Donovan.
The first of the historical books of the O'Clerys
referred to by Colgan, to which I shall direct your
attention, is that called the Reim Rioghraidhe, or
Succession of The Kings. And, as you are now
acquainted with the manner in which the masters
approach their subjects, in these serious histori¬
cal compositions, perhaps the best course I can
take today is to open at once the author's Preface
to the Reim Rioghraidhe, of which the following
may be taken as a sufficiently accurate translation
"In nomine Dei. Amen.
"On the 3rd day of the month of September, An¬
no Christi 1644. this book was commenced to be
written, in the house of Conall, son of Niall, son
of Rossa Mageoghan, of Lios Maighne, in Cenel
Fhiachach (in Westmeath), one by whom are pri¬
zed and preserved the ancient monuments of our
ancestors; one who is the industrious collecting
Bee of everything that belongs to the honour ond
history of the descendants of Milesius and of Lu¬
gaidh, son of Ith, both lay and ecclesiastical, as
far as he could find them. And what is written
in this book is, the Reim Rioghraidhe (the Suc¬
cesion of the Kings), and the history of the Saints
of Erinn, which are now corrected and amended
by these persons following — viz. the Friar Michael
O'Clery, Ferfeasa O'Mulconry, and Cucoigcriche
O'Duigenan, all of them persons learned in the I¬
rish language. And it is taken from the principal
ancient Books of Erin, in the Convent of Athlone,
as we before stated [it does not appear where]; as
well as from the historical poem, written by Gilla
Caomhain O'Cuirnin, which begins (Eire og inis
na naomh) (Virgin Eire, Island of Saints), and a¬
nother poem, written by Aengus Mac an Ghobh¬
ann (Aengus Ceile De, or the Culdee), which be¬
gins, 'Naomhsheanchus naomh Inse Fail (the sa¬
cred history of the Saints of Inis Fail), and anoth¬
er poem, which begins, 'Athair chaigh chuimsigh
nimhe' (Father of all, Ruler of Heaven.)
"This book contains also the Book of Rights,
which was originally ordered by Saint Benean,
and is copied from a book which was written by
the aforesaid Conall [Mageoghegan] on the 4th of
August, 1636, from the Book of Lecain, which had
been lent him by the Protestant Primate [Ussher]
which Book of Lecain was written a long time be¬
fore that by Adam Mor O'Cuirnin for Gilla Isa
Mor Mac Firbis, Ollamh of Ui-Fhiachrach, Anno
Domini 1418; and Morroch Riabhach O'Coinlisg
wrote more of it, in the house of Rory O'Dowda,
King of Hy-Fhiachrach of the Moy. The present
book contains, besides, the history of the cause
why the Boromean tribute was imposed on the
Lagenians, and the person by whom it was impo¬
sed; and the history of the coming of the Delvians
(Mac Cochlan) into 'Conn's Half' of Erinn, out of
Munster. It contains, also, the history of the
cause why Fenius Farsaidh went to learn poetry to
the Tower of Nimrod, in preference to any other
place; and the names of the various languages
that were known at that time, and from which the
Gaedhlic language was brought away by Gaedhel,
the son of Etheor, from whom it derives its name.
And it contains an account of the death of Conn
of the hundred battles. It also contains the seven
fatalities of the monarch of Erinn, the fatalities
of the provincial kings in like manner: and the
poem which begins Roileag laoch leithe Cuinn
(the burial place of the heroes of Conn's Half) [of
Erinn], which was completed, and finished, and
put in this book, on the 25th day of September of
that same year before mentioned (1644), by the
Friar Paul O'Colla, of the order of Saint Francis,
in the house of the aforesaid Conall [Mageoghan].
It likewise contains the pedigrees of the monarch
of Erinn, and the length of time that each reign¬
ed; and it contains the genealogies of the Irish
Saints as they have been collected from the books
of the old writers, set down according to their des¬
cent, in alphabetical order; to the glory of God,
and the honor of the saints and of the kingdom
and to diffuse the knowledge and intelligence of
the things aforesaid, and of the authors who pres¬
erved the history of Erinn, before and after the
Introduction of Christianity. Finished in the Ob¬
servantine Convent of Athlone, in the Bishopric
of Clonmacnois, 1630."
[It is observable that the authors profess to in¬
clude, in a single book, not only the succession of
the kings, but also the genealogy of such of the
saints of Erinn, as descended from them, and
which Colgan treats as a separate work.]
The following is O'Clery's Dedication. —
"To Torloch Mac Cochlain."
"After I, the poor Friar Michael O'Clery, had
