AN GAOḊAL.
347
Saints of Erinn, induced the authors of their time
to perpetuate and amplify the history and syn¬
chronisms existing in their day. It was so done
at their request. The authors of the periods of
these saints, as is manifest in the latter part of
Eochaidh O'Flinn's poem, were, Fiontain, the son
of Bochna; Tuan, the son of Cairell, son of Muir¬
edhach Muinderg, of the Dal Fiatach; and Dall¬
on Forgaill, the illustrious author and saint.
"The histories and synchronisms of Erinn were
written and tested in the presence of these illust¬
rious saints, as is manifest in the great books
which were named after the saints themselves,
and from their great churches; for there was not
an illustrious church in Erinn that had not a
great book of history named from it, or from the
saint who sanctified it. It would be easy, too, to
know, from the books which the saints wrote, and
the songs of praise which they composed in Gae¬
dhlic, that they themselves, were the centres of
true knowledge, and the archives and homes of
the manuscripts of the author of Erinn, in the
olden times.
"Sad evil ! short time until dispersion and decay
overtook the churches and the saints, their relics,
and their books for there is not to be found of
them now, but a small remnant, that has been
carried away into distant countries and foreign
nations - carried away so that their fate is not
known from that time hither.
"The Book of Invasion which were present i.
e., which we had with us, at the writings of these
Conquests of Erinn, were, the Book of Bally Mul¬
conry, which Maurice, the son of Paidin O'Mul¬
conry, transcribed out of the Leabhar-na-h-Uidh¬
re, which was written at Cluainmicnois in St. Cia¬
ran's time; the Book of Bally Clery, which was
written in the time of Melsheachlinn Mor, the
son of Domnall [king of Ireland, who began his
reign in the year 979]: the Book of the O'Duige¬
nanns, from Seanchua in Tirerill, and which is
called the Book of Glen-da-locha; and the Book
of the Ua Chonghail; together with other Books
of Invasions and history, beside them.
"The sum of the matters to be found in the follow¬
ing book is the taking of Erinn by [the Lady] Cae¬
sair: the taking by the Firbolgs; the taking by
the Tuatha De Danann; the taking by the sons
of Miledh [or Miletius]; and their succession down
to the monarch Melshcachlainn, or Malachy the
Great [who died in 1022].
"We have declined to speak of the Creator's
first order, of created things, the heavens, the an¬
gels. time, and the great uncreated mass out of
which the four elements were formed, by the Di¬
vine will alone, in the six days' work, with the an¬
imals that inhabit the land, the water, and the air;
because it is to divines that it belongs to speak of
these things, and because wh have not deemed
any of these things to be necessary to our work,
with God's help. It is with men and time only
that we deem it proper to begin our work, that is
to say, from the creation of the first man, Adam,
whose descendants, our ancesters, we shall follow
in the direct line, generation after generation, to
the conclusion of this undertaking, with the end
of the reign of Malachy the Creat, son of Dom¬
nall, who was the last undisputed king of Erinn
within herself; and we have proceeded, in this
work, upon the authority of the Gaedhlic chroni¬
clers who have preceded us; and we have adopted
the rule of computaton of the ages, as they have
been found in the well-attested faithful archives
of the Church of Christ. For it is founded on the
authority and faithfulness of the Holy Scriptures;
and we shall show below how link by link this
rule of computation fixes the course of ages, in
point and in perfection, from Adam to the birth of
Christ down, and down again to the departure of
the sovereignty from our nobles, as it was willed
by God. We give the computation of the Septua¬
gint for the first four ages of the world, together
with the computation which the intelligent and
learned men who followed them applied to the a¬
ges from the creation of the world till the birth of
Christ, which they divided into five parts — name¬
ly, from Adam to the Deluge, 2,242 years; from
the Deluge to Abraham, 942 years; from Abra¬
ham to David, 940 years; from David to the Cap¬
tivity, 485 years; and from the Bondage to the
Birth of Christ, 590 years.
"The reason that we have followed the author¬
ities who follow the Septuagint is, because they
add the fifth age to their other ages, and, by so do¬
ing, they fill up the period of 5,199 years, from
the creation of Adam to the birth of Christ. A¬
mong the authors who follow the Septuagint, in
the first four ages, are, Eusebius, who, in his
chronicle, computes from the creation of Adam to
the birth of Christ to be 5,199 years. Orosius, in
the first chapter of his first book, say, that there
are from Adam to Abraham 3,184 years from Ab¬
raham to the birth of Christ, 2,015 years, which
make up the same number. These were two ill¬
ustrious and wise Christian historians. Saint Je¬
rome said also, in his Episte to Titus, that 6,000
years of the world’s age had not then been com¬
pleted Saint Augustine, in the tenth epistle of
his twelth book of the City of God, say, that the
time from the creation of man to that time counts
six thousand years. Both these are said to agree
with the preceding authorities in the same enum¬
eration of 5,199 years from Adam to the birth of
Christ. Another authority for the same fact is the
Roman Martyrology, which asserts that the full
amount of the ages from the creation of the world
to the birth of Christ was 5,199."
The Preface ends here, and is followed by the
certificates of the assistant compilers of the work,
with approbations, respectively, of Father Francis
Mac Craith, Guardian of the Convent of Lisgoole,
where the work was compiled (dated the 22nd day
of December, 1631), and of Carbry Mac Ægan,
of Bally Mac Ægan, in the County Tipperary (the
31st of August, 1631).
The original of this valuable book is now in the
collection of Lord Ashburnham, and there is a
good copy of it in Trinity College Library (H. 1.
12). There is a fine paper copy of it in the Royal
Irish Academy, made by Cucoigry O'Clery, evid¬
ently for himself, but it wants the whole prefato¬
ry matter. This book is a small quarto of 245
pages, closely and beautifully written, and equal
to 400 pages of O'Donovan's Annals of the Four
Masters.
Of the ancient "Book of Invasions", mentioned by
O'Clery, as haing eeen used in the compilation of
this book, we know none at present existing but
Leabhar-na-hUidhre, which contains now but a
small fragment of the Book of Invasions. There
are, however, copies of the tract preserved in the
Books of Leinster and Lecain, and a slightly im¬
perfect copy in the Book of Ballymote.
(To be continued)
