being sure not a grain will fail to multiply. In summer, when it grows up, they goe, man, woman and child, and ly prostrate or sit upon the corn, to weed it with their bare hands, leaving nothing behind but pure corn. Twice, perhaps, they thus weed it before it comes to an ear. The soile bears not but for two years, till they muck it again. The first year it bears wheat, barly, ry, or oats; the second year oats only, but the increase is forty fold at the least. Here is a kinde of corn they call bwagh, the grain is like wheat, but more brownish and swarthy; the bread like barly bread but finer : two bushells of this corn is three bushells ground. This land hath no help for building but thatch, and plenty of rude stones that cannot be wrought. It is destitude of wood and lime-stone. Few places have any clay for mortar. It hath severall brooks and shallow rivers, falling from the mountaines to the sea, which bear some salmons, trouts, and eels, besides plenty of sea-fish and shell-fish; together with severall creeks and ship harbours. making lime of the shells for tanning leather. particulars. There is a shift of Now to descend to In this tract', near Galway, westward, is the town land of Barna'; very good arable land, where partly the plow, partly digging with spade Barna.-bearna, literally a gap, but here a breach or opening in the coast. There was formerly a castle here, close to the sea side, about three miles west of Galway. Its ruins are shewn by the name of sean caislean Bearna, the old castle of Barna. It belonged to the ancient Irish family of O'Halloran, who before the twelfth century were lords of Clan Feapgail, a district in which Galway town was situate. "O h-allmuran Taiseac cerri m-baile Ficet cloindi Fergaili." spade is used. It affords lime-stone and clay. Here is Blake's hill' over the sea, whither the young men of Galway were wont to come a horseback the third day of their May-game, and there dine between this hill and the castle of Barna. Sir Morogh Flaherty" of Aghnenure, defeated an army out of Clanrickard, the 22nd of June, A. D. 1564, on the strand of Traybane. -MS. Trin. Coll. Lib. H. 2, 17. I here take the opportunity of correcting an error in the History of Galway, p. 3, occasioned by adopting Vallancey's erroneous derivations of Clann Feapgal and Gaillim, neither of which means "tribes of merchants," as there stated: the former signifying the descendants of Farrell, a Christian name common among the O'Hallorans; and the latter the river which flows through the town. See note, p. 28, ante. For more of the sept of O'Halloran, see Additional Notes. * Blake's hill.—In Irish Cnoc a blacai, is now called the White Cliff of Barna, and appears rather a conspicuous object on entering the bay. The May and other old customs, as "ridgames, ing the ring," &c., formerly practised here, have long since fallen into disuse. The "young men" of the present day would be ashamed of those homely but manly amusements of their forefathers; although it is to be feared, that many of their modern pastimes are not altogether of so innocent a character. "Sir Morogh Flaherty. Our author here omits the prefix O (for the signification of which see Ogyg. p. 361) in the name of his celebrated kinsman Morough na d-tuadh, [Morough of the Battleaxes] O'Flaherty. But the omission in this instance I consider merely accidental; although in our author's time, when the Irish were broken down by the wars of the seventeenth century, many of them began to fashion their names, by omitting the prefixes O' and Mac, which were among the few remnants of national distinction that then remained to them. This they did to make their old Irish names more English-like, and consequently more palatable to their dominant neighbours; and it was a literal fulfilment of the wish of Spenser, expressed a century before, that "all the O's and Mac's should be utterly forbidden and extinguished." Many of the O'Flaherties, and chiefly the more respectable of them, then became mere "Flaherties." Our author never submitted to this mark of national degradation, like his kinsmen of Aghnenure, or Lemonfield. Then appeared, for the first time, “Bryan Flaherty, of Lemonfield, Esq. Morogh Flaherty, his son. Edmond Flaherty, of Tolly," &c.-Extract from the will of the first named, dated the 30th Dec. A. D. 1721, bane'. This strand yields plenty of cockles; and, with a drudge, oysters are to be found near it. Westward from thence, and from Galway four miles, the river of Forbagh runs to the sea; near which was a great fish cast, Anno 1667, another about a mile thence at Koylagh, the 17th of May, 1674, thirty foot long and seaven foot high. Two miles from the river of Forbagh" to the river of Spidell*, on which the salmon cannot pass a steep salmon leap, a mile from the bridge on the mouth of the river, first built Anno 1670, by the publick charges. On the east-side of the river, by the high water mark of the sea, stands the church of Spidell, dedicated to St. Enna”, patron of Aran, whose feast is kept the 21st day of March. Spidell is so called of Spittle, or Hospitall. From this river, which separates the parish of Moycullin here from the parish of Kilanhin on the west Prerog. Office. For valuable observations on Irish names, see Mr. O'Donovan's curious papers in the Irish Penny Journal, A. D. 1841, which it is to be hoped he may yet be induced to enlarge and give in a more substantial form to the public. V ▾ Traybane. In Irish, Trái bán, liteterally the White Strand, as it is still called. Cockles are here found in abundance; but no oysters. The fishermen pleasantly relate, that the latter migrated to the opposite shore of the bay, to the great oyster beds of Poldoody, belonging to that excellent and patriotic gentleman, Burton Bindon, Esq. "Forbagh.