AN GAODHAL.
809
of Connacht and Ernin.
A decendant in the fourth generation of this
Duach was King of Connacht, and a Christian,
namely, Duach Tengumha, or Duach the sweet-
tongued, who died according to the Annals of the
Four Masters, A. D. 499, leaving an only son, Sen¬
ach, who was the ancestor of the O'Flahertys of
West Connacht.
Now, as there are but two of the name of Duach
to be found in the whole line of the Kings of Con¬
nacht (of whom the first was a pagan and the sec¬
on a Christian), the compiler of the Cin of Drom
Snechta must have been the son of one or the other,
and as the tradition concerning the book is, that it
was written before St. Patrick's time, it is pretty
clear, if we assume this tradition to be correct, that,
the son of Duach Galach was the compiler. Finally,
as his elder son, Eoghan Srem, succeeded him as
king, it appears to me very probable that his
younger son, Ernin, was the author of the Cin of
Drom Snechta. This would fairly enough bear out
the statement which Keating has put forward.
Dr. Keating makes another reference to the Cin,
where, in speaking of the schools said to have been
instituted by Fenius Farsaidh, he says, —
"Fenius sets up schools to teach the several lan¬
guages, on the Plain of Seanar, in the city which
the Cin Droma Snechta calls Eothona, as the poet
says," etc.
It has been already observed that the ancient
book called the Leabhar na h-Uidhre (which is in
some part preserved in a MS. of circa A. D. 1100,
bearing the same name, in the Library of the Royal
Irish Academy) contains a reference to the Cin of
Drom Snechta. And to this very old authority
may be added that of the Book of Leinster, in which
(at fol. 149 b.), occurs the following curious pas¬
sage, —
"From the in Drom of Snechta, this below.
Historians say that there were exiles of Hebrew
women in Erinn at the coming of the sons of Mil¬
esius, who had been driven by a sea tempest into
the ocean by the Tirren Sea. They were in Erinn
before the sons of Milesius. They said, however,
to the sons of Milesius (who it would appear press¬
ed, marriage on them) that they preferred their own
country, and that they would not abandon it with¬
out receiving dowry for alliance with them. It is
from this circumstance that it is the men that pur¬
chase wives in Erinn forever, whilst it is the hus¬
bands that are purchased by the wives throughout
the world besides."
This short extract is found also in a much long¬
er and very curious article in the Book of Lecain
(fol. 181 b.), and there can be little doubt that both
MSS. followed the original in the Cin of Drom
Snechta.
The next ancient written work that we find as¬
cribed to this early period is the SENCHAS MOR
(pron. Senchus mohr), or Great Law Compilation,
which was made according to the Annals of Ulster,
in the year 439, under the direction of nine emin¬
ent persons, consisting of three kings, three bish¬
ops, and three Files. The three chief personages
engaged in this great work were Leaghaire, the
Monarch of Erinn. St. Patrick the Apostle of
Erinn and Ros, the Chief File of Erinn.
TO BE CONTINUED.
There are thirty British detectives, including
First Class Head Constable in New York City
to watch the Fenians. — Who are they?
"CHUM."
Is Lugha ná Frith Ádhbhar na h-Urchóide.
(Less than a flesh-worm is the cause of evil.)
The Gael's Title Page Again the Battle Ground.
Its Correctness Sustained by the Highest Gaelic
Authority, including William Russell, Captain
Norris. John O'Donovan, [but sure he made a mis¬
take ! ] the grammarian, John Fleming, Canon
Bourke, etc. — Spleen, Cheek and Presumption etc
Rebuked.
To the Editor of the Gaelic Journal:
A little more than twelve months since there ap¬
peared in the Irish American newspaper what pur¬
ported to be an address in the Irish language from
Mr. T. O. Russell. In this address he stated that he
had been induced by somebody to waste a day or
two in reading the "Pious Mescellany" of Tadhg
Gaolach (Timothy the Irish and the Catholic), and
that the greatest service a person could do to the
tongue of the Gael would be to buy up all the
copies of this work extant and consign them to the
flames or to the depths of the sea. To prove his as¬
sertion he quoted a line from the "Pious Miscell¬
any," which he said contained four errors; and that
the way to compute the number of errors in the
book would be to multiply the number of lines in
it by four for the total number of errors in it.
Now, Timothy Sullivan was a classical as well
as a Irish scholar. He was a pot of a high or¬
der — his fault as a poet was the fault of his age. He
indulged occasionally in hard words, but some of
his simple melodies are as sweet as any in the lan¬
guage. His friend Donnchadh Ruadh, the au¬
thor of the "Fair Hills of Erin," in his hundredth
year, wrote an epitaph for him in Latin verse,
which has been translated into metrical English
by Dr. Sigerson, and versified in Irish by Thomas
Flannery. James Scurry, the best Irish scholar of
his day, had an equally high opinion of Tadhg Gao¬
lach. I believe it is hardly an exaggeration to say
that, until the potato blight had scattered the Irish
speaking population of Munster, Tadhg Gaolach,
was as much loved and venerated in the South of
Ireland, as Burns was in the Highlands. And this
is the man Mr. Russell took upon himself to 're¬
vile. At the time, I wrote a letter on the subject
of this criticism to send to the editor of the Irish-
American, but so unwilling was to come in con¬
flict with Mr. Russell, that I did not send it. The
line upon which the calculation was made by Mr.
Russell is —
An méid sin do dallag, do caochag,
do meallag.
That number who were dazed, who were blinded,
who were deceived.
Now, in this line there is not a single error. It
is composed in the Munster dialect, and the three
verbs are in the passive voice, past tense: and no
matter how spelled, any Munster reader or speaker
would pronounce them as written above. The truth
is that there are very few lines in the "Pious Mis¬
ellany" in which Mr. Russell could find a fault
to point out.
And, it may be asked, why come in contact with
Mr. Russell now, after giving him a wide berth for
the last twelve months? There is no escaping Mr.
