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amico," Duald Mac Firbis, which was perpetrated in A. D. 167. The assistance which he received from this learned man is feelingly acknowledged.

His next known production, in point of time, was his "Observations on D' Borlace's Reduction of Ireland," now first printed in this Appendix, from the author's autograph. This appears notified in Thorpe's curious Catalogue of the Southwell MSS., A. D. 1834, No. 348, with the following remark: "These observations were transmitted to Mr. Robert Downing, in a letter dated Galway, Jan. 17, 1681–2, and rebut, apparently with some consistency, Sir John Temple's assertions respecting the massacre of the Protestants of Ulster, in 1641. He is very severe on Borlace, and vindicates forcibly the unquestionable veracity of the early Irish chronicles." This was succeeded by his Description of West or h-Iar Connaught, now first printed in the present volume. After these followed the publication of his great work, the Ogygia, which remains a lasting monument of our author's learning and genius. Immediately on its appearance, it excited the curiosity and attracted the attention of the learned of Europe, many of whom testified their approbation of the work in the most flattering terms. Dr. Smith, in his Catalogue of the Cotton Library, commended our author for his learning and accuracy'; as did also that famous scholar Edward Lhuyd, in the preface to his Irish Dictionary". Our ablest antiquaries since that time have admitted, that in it he has given "secure anchorage" to Irish history. He has "settled the chronology of the Christian ages in Ireland with the greatest accuracy, and even that of Scotland so precisely, that he may justly be esteemed the first chronologer of the affairs of that kingdom." According to Pinkerton, the Ogygia "raised a strange flame among the Scotish writers. National enmity and prejudice made truths very unacceptable". The Scotish lists (of the Dalriadic kings of North Britain) compared with that of O'Flaherty, are most inaccurate."

See Cat. Stow. MSS. vol. i. p. 86. "Arch. Brit. p. 311, A. D. 1706. ▾ O'Conor, Dissert. sect. xii.

Introd. Hist. Scot. p. xlix, which see, for the continuation of Pinkerton's characteristic exposure of the " crazy ideas, absurd ingenuity, puerile reading, and cunning quibbles," of the three historical knights errant, Sir George Mackenzie, Sir Robert Sibbald, and Sir James Dalrymple, in defence of the romantic fables of Scotch history, against our author.

Hist. Scot. vol. i. p. 100. It has long been the fate of Irish history and antiquities, to be misrepresented by persons unacquainted with the lan

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guage and literature of the country. Among these are reckoned those historical system-makers, Whitaker, Pinkerton, and their followers; also Cox, Leland, and others of their class. During the progress of the Ogygia, the author, always modest and diffident, sent the first part of the work to his friend, William Molyneux; a man whose name, in many respects, "Ireland ought to honour." The latter, writing to his brother Thomas, 30th Oct. 1683, says, "I have in my hands, and do suddenly intend to send them over, the first part of the Ogygia. I think, indeed, it is not contemptible, and that is enough to be said of any thing relating to the pro

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Although our author was naturally of a mild and forbearing disposition, and not inclined to censure others, yet he was sometimes obliged to lay aside his usual forbearance; and on one occasion particularly, he "let fly," to use the words of Bishop Nicolson, "a whole chapter of remarks upon honest Father Walsh, for his pretending, in his Prospect of Ireland,' to criticism in the Irish language." But the real cause was, our author's dislike of that restless ecclesiastic, for his advocacy of Ormond, the determined enemy of the old Irish proprietors. Nicolson adds, that "this severe treatment" probably discouraged Walsh from publishing a second part of his "Prospect." This is not unlikely, although the Ogygia, which contained the "Remarks," was not published for three years after Walsh's work. The subjoined original document, now first printed, may help to shew how that remarkable man was employed, after Ormond's departure from Ireland".

The "Ogygia Vindicated against the Objections of Sir George Mackenzie," was our author's next production. This remained in MS. until A. D. 1775, when it was published by the venerable Charles O'Conor, to whose preface the reader is referred

found antiquities of our country, concerning which little has been yet said that would not raise scorn in a reader." See Dublin University Magazine for Oct. 1841, p. 472. Vallancey was not ashamed to charge our author with duplicity in pretending ignorance of the old language in which the Brehon laws were written. See preface to Collect. p. v. Ed. 1770; and Lhuyd's letter, to which he refers. Phil. Trans. No. 363. Ogyg. Part. III. c. 27.

z Ir. Hist. Lib. ii. c. 2.

a The following is from the original Council Book, Dublin Castle:

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Order to lycence Peter Walsh a priest, to come out of Flanders into Ireland.