-Fopbaċ, now pronounced Furrobagh. This river flows into the bay. In the Composition of A. D. 1585, Ballyneforbagh in Gnobeg, is stated to contain four quarters of land, which, with most of of that district, was granted by James I. to Hugh O'Flaherty, our author's father, by letters patent, dated 25th Jan. A. D. 1617. -Rot. Pat. X * Spidell. Spidéal, an hospital. Spital is an old English term for hospital, and is still used in Scotland. "Rob not the spital."-Jonson. In the Composition of A. D. 1585, the townland here is called Ballynspiddell. The river of Spiddle is nine miles west of Galway, and is much prized for salmon fishing. It flows out of a lake in the townland of Shannagarraun, and falls into the bay nearly opposite Ceánn boirne, or Black head. Y St. Enna. -For an account of this celebrated Saint, whose memory is still venerated here, and in the islands of Aran, see Colgan's Acta Sanctorum, p. 704 of it, to the river of Ally' are two miles; and in the midle way is the creeke of Crompan, a very secure harbour for boats, much frequented by the fishermen of Galway. Ally river divides Gnobeg on the east, from Gnomore on the west in those parts, whence to Cromlin river is two miles: not far from which, westward, 3rd June, 1682, was a fish cast on Miny shore, thirty foot long and seaven high. Near Miny is the castle of Inveran, where Walter Fada Bourke was murthered by the procurement of his stepmother Finnola River of Ally.-In Irish Ɑbainn na h-aille, so called from the townland of Aille, through which it flows. It is two miles west of Spiddle. "Gnobegg is bounded from Srawan I Garwane on the north side, to Galway, saving the liberties, and soe alonge the river of Donkelie (or Ally) to Galway aforesaid, by east."-Rot. Pat. 29° Eliz., quoted in Appendix. The name of this river may be traced to the O'Kealy's (O'Cadhla), the ancient chiefs of Conmhaicne-mara, of whom more will be found in the sequel. Cromlin. Miny.-Inveran.-Cpuimġlinn. This river flows into the bay between the townlands of Poulgorm and Cartronkeel, about three Irish miles west of Ally river. There are two portions of the parish of Kilcummin here insulated by the parish of Killannin.-Miny. Now called Minna.-Inveran. Inbepan. This castle stands a short distance west of Cromlin river, on a little cpompán, or creek, from which it takes its name. b Walter Fada Bourke.-Walter the Tall. He was the son of David Bourke (great grandson of Edmund na fesoige, for whom see Lodge's Peerage, vol. iv. p. 231), by his first wife. Finola O'Flaherty was the second wife of David. By her he had Riroeapo an lapain, called Iron Dick, and to secure the inheritance for the latter, his mother caused his elder halfbrother, Walter Fada, to be murdered, as above related. In this object the murderess succeeded, for her son, Iron Dick, did inherit all his father's vast possessions, and became one of the greatest men of his time. See Sir Henry Sidney's curious description of him, quoted by Lodge, vol. iv. p. 232, where, among other things, he says, “Surelye, my lords, he is well wonne, for he is a great man; his land lyeth along the west-north-west coast of this realme, where he hath many goodly havens, and is a Lorde in territore of three tymes as much land as the Earle of Clanrickarde is." He was father of Sir Tibbott na Long, first Viscount Mayo. The retributive justice. of Providence visibly pursued this foul murder, in the fate of that man's descendants. To pursue the subject further would Finnola Flaherty, by her brother Donnel Fitz-Rory Og Flaherty, Anno I 549, deceased. Thence, westward, at Moerras, is an altar of St. Columb-Kille by a brooke, and his well within the sea shore. His feast is celebrated on the 9th of June. From Cromlin river to the river of Casla are two miles, This river falls into Casla haven, and hath salmon and trout-fishing on it yearly. These white trouts are called Lihain, and come on the rivers from the sea as salmons doe. On Casla haven, in the year 1674, memorable for dearth of corn through all Ireland, the herring fishing of Galway Bay failing, herring fishing was discovered, and soe continued for five years after, and failed againe. They were larger and sooner come than Galway fish. There I saw a herring eighteen inches long. Between Casla Haven and Fearmore, or the Great Man's Haven", lyes the land be irrelevant here. It is, therefore, left to the future historian of this district. It is On c Moerras. - Casla. - On Mackensie's chart, Moerras is called Murris. west of Inveran castle. On the townland of Cloghmore there is an old churchyard called after St. Columbkille. Mackensie's chart and Larkin's map are marked the ruins of a church. See the Ordnance Survey map of this district, for the situation of the altar and well mentioned above. The river of Casla, where it falls into the bay of that name, is four Irish miles west of the mouth of Crumlin river. The bay is called in Irish Cuan Chairle, the bay of Caushlia. Mackensie and Larkin properly call it Casleh bay; but Mr. Nimmo, in his piloting directions before alluded to, calls it "Cas tello, or Casleh harbour,” p. 172. Castello is a corrupt pronunciation of Casleh, or Casla, the proper name of the bay, and therefore ought to have been rejected by him. d Great Man's Haven.-In Irish Cuan an fir mois, now called Great Man's Bay, lies west of Casla, a peninsula of about two Irish miles in breadth running between them. It was called by the same name in A. D. 1560 See the Annals of the Four Masters, who relate, that in that year, a vessel was driven on a rock at the entrance of Great Man's Bay in Iar Connaught, and that upwards of 100 men were lost, among whom was Tuathal (Toole) O'Malley, the best pilot of a long ship in his time. The people here relate, that the "Great man" who gave name to this bay, was a giant; |