396
AN GAODHAL.
— Tuiteadh gan eis-éisigh; & iona áit
thainic solus diadha ar Thiarna & ar
Slánuightheora, Íosa Críosda, ag athrúgh¬
adh gleann na n-deor sin go oileán, na
naomh, ar Er-rion-sa bith-bheo, beannuigh¬
the
Eoghan ua Carruill,
Paraisde Naomh Thomáis,
Chigago, Lá féil Pádhruic,
1894.
O'Curry's Lectures.
ON THE
MANSCRIPT MATERIAL OF ANCIENT IRISH HIS¬
TORY.
LECTURE IX.
[Delivered July 10, 1856.]
This is followed by a fragment of the history of
the Britons, by Nennius, translated into Gaedhlic
by Gilla Caomhain, the poet and Chronologist,
who died A.D. 1072. (This tract was published
by the Irish Archeological Society in 1848.)
The next important piece is the very ancient e¬
legy, written by the poet Dallon Forgaill, on the
death of Saint Colum Cille, in the year 592. It is
remarkable that even at that early period of the
compilation of the Leabhar na h-Uidhre, this ce¬
lebrated poem should have required a gloss to
make it intelligible. The gloss, which is as usual
interlined, is not very copious, but it is most im¬
portant, both in a philological and historical point
of view because of the many more ancient com¬
positions quoted in it for the explanation of words,
which compositions, therefore, must have been
still in existence.
The elegy is followed by fragments of the an¬
cient historic tale of the Mesca Uladh [or Inebrie¬
ty of the Ultonians], who, in a fit of excitement,
after a great feast at the royal palace of Emania,
made a sudden and furious march into Munster,
where they burned the palace of Teamhair Luach¬
ra, in Kerry, then the residence of Curio Mac
Daire, king of West Munster. This tract abounds
in curious notices of topography, as well as in al¬
lusions to and descriptions of social habits and
manners.
Next came fragments of Tain Bo Dartadha, and
the Tain Bo Flidais; both Cattle Spoils, arising
out of the celebrated Cattle Spoils of Cuailgne.
Next comes the story of the wanderings of Mael¬
duin's ship in the Atlantic, for three years and
seven months, in the eighth century. These are
followed by imperfect copies of : the Tain Bo
Chuailgne, or great Cattle Spoil of Cuailgne; the
Bruighean Da Dearga, and death of the monarch
Conaire Mor; a history of the great pagan ceme¬
teries of Erinn, and of the various old books from
which this and other pieces were compiled; poems
by Flann of Monasterboice and others; together
with various other pieces of history and historic
romance, chiefly referring to the ente-Christian
period, and especially that of the Tuatha De Da¬
nann. This most valuable MS. belongs to the
Royal Irish Academy. If printed at length, the
text of it would make about 500 pages of the An¬
nals of the Four Masters.
The next ancient book which I shall treat of is
that at present known under the name of the
Book of Leinster. It can be shown, from various
internal evidences, that this volume was either
compiled or transcribed in the first half of the
twelfth century, Finn Mac Gorman, Bishop of
Kildare, who died in the year 1160; and that it
was compiled by order of Aodh Mac Crimhthainn
the tutor of the notorious Dermod Mac Murroch,
that king of Leinster who first invited Earl Strong¬
bow and the Anglo-Normans into Ireland, in the
year 1169. The book was evidently compiled by
Dermod, under the superintendence of his tutor,
by Mac Gorman, who had probably been a fellow
pupil of the king. In support of this assertion, I
need only transcribe the following entry, which
occurs in the original hand, at the end of folio
202, page b. of the book. —
"Benediction and health from Erinn, the Bish¬
op of Kildare, to Aedh Hugh] Mac Crimhthainn,
the tutor of the chief king of Leth Mogha Nuad¬
at [or of Leinster and Munster], successor of Col¬
um, the son of Crimhthann, and chief historian of
Leinster in wisdom, intelligence, and the cultiva¬
tion of books, knowledge, and learning. And I
write the conclusion of this little tale for thee, O
acute Aedh ! [Hugh] thou possessor of the spark¬
ling intellect. May it be long before we are with¬
out thee. It is my desire that thou should be
always with us. Let Mac Lonan's book poems
be given to me, that I may understand the sense
of the poems that are in it; and farewell in Christ
etc,"
This note must be received as sufficient evi¬
ence to bring the date of this valuable manus¬
cript within the period of a man's life, whose
death, as a Catholic bishop, happend in the year
1160, and who was, I believe, consecrated to the
ancient see of Kildare in the year 1148, long be¬
fore which period, of course, he must be employ¬
ed to write this book. Of the Aedh Mac Crimh¬
thann, for whom he wrote it, I have not been able
to ascertain anything more than has appeared a¬
bove; but he must have flourished early in the
twelfth century to be the tutor of Dermod Mac
(To be continued)
