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raculously taken out, without the least feeling of the patient; the marke whereof, in the corner of his eye, still remaines.

As this Coeman gave the name of Ara Coemhan to the island, so he, from the island, is called Coeman-airne, i. e. Coeman of Aran. For Ara (signifying a kidney), the common name of the three islands, in the nominative, is Airne, or Arann in the genitive of the Irish; whence father Colganus (26 Mar. p. 750) thought Airne a distinct name of one of the islands.

There is another St. Coeman, disciple of St. Patrick, abbot of Ardcoeman or Airdnecoeman abby (Num. 12 in Colgan. in Vita 7ma. S. Patr. par. ii. cap. 54), near Wexford, wherein his feast is celebrated the 12th of June (Ibid. p. 177, num. 88). This likeness of the names of Airdncoeman and Coeman-airne, and other circumstances, induced father Colganus (Ibid. prope finem) to believe Coeman of Ardnecoeman, and Coeman-Airne were the same person, and

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were of a very different opinion. The "amendment" may be attributed to hydropathy, i. e. cure by cold water.

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• Father Colganus. The published works of this learned and laborious compiler of the lives of our national saints, so frequently referred to by our author, viz., the "Acta Sanctorum Hiberniæ,” and "Triadis Thaumaturgæ, &c. Açta," are now seldom found except in public libraries. His unpublished works, mentioned in Harris's Ware, vol. ii. p. 141, are, as I am assured by a respectable member of his order, at present preserved in the Irish College at Rome. They may be classed among the most important documents connected with the ancient history of Ireland.

and worshipped the 12th June (Colg. 12 Mar. p. 586, num. 6. Item 21 Mar. p. 715, prope finem). But it appears by an old author, Engus-kele-de, quoted by fa. Colganus (12 Mar. p. 586, num. 4, 5, 6), that Coeman-Airne was brother to St. Coemgin; and elsewhere (supra, p. 177, num. 88, Vitæ 7ma. S. Patr.), that Coeman, St. Coemgin his brother, is worshiped the 3rd November. It is another mistake of father Colganus (21 Mar. p. 714, 715, cap. 7) to write, that Ard-Olen was the same with this island, for Ard-Olen lyes as elsewhere he hath (20 Jan. p. 135, cap. 22, and p. 141, num. 13), of which hereafter. Neither is the most eastern the chiefest of the three isles, as he tooke it (21 Mar. p. 714, cap. 7), but rather the smallest, wherein, besides St. Coeman's church, is a chappell of St. Gobnat, V[irgin], worshipped 11th of February; and another of St. Paul.

On the south-east side of this island, is a great rock in the sea, remarkable for ship wracks, called Finnis"; which gave the name of Bealagh

Neither is the most eastern the chiefest. Colgan, p. 714, col. 2, has unaccountably mistaken this eastern island, which is the smallest of the three islands, for Aranmore, which is the largest and most westerly of them. It is probable, that he was led into the mistake by some incorrect map, in which these islands were either misplaced, or their position reversed; and that to the same cause may be attributed his mistake about Ardoilen, which occurs in the same place. See p. 76, note *, ante. Before Colgan's time the maps of Ireland were grossly inaccurate. In some of them this east Island of Aran is set down as the largest. In the government map, headed,

"Hibernia, insula, non procul ab Anglia, wlgare Hirlandia vocata, 1567," published with the State Papers, London, 1834, vol. ii., the middle island appears the greatest.

u Finnis. This rock is described by Mr. Nimmo in his Piloting Directions, p. 167, b, as being "above a quarter of a mile from the shore, dry with spring tides only." He adds, "On the north-west part of Inishere, in Foul Sound, a rocky ledge extends one-third over, having six feet water upon it." Bealagh-na-Finnis, mentioned above, means the way or sound of the Finnis rock; but it is now always called the South Sound.

Bealagh-na-finnis to the ship road between this island and the county of Clare. All the ships bound for or from Galway, must saile by the isles of Aran, in either of the four roads, viz., Bealagh-Lougha Lurgan' (so called of old, Lough Lurgan, de quo p. 26) between the west continent and the great island. Bealagh-na-haite (so called of Binnaite, the next land over it in the great island), between the great island and the midle island. Bealagh na-fearboy, so called of the land next it in the middle island and the east island. And, Bealaghna-finnis, between that and the county of Clare. Having thus sur

veyed the three isles of Aran, as in a sea parenthesis, I will hence steere my course from the cape of Golam-head (the furthest point this side the west continent-of the west continent I touched) to the barony of Balinahinsy.

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The barony of Balynahinsy" (known in Irish by the name of
Conmhaicne-

Bealagh-Lougha Lurgan.-In Irish bealac loca Turgan, the way or sound of Lough Lurgan. We have seen before, p. 42, that Lough Lurgan was the ancient name of the bay of Galway. This sound is always so called in Irish; but in English it is generally called the North Sound, and is the entrance to Galway bay by the Skird rocks.-See Nimmo's Piloting Directions, p. 168. The other sounds or passages mentioned above are, Bealagh-na-haite.-bealac na h-aite, now always called Gregory's Sound. It takes its name from Binn Aite, an elevated part of the Great Island in the townland of Killeany. See Nimmo, p. 167. Bealaghna-fearboy. In Irish, bealac na Feapbac, or the Foul Sound. So called from

Feapbac, a part of the Middle Island verging on it. Bealagh-na-Finnis. — In Irish, bealaċ na Finnire. See the last note". This South Sound" is between Dunmacfelin in the county of Clare and Inishere Island."—Nimmo, p. 168, b.

