106
AN GAOḊAL.
O'Curry's Lectures.
ON THE
MANUSCRIPT MATERIAL OF ANCIENT IRISH HIS¬
TORY.
LECTURE V.
[Delivered June 19, 1856.]
(Continued from p. 72.)
(Colum Cille) to tell him that that man had been
killed. Scarcely had this conversation ended when
they heard a shout at the port of that island (that
is, the landing place on the main land opposite to
it), and Colum Cille said that it was with an acc¬
ount of the killing of the poet the man came who
raised that shout. All was verified that Colum
Cille had said; and the names of God and Colum
Cille were magnified on that account."
From this notice, as well as from several other
references that might be adduced, it is certain that
Saint Columba founded a monastery on the island
in Loch Ce, which is now called the Island of the
Saints.
The Annals of the Four Masters, in the Testimo¬
nium, and again at the year 1005, mention and
quote the Annals of the Island of Saints in Loch
Ribh (Loch Ree is an expansion of the river Shan¬
non between Athlone and Lanesborough). And
the second continuation after the year 1405 of the
chronicle now called the Annals of Tighernach,
states in that work, that Augustin Mac Grady (the
continuator probably, from 1088 to 1405.), was a
canon of the Island of Saints, but he does not say
where this island was situated. There can be no
doubt, however, that this Island of the Saints was
the one situated in Loch Ribh [Ree], to the north
of Inis Clothrann, and belonging to the County of
Longford, — an island which still contains venera¬
ble though ruined monuments of ancient Catholic
piety and taste.
It is stated by Colgan, Ware, and Doctor Lani¬
gan, that Inis Ainghin, an island situated in the
Upper Shannon, above Athlone, and belonging to
Westmeath, was this Island of the Saints. This,
however, is not correct, as that island continued
to bear its regular name down to a recent period,-
as it does still with the Irish-speaking neighbors,
though it is called Hare Island by English speak¬
ers.
Archdall, in his Monasticon, says that the Island
of saint in Loch Gamhna in Longford, on which
Saint Colum Cille founded his church, was ancien¬
tly called Inis Ainghin; but I have shown in a for¬
mer lecture, from indisputable authority, that the
church of Inis Ainghin, the ruins of which remain
still, was founded by the great Saint Ciaran, be¬
fore the founding of his celebrated ecclesiastical
city of Clonmacnois.
To return to the Annals of Connacht. These
Annals, or rather the existing fragment of them,
extend from the year 1224 to the year 1562.
It is unfortunate that neither the transcriber,
nor the person for whom they were transcribed,
has left us any notice of the extent or history of
the old vellum MS. from which they were copied.
There is reason, however, to believe that they are
a fragment of the book of Annals of the O'Duige¬
nanns, of Kilronan, in the County Roscommon,
mentioned, as we have already said, by the Four
Masters as having been used by them in their
great compilation, and which extended from the
year 900 to the year 1563.
The original of this fragment, however, was in
the late Stowe collection, and passed, by purchase
into the hands of Lord Ashburnham, an English
nobleman, in whose custody they are as safe from
the rude gaze of historical investigators as they
were when in the hands of His Grace of Bucking¬
ham, who got possession of them by accident, and
sold them as part of the ducal furniture, to the
prejudice of the late Mathew O'Connor, Esq., of
Dublin, the true hereditary owner.
The following observations on this ancient vell¬
um fragment will be found in the Rev. Dr. O'Con¬
or's catalogue of the Stowe manuscripts, vol. I., no
9, p. 73.
"Annals of Conacht, folio, parchment. — The
written pages are 174, beginning with the year
1223, and ending with 1562. Ireland produces no
chronicle of the affairs of Connacht to be compar¬
ed with this. The narrative is in many instances
circumstantial; the occurrences of the different
years in every part of the province are noticed; as
are the foundation of castles and churches, and the
chronology is every where minutely detailed.
"There is no history of the province of Connacht;
neither is there of any town or district of that most
populous part of Ireland, except this unpublished
chronicle.
"This chronicle is, therefore, invaluable. Many
are the inducements which it holds out to dwell
upon some of its events; many the notices which
would inform and instruct the people to whose
country they refer. But in the vast variety of mat¬
ter hitherto unpublished, the difficulty of making
a selection, and the danger of exceeding the limits
of a catalogue, forbid the attempt.
"Those who have been misled by elaborate dis¬
cussions on the antiquity of Irish castles and chur¬
ches, will find the errors of ponderous volumes cor¬
rected in the MS. with a brevity which leaves no
room for doubt, and an accuracy which leaves none
for conjecture. The pride and dogmatism of learn¬
ing must bow before the 'barbarous' narrative
which gives the following information."
[Here follow the dates of the creation and des¬
truction of castles and monasteries from the year
1232 to 1507, with some particulars respecting
them, after which the article concludes in the foll¬
owing words:]
"It is to be lamented that the first part of the
Annals of Connacht are missing in this collection;
they are quoted by Ussher in his Primordia, and
confounded with the Annals of Boyle by Nichol¬
son."
The same learned writer gives also the follow¬
ing extract, original and translation, in illustration
of his observations on these annals, at page 76 of
the above mentioned volume:
"A.D. 1464, Tadhg O'Conor died, and was buried
in Roscommon, the nobility of Connacht all wit¬
nessing the interment; so that not one of the Con¬
nacht kings, down from the reign of Cathal of the
red hand, was more honorably interred; and no
wonder, since he was one of the best kings of Con¬
nacht, considering the gentleness of his reign.
There was no king of Connacht after him — they
afterwards obtained the title of O'Conor, and be¬
cause they were not themselves steady to each o¬
ther, they were crushed by lawless power and the
