﻿966
AN GAOḊAL
ṁaiṫ, aċ buḋ ċóir ḋuit aire níos grin¬
ne do ṫaḃairt do riaġla litearḋa.
Maidir le do ġeur-ḃreaṫnuġaḋ air
ċuimseaċt an dlíġe a luaḋa san Gaoḋ¬
al, muna m-baineann sé leat ní'l an
"bairéad" foileaṁnaċ ḋuit. F. G. ]
O'Curry's Lectures.
ON THE
MANUSCRIPT MATERIAL OF ANCIENT IRISH HIS¬
TORY.
LECTURE IV.
[Delivered March 22, 1855]
(Continued)
Down to 1130, the initials are rudely adorned
and colored, and the writing is elegant — but from
thence to the end, there is no attempt at any spe¬
cies of ornament, and the writing declines from
barbarous to more barbarous still, in proportion
as we approach the end. The last leaf is the fifty
seventh of the manuscript, and ends with the year
1319.
"The few scattered notices relative to the pagan
history of Ireland, which are occasionally introdu¬
ced and synchronized with the universal history in
the first leaves of the chronicle, have been carefull¬
ly collated and published in the 'Rerum Hiberni¬
carum', vol. 1., and from a collation of these frag¬
ments with those preserved in the same manner by
Tighernach, it is very clear that both are founded
on a common source, since several of the quotat¬
ions and several sentenses are exactly in the same
words. What this common source was, it would
be difficult to define. Tighernach quotes a great
number of Irish authors of the seventh, eighth,
ninth, and tenth centuries.
“The following account of this MS. is given by
Innes, who saw it when it was preserved in the
Duke of Chandos’ library [I still quote the author
of the Stowe Catalogue] “In the same Chandos
library are the Annals of Inisfallen and Tigher¬
nach. These, indeed, want some leaves in the be¬
ginning and elsewhere, and begin only about the
time of Alexander the Great. But till St. Patrick's
time, they treat chiefly of the general history of
the world. The Annals of Inisfallen, in the same
library, contain a short account of the history of the
world in general, and very little of Ireland till the
year 480, where the author properly begins (at fo¬
lio nine) a chronicle of Ireland, thus — 'Laogaire
Mac Neil regnavit annis xxiv.', and thence forward
it contains a short chronicle of Ireland to 1318.
These three manuscript chronicles, the Saltair of
Cashel, Tighernach, and Inisfallen, are written in
Irish characters, and in the Irish language inter-
mixed with Latin. They were formerly collected,
with many other valuable MSS. relating to Ireland
by Sir J. Ware, and came first to the Earl of Clar¬
endon, and then to the Duke of Chandos.
“To all this account by Innes,” says Dr. O’Con¬
or, “the compiler of this catalogue, after a most pa¬
tient examination, willingly subscribes. He only
adds, what escaped Innes, that this MS. is not
all in one hand, nor all the work of one author.
In the same manuscript as that which contains
the Annals of Inisfallen, there is a copy of those
known as the Annals of Boyle, of which I shall say
something in a future lecture in correction of the
mistakes of Dr. O'Conor and others, as to the name
thus attributed to the annals in question. No co¬
py of these annals exists in Ireland : and I must
againn quote Dr. O'Conor for a brief notice of the
Bodleian MS.
“The ancient Monastery of Boyle was founded
by St. Columba, and called Eas-mac-n-Eirc, a
name which it derived from its pleasant situation
near a cataract, about a mille from where the river
Boyle discharges itself into Loch Cei. Cistercian
Monastery of Boyle was founded, not exactly on
the site of the ancient monastery, but not far from
it, in the year 1161.
“The writers on Irish antiquities frequently con¬
found the Annals of Boyle with the Annals of Con¬
nacht. To prevent mistakes of this kind, we must
observe, that the manuscript in the Cotton Libra¬
ry (Titus A, xxv.), quarto, part on paper, part on
parchment, and consisting of 188 leaves of both, is
the original from which this Stowe copy was tran¬
scribed. The first article of that MS. is on parch¬
ment, and is entitled — Annales Monasterii de Buel¬
lio in Hibernia. It is part in Irish, part in Latin,
beginning with the Creation ; treating briefly of u¬
niversal history to the arrival of St. Patrick, and
from thence of Irish history down to 1253."
It is to be regretted that we have no means of
fixing, with any degree of precision, the period at
which the Annals of Inisfallen, or those here called
the Annals of Boyle, were composed. The diffi¬
culty is referrible, not to the paucity of authors in
the centuries to which they are usually assigned,
but rather the impossibility of fixing upon anyone
out of the hosts of writers whose names have come
down to us, to whom their compilation may be with
tolerable certainty attributed.
With regard to the Annals of Inisfallen, there is
as we have just seen, a high degree of probability,
that some body of records was compiled by O'Carr¬
oll in his time; but we do not know who continued
them in the two following centuries. Less is un¬
fortunately to be ascertained about the Annals
called those Boyle. The periods, however, with¬
in which the compilation of both may be compris¬
ed, were very fertile in men of learning, as will
sufficiently appear from the following list, which
comprises but a few only of the more remarkable
historic writers of the period which intervened be¬
tween the time of the composition of the Annals of
Tighernach and of the next body of historic re¬
cords which we have to notice. They are selected
from the very numerous writers whose deaths are
recorded by the Four Masters, in almost every year
of this period.
A.D. 1136. Died Maelisa Mac Maelcoluim, the
chief keeper of the calendar of Armagh, the chief
topographical surveyor and librarian of that see.
In the same year died Neidhe O'Mulconroy, the
historian.
A.D. 1168. Died Flannagan O'Dubhthaigh, a
bishop and a chief professor of the men of Ireland
in history, genealogy, eloquence, and every species
of knowledge known to man in his time. He died
at Cunga [Cong , in Connacht.
A.C. 1132. Died Tipraite O'Braoin, a man deep¬
ly learned in theology and in law. He was succes¬
sor of Saint Coman of Roscommon, and died in
Inis Clothrann on his pilgrimage.
A.D. 1279. Giolla losa Mor Mac Firbis, one of
