AN GAOḊAL.
155
O'Curry's Lectures.
ON THE
MANUSCRIPT MATERIAL OF ANCIENT IRISH HIS¬
TORY.
LECTURE VI.
[Delivered June 26, 1856.]
(Continued from p. 143.)
So that in all there are six glossaries, or frag¬
ments of glossaries, in his handwriting in T. C. D.
It is in the introduction to his great book of Gen¬
ealogies that he states that he had written or com¬
piled a Dictionary of the "Brehon Law", in which
he had explained them extensively; and also a ca¬
talogue of the writings and writers of ancient Er¬
inn. but, with the exception of the fragments just
referred to, these two important works are now un¬
known. [And I may here mention that I have co¬
pied out these precious fragments of his own com¬
pilation in more accessible form, for the Dublin
University.] Besides these manuscripts at home,
I may mention that there is in the British Museum
also a small quarto book, containing a rather mo¬
dern Martyrology, or Litany of the Saints, in verse
chiefly in Mac Firbis's hand.
Mac Firbis does not seem to have neglected the
poetic art either, for I have in my own possession
two poems, of no mean pretensions, written by him
on the O'Seachnasaigh (O'Shaughnessys) of Gort,
about the year 1650.
Of Mac Firbis's translations from the earlier An¬
nals we have now no existing trace. That he did
translate largely and generally we can well under¬
stand, from the following remarks of Harris in his
edition of Ware's Bishops, page 612, under the
head of Tuam :—
"One John was consecrated about the year 1441
[Sir James Ware declares he could not discover
when he died; and adds, that some called him Jn.
de Burgo, but that he could not answer for the
truth of that name]. But both these particulars
are cleared up, and his immediate successor, nam¬
ed by Dudley Firbisse, an amanuensis, whom Sir
James Ware employed in his house, to translate
and collect for him from the Irish MSS., one of
whose pieces begins thus, viz.: 'This translation
beginned was by Dudley Firbisse, in the house of
Sir James Ware, in Castle, Street, Dublin, 6th of
November. 1666', which was twenty-four days be¬
fore the death of the said knight. The annals or
translation which he left behind him, begin in the
year 1443, and end in 1468. I suppose the death
of his patron put a stop to his further progress.
Not knowing from whence he translated these an¬
nals, wherever I have occasion to quote them I
mention under the name of Dudley Mac Firbise."
Again under the head of Richard O'Farrell, bi¬
shop of Ardagh, page 253. Harris writes:
"In MS. annals, intitled the Annals of Firbissy
(not those of Gelasy [Gilla Isa Mac Firbissy, who
died in 1301, but the collection or translation of one
Dudley Firbissy), I find mention made of Richard
bishop of Ardagh, and that he was son to the
Great Dean, Fitz Daniel Fitz John Golda O'Fer¬
gaill, and his death placed there under the year
1444."
Of those Annals of Gilla Isa (or Gillisa) Mac Fir¬
bis of Lecan, who died in 1301, we have no trace
now. it is probable that they were the Annals of
Lecan mentioned by the Four Masters as having
come into their hands when their compilation from
other sources was finished, and from which they
added considerably to their text.
Of Duald Mac Firbis's translation, extending
from the year 1443 to 1468, there are three copies
extant, one in the British Musuem, class¬
ed as "Clarendon 68", which is, I believe, in the
translator's own handwriting. The second copy
is in the library of Trinity College, Dublin class
F. 1. 181. The third copy is in Harris's collection
in the library of the Royal Dublin Society; it is in
Harris's own hand, and appears to have been co¬
pied from the Trinity College copy, with correct¬
ions of some of the former transcribers inaccura¬
cis.
The following memorandum, prefixed to a list of
Irish bishops, made by Sir James Ware, and now
preserved in the manuscript above referred to in
the British Museum, will enable us to form some
idea of the sources, the only true ones, from which
this has been drawn.
"The ensuing bishops' names have been collect¬
ed out of several Irish ancient and modern manu¬
cripts, viz: of Gilla-isa Mac Fferbisy, written
before the year 1397 (it is he that wrote the greate
Booke of Leacan Mac Fferdissy, now kept in Dub¬
lin), and out of others the Mac Fferbisy Annals,
out of Saints' calenders genealogies also, for the
Right Worshipful and ever honoured Sir James
Ware, knight, one of his Majesties Privie Council,
and Auditor General of the Kingdom of Ireland.
This collection is made by Dudley Firbisse, 1655,"
— p. 17.
These translated annals have been edited by Dr.
John O'Donovan, and published in the first vol¬
ume of the Miscellany of the Archӕological Socie¬
ty, in the year 1846.
Mac Firbis's was of no ordinary or ignoble race,
being certainly descended from Dathi, the last pa¬
gan monarch of Erinn, who was killed by light¬
ning, at the foot of the Alps, in Anno Domini 428.
At what time the Mac Firbises became profession¬
al and hereditary historians, genealogists and poets
to various princes in the province of Connacht, we
now know not; but we know that from some rem¬
ote period down to the descent of Oliver Cromwell
upon this country, they held a handsome patrimo¬
ny at Lecain Mac Firbis, on the banks of the Riv¬
er Muaidh, or Moy, in the county of Sligo, on
which a castle was built by the brothers Cioth¬
ruadh, and James, and John og. their cousin, in
1560. So early as the year 1279. the Annals of
the Four Masters record the death of Gilla Isa (or
Gillia) Mor Mac Firbis, “chief historian of Tir-
Fiachrach" [in the present county of Sligo]. Again
at the year 1376, they record the death of Donogh
Mac Firbis, "an historian." And again at the year
1379, they record the death of Firbis Mac Firbis,
"a learned historian."
The great book of Lecain, now in the library of
the Royal Irish Academy, was compiled in the
year 1416 by Gilla Isa [or Gillisa] Mor, the direct
ancestor of Duald Mac Firbis; and the latter
quotes in his work (p. 66), not only the Annals of
Mac Firbis, but also the Leabhar Gabhala, or
Book of Invasions of Ireland, of his grandfather,
Dubhaltach [or Dudley] as an authority of the
Battle of Magh Tuireach Moytura], and the sit¬
uation of that place; and at p. 248, the Dumb
Book of James Mac Firbis for the genealogy of his
