Ordnance survey of the county of Londonderry / Colonel Colby ... superintendent. Volume the first.

  • Ordnance Survey of Ireland
Date:
1837
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Ordnance survey of the county of Londonderry / Colonel Colby ... superintendent. Volume the first. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    41/414 (page 19)
    Caulfield,— O’Brolchain, or Brollaghan Bradley,— O’Caireallain Curland, Carleton, &c. &c. It may be proper to state that in all instances, where the authority is not cited throughout the following notices, they are to be considered as taken from the Irish originals of theAnnals of the Four Masters. 783. “ Derry-Calgach was burned.” 832. “ Niall Caille and Murchadh defeated the foreigners at Derry-Calgach, with great slaughter” :—that is—the Danes and Norwegians, by w hom Ireland was first infested in 795. 989. “ Derry-Calgach was plundered by the foreigners.” 997. “ Derry-Calgach was plundered by the foreigners.” 1095. “ The abbey was consumed by fire.”—(Annals of Munster.) 1100. “ A large fleet of foreigners was brought by Murtagh [O’Brien] to Derry: however, they were unable to execute vengeance, or commit aggression, being opposed by the son of Mac Loughlin, who defeated them with great slaughter, both by the sword and drowning.” 1121. “ Donnell, the son of Ardgar Mac Loughlin, monarch of Ireland, the most distinguished of the Irish for personal form, nobility of birth, wisdom, feats of arms, wealth, and prosperity, for bestow- ing riches and food, died in Derry-Columbkille, in the 38th year of his reign, and 77th of his age, on Wednesday night, the 4th of the ides of February, on the festival of Mochuarog.” 1124. “ Ardgar, the son of Hugh, heir apparent to the throne of Aileach, was killed by the people [that is—the ecclesiastics] of Derry, in defence of [the church of] Columbkille.”—(See also the Life of Gelasius, in Colgan’s Acta Sanctorum: c. 5.) 1135. “ Derry-Columbkille, with its churches, was burned on the 30th of March.” Colgan, in respect to this fire, states that “ as some conjecture, it was caused by a person desiring to revenge the death of the chief [Ardgar], who had been lately slain there.”—(lb. c. 6.) 1146. “ A violent tempest happened on the 3rd of December, which prostrated much timber throughout Ireland. It threw down sixty trees [“ sexaginta robora,” according to Colgan], in Derry- Columbkille, by which many persons were killed and disabled in the church.” This interesting record establishes the existence at so late a period, of the oak wood, from which the place had originally re- ceived its name. 1149. “ Derry-Columbkille was burned.” 1150. “ The visitation of Kinel-Owen was made by Flahertach O’Brolchain, coarb [successor] of Columbkille, and he received a horse from every caoipeac [nobleman], a cow from every two biacaij [victuallers, officers somewhat similar to the Romanparochi), a cow from every three freemen, and one from every four of the common people. He received from Murtagh Mac Neill O’Loughlin, king of Ire- land, twenty cows, a gold ring weighing five ounces, and his own horse and dress.” 1151. “Flahertach O’Brolchain, coarb of Columbkille, made a visitation throughout Siol-Cathasaigh [in the county of Antrim], and received a horse from every nobleman, and a sheep from every dwel- ling-house. He also received from Cu-uladh [Cooley] O’Flynn, the lord of the territory, hig own horse, his dress, and a gold ring weighing two ounces. 1153. “ Flahertach O’Brolchain, coarb of Columbkille, made a visitation throughout Dal-Carbry [perhaps Dal-Riada, from Cairbre Riada, in the county of Antrim], and Iveagh [in the county of Down], and received a horse from every nobleman, a sheep from every dwelling-house, a pcpeapall [scruple], a horse, and five cows from O’Donslevy [Donlevy], lord of the territory, and an ounce of gold from his wife.” The preceding notices present some curious particulars relative to the constitution and state of society in Ireland at this early period, as well as to the mode sometimes resorted to by the clergy for procuring funds to raise any expensive sacred edifice—a purpose, which, as will presently appear, was the chief, if not the sole cause of these remarkable visitations. It is evident from the term paop- raic, or “ freemen” (translated by Colgan “ liberis personis”), which is applied by the annalists to distinguish persons of property from the oiomoineic—the “ plebeians,” or “ common people”— that the latter were still no better than serfs, or slaves, as they existed among the Saxons in Britain, as they exist in Russia at this day, and as they continued in the Scotch collieries to so recent a period as the year 1775. (See the New Statistical Account of Scotland: no. 7; p. 225. Note*.) To establish this fact much additional evidence might be adduced. It is also clear that minted money was as yet unknown as a circulating medium, at least in the north of Ireland, and that the value of the precious metals was estimated only by weight. Gold as well as silver rings, of the kind mentioned above, are frequently found, and are sometimes of elegant, but generally of the rudest workmanship. They are of various sizes, and are graduated regularly according to the scale of Troy weight, from half a penny-weight, the lowest hitherto dis- covered, to a pound, and upwards. The rings, most commonly found in Ireland, are, however, of bronze, but sometimes of jet and stone. Ring-money must be of great antiquity, and is probably of eastern origin. (See Wilkinson’s Thebes.) Caesar records the use of iron ring-money among the d 2