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Balynahinsy.-In Irish, baile na h-Ins, the town or bally of the island. This barony, which was the ancient district of Conmaicne-mara (now Anglicised Connamara), was created in A. D. 1585; and took its name from a well-known castle in the district, belonging to the western O'Flaherties. See, in the Appendix, the composition entered into in that year, for Iar-Connaught. This barony was for a long period divided into the two half baronies of Balinahinch, viz., north and

Conmhaicne-mara, i. e. the Sea Conmacny, to distinguish from Conmacny-rein), containing Angaly in the county of Longford, and Munter

south (called also the two Connamaras), which were separated by the Owinglin river, that falls into the harbour of Ardbear. The record in the British Museum, dated A. D. 1586, before referred to, p. 44, note 8, describes this barony as follows: "The barony of Ballenehence, conteyning the ii Conymares, VIII myles long and vi broad; and is, after like rate, plowlands five. Murrogh ne doo O'flarty chief in the same. Parishes (4) Vicar. of Ballinekilly—Vicar. of Ballindoyne-Vicar. of Omeya-Vicar. of Maierus.— Gentlemen and their castles, viz. Donell Ecowga, Ballenehense; Edmund Oflairte, Kyllindowne; Edmund Mc. Hugh, A new Castle; Ochaghy of Lettermellan; Donell Ecowga, Bonowyn; Tege ne Buly of Arddearee; Miles Mc.Tibbot, Reynivylie.-Castles 7." -Titus, B. xiii.

For the other ancient territories called Conmhaicne, mentioned above by our author, see his Ogyg. p. 275. Antiquaries further relate, that "Fionnchaomh, son of Cosgrach, descended from Conmuc, had for his inheritance the territories of Conmaicne Cuile-tola, and Conmaicne-mara; that his son Caireach was the first of his line who embraced the Christian faith, and that he was baptized, with all his re tinue, at Tarach, by St. Patrick, whom he invited into his country to propagate the faith there." For this, see O'Ferall's

Linea Antiqua, or Book of Irish Genealogies, preserved in the Office of Arms, Dublin. O'Cadhla (O'Kealy) was afterwards chief of Conmhaicne-mara. It is written, that from hence, a body of troops, under Carnen their chief, joined the standard of Brien Borumha, and fought at Clontarf, A. D. 1014. The Four Masters relate, that in A. D. 1139, Aodh (Hugh) O'Cadhla was lord of Conmacne-mara ; and O'Dugan records, in his Metrical Topography, compiled about A. D. 1350, that O'Cadhla was the chieftain at the time of the Anglo-Norman invasion:

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“Ar Conmaicne mara móir
O Caola capa an Comoil."
"Over Conmacne-mara great,

Was O'Cadhla, friend of banquets." From O'Dugan, Lynch, in Cambrensis Eversus, p. 27, has, "O'Cadhla sive Qually in Conmacniamara." Colgan latinizes the name Quæleus. Doctor O'Kealy, R. C. Archb. of Tuam, who, about A. D. 1645, furnished Colgan with the account of the ecclesiastical remains of Aran, before referred to, p. 74, note, was of this old family. See the eulogy on that prelate by Lynch in Vita Kirovani, p. 47. The Muintir Murchadha, or O'Flaherties of Ui Briuin Seola, being driven from the plain of Ui Briuin Seola by the AngloNorman settlers in 1238, proceeded across Lough Orbsen, and possessed themselves

Munter-Eolais in the county of Leitrim; Conmacny Dunmore, now the barony of Dunmore, in the county of Galway; and Conmacnyculy, now Killmayn barony, in the county of Mayo, is divided into the south and north half baronys, and, on the east side, lyes adjacent to the barony of Moycullin; washed by the Western Ocean on the south-west and north coasts of it, till it mears with the mountaines of Joyce Countrey on the north-east. On these coasts ambergreese'

of Conmaicne-mara. The O'Cadhlas then lost their authority, and disappear from history; but the name is still to be found among the peasantry in the mountainous district of Ross barony; and some respectable gentlemen of the name, though not of this race, reside in other parts of the country. The name Kyley, in the county of Waterford, is of another race, and is spelt in Irish O'Caella.

* Dunmore.—In Irish, Dún Móp, the great fort or dun, which gives name to the barony of Dunmore, in the county of Galway. Here there was a strong fortress of the kings of Connaught; and there still remain the ruins of an extensive castle, said traditionally to have been built by Hosdech (Hosty) Mac Membric, or Mebric (now Merrick), one of the Welch adventurers mentioned in the sequel. This castle was possessed by the Anglo-Norman Berminghams, barons of Athenry. In A. D. 1249, it was burned by the army of the king of Connaught. In the reign of Queen Elizabeth, the Berminghams being in arms against the Queen, Sir Henry Sidney, A. D. 1569, besieged and took the

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castle of Dunmore. It was finally dismantled in the time of Cromwell.

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Ambergreese. (Ambra grisea.) This substance affords another proof of the resort of whales to that part of the Atlantic Ocean off the western shores of Iar-Connaught. See p. 12, note. It is now well ascertained, that "Ambergris is indurated fæcal matter, discharged by the spermaceti whale, a species of physeter (Physeter macrocephalus). It has been found in that species of whale, but usually is found floating on the surface of the ocean, in regions frequented by whales; sometimes in masses of from 60 to 225lbs. weight. In this substance are found the beaks of the cuttle-fish (Sepia moschata), on which that whale is known to feed. It is highly valued as a material in perfumery."— Encyc. See Boate's Natural History, 4to. Dublin, 1726, p. 146, for an account of Ambergreese found near Sligo, A. D. 1691; and Beale, Nat. Hist. of the Sperm Whale, 1839. It is not to be wondered at, that in the time of our author, the poor uninformed natives of Iar-Connaught should be unacquainted with the value of amber

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