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Echinis, i. e. Horse Island, now Inis Gearain, or Garon Island, the same in sense as Horse Island, lyes very near Enagh-Coelain continent, but nearer Ard, part of Aghnenure. In this island St. Enna of Arann visited St. Coelan, priest on Lough Orbsen. This St. Coelan is worshipped the 25th of April, (Vita S. Endei, 21 Mar.

A. D. 1061, the Muintir Murcha (i. e. the O'Flaherties of Magh Seola, or the country of Hy Briuin Seola, now the barony of Clare, in the county of Galway), took possession of Lough Orbsen, and expelled or deposed Aodh (Hugh) O'Conor.-Id. During the violent contentions which took place between the O'Conors of Connaught for the sovereignty of the province after the death of Cathal Crovdearg, in A. D. 1224, Hugh, the son of Cathal, and his English allies, in A. D. 1225, marched with an army towards Lough Orbsen, and compelled Hugh O'Flaherty, lord of the lake and its islands, to deliver up to him the islands of Inis-creawa and Oilen na Circe, with all the vessels on the lake. Id. In A. D. 1256, Walter de Burgo, lord of Connaught, and first Earl of Ulster, marched against Roderick O'Flaherty, plundered the territories of Gnomore and Gnobeg, west of Lough Orbsen, and took possession of the lake, its islands and castles. These he fortified, and by that means considerably increased the power of the English in Connaught.

Echinis.-Now Inisgerraun, near the castle of Aghnenure. For this castle see the note next following. Echinis, and the other islands above mentioned, lie towards

cap.

the western margin of the lake. Inisgearrann and Ard-island are still known by the same names. Enagh Coelain is now called Annagh Keelaun. For the visit of St. Enna to Echinis, see Colgan, Acta SS. P. 709, n. 26.

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Aghnenure.-A celebrated castle on the west side of Lough Orbsen, originally built by the De Burgo's, but considerably enlarged and fortified in the sixteenth century by Morogh na d-tuagh O'Flaherty, as will appear in the sequel. The learned De Burgo, in his Hib. Dominicana, p. 309, has fallen into some mistakes respecting this castle, which it may be necessary to allude to in another place.

f Worshipped.-i. e. his memory celebrated, as our author further on expresses it, when speaking of St. Coelain, in the account of Balinahinch barony, viz., that his memory was celebrated, that is, respected, honoured, or treated with reverence, which was the ancient sense of the term "worship," as still used in the Office of Matrimony of the Church of England, and by our author. So Ussher, passim, viz. of St. Mocteus, "ejusque ad hunc usque diem celebratur memoria.”—Primord. 855. "S. Patricii Hiberniæ Apostoli honoratur memoria."-Id., 897. "Duo Finiani quo

cap. 2: 5). Of him likely Enagh-Coelan, nigh Aghnenure, is named Inis-flanann3, an island which retains the memory of St. Flanann, patron of Balynduin parish.

Inis an Ghoill", so called of a certain holy person who there lived of old, known only by the name of An Gall Craibhtheach, i. e. the devout forreigner: for Gall (i. e. of the Gallick nation)', they call every foreigner. So Inis an Ghoill, or the foreigner's island, between Ross and Moycullin barony on Lough Orbsen, containes half a quarter of pleasant land belonging to Cong Abbey, and hath a fine chappell therein which is not for the buriall of any body. On this island dyed Anno 1128, Murgess O'Nioc, archbishop of Tuam.

Inis an Ghoill hath two chappells, the one dedicated to St. Patrick, the other to the saint of whom the island is named, which admits not the buriall of any body, but in the first it is usuall to bury. Kirke Isle', or the Hen's Island, lyes in that part of Lough

rum unius die Februarii, xxIIIo. alterius die Septembris xo. celebratur memoria."Id.954, et Index Chron., 1086.

g 8 Inis-flanann. Now Inisflanan or Inishlannaun. It belongs to the neighbouring townland of Gortnashingan. See the account of St. Flannan, in the parish of Ballindun.

Inis an Ghoill.-Or Inchagoill. This island is situated about midway between the towns of Oughterard and Cong, and belongs to Cong parish. It is celebrated for its ancient ecclesiastical remains, for which see the Additional Notes.

¡ Known only.—i. e. The only name he was known by.

The Gallick nation.-The ancient Irish

Orbsen

called every foreigner Gall, viz., an alien or stranger. See Ware, De Hib. cap. vii. and Harris's Edit. ii. p. 59.

Two chappells.-For these and other particulars relating to this remarkable island, see the Additional Notes.

1 Kirke Isle.-Some Scotch Presbyterians visited this small island on account of its name, and were disappointed at not finding a kirk in it. It lies in the N. W. part of Lough Corrib, in that arm which receives the river of Belanabrack, and belongs to the parish of Cong. This island was anciently celebrated for its castle, which, according to tradition, was built by the O'Conor, king of Connaught. See ante, p. 22, note (©).

Orbsen which is within Ross half barony; and had a castell till broken in Cromwell's time. Iniscreawa", or Wild-garlick Isle, is near Cargin in the barony of Clare, a small island, where the walls and high ditch of a well fortified place are still extant, and encompass almost the whole island. Of this isle, Macamh Insicreawa, a memorable antient magician, as they say, had his denomination. Anno 1225, the Lord Justice of Ireland coming to the port of Iniscreawa, caused Odo" O'Flaherty, lord of West Connaught, to deliver that island, Kirke Island, and all the boats of Lough Orbsen, into the hands of Odo O'Connor, king of Connaught (Cathald Redfist's son), for assurance of his fidelity. Anno 1233, Fedlim, king of Connaught, brother to the former, demolished the castles of Kirke Island, Galway”, Hag Island, and Donomana.

m Iniscreawa.-In Irish, Inir Creama, (cpeam, wild garlic). It lies in Lough Corrib, opposite the castle of Cargins, and belongs to the barony of Clare. See note (). In it are the remains of an ancient circular Cyclopean wall. See Map to Tribes and Customs of Hy-many.

