Irish Druids And Old Irish Religions

291 words, 16 are Latin, and 30 are obsolete. The antiquarian authority, J. T. Gilbert, has doubts of any fifth century Latin Vulgate in Ireland. The Lives of St. Patrick are mostly of mediæval age.

The Martyrology of Donegal was by O'Clery, one of the "Four Masters," and gives an account of the Irish Saints. The Saltair Chaisil was seen by Sir W. Ware, though since lost. There are two copies of the Book of Hymns, eleventh century. The Martyrology of Maolmuire O'Gormain dates from 1167; the Metrical Calendar is put at the ninth century. St. Patrick's Hymn to the Trinity is declared of the sixth century. Among Foray or cattle-stealing poems may be cited the Tain-Bo-Cualigne, written by St. Kiaran on the skin of his pet dun cow. Irish Triads were perhaps in imitation of the Welsh ones.

O'Curry had declared the Tripartite Life of St. Patrick to be of the seventh century. Arthur Clive finds it "was certainly written after the eleventh century. Such are the allusions to the kings and chieftains; while the MS. called the Book of Armagh must have been written after the Norman Conquest, for it alludes to the Saxons as in occupation of the Island, and gives expression to a prophecy foretelling their final expulsion."

Gilbert, the Irish Archivist, in Calendar of Ancient Records in Dublin, tells us that "the early documents are in mediæval Latin, antique French, and Old or Middle English, written in obscure and contracted styles, replete with obsolete terms and archaic, undated." He finds the charters and grants are written in abbreviated Latin. The Irish was ever a puzzle. There were men to be found in Rome, it was said, who could speak every language but Irish. Lilly called it the Angels' language. Our James I. hated it, and declared his conviction that the Devil himself could not speak it. It might, therefore, on that account,

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