Echini Cup-marks on Stone covering of Giant's Grave, Mount Prospect, *Ennis" Abbey," or Franciscan Convent-General View, Ennis "Abbey," or Franciscan Convent-Canopy of Inchiquin Tomb, Corbels of Belfry, Screen and Details, Flint Spear-head of Danish Origin, found at Scarriff, 36. Funeral Urn found in Crete, 39-44. Details Spiral Ornament-Denmark, &c., Figs. PAGE 150 151 .. THE JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF ANTIQUARIES OF IRELAND, FOR THE YEAR 1895. PAPERS AND PROCEEDINGS-PART I. FIRST QUARTER, 1895. Papers. ON AN OGAM INSCRIPTION LATELY DISCOVERED NEAR GORTATLEA, COUNTY KERRY. BY THE RIGHT REV. CHARLES GRAVES, D.D., M.R.I.A., N the autumn of 1893 a stone bearing an Ogam inscription was discovered in the outer ring of a rath on the land of Mr. J. B. M'Quinn, about a quarter of a mile from the Gortatlea station on the railway between Tralee and Killarney. (Ordnance Survey, Kerry, Sheet 39.) When found, it was projecting inwards from the western side of the embankment. But there is every reason to suppose that it originally stood upright. I was not informed of its existence until the summer of 1894, when Dr. Frazer kindly drew my attention to it. I lost no time in visiting the monument, and received in the examination of it valuable assistance from Mr. M'Quinn, near whose house it had been placed. Since then my friend the Rev. Patrick Sweeny has furnished me with a pen-drawing, an excellent rubbing, and paper casts, which enable me to pronounce a decided opinion upon the reading of the inscription. With the exception of a small portion of the stone broken off at the top, which may have contained characters representing, at the most, three or four letters, the inscription is complete and perfectly legible, except a JOUR. R.S.A.I., VOL. V., PT. I., 5TH SER. B single stroke about which some doubt might be entertained. It consists of two lines written from the bottom upwards, which are to be read thus: The second line is complete. The first may, perhaps, want a few characters following the one which I have set down as A, but which may have been any other vowel. There would have been room on the edge of the stone for about ten strokes between that a and the final s of GLASICONAS. The vowel preceding the second в may have been an a. I now proceed to deal with the first line of the inscription, after calling the reader's attention to a point in the transliteration which deserves his notice. I allude to the duplication of the T in NIOTTA. This is in accordance with a practice not uncommon in Ogam writing, the doubling of a consonant generally denoting, according to my view, that it was to be modified in some way. Thus the name Carthach might be spelt as CARTTAC. So again TOGITTACC would be the Ogamic representation of Toigthach. NIOTTA appears to have been equivalent to the later Irish Nia, or Niadh, or Niath, explained in dictionaries and glossaries as-(a) meaning a hero or champion, and also used (b) as an adjective with the signification fierce, strong. We find it, moreover (c), as a proper name, e.g. Nia, son of Cucongalt,' Nia, son of Cormac, and (d) as an element in compound proper names, e.g. in Nia Sedhamain, Crimhthann Niadhnair, Enna Niadh, Nia Mor, and in a form closely resembling Niotta, in Niothfruich, Niothfer.8 5 7 6 2 3 In the form Neta or Netta it occurs in six other Irish Ogam inscriptions, viz. : Neta Segamonas (Ardmore). Neta Segemon (Island). Neta Ttrenalugos (Monataggart). To these should be added the Bridell (Welsh) inscription, which contains the name Nettasagru." We are not in a position to discuss the question whether the person commemorated by this monument was a professional champion. I find in M. de Jubainville's article in the Revue Celtique 10 no mention of 1 Annals of the Four Masters, A.D. 771. 4 Ib., A.M. 5193. 5 Ib., A.D. 241. 2 Ib., A.D. 178. 3 Ib., A.M. 4881. 6 Book of Ballymote, fol. 142. 7 Book of Armagh, fol. 15. b. 1; Stokes, Trip., p. 331. 8 Book of Armagh, fol. 14. a. 1; Stokes, Trip., p. 325. 9 Reading very doubtful. See Hübner, Inscr. Brit. Christ., p. 37. 10 Vol. vii., pp. 11-20. |