MATURE OBIIT, ANNO ÆTATIS TRIGESSIMO QUINTO. A. D. 1741. нос MONUMENTUM, CHARISSIMI MARITI MEMORIÆ SACRUM, MARGARETA CONJUX, MERENS POSUIT.1 There is a copy of this inscription in Smith's Kerry, pp. 177-8, wanting, however, the words "anno ætatis trigessimo quinto," supplied above. No. 8 is from the church-yard of Killiney, in the parish of the same name :-I. H. S. CATHERIN MCMAHON DEPARTED THIS LIFE THE 24TH DAY OF MAY, ANNO DOMINI 1756, IN THE YEAR OF HER AGE. THE BODYES OF TIMO MCMAHON OF KILLCOMMIN, CHILDREN AND GRANDCHILDREN, HERE DOTH LYE. MATT MCMAHON BEING THE LAST, DIED APRIL 19, A. D. 1780. The woman's age does not appear to have been inserted, or else it is quite effaced. Indeed, the stone is broken just there. In this church-yard stands a plain but fine stone cross, measuring nine and a-half feet high from the ground, four feet two inches across the arms, and seven inches thick. No. 9 is from the church-yard of Ventry, in the parish of the same name, and is, I believe, the only inscription visible there, so overwhelmed with sand is this ancient and interesting spot :-HERE LYETH THE BODY OF FRED BROWNE, WHO DEPARTED THIS LIFE FEBRUARY THE FIRST, ANNO DOMINI 1775, aged 80 YEARS. No. 10 is from the church-yard of Garfinny, in the parish of the same name—an interesting inscription, which may hereafter prove useful to the local historian:-INRI. DEO O. Po-MAXo° EJUSQUE FILIo— ET SP. SANCTo.- HERE LIE MAURICE KENNEDY AND HIS WIFE JUDIT CURRANE, JAMES KENNEDY AND HIS WIFE ALICE MORRARTY ACHILLION. SAID MAURCE AND JAMS KENNEDY WERE THE SONS OF JOHN, SON OF MAURICE, SON OF JOHN KENNEDY, WHO IN THE DAYS OF CROMWELL LEFT NENAGH IN ORMOND, AND SETTLED IN THE PARISH OF GARFINACH.-THIS STONE IS CONSECRATED TO THEIR MEMORY BY JOSH KENNEDY, M. D. AND REVD JAMS KENNEDY, P.P. of dingle, sons OF SAID JAMES, A. D. 1816. No. 11 occurs over the door of the new church of Cloghane, in the parish of the same name, and, as I was informed, commemorates the period of its erection :-REV R. L. TYNER, RECTOR, A. D. 1828. In connection with this rather uninteresting inscription I may mention, that in the wall of the adjoining old church is a projecting stone, formed into a representation of a human head and face. It is placed at the height of five feet nine inches from the ground, and is believed to represent the head of Crom Dubh, a celebrated personage, who was contemporary with St. Patrick, and of whom there are traditions at the highest mountains in Ireland, viz., at Sliabh Donard in the county of Down, at Croagh Patrick in the west of the county of Mayo, and at Brandon Hill in the west of the county of Kerry, which is much higher than any of these. A "pattern" is still held at Cloghane, in honour of Crom Dubh and St. Brendan, on the last Sunday of July, which is commonly called "Dounagh Crom Dubh." 1 The lady who built this monument was daughter of chief justice Deane. No. 12 is from one of several small carn-like monuments, at the road side, near Hugginstown, in the parish of Aghaviller, county of Kilkenny:-THIS MONUMENT WAS ERECTED TO THE MEMORY OF THOMAS HEALY OF LISMOTIGUE, WHO DEPARTED THIS LIFE NOVEMBR THE 10, 1840. EATERNAL REST GRANT UNTO HIM, O LORD, AMEN. The building from which I have taken this inscription is named "Kyleva monument," being situate in the townland of that name. These little monuments are remarkable, as having been raised to the memories of persons who, I was told, had died and were buried elsewhere, and one or two have young trees growing on them. I should observe here, that the originals of many of the inscriptions above given, particularly Nos. 2, 3, and 4, are much more curious than can be represented by the printer; most of the letters being of peculiar forms, and many of them, merely by the addition of a stroke, made to serve as two and three letters. 66 Having sent a copy of the newspaper report of the preceding communication to a friend in the south, the Rev. A. B. Rowan, D.D., Belmont, Tralee, he has favoured me with the following additional particulars relative to some of the present "Gleanings," which, with his permission, I give just as they are in his letters to me :—“I think I must go over to Kiltomy (not Kiltorny) church some day, to try and decypher this inscription [No. 6], which I suspect to be of a countess of Kerry, certainly of some Fitzmaurice: you gave it to me before." "Are you quite sure that you can read the inscription on the pillar of Ardfert abbey [No. 1]? I never could be sure of it, and yet you certainly set it down as Donaldus Digen: I am not convinced." ..