AN GAOḊAL.
799
This important poem, which consists altogether
of thirty-two quatrains, has been given (from the
MS. H. 3 3. in the Library of Trinity College),
with an English translation, by our distinguished
countryman. Dr. Petrie, in his valuable Memoir of
Temair or Tara, published in the eighteenth vol¬
ume of the Transactions of the Royal Irish Acad¬
emy, p. 143.
The book of Ballymote, in the Library of the
Royali Irish Academy [at fol. 145. a. a.], and the
Yellow Book of Lecan, in that of Trinity College.
Dublin [classed H. 2. 16] at col. 839, both contain
a curious article on the excellence of Cormac Mac
Art as a king. a judge, and a warrior, from which
I may extract here the following passage as also
referring to the Saltair of Tara:
"A noble work was performed by Cormac at that
time, namely, the compilation of Cormac's Saltair,
which was composed by him and the Seanchaidhe
[or Historians] of Erinn, including Fintan, Son of
Bochra, and Fithil, the poet and judge [both dis¬
tinguished for ancient lore]. And their synchrion¬
isms and genealogies, the succession of their kings
and monarchs, their battles, their contests, and
the antiquities, from the world's beginning down
to that time were written; and this is the Saltair
of Temair, which is the origin and fountain of the
Historians of Erinn from that period down to this
time. This is taken from the Book of the Uach¬
ongbhail."
Dr. Petrie, in his remarks on the Saltair or Psal¬
ter of Tara observes that "the very title given to
this work is sufficient to excite well-founded sus¬
picion of its antiquity." His meaning evidently
is that the title of Saltair appears clearly to imply
a knowledge of Holy Scriptures, and can scarcely
have been selected as the title of his work by a
heathen author.
We do not, however, anywhere read that the
name of Psalter or Saltair, was given to this work
by its compiler. We know that in later times the
celebrated King Bishop Cormac Mac Cullinan gave
the same name of Saltair to the great similar coll¬
ection made by him about the close of the ninth
or beginning of the tenth century. Did he call his
compilation, or was it called by others, after the
Saltair of Tara, compiled by the older Cormac in
the third century? Or even if we suppose the
name of Saltair or Psalter to have originated with
the Christian Cormac, the same name may have
been afterwards given to the older work, from the
similar nature of its contents, and its having been
compiled by another Cormac. If the one was wor¬
thy of being named Psalter of Cashel as having
been compiled at the command of a king of Cas¬
hel the other was equally entitied to the name
of Psalter of Tara, having been compiled by the
King of Tara. There was time enough from the
beginning of the tenth century to the time we
first find it mentioned under the name of Saltair
and Psalter of Tara, to give full currency to the
title; and this supposition may, in part, perhaps,
furnish an answer to another of Dr. Petrie's diffi¬
culties, viz., that this book has not been quoted.
nor any extract from it given, in any of our ancient
Irish authorities, although the Saltair of Cashel is
frequently cited by them. Perhaps they have quo¬
ted it although under other names, not ascertained
by us to be identical with it, the name of Saltair
of Tara not having been in their time universally
adopted as applicable to it. But a better answer
to the difficulty is probably in the fact that the Sal¬
tair of Tara had perished before the twelfth or
thirteenth century, and consequently was inacces¬
ible to the compilers of the Books of Ballymote.
Lecan, Hy Many, etc. For in the passage just quo¬
ted from the Book of Ballymote, its contents are
described on the authority of the Book of the Uac¬
hongbhail, whilst Cuan O'Lochain, writing three
centuries before, speaks of it (and under the name
of Saltair of Tara) as being in his time extant.
(To be continued.)
Since we commenced O'Curry's Lectures it has
been suggested to us by a sincere friend of the
Gaelic cause that we ought to commence Gallagh¬
er's Sermons, and let both run together till the
close, intimating that both these works (which are
considered standard works in Irish literature)
would be worth ten years' subscription to any
Irishman. We shall, then commence the Sermons
and they and O'Curry's Lectures will be continued
until finished. Such valuable work with the Gael¬
ic Lessons side by side, should cause every Irish¬
man to become a subscriber to the GAEL, and
thus leave his posterity a substantial memento of
the literature of his country.
THE FIRST PRINTED NEWSPAPER.
Using the word printing in the ordinary sense of
taking impressions from movable type, it may be
said that the first printed newspaper appeared in
the early part of the seventeenth century. In fact
attempts were made nearly simultaneously, to es¬
tablish printed and regularly published newspapers
in Germany, France and England. The first Ger¬
man newspaper, in numbered sheets, was issued in
1612. It was called an account of what had hap¬
pened in Germany and Italy, Spain and France, the
East and West Indies, etc. The first French news¬
paper was established at Paris, in 1632 by Renan¬
dot, a physician, famous for his skill in collecting
news to amuse his patients.
It was when the reign of the first James was
drawing to a termination — when Ben Johnson wore
the poet's, laurals, and when the admirers of Wil¬
liam Shakespeare were deploring his then recent
death; when Cromwell was selling ale in Hunting¬
don: when Milton, was a schoolboy, trying his
hand at Latin verses: and when Hampden was
living as a retired country gentleman in Bucking¬
hamshire — that London saw its first newspaper.
The puny ancestor of the present broad sheet was
published in the Metropolis, in 1622, and was first
offered the British public by a gentleman of the
name of Nathaniel Butter. Might we suggest that
that slippery name is characteristic of some of the
slippery action of some of the newspapers of the
present day? It was a small quarto, of eighteen
pages, called the “Certain News of the Present
Week."
Catholicity has lost millions of the Irish element
in this country through its neglect to keep ancient
Irish literature and civilization before the people.
and the Nationalists have lost the same number for
there is none so bitter against Catholicity and Irish
Nationality as the Irish pervert. When the igno¬
rant Irish attain riches, the Clare O'Shaughnessy
becomes "Chauncey," and the Kerry O'Connell,
"Cornell" (we have them in Brooklyn). If these
know that their own element was the most respect¬
able they would not change, and the Language is
the evidence. These are bitter remarks for the Na¬
tionalists and Clergy, but bitter medicine is good.
If any subscriber does not receive each issue of
the GAEL he should notify us of the fact.