"Whereas we are informed by Coll. Christopher Mayo, that one PETER WALSH a priest, now in Flanders, is furnished with authority from the King of Spaine, and moneys for the transporting of 4000 Irish natives for his said Majesties service in Flanders aforesaid. These are therefore to permitt and suffer the said Peter Walsh with his servants, travelling arms, and necessaries, quietly to transport himself into Ireland: provided, that at his first arrival in Ireland, the said Walsh do give notice to the governor of the garrison where he shall so

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arrive; provided also that he comes furnished with authority as aforesaid, and that he use not his priestly function in this land; and that he act nothing prejudiciall to the commonwealth of England. Dublin, 26th May, 1653."

b From the original "Transactions of the Committee of Antiquarians of the Dublin Society," now preserved in the Library of the Royal Irish Academy, the following extract relative to the above work has been taken : "A MS. entitled 'Ogygia Vindicated,' written by Mr. O'Flaherty, to expose Sir George Mackensie's Defence of Fordun's History of the Royal Line of Scotland, was laid before the Committee, by Mr. Morris of the County Galway, for their perusal referred to a Committee, who reported that the same was authentic, and is deserving of publication. Resolved, 1st Feb. 1773, that Charles O'Conor, Esq., be requested to prepare same for the Press, with such annotations as he shall think necessary. That a sum of twenty guineas be paid to Mr. Morris for the same, provided he will inform the Committee in what manner the MS. came into his hands, and how long it has been in his possession, as it appears not to be in the handwriting of Mr. O'Flaherty."

for some further particulars relating to our author. Mr. O'Conor (Preface, p. viii.) excuses some of the phraseology of that work by observing, that the English was to Mr. O'Flaherty "a foreign language." Of the same plea we here avail ourselves, with reference to the description of West Connaught, and the other tracts hereto subjoined. That he was a greater master of Latin than English is very evident; but the matters which he has treated of in the latter, and the judgment and learning displayed throughout, will, it is hoped, induce the reader to extend that indulgence to him here, which was solicited by the venerable editor for the "Vindication." His Letter on the Chinese Chronology, and Animadversions on the pretended Subjection of the Irish Bishops to the See of Canterbury, both first printed in this Appendix, are the latest productions of our author of which we have any knowledge. The latter was found among the Southwell MSS., and is thus noticed in Thorpe's Catalogue before alluded to, No. 432: "A long and most interesting autograph letter, dated prid. cal. May, 1709, in four closely-written folio pages. The assertion here corrected is that by Dr. Chamberlayne, in his Notitia Anglicana, in relation to the Irish nation, of whom, as Flaherty observes, but few late writers have a right understanding, since the publishing of Giralde's Cambrensis, by Camden, in 1602, that being the only history they follow, though the manifold errors and calumnies in that work were set forth in Latin, under the title of Cambrensis Eversus, at St. Malo's, in 1662. Lynch's volume is generally supposed to have been printed at London, and its extreme rarity to have been occasioned by, as it appears, only a conjectured annihilation by the ravages of the fire in 1666.

"The publication of this letter would be a delicious morceau to the Irish ecclesiastical antiquary. Unalloyed by romance, authenticated references are adduced relative to the mission of St. Augustine in Britain, and other historical facts, [so] as to render it extremely valuable. The life and mission of St. Patrick, an Englishman, to Ireland, in 432; his founding the sees of Trim and Ardmagh, in Ulster; his journey to Rome, where such authority and privileges were granted to him as rendered him the hierarch of the Irish church, are so amply and clearly told, that Flaherty's narrative will enforce the reader to be assured of his being one of the most generally informed, most lucid, and most impartial of the antiquaries and historians of his day."

There occurs in the same Catalogue a MS. numbered 391, pp. 59, 4to., bearing the title of the Ogygia, but described as a "Vindication of the work, against the Cavils of Sir George Mackenzie," and stated as "not having been printed." This MS. is, however, nothing more than a collection of passages from the printed Ogygia itself, and the letters

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dated at Oxford, which have been printed in the Vindication. It is now in the library of Sir Thomas Phillips, Bart., of Middlehill, Broadway, Worcestershire; a gentleman whose politeness and liberality in permitting access to his invaluable collection of manuscripts, the Editor takes this opportunity again gratefully to acknowledge.

Our author, in Ogyg. part iii. c. xc. p. 421, promised to continue that work in a second book, which was to treat of the Christian kings of Ireland. Walter Harris, the editor of Ware's works (vol. ii. p. 272), says he was "informed that Mr. O'Flaherty did finish his second Book, and that it yet (A. D. 1745) remains in MS. among his relations in Conaught ;" but Harris feared it was “no more than that short abstract of Annals, in a few loose papers of his Handwriting (beginning at the year 1187, and ending with 1327) which the Bishop of Derry mentions." Charles O'Conor, who was better informed on the subject, informs us in his Preface to Ogygia Vindicated, p. xxi., that Mr. O'Flaherty was long employed about a work entitled "The OGYGIA CHRISTIANA, or the Annals of Ireland from its Reception of Christianity. This second Ogygia, more valuable than the first, for its importance, may, we hope, be still in some safe hande." The same venerable authority, in another place', expresses his apprehensions lest any of our author's loose papers "should be offered for publication, without receiving his own last corrections." But those now first printed in the present volume appear to have had that advantage, and even to have been transmitted by him for the press. It is, therefore, hoped that they will not be found to detract, in any way, from his well-earned reputation.

