Part 28 (1/2)

”JOHANNES: OBARRDAN: FABRICAVIT.

”The second--

”JOHS: OKARBRI: COMORBANVS: S. TIGNACH: PMISIT.”

”'_John O'Barrdan made this box by the permission of John O'Carbry, successor of St. Tigermach_.'

”St. Tierny, or St. Tigernach was third Bishop of Clogher, having succeeded St. Maccartin in the year 506. In the list of bishops, St.

Patrick is reckoned the first, and founder of the see. Tigernach died the 4th of April, 548.

”John O'Carbry was abbott of Clones, or Clounish, in the County of Monoghan, and as such was _comorb_, or _corb_*--i. e., successor--of Tigernach, who was founder of the abbey and removed the episcopal seat from Clogher to Clounish. Many of the abbots Were also bishops of the see. He died in 1353. How long he was abbot does not appear; but the age of the outside covering of the Dona is fixed to the 14th century.

* All the successors of the founder saints were called by the Irish _comorbs_ or _corbs_. The reader Will perceive that O'Carbry was a distant but not we immediate successor of St. Tigernach.

”Since the foregoing was written I have seen the Dona, which was exhibited at the last meeting of the Royal Irish Academy. it has been put together at a guess, but different from the drawing. There is inside O'Barrdan's case another of silver plates some centuries older, and inside that the yew box, which originally contained the ma.n.u.scripts, now so united by damp as to be apparently inseparable, and nearly illegible; for they have lost the color of vellum, and are quite black, and very much decayed. The old Irish version of the New Testament is well worthy of being edited; it is, I conceive, the oldest Latin version extant, and varies much from the Vulgate or Jerome's.

”The MS. inclosed in the yew box appears from the two membranes handed me by your friend Mr. ------, to be a copy of the Gospels--at least those membranes were part of the two first membranes of the Gospel of St. Matthew, and, I would say, written in the 5th or 6th century; were, probably, the property of St. Tigernach himself, and pa.s.sed most likely to the abbots of Clounish, his successors, as an heirloom, until it fell into the hands of the Maguires, the most powerful of the princes of the country now comprising the diocese of Clogher. Dr. O'Beirne's letter I trust you will publish. I feel much indebted to the gentleman for his courteous expressions towards me, and shall be most happy to have the pleasure of being personally known to him.

”You must make allowance for the hasty sketch which is here given.

The advanced state of your printing would not allow me time for a more elaborate investigation.

”Believe me, my dear sir,

”Very sincerely yours,

”W. BETHAM.”

We cannot close the ill.u.s.trations of this ancient and venerable relic without adding an extract from a most interesting and authentic history of it contributed by our great Irish antiquarian, George Petrie, Esq., R.H.A., M.R.I.A, to the 18th vol. of the Transactions of the Royal Irish Academy, together with an engraving of it taken from a drawing made by the same accomplished artist.

”I shall endeavor to arrange these evidences in consecutive order.

”It is of importance to prove that this _c.u.mdach_, or reliquary, has been from time immemorial popularly known by the name of _Domnach_, or, as it is p.r.o.nounced, Donagh, a word derived from the Latin _Dominicus_.

This fact is proved by a recent popular tale of very great power, by Mr.

Carleton, called the 'Donagh,' in which the superst.i.tious uses to which this reliquary has been long applied, are ably exhibited, and made subservient to the interests of the story. It is also particularly described under this name by the Rev. John Groyes in his account of the parish of Errigal-Keeroch in the third volume of Shaw Mason's Parochial Survey, page 163, though, as the writer states, it was not actually preserved in that parish.