“I send you an inscription from Abbey-dorney church more ancient than any you have given :-AMBROSIUS PIERS. VIC. GEN. DIOCES. ARDFERT. HUNC TUMULUM SIBI FIERI FECIT, ANNO 1587. Did you give the Society the fac-simile of the inscription in Rattoo church [No. 3]? The contracted language is the chief curiosity of it." My friend then gives a copy of the inscription, which he reads as follows:-"IO[HANNES] DINIGHAN, 1666, × MARGR EJUS VXOR, HIC JACET." . . . “You have not copied the inscriptions to the three Roman bishops, or to the friars, in the cathedral [of Ardfert]. The last are curious, as showing how late the order was preserved.' ... Dr. Rowan has since supplied me with the following valuable note on the inscription on the pillar of Ardfert abbey (No. 1):"I send you on another leaf a copy of Sir Richard Colt Hoare's letter, written after a visit to Ardfert. His is a great name in antiquarian matters, and he was one of the best antiquaries of his day; still, as examination has become more accurate, I venture a suggestion on his, namely, that the last line might be made better sense, thus:-orate pro eo-pray for him.' This may well be read out of the rather defaced letters, and is a likely sense for the inscription. A misprint in the newspaper. Dormitor' might be an office in the monastery, i. e. keeper of the dormitory. It is a very ancient inscription certainly. [Copy of a letter from Sir Richard Colt Hoare, Bart]. Stourhead. SIR-I send you the best solution I can of your inscription; but it is not quite satisfactory to me. I cannot make anything of the letters HERD; but if read thus, it would be somewhat intelligible : DONALDUS FITZ-BOHEN HEIC DONALD FITZ-BOHEN HERE R. C. HOARE. Note-We frequently see bad Latin in similar inscriptions. On the above I would suggest that dormitor' was probably the name of an office in the convent, probably dormitory keeper, and that the letters which Sir R. C. Hoare makes out 'preco' may well have been 'pro eo,' and so the inscription would run in the common form"pray for him."" The visit of Sir Richard Colt Hoare to Ardfert, above alluded to, is probably that of which an account is given in his "Journal of a Tour in Ireland, A.D. 1806," in which Sir Richard mentions the "Latin inscription," on one of the columns in the nave, "recording (as he was told) some repairs done to the building" (p. 63). The date of this visit, as given in the "Journal," is 11th July, 1806, and if we suppose the letter, of which the above is a copy, to have been written soon after Hoare's return to Stourhead (his seat in Wiltshire), it contains a copy of the inscription now (1853) nearly fifty years old. This is a point of some importance, as the inscription must have been somewhat more legible half a century ago than it is now. The following valuable communication, however, with which I have been favoured by the distinguished Cork antiquary, Richard Sainthill, Esq., to whom it would seem Sir Richard Colt Hoare's letter had been addressed, throws considerable additional light on the matter, and fixes pretty accurately the date of the baronet's letter: Cork, 5th January, 1854. SIR-In reply to your letter of the 3rd inst., I have to say, that being on a visit at Mrs. Crosbie's, Ardfert Abbey, in the autumn of 1830, I attempted to decypher the inscription on the wall of the abbey; and in a communication, which I made to my friend John Gough Nichols, which is published in the Gentleman's Magazine for May, 1831, pages 409-12 of that magazine, respecting Ardfert, I see that I gave my idea of its reading being: DONALDES FITZ BOHEN HOC DORMITOR FECIT H.. O. US (HOC OPUS?) Subsequently, understanding that Sir R. C. Hoare had been at Ardfert, I addressed a letter to him, with my reading of the inscription, and requesting his opinion as to its correctness and meaning, to which he favored me with a reply; and this formed part of a very large collection of MSS. which I afterwards made to illustrate the history of the county of Kerry, to assist my friend John James Hickson, solicitor, of Tralee, who purposed reprinting Smith's History of Kerry, with additions and illustrations, Mr. Savage, of Cork, bookseller, undertaking to print. Mr. Hickson's lamented death having put an end to this, I some years ago gave my whole collection of MSS. to the Rev. A. B. Rowan, of Belmont, near Tralee, hoping that he might do something for the history of Kerry.. Among these MSS. is Sir R. C. Hoare's communication to me, of which I have no copy, and can only refer you to Mr. Rowan, if he is not the friend from whom you derive your information. I should suppose that I may have written to the baronet in 1831: I was in London that spring, and spent a good deal of my time searching the MSS. at the British Museum for Kerry history, and I am inclined to think it was then I applied to Sir R. C. Hoare for his opinion respecting it [the inscription]. When I first saw it, it was obscured by moss, &c., &c., and very hard work I had to scrub off the accumulated incrustations. My idea is, that the inscription refers to the person who made that evident addition to the abbey. I have not since been at Ardfert; and remain, Sir, your obedient servant, RICHARD SAINTHILL. Richard Hitchcock, Esq. I have since received another valuable letter from Mr. Sainthill, full of curious information respecting Ardfert abbey, and other similar matters; but I regret that this is not the place to introduce the letter, or I would willingly add it here. I regret this the more, from the writer's having assured me that I am heartily welcome" to make any use I please of his letters to me. 66 DINGLE IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY. WITH AN INTRODUCTION AND NOTES. BY RICHARD HITCHCOCK. THE town of Dingle, in the county of Kerry, was at one time a place of considerable importance, and, although now comparatively poor, it yet exhibits many remains of its former greatness. It is the most westerly town in Ireland, beautifully situate on the northern coast of the bay of the same name, an inlet from which forms the harbour, and may be called the capital of the extensive peninsula which comprises the entire barony of Corkaguiny-one of the richest and most interesting districts in Ireland to the antiquary and the lover of wild scenery. The town occupies a hilly slope, and is surrounded by mountains on all sides except that towards the harbour, which here presents the appearance of a lake, the outlet being concealed by a projecting headland. The streets are irregularly disposed, but as there are more than the usual proportion of respectable slated houses, with gardens attached, the town has, from a short distance, a very pleasing appearance. This district is generally supposed to have been colonized by the Spaniards, who formerly carried on an extensive fishery off the coast, and traded with the inhabitants, who still retain strong indications of their Spanish origin. Smith, writing about a century ago, informs us that several of the houses were built in the Spanish fashion, with ranges of stone balcony windows, this place being formerly much frequented by ships of that nation, who traded with the inhabitants, and came to fish on this coast; most of them are of stone, with marble door, and window frames: on one is an inscription, signifying, that the house was built by one RICE, anno 1563; and on a stone beneath two roses, are carved these words, AT THE ROSE IS THE BEST WINE. Many of them have dates on them as old as Q. Elizabeth's time, and some earlier."-Antient and Present State of the County of Kerry, pp. 176-7. Few or none of these dates and inscriptions are now visible, being most probably altogether destroyed, or covered over with plaster; but many of the quaint old houses still exist. Smith further informs us (pp. 192-3) that several Spanish merchants resided at Dingle, before queen Elizabeth's time, and that they traded with the natives for fish and other kinds of provision, as appears by a tract written by John Dee, entitled "The British Monarchy," in 1576. Smith gives a curious account of such commodities as might then be purchased in Kerry, and such as were usually transported to Spain from the port of Dingle. A comparison of the prices of these with the prices of the same articles at the present day would form a rather curious result. According to Dr. O'Donovan's edition of the Annals of the Four Masters (A. D. 1579, vol. v. p. 1714, n. z.), Dingle was formerly called Daingean-Ui-Chuis, i. e. the fortress or fastness of O'Cuis, the ancient Irish proprietor of the place before the English invasion, not of the Husseys, as asserted by Dr. Smith and others. It is probably from this name that the modern term "Dingle-i-couch" is derived. Subsequently, it appears that a castle was built in Dingle by the Hussey family, to whom one of the earls of Desmond had granted a considerable tract of land in the vicinity. On the rebellion and consequent forfeitures of the Desmond family and its adherents, the castle was, with divers lands, granted to the earl of Ormonde, from whom it was purchased by Fitzgerald, knight of Kerry, who also had a castle in this town. No traces of these castles now exist, if we except some of the hewn stones belonging to them built into the modern houses about the town. Queen Elizabeth, in the 28th year of her reign (1585), signed a warrant for the grant of a charter of incorporation to the inhabitants of the town, with privileges similar to the borough of Drogheda, and with a superiority over the harbours of Ventry, Smerwick, and Ferriter's creek; and she gave the inhabitants £300 to wall the place. The charter, however, was not actually granted until the 4th of James I. This charter, which is the only one known, was granted to the "sove I believe that the origin of the first part of the name "Dingle-i-couch" may with equal probability be found in the simple meaning of the English word "dingle❞— a hollow between two hills, which is partly the situation of the town. In the old account of Dingle, which follows this introduction, we find the name spelled "Dingenacush” - an evident modification of the Irish name Daingean-Ui-Chuis, above given. The present Irish name of Dingle is simply daingean. |