24
AN GAODHAL.
O'Curry's Lectures.
ON THE
MANUSCRIPT MATERIAL OF ANCIENT IRISH HIS¬
TORY.
LECTURE IX.
[Delivered July 10, 1856.]
(Continued from page 396, Vol. 10.
Murroch, who, in concert with O'Brien, had led
the men of Leinster against the Danes of Water¬
ford, so far back as the year 1137.
That this book belonged either to Dermot Mac
Murroch himself, or to some person who had him
warmly at heart, will appear plainly from the fol¬
owing memorandum, which is written in a strange
but ancient hand, in the top margin of folio 200,
page a .—
"O Virgin Mary! it is a great deed that has been
done in Erinn this day, the kalends of August —
viz, Dermot, the son of Donnoch Mac Murroch,
king of Leinster, and of the Danes [of Dublin], to
have been banished over the the sea eastward by
the men of Erinn. Uch, uch, O Lord! what shall
I do?"
The book consists, at present, of over four hun¬
dred pages of large folio vellum; but there are
many leaves of the old pagination missing.
To give anything like a satisfactory analysis of
his book, would take at least one whole lecture.
I cannot, therefore, within my present limited
space do more than glance at its general charac¬
ter, and point, by name only, to a few of the
many important pieces preserved in it.
It begins as usual with a Book of Invasions of
Erinn, but without the Book of Genesis; after
which the succession of the monarchs of the year
1169; and the succession and obituary of the pro¬
vincial and other minor kings, etc. Then follow
specimens of ancient versifications, — poems on
Tara, and an ancient plan and explanation of the
Teach Midhchuarta, or Banqueting Hall of that
ancient royal city. (These poems and plan have
been published by Dr. Petrie, in his paper on
the history of Tara, printed in the Transactions
of the Royal Irish Academy for 1839, vol. xviii.)
After these come poems on the wars of the Lein¬
stermen, the Ulstermen, and the Munstermen, in
great numbers, many of them in the highest his¬
toric interest and value; and some prose pieces
and small poems on Leinster, of great antiquity,
some of them, as I believe, certainly written by
Dubhthach, the great antiquarian and poet, who
was Saint Patrick's first convert at Tara. After
these a fine copy of the history of the celebrated
Battle of Ross na Righ, on the Boyne, fought be¬
tween the men of Leinster and Ulster at the beg¬
inning of the Christian era. A copy of the Mesca
Uladh, or Inebriety of the Ultonians, imperfect
at the end, but which can be made perfect by the
fragments of it already mentioned in Leabhar na
h-Uidre. A fine copy of the Origin of the Bor¬
oman Tribute, and the battles that ensued down
to its remission. A fragment of the "Battle of
Cennabrat", in Munster, with the defeat of Mac
Con by Oilioll Oluim, Mac Con's flight into Scot¬
land, his return afterwards with a large force of
Scottish and British adventurers, his landing in
the bay of Galway, and the ensuing battle of
Magh Mucruimhe, fought between him and his
maternal uncle, Art, the monarch of Erinn, in
which battle the latter was defeated and killed, as
well as the seven sons of Olioll Oluim. A variety
of curious and imortant short tracts relating to
Munster, are to be found in the Book of Leinster
besides this last one, up to the middle of the 8th
century. This volume likewise contains a small
fragment of Cormac's Glossary, copied, perhaps
with many more of these pieces, from the verita¬
ble Saltair of Cashel itself; also, a fragment, un¬
fortunately a very small one, (the first folio only)
of the wars of the Danes and the Gaedhils (i. e.
the Irish); a copy of the Dinnsenchus, a celebra¬
ted ancient topographical tract, which was compi¬
led at Tara about the year 550 ; several ancient
poems on universal geography, cronology, history
and soforth; pedigrees and genealogies of the
great Milesian tribes and families, particulary
those of Leinster; and lastly, an ample list of the
early saints of Erinn, with their pedigrees and
affinities, and with copious references to the situ¬
ations of their churches.
This is but an imperfect sketch of this invalua¬
ble MS., and I think I may say with sorrow, that
there is not in all Europe any nation but this of
ours that would not long since have made a liter¬
ary fortune out of such a volume, had any other
country in Europe been fortunate enough to pos¬
sess such an heir-loom of history.
The volume forms, at present, part of the rich
store of ancient Irish literature preserved in the
library of Trinity College, Dublin, and if printed
at length, the Gaedhilie text of it would make
2000 pages of the Annals of the Four Masters.
The book next in order of antiquity, of which
I shall treat, is the well known Book of Bally¬
mote.
This noble volume, though defective in a few
places, still consists of 251 leaves, or 502 pages of
the largest folio vellum, equal to about 2500 pa¬
ges of the printed Annals of the Four Masters.
(To be continued)
Inebriety ? - doubtful
translation
Confusion may be
better.
