AN GAODHAL.
895
taking their own part, and making their voice
heard. ....
"So strong is the feeling in America in favour
of an attempt to preserve, what many people there
feel to be the purest and most seductive thing that
Irish nationality can present them with, that even
the New York Herald, the leading newspaper of
America, opened its columns the other day to a
portion of a speech spoken in Irish by some prom¬
inent patriot in New York, which it not only prin¬
in Irish as delivered, but also in the native
type. Have we lived to see it? Are they less
materialistic over there beyond the seas than we
are at home? Does the New York Herald act¬
ually do for us what United Ireland obstinately
refuses to do?
"There is just one other objection to be notic¬
ed. We are told that in learning English we are
learning a superior language to that we are invit¬
ed to leave off. It is so, but unless we learn it in
a superior way, we get no good by the change.
For all the ordinary purposes of everyday peasant
life, I believe Irish to be enormously superior to
English — certainly to the English that is spoken
in Ireland. ....
"In conclusion, we may say this, that while
our social and commercial relations make it a
necessity for every man, woman and child, in this
kingdom, to learn English, sooner or later, rever¬
ence for our past history, regard for the memory
of our ancestors, our national honor, as well as
the fear of becoming materialised and losing our
best and highest characteristics, call upon us im¬
peratively to assist the Irish speaking population
at the present crisis, and to establish for all time
bi-lingual population in those parts of Ireland
where Irish is now spoken, from which all those
who, in the distant future, may wish to investigate
the history or the antiquities of our nation, may
draw, as from a fountain, the vernacular knowl¬
edge which for such purpose, is indispensably
necessary."
I do not think there is much to add to what I
have said here, except to observe that it is a nat¬
ional duty — I had almost said a moral one — for all
those who speak Irish to speak it to the children
also, and to take care that the growing generation
shall know it as well as themselves, and on all
possible occasions, except where it will not run.
For, if we allow one of the finest and richest lan¬
guages in Europe, which, fifty years ago was spok¬
en by nearly four millions of Irishmen, to die out
without a struggle, it will be an everlasting dis¬
grace and a biting stigma upon our nationality.
(Gaels. Read the foregoing Note carefully and
endeavor to become possessed of its spirit. Read
it also for your Irish friends, and then ask them
to contribute one penny a week towards the cir¬
culation of THE GAEL, which has done so much
to bring about what the patriotic and accomplish¬
ed Craoibhin yearns for. Or why not organize soc¬
ieties for the purpose of raising funds for the dis¬
tribution of prizes among the children learning
Irish in the school at home, as suggested by
Mr. Lyons, of the Tuam National League ? Here
is the field for real Irish Natonal work. The
newspapers are chuck full of reports of this and
that Irish (?) convention, but not a single conven¬
tion to save The Life of the Nation! What a
nation of hypocrites or intellectual imbeciles this
state of affairs brands us, — Ed. G.)
O'Curry's Lectures.
ON THE
MANUSCRIPT MATERIAL OF ANCIENT IRISH HIS¬
TORY.
Lecture III.
Delivered March 20, 1855.
(Continued)
Of the synchronisms of Flann of Monasterboice. —
Of the Chronological Poem of Gilla Caemhain —
Of Tighernach the Annalist. — Of the foundation
of Clonmacnois — The Annals, I. — The Annals of
Tighernach. — Of the foundation of Emania, and
of the Ultonian dynasty.
And so Flann continues down to the time of the
Emporer Leo, and Ferghal Mac Maelduin, King of
Erinn, who was killed A.D. 718. That portion of
the work which carries down the synchronisms to
Julius Cӕsar is next summed up in a poem of
which there are two copies, one of 1096, and the oth¬
er of 1220 lines, intended no doubt to assist the stu¬
dent in committing to memory the substance of the
synchronisms.
There is another chronological piece of curious
interest and of very considerable value, which was
probably composed by Flann, or at least that por¬
tion of it which precedes A. D. 1056, the year of
Flann's death. It comprises a list of the reigns of
the monarch of Ireland, with those of the con¬
temporary provincial kings, and also of the kings
of Scotland. This synchronological list commen¬
ces with Laeghaire, who succeeded to the sover¬
eignty in the year of our Lord 429, and it is car¬
ried down to the death of Muircheartach O'Brien,
in 1119, sixty-five years after Flann's death. Who
the continuator of Flann may have been we do
not now know.
It may be interesting to give the following ab¬
stract as a specimen of Flann's synchronisms of
the kings of Scotland, as it shows their connection
with the royal lines of Erinn.
It was, he says, in the year 498 that Fergus
Mor and his brothers went into Scotland. They
were the sons of Erc, the son of Eochaidh Muin¬
reamhar, whose father was the renowned Colla
Uais, who, with his brothers, overthrew the Ulster
dynasty and destroyed the place of Emania, Muir¬
chertach Mac Eire, one of the brothers, was the an¬
cestor of the MacDonnells, Lords of the Isles, and
of other great families in Scotland. Our tract says
that from the battle of Ocha, A. D. 478, to the
death of the monarch, Diarmuid, son of Fergus
Cerrbeoil, there was a space of eighty years. There
were four monarchs of Erinn within that time,
namely, Lughaidh, son of Laeghaire, Muircher¬
tach, son of Erc, Tuathal Mael Garbh, and Diar¬
muid. There were five kings of Scotlnd to corr¬
espond with these four of Erinn, namely the above
Fergus Mor, his brother Aengus Mor, Domangort,
the son of Fergus, Comgrll, the son of Domangort,
and Gabran, the son of Domangort.
The parallel provincial kings of Erinn follow,
but it is not necessary to enumerate them here.
The first part of the synchronisms ascribed to
Flann is lost from the Book of Lecan, but it is
preserved in the Book of Ballymote (fol. 6 a.) and
as far as can be judged from their tenor in the lat-