With respect to our author's sad personal history, it will not occupy much of our space. He had scarcely arrived at the age of manhood, A. D. 1652, when he found himself, without any delinquency on his part, included in the general proscription of the times, and his ample hereditary possessions involved in the confiscation which followed. On the ground of his "innocency," he appealed to the Parliamentary Commissioners of Delinquency, who sat at Athlone, A. D. 1653, and he was decreed entitled to a considerable portion of his estate in Iar-Connaught, which was accordingly "set out" to him by the Commissioners, who immediately after sat at Loughrea. But this was a mere nominal restitution, for the contributions levied by the State were so heavy, and the country was so much depopulated, that he derived no benefit from

d In Hist. Library, Appendix IV. The Bishop

adds: These are a few loose papers of that gentleman's own hand-writing, and ought to be preserved with due respect, since we all know with what a scrupulous zeal he (O'Flaherty) endeavoured to ascertain its own time to every occurrence under the sun."

e The Editor joins in this hope, although he has made several inquiries respecting the MS. in question, and even proposed pecuniary rewards for any IRISH ARCH. SOC. 15.

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information which might lead to its recovery; but all without effect. The only hope he now entertains about it is, that it may possibly remain in the possession of the family that inherited our author's estate after his only son, who died without issue, but among whom there was no opportunity of mak ing inquiry.

f Dissert. Pref.

15th March, 1652, ordered by the Council of State: "On application made to the Commissioners

from it, and was, consequently, reduced to the most severe privations. It was probably about this time that, according to Mr. O'Conor", he experienced the friendship of Counsellor Terence Mac Donough, of Creevagh, in the County of Sligo; and that he there first became known to Duald Mac Firbis, of Lecane, in that county, the most learned Irish antiquary of any age, and whose acquaintance was, in all likelihood, our author's greatest consolation under his subsequent difficulties. The example of this distinguished scholar is supposed to have first induced him to study the history and antiquities of his native land.

On the restoration of Charles II.', our author, like many more of the dispossessed Irish, expected to be restored to his estates; but in that he was disappointed, as he has himself thus feelingly described: "Regium hæredem Dominus bonorum omnium applausu citra pulverem et sanguinem ad sua regna mirabiliter revocavit: Sed me

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for an abatement of the contribution charged upon the co. Galway, in regard of Eer-Connaught, a great part of the said co. lies excluded from protection. That the inhabitants within the said precinct be abated soe much as cannot be made and raysed, by planting the inhabitants removed from Eer-Connaught in protected places." On 4th Nov. 1653, another order for abatement was made: "As the territory of Ere-Connaught, and other places within the said precinct, are wasted and excluded from protection, that of the £3200 monthly assessment charged, £600 monthly for 3 months from 1st Nov. be respited."-Orig. Council Book, Dub. Castle.

h Dissert. Preface.

At this time Dublin and Galway were the two principal cities of Ireland. Sir Charles Coote, then President of Connaught, and one of the most leading characters of the kingdom, seeing the decline of the Parliamentary power, which he had been one of the foremost to uphold, resolved to declare for the restoration of the monarch, and, as a preliminary step for "free" Parliament, which meant a Parliament favourable to the design. To ensure the success of so momentous and dangerous a movement, he saw the necessity of securing Galway; and that he achieved in the following singular manner. Early in January, 1659, Sir Charles being in that town, of

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which Col. Thomas Sadlier was then governor, he invited the latter "and his officers all zealous for the Long Parliament, to his house over the water, to be merry; which done, he pretended a desire to drink a glass of wine in Galway privately with the colonel: so they two secretly took a boat, with each a servant, and being on the other side, Sir Charles said: 'Colonel Sadlier, I am resolved for a free Parliament, and to have this garrison; you have a sword about you, draw, and fight, or else engage your honour you will make no disturbance in the town upon our admission, and my declaration.' To which Sadlier, surprised and troubled, answered, he would acquiesce. Upon this he caused the gate to be opened, and Sir Charles having declared himself, the soldiers cried out, A Coot! a Coot! and a free Parliament!" Having secured the person of the governor, he immediately proceeded to Dublin, and, in conjunction with Lord Broghill, surprised the Castle there; seized the Parliamentary governors, Waller, Jones, Thomlinson, and Corbet, whom they sent prisoners to England. They then declared for a full and free Parliament, which was soon after followed by the Restoration. For the particulars of the foregoing revolution and narrative, see Cox's History of Ireland, vol. ii. ; also Burton's History, 4to. London, 1690, p. 50.

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