AN GAODHAL.
9
O'Curry's Lectures.
ON THE
MANUSCRIPT MATERIAL OF ANCIENT IRISH HIS¬
TORY.
LECTURE IV.
[Delivered March 22, 1855]
(Continued)
At 482, Johnston's edition as "The Battle of
Oche." From the time of Cormrc to this battle, a
period intervened of 206 years.
Now here the original is strangely perverted and
finished. The words of the original are — 'A.D. 482
— Bellum Oche la Lug. mac Laegaire agus le
Muircearta mac Erca, in quo cecidit Alill Moll. A
Concobaro filio Nesse usque ad Cornacum filium
Airt anni cccviii., a Cormaco usque ad hoc bellum
cxvi., ut Cuana scripsit'. [That is, A.D. 482, the
Battle of Oche by Lughaidh, the son of Laegaire,
and Muirceartach, son of Earc, in which Alill Molt
fell. From Concobar, son of Nessa, to Cormac,
son of Art, 308 years. From Cormac to this bat¬
tle 116 years, as Cuana has written.]
It would require, says, Dr. O'Conor, a quarto
volume as large as Mr. Johnston's whole work, to
point out the errors of his edition, with such illus¬
trations as these unexplored regions of Irish his¬
tory seem to require. — The Ulster Annals he con¬
tinues, are written part in Latin, and part in Irish
and both languages are so mixed up that one sen¬
tence is often in words of both, a circumstance
which renders a faithful edition of the original di¬
fficult. In some instances the Irish words are few,
in others numerous — in both, the version must be
included in hyphens to separate it from the text.
The author of this Catalogue has most faithfully
adhered to the original — transcribing the whole of
this, and of the preceding MS. from the Bodleian
MS., Rawlinson 489, and inserting literal version
of the Irish words in each sentence, so as to pres¬
erve not only the meaning, but the manner of the
author, from the year 431 to 1131." — Stowe Cat.
vol. i., p. 174.
Another copy of these annals noticed by Dr O'¬
Conor contains, he says, 117 written folios. This
volume has copious extracts from the Bodleian o¬
riginal, from 1156 to 1303, inclusive; and it has
the merit, also, of marginal collations with the co¬
py in the British Museum, Clarendon, tom. 86, in
Ayscough's Catalogue, No 4787, which appears
from this collation to be in many places interpola¬
ted. It has been collated, also, with a copy in
the British Museum, written by one O'Connel,
who was still more ignorant than the former tran¬
scriber, as may be seen by inspecting the MS.
[There is an English translation of the Annals
of Ulster in the British Museum — Clarendon MS.
vol. xlix., Ayscough's Catalogue, No. 4795, com¬
mencing with the coming of Palladius to Ireland,
A.D. 431, and coming down to A.D. 1303 (or 1307),
as thus written, but there is a defect from 1131 to
1156, at page 65. The writing appears to be of
Sir James Ware's time (XVII. Century), and the
Latin of the original is not translated. This is
the volume with which Dr. O'Conor said that he
made marginal collations of the above manuscript
but it will be seen that his library reference is
wrong, as well as that to the number in Ays¬
cough's Catalogue.
I examined this translation with great care, and
I could not find any translator's name to it; no
"one O'Connel". I think it possible that the rev.
doctor never saw it. The Clarendon manuscript,
xxxvi., British Museum, with which, Dr. O'Conor
says the Stowe copy of the Annals of Ulster was
collated, is only a collation of short historical pie¬
ces, and extracts from unacknowledged Annals.
The writing is like Ware's, as may be seen from
the volume i., No. 4787. The reverend doctor
does not appear to have seen this volume any
more than the other; or if he did see them, it is
very strange that he should leave his readers to
believe that they were both full copies, and writ¬
ten in the original Irish hand.]
That the rev. doctor is quite correct in these
strictures on Johnston's publication, he has given
ample proof here; but his own inaccurate reading
of the original text are full of contradictions, and
are often as erroneous as those of Johnston and
his translations and deductons are as incorrect and
unjustifiable. And, notwithstanding the respect
in which his name and that of his more accurate
grandfather, the venerable Charles O'Conor of Be¬
lanagare, held by every investigator of the history
and antiquities of Ireland, still it must be acknow¬
ledged that his own writings — as regards matters
in the Irish language in the Stowe Catalogue, and
in his Rerum Hibernicarum Scriptores — would re¬
quire very copious corrections of the inaccuracies
of text, as well as of the many erroneous transla¬
tions, unauthorized deductions, and unfounded as¬
sumptions which they contain.
To return to the Annals of Senait MacManus.
The volume in vellum containing the beautiful
copy of these annals now in the library of Trinity
College, commences with three leaves which app¬
ear to be fragments of a fine copy of Tighernach.
After this the Annals of Senait MacManus, which
begins with a long line of calends or initials of
years, some of which are very briefly filled up, but
without dates, except occasionally the years of the
world’s age, while others remain totally blank.
These Annals begin thus — Anno ab Incarnatio¬
ne Domini ccccxxxi., Palladius ad Scotos a Celes¬
tino urbis Rome Episcopo, ordinatur Episcopus,
Aetio et Valeriano Coss. Primas mittitur in Hib¬
erniam, ut Christum credere potuissent, anno
Theodosii viii." That is: In the year from the
Incarnation of our Lord four hundred and thirty
one, Palladius is ordained bishop to the Scoti by
Celestine, Bishop of the City of Rome, in the con¬
sulship of Aetius and Valerianus. He was the first
who was sent to Ireland, that they might believe
in Christ, in the eighth year of Theodosius.
"Anno ccccxxxii. — Patricius perventi ad Hiber¬
niam in anno Theodosii, primo anno Episcopatus
Sixti xlii., Rom. Eccl., sic enumerant Beda, et
Marcellinus, et Isidorus in Chronicis suis in xii.
an. Leaghaire mit Neill." "Anno 432 — Patrick
came to Ireland in the ninth year of Theodocius
the Younger, and first of the episcopacy of Sixtus
the forty-second bishop of Rome, so Bede, and
Marcellius and Isidore enumerate them in their
Chronicles, in the twelfth year of Laeghaire Mac
Neill.
Anno ccccxxxiv. Prima preda Soxonum in Hi¬
bernia.
Anno ccccxxxv. Mors Breasail regis Lageniae.
Anno ccccxxxvi. Vel hic mors Breasail."
Vels, or aliases, occur very frequently in the
early part of these annals, but they are generally
