276
AN GAOḊAL.
been four years, at the command of my superior,
engaged in collecting and bringing together all
that I could find of the history of the saints of Ire¬
land, and of the kings to whom their pedigrees are
carried up, it occurred to me that it would not be
judicious to put that collection into other langua¬
ges (40), without the authority, proof, and inspec¬
tion of other historians. I also considered that
the foresaid work could not be finished without
expense. But such was the poverty of the order
to which I belong, on account of their vow and the
oppressions of the time, that I was obliged to com¬
plain of it to gentlemen who were not bound to
poverty by vow. And, among those to whom I
made my complaint, I found no one to relieve my
anxiety towards bringing this work to completion
but one person who was willing to assist me, to
the promotion of the glory of God, the honor of
the saints and the kingdom, and the good of his
own soul. And that person is Torloch Mac Coch¬
lain. [Here follows the pedigree of Mac Cochlain]
And it was this Torloch Mac Cochlain that forwar¬
ded this work, and that kept together the company
that were engaged in completing it, along with the
private assistance given by the foresaid convent
every day. On the 4th day of October, therefore
this book was commenced, and the 4th day of No¬
vember it was finished in the convent of the friars
before mentioned in the fifth year of king Char¬
les of England, 1630."
It is remarkable that we have not the autograph
original of any part of these two books, or rather
this one book, now in Ireland.
After this Dedication, or notice, follows, in the
original, an address to the reader, much of which
is so characteristic of the enthusiasm of the writer,
and so pathetic in the appeal it contains to the
tenderness of Gaedhlic patriotism, that I cannot
omit to lay it before you. "Strangers," says Mi¬
chael O'Clery, "have taken the principal books of
Erinn into strange countries and among unknown
people." You have heard many instances of this
hard fate of our most ancient books since O'Clery's
time, and of the difficulties and annoyances which
the humble followers of our great historians have
met with in their researches, even in our days,
from the same cause. It is remarkable enough,
that of the three books of the O'Clerys which Col¬
gan spoke of, we do not posses, to-day, the origi¬
nal of any one in this country.
"Address to the reader.
"What true Children are there that would not
feel pity and distress, at seeing, or hearing of,
their excellent mother and nurse being placed in
a condition of indignity and contempt, of dishon¬
our and contumely, without making a visit to her
to bring her solace and happiness, and to give her
assistance and relief?
"Upon its having been observed by certain
parties of the natural order of Saint Francis, that
the holiness and righteousness of their mother
and nurse — Erinn — had perceptibly diminished.
for not having the lives, wonders, and miracles of
her saints disseminated within her, nor yet made
known in other kingdoms; the counsel they ad¬
opted was to send from them into Erinn a poor
Friar Minor of their own, (the Observantine) Mi¬
chael O'Clery (a chronicler by descent and educa¬
tion), in order to collect and bring to one place all
the books of authority in which he could discover
anything that related to the sanctity of her saints,
with their pedigrees and genealogies.
"Upon the arrival of the aforesaid friar, he
sought and searched through every part of Erinn
in which he had heard there was a good or even a
bad book [i.e. a Gaedhlic MS]; so that he spent
four full years in transcribing and procuring the
matters that related to the saints of Erinn. How¬
ever, though great his labour and his hardships,
he was able to find but a few of the many of them,
because strangers had carried off the principal
books of Erinn into remote and unknown foreign
countries and nations, so that they have left her
but insignificant part of her books.
"And, after what the aforesaid friar could find
had been collected to one place, what he thought of
and decided to do was this — viz. to bring together
and assemble in one place, three persons whom he
should consider most befitting and most suitable
to finish the work which he had undertaken (with
the consent of his superior), for the purpose of
examining all the collections that he had made.
These were — Ferfeasa O'Mulconry, from Bally
Mulconry, in the County of Roscommon; Cucoig¬
criche O'Clery, from Bally Clery, in the County
of Donegal ; and Cucoigcriche O'Duigenann from
Baile-Coille-foghair [now Castlefore], in the Co.
of Leitrim. These persons, then, came to one
place; and having come, the four of them decid¬
ed to write the Roll of the monarchs of Erinn at
the beginning of the book. They determined on
this for two reasons. The first reason, because
the pedigrees of the saints could not have been
brought to their origin, without having the pedi¬
grees of the early kings placed before them, as it
was from them they descended. The second rea¬
son, in order that, the duty and devotion of the
noble people to their saints, their successors, and
their churches, should be the greater, by their
having knowledge of their relationship and friend¬
ship with their blessed patrons, and of the descent
of the saints from the stem from which each
branch of them sprung, and the number of the
saints of the same branch.
"And there is, indeed, a considerable section
of the saints of Erinn whose names may be found
already entered in proper order in old genealogical
books, without intermixture of descent, the one
with the other of them, as they branch off and se¬
parate from the original stems.
"Whoever thou art, then, O reader ! we leave
it to thyself to perceive that thou will find profit,
sense, knowledge, and brevity in this work. For
the succession of all the kings with their pedigrees
to their origin, will be found in it, in the order
in which they obtained the sovereignty in succes¬
sion; together with the number of their years,
the age of the world at the end of the reign of
each king of them, and the age of our Lord Jesus
from His Incarnation to the death of each, down
to the death of Malachy the Great [in A.D. 1022].
And the saints are given according to their alpha¬
betical order, and their origin, as we have already
said.
Glory be unto God.
"Your loving friends,
Brother Michael O'Clery.
Ferfeasa O'Mulconry.
Cucoigcriche O'Clery.
Cucoigcriche O'Duigenan.
(To be Continued)
Irishmen, do you expect your children to bless
your memory? If so, for what? For leaving the
exposed to the derisive taunts of the world, Is it?
