214
AN GAODHAL.
O'Curry's Lectures.
ON THE
MANUSCRIPT MATERIAL OF ANCIENT IRISH HIS¬
TORY.
LECTURE VI.
[Delivered June 26, 1856.]
(Continued from p. 193.)
"Also of certain things which happened in this
kingdom after the conquest of the English, until
the sixth year of the reign of King Henry the IV,
in the year of our Lord God 1408.
"To the worthy and of great expectation young
gentleman, Mr. Terence Coghlan, his brother, Co¬
nell Ma Geoghegan, wisheth long health, with
good success in all his affairs.
"Among all the worthy and memorable deeds of
King Brian Borowe, sometime king of this king¬
dom, this is not of the least account, that after
that he had shaken off the intolerable yoke and
bondage wherewith this land was cruelly tortured
and harried by the Danes and Normans for the
space of 219 years that they bore sway, and recei¬
ved tribute of the inhabitants in general, — and
though they nor none of them ever had the name
of king or monarch of the land, yet they had that
power, as they executed what they pleased, and
behaved so cruel and pagan-like, as well towards
the ecclesiasticals as temporals of the kingdom,
that they broke down their churches, and razed
them to their very foundations, and burned their
books of chronicles and prayers, to the end that
there should be no memory left to their posterities
and all learning should be quite forgotten, — the
said king Brian seeing into what rudeness the king¬
dom was fallen, after setting himself in the quiet
government thereof, and restored each one to his
ancient patrimony, repaired their churches and
houses of religion; caused open schools to be kept
in the several parishes to instruct their youth,
which by the long said wars were grown rude and
altogether illiterate; he assembled together all the
nobility of the kingdom, as well spiritual as tem¬
poral, to Cashel, in Munster, and caused them to
compose a book containing all the inhabitants, e¬
vents, and septs, that lived in this land from the
first peopling, inhabitation, and discovery thereof,
after the creation of the world, until the present,
which book they caused to be called by the name
of the Saltair of Cashel, signed with his own hand
together with the hands of the kings of the five
provinces, and also with the hands of all the bish¬
ops and prelates of the kingdom, caused several
copies thereof to be given to the kings of the pro¬
vinces, with straight charge that there should be
no credit given to any other chronicles thenceforth,
but should be held as false disannulled, and quite
forbidden for ever. Since which time there were
many septs in the kingdom that lived by it, and
whose profession it was to chronicle and keep in
memory the state of the kingdom, as well for the
time past, present, and to come; and now because
they cannot enjoy that respect and gain by their
profession as heretofore they and their ancestors re¬
ceived, they set nought by the said knowledge, ne¬
glect their books, and choose rather put their chil¬
dren to learn English than their own native lang¬
uage, insomuch that some of them suffer tailors to
to cut the leaves of the said books (which their
ancestors held in great account), and sew them in
long pieces to make their measures of, that the
posterities are like to fall into more ignorance of
any things which happened before their time. In
the reign of the said king Bryan, and before, Ire¬
land was well stored with learned men and schools,
and that people came from all parts of Christend¬
om to learn therein, and among all other nations
that came thither, there was none so much made
of nor respected with the Irish, as were the English
and Welshmen, to whom they gave several colleges
to dwell and study in; (such) to the English a col¬
lege in the town of Mayo, in Connacht, which to
this day is called Mayo of the English; and to the
Welshmen, the town of Gallen, in the King's Co.,
which likewise is called Gallen of the Welshmen
or Wales, from whence the said two nations have
brought their characters, especially the English
Saxons, as by comparing the old Saxon characters
to the Irish (which the Irish never changed), you
shall find little or no difference at all.
"The earnest desire I understand you to have,
to know these things, made me to undertake the
translation of the old Irish Book for you, which by
long lying shut and unused, I could hardly read,
and left places that I could not read, because they
were entirely grown illegible and put out: and if
this my simple labour shall any way pleasure you.
I shall hold myself thoroughly recompensed, and
my pains well employed, which for your own read¬
ing I have done, and not for the reading of any o¬
ther curious fellow that would rather carp at my
phrase, than take any delight in the History: and
in the meantime I bid you heartiyl farewell, from
Leijevanchan. 20 April, Anno Domini 1627.
"Your very loving brother,
CONELL MAGEOGHEGAN."
The translator then gives the followings list of
his authorities, to which I would ask your particu¬
lar attention. —
"The names of the several authors whom I have
taken for the book, — Saint Colum Kill; St. Bo¬
hine; Calvagh O'Moore, Esq.; Venerable Bede;
Eochye O'Flannagan, Archdean of Armagh and
Clonfiachna; Gillernan Mac Conn-na-mboct, Arch¬
priest of Clonvickenos; Ceileachair Mac Con, al¬
ias Gorman; Eusebius; Marcellinus; Moylen O'¬
Mulchonrye; and Tanaye O'Mulchonrye, two pro¬
fessional chronicles."
It is not easy to see what Mac Geoghegan means
when he says that he had taken these authors for
his book. We have only to believe that he took
from Eusebius, Marcellinus, and Bede, some items
or additions, and some dates for the early part of
his translations, and that he took the various read¬
ings and additions, to be found in it, from the I¬
rish authorities to whom he refers, But, whatever
his meaning may be, this is a curious list of auth¬
ors to be consulted by an Irish country gentleman
in the early part of the seventeenth century.
Without going back to his very earlier authorities
we may show the antiquity of the second class.
Eochaidh O'Flannagain Archdean of Armagh
and Clonfiachna, died in the year 1003 If this
learned man's books came down to Mac Geoghe¬
gan's time, he must have had a rich treat in them
indeed. These books are referred to in the follow¬
ing words, in the ancient book called Leabhar na
h-Uidhre, written at Clonmacnois before the year
1106. At the end of a most curious and valuable
tract on the ancient pagan cemeteries of Ireland,
the writer says it was Flann, the learned professor
of Monasterboice, who died in the year 1056, and