" Odo.—In Irish, Aodh, now Anglicised "Hugh."

• Deliver.-See ante, p. 22, note (C). P Galway.—In Irish, Caplen na Gaillim. This castle was built by O'Flaherty in A. D. 1124. See the Annals of the Four Masters at that year, where Dr. O'Conor translates CL la conaċtaib," the Connacians, by "a Conachtense, i. e. Tordelvacho O'Conor." But in a note to the Annals of Ulster, p. 389, he renders it correctly. The erection of these and other castles (which may yet be alluded to), before the IRISH ARCH. SOC. 15.

Anno

arrival of the English, shews with what caution the 22nd chapter of Ware's Antiquities should be read, and the assertions of other writers received on this point. They lay much stress on the Castrum mirificum, stated to have been built in Tuam by king Roderic, A. D. 1161. But we here see that castles were not, at that time, either so new or so uncommon as Ware has ventured to assert. It would, therefore, seem more reasonable to conclude, that the castle of Tuam was called mirificum, wonderful, from its strength, than for the reasons which he alleged; seeing that it was strongly built for defence of the sacred edifices there, which we know, from the Annals of Inisfallen, were stormed and despoiled some time before, by the Dalgais of Munster.

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¶ Donoman.-Irish, Dún lomġuin, the

Anno 1651, among the many strange and rare vicissitudes of our own present age, the Marquis of Clanrickard', Lord Deputy of Ireland, the Earl of Castlehaven, and Earl of Clancarty, driven out of the rest of Ireland, were entertained, as they landed on the west shore of this lake, for a night's lodging, under the mean roof of Murtagh Boy Branhagh, an honest farmer's house, the same year wherein the most potent Monarch' of Great Brittain, our present sovereign, bowed his imperial triple crown under the boughs of an oak tree, where his life depended on the shade of the tree leaves.

This lake breeds salmons, eels, and severall sorts of trouts, especially the delicate lough trout, of which kind there were two by chance catched, which had fair golden spots. It distributes the salmons

Dun or fortress of Iomghuin, the pagan name of a man. Part of the Dun is still remaining. The castle is now called Dunamon, and is situate on the River Suck, on the borders of the counties of Galway and Roscommon. According to tradition, this was anciently the residence of the chief of the old Irish sept of O'Finaghty, whose territory lay to the west of the river; but they were dispossessed by the Burkes, soon after the arrival of the English. For a curious account of the O'Finaghties, see Mac Firbis's great Book of Genealogies, of which a valuable transcript is preserved in the Library of the Royal Irish Academy. See also Hy-Fiachrach, p. 108.

Clanrickard. This incident is not mentioned in the "Memoirs of the Marquiss of Clanricarde," fo. London, 1757; but it probably occurred about the beginning of October, A. D. 1651, for his

among

Lordship dates a letter from the castle of
Aghnenure, on the 8th of that month.
See Addenda to the Memoirs, p. 48.

• Most potent Monarch.-Charles II. Our author, here, and in other parts of his writings, seems to have been an ardent admirer of royalty, in the person of this perfidious and ungrateful Monarch; from whom, to the last, the simple man vainly expected a restitution of his hereditary possessions in Iar-Connaught. See his dedicatory epistle to the Duke of York, afterwards James II., prefixed to the Ogygia, for such expressions as the following: "sed me a cœptis," the intended dedication of that work to Charles, " deterruit summa in regem meum observantia, detinuit pudor, metusque. Oculorum aciem perstrinxit summæ majestatis comtemplatio. Intercessore mihi opus esse judicavi," &c. But these abject expressions were of no

among divers surrounding rivers, which mutually contribute their fish and water to it; and every salmon, if not hindered, will be sure to go to that river where first it was ingendred, and after spawning there, returns in due season to the sea. Here, some old seales' come along from the sea in pursuit of the salmons. Here is another kind of fish which hath recourse to the sea as the salmon, yearly to and fro, they are called chops, and in Irish, trascain, very like herrings, only that herrings come not on fresh water.

The river of Galway, whose channel is the conveyance of Lough Orbsen for four miles into the sea, slides with some meander windings in a slow and deep stream, till it comes near the town of Galway. But as it passes by the townes side it falls into the sea with a loud noise, in a shallow vehement stream of fair christalline water". The right name of the river is Galliv, from the oblique whereof Gaillve,

avail; our author, notwithstanding all his loyalty, died a plundered and disappointed

man.

Seales.-The coasts of Iar-Connaught and its islands abound with seals. The curious account given of these animals by Martin in his description of the western islands of Scotland, p. 62, et seq., would, in most respects, answer for our western islands and coast; the only difference, perhaps, being, that with us seals are seldom slaughtered or used as food. See the affecting story of the domesticated seal, told by the ingenious author of "Wild Sports of the West." Many traditions, connecting these harmless animals with the marvellous, are related along our western shores. Among these there is one of a curious nature, viz., that at some

distant period of time, several of the Clan Coneelys (Mac Congaile), an old family of Iar-Connaught, were, by "Art magick," metamorphosed into seals! In some places the story has its believers, who would no more kill a seal, or eat of a slaughtered one, than they would of a human Coneely. It is related as a fact, that this ridiculous story has caused several of the clan to change their name to Conolly.

" Christalline water. The redundant waters of Lough Corrib, which flow unprofitably through the populous town of Galway, have been estimated as equal to 10,000 horse power in machinery. It is asserted, that with a moderate and judicious outlay of capital, that great natural supply might be made highly profitable to the undertaker, and beneficial to the public.

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