kenny on the occasion of fairs being held in it. I am indebted to our excellent town clerk, Patrick Watters, Esq., for the reference to this pastime, which had escaped my researches. It appears that on the 10th June, 1703, John Blunden being then mayor, the corporation came to the following resolution :— Ordered, that the bell-man do every market-day give public notice, that there will be a fair held within the walls of this city on the feast day of the nativity of St. John the Baptist, and on the feast of St. Kennys next, and all persons to be custom free; and that the clerk do post up papers on the gates accordingly; and that two pieces of plate of 20s. vallue each be prepared by Mr. Mayor, at the charge of this City, to be runn for by four maids, as the Mayor shall appoint. And on the 22nd August, 1713, it was Ordered, that the Town Clerk do post up that the fair held on St. Canice's day, being the 11th October next, be custom free to all buyers and sellers for seven years then to come; and that a plate of 23s. value, yearly, be run for by five young women to be approved of by the Mayor; and that Mr. Receiver do have it advertised in the Dublin Gazette, at the City charge. It will be seen that all the popular pastimes of the practice of which in Kilkenny, in the olden time, the municipal records afford us positive evidence, are almost exclusively of Norman or Anglo-Saxon derivation; but there is one bye-law which may be taken as affording a clue to the use of games which were of purely Celtic origin. On the 25th June, 1638, this order was made-"No Mayor to go to any wake to eat or drink, on pain of £10." From this I think it is reasonable to suppose that the wake orgies-those remnants of Pagan rites, all traces of which now, at length, in the nineteenth century, have been, I believe, happily obliterated amongst the usages of our peasantry, by the determined discouragement and denunciation of the Roman Catholic clergy-may have been indulged in by the citizens of Kilkenny two hundred years since. 1 Having searched the file of the Dublin Gazette, for the year 1713, in the library of Trinity College, Dublin, I find that the advertisement, ordered as above, was never inserted. 2 The public, generally, are under the impression that the pastors of the peasantry have exerted themselves to put down wakes, merely from the unseemliness of the indulgence of mirth and games, however innocent in their character, in the chamber, or the house of death. I so thought myself untili recently, when I was undeceived by Mr. Hackett, of Middleton, a gentleman whose research on the subject of existing traces of Pagandom in Ireland, is well known to archæologists. Subsequent inquiries amongst those who are likely to be best informed as to popular customs,from mixing in the games and observances of the peasantry in early youth, and who have, therefore, had occular demonstration of the facts to which they testified, have fully corroborated Mr. Hackett's statement as to the gross obscenity of the wake orgies, and his speculations as to their Heathen origin. Whilst we must rejoice that customs so revolting to all notions of delicacy and civilization, and so largely calculated to demoralize our people, have been put down, and I trust eradicated, it is yet to be regretted that some record is not likely to be preserved of the main features of observances so curious, and calculated to be so interesting to archæological investigators, as being obviously Pagan rites (however diluted and modified in the lapse of ages), coming down to our own day in the practice of the peasantry of at least three of the provinces of Ireland; but so marked are they in every part by the allpervading licentiousness of Paganism, that to spare the feelings of the modest reader, Such, and other means of recreation, as simple or as barbarous, were the resources of our ancestors; and fed and surfeited as the present generation has been by the ever-teeming harvests of exciting fiction and intellectual amusement-the lecture, the theatre, the opera, the concert with every taste gratified and every leisure moment filled up, it seems scarcely possible to conceive a state of existence when the same mental aliment was not forthcoming, and when what if written at all, they should be confided to the guardianship of a dead language. In this place I can but refer to their nature in the most general terms. These wake games were never performed in the houses of persons who felt really afflicted by the bereavement which they might be supposed to have endured in the demise of a member of their family. They were reserved for the deaths of old people who had survived the ordinary span of life, or young children who could not be looked upon as an irreparable loss. They were placed under the conduct of some peasant of the district who excelled in rustic wit and humour, and this person, under the title of "Borekeen," may be termed the hierophant of the observances, whose orders were carried into force by subordinate officers, all arrayed in fantastic habiliments. The "game" usually first performed was termed "Bout," and was joined in by men and women, who all acted a very obscene part which cannot be described. The next scene generally was termed "Making the Ship," with its several parts of "laying the keel," forming the "stem and stern," and erecting "the mast," the latter of which was done by a female using a gesture and expression, proving beyond doubt that it was a relic of Pagan rites. The "Bull and the Cow" was another game strongly indicative of a Pagan origin, from circumstances too indelicate to be particularised. The game called "Hold the Light," in which a man is blindfolded and flogged, has been looked upon as a profane travestie of the passion of our Lord; and religion might also be considered as brought into contempt by another of the series, in which a person caricaturing a priest, and wearing a rosary, composed of small potatoes strung together, enters into conflict with the "Borekeen," and is put down and expelled from the room by direction of the latter. If the former games be deemed remnants of Pagan rites and of ante-Christian origin, these latter may be looked upon as anti-Christian, and devised with a view of making religion ridiculous, at a time when the masses had a lingering predilection for Paganism. "Turning the Spit" and "Selling the Pig" are the names of two other of those games; in that called "Drawing the Ship out of the Mud" the men engaged actually presented themselves before the rest of the assembly, females as well as males, in a state of nudity, whilst in another game the female performers attired themselves in mens' clothes and conducted themselves in a very strange manner. Brief as are these particulars, they will give sufficient idea of the obscene and demoralising tendency of the wake orgies, and show the necessity which existed for their total suppression. It is, however, right to say that the peasantry who practised them had no idea of outraging propriety or religion in their performance, holding an unquestioning faith in the old traditions that such observances were right and proper at wakes, whilst under any other circumstances they would shrink with horror from such indelicate exhibitions. Amongst those obscene practices, some of the ordinary "small plays" in which young people in every class of society indulge, were engaged in at wakes; but it is probable they were of comparatively modern introduction; of the latter, those chiefly used were "Cutchacutchcoo" and "Hunt the Slipper," known amongst the peasantry by the name of "Brogue about." The "Drohedy Dance," supposed to be the ancient Morris dance, was also sometimes had recourse to at wakes. Mr. Hackett traces a similarity to our wake orgies, in the rites still used by many savage peoplesfor instance, the games of the Mandan Indians commemorative of the " Big Canoe," or Ark; and he has drawn my attention to a passage in the " Annals of the Propagation of the Faith," in which a missionary priest reported that he had experienced comparatively little difficulty in converting the Feejee islanders to an acknowledgment of Christianity but he found it utterly impossible to induce the natives to omit the obscenities enacted between death and interment. This may be merely a coincidence, but it is, at least, a remarkable one. has become for us a very necessity of our daily lives, was either utterly unknown, or was enjoyed as a luxury, rarely and with extreme difficulty to be obtained. INAUGURATION OF CATHAL CROBHDHEARG O'CONOR, KING OF CONNAUGHT. TRANSLATED BY MR. JOHN O'DALY, WITH NOTES BY JOHN O'DONOVAN, ESQ., LL.D., M.R.I.A. THE following tract, on the inauguration of Cathal Crobhdhearg (the red-handed) O'Conor, last king of Connaught, was written by Donogh Bacach (the lame), son of Tanaidhe O'Maelconaire, who was present at the ceremony, and whose privilege it was to place the royal rod in the hands of the king, when he assumed the sovereignty of Connaught. I made the copy from a manuscript written by Eoghan O'Keeffe,' a celebrated Munster poet and scribe in the year 1684, which is the only copy I ever met with. Eoghan O'Keeffe, the transcriber, was born at Glenville, in the county of Cork, in the year 1656, and died, parish priest of Doneraile, in 1720. He wrote several excellent poems, on national events, in his native tongue-one of which, on the defeat of the Irish at the battle of Aughrim, where St. Ruth's jealousy of the Irish officers caused the destruction of James' last army, is in my collection, and begins thus: “Ar d-treasgar-ne an Caċòruim, do fíol Eibir, 'S carlleaṁjarn an maċaire do'n droing ¿éadna ; "The slaughter of Heber's race on Aughrim's plain, I have made copies of almost all his compositions from the originals, some of which are in the Hudson collection, in the Royal Irish Academy, while others have been carried to a foreign land. To Dr. O'Donovan's kindness the reader is indebted for the valuable notes which accompany the text. 1 For a further account of Eoghan O'Keeffe and his brother bards, see my Poets and Poetry of Munster, second edition, p. 38. CAG AGUS 10KMHUS CHATHAIL CHROIBHDHEIRg H-Í CHONCHUBHAIR, RÍGH CONNACHT. Anno Domini, 1224. Caċal Crobdearg mac Torrdealbajż móir h-Í Chonċúbajr d'fażajl bais, eadon, ríż Connaċt; an duine ba mó gráin agus ear-fuaj¿ ar gaċ leać a n-Éirinn. Duine as mó do rri do creaċasb agus do loisgċjb ar Ghalla agus ar Ghaojdeala do bjos jna ażajd. Dujne as cróda agus as ajidreaida re h-eascardib tarnead rjaṁ. Duine as mó do ró-dall, ró-ṁarb, agus ró-smaċtajd do ṁéirleaċajb agus d'eascairdib. Dujne b'fearr sit agus saime táinig do riozarb Eireann riaṁ. Dujne as mó do ¿ógajb do żeampallaiq agus do ṁajnisdreaċajb agus do ċójm¿jonóblaj cinnte an aimsir a beaża é. Duine as mó do ró-sásajd do boċtaib agus do dí¿-leanajb Dé é, ujm bjad, ujm éadaċ, agus ujm gaċ easbajd jaożalta do bị orra, ina ¿iż féji. Duine as mó snar oibrid Dja gaċ maj¿ jna aimsir féin a 1-Eiriny é. Dujne umorra da d-tug Dja meas, tlás, agus jomad gaċa torad re a linn. Dumne as geanamhajde agus as geanaṁla re gaċ aoi ró bí re a linn fém é. Dujne umorro ro congarb é féin ar aon inaoj fósda agus do congarb comntsonois mast agus feabdaċt tar éis a mná fósda d'imieact agus d'fażaj bajs uard gur ba marb e féin. Duine déarcaċ, desscrésdeaċ, a d-tuaż agus a 1-Eaglais é. Dujne cjuin, ceannais, ailgean re mnajb; fjall, fairseang, forb-fáilteać re fileadajb agus re h-aois gaċa céirde, ar ċeanna, ró bj aṁuil, ró tjiżeallad a bej¿ do réir leabar a m-béalaib naoṁ agus fjoraon. Dujie as mó dá d-tug Dja jomad tajdbsj agus uaċbájs a g-cażajb agus a g-cruad-ċojnnsgleódaib, agus ró saor Dja é; agus nj minje do faoilead srii, gidead ró ċotajż agus ró ¿ógarb Dia as gaċ dogrung é. Dujne tréan ó laċt a bujme é. Duine do cast a flasteaṁnas go for-¿réan fearaṁail e. Dujne do berread a dljże féin d'eaglais Dé é. Dujne fioraonda, foirglide, conail, cráibżeaċ, ceart-breaċac é. Dujne ná ró smuainead feall ná fjongaill for neaċ is an doṁan re h-uabar easaonta nó feirge riaṁ é; go b-fuair bas jon-molta jar m-buad ongża agus artrige. Tuig a léazioir gur ab é Cażal Carraċ O'Conċúbair do bí ag gleic fá ceannas na cóige sin Chonnaċt re Caċal Crobdearg, agus go rabadar Gaill ina da rajin ag cújdjużad leo for gaċ lea¿, éadon, Seaan de Cursa le Catal Crobdearg; agus Uilljam mac Alderlmeil le Catal Carraċ. Aod mac Cażajl Croibdeirg do żabail rjożaċt Connaċt jar m-bás a ażar. Mejc Hugo de Lacÿ do teaċt a n-Eirjin do isżoil ríż Sacsan an bliadain sin; forbaisi cogajd agus forrajn d'fás a n-Eirinn re linn na mejc rin Hugo de Lacÿ, ar Ghalla THE LIFE AND TIMES OF CATHAL, THE RED-HANDED O'CONOR, KING OF CONNAUGHT. Anno Domini, 1224. Cathal Crobhdhearg, son of Turlogh Mor O'Conor, king of Connaught, died. He was a man calculated to strike fear and dread more than any other Irishman of his day; he was a man who burned the greatest number of homesteads, and took the greatest number of preys from both the English and Irish who opposed him; he was the most valorous and undaunted man in opposing his enemies that ever lived. It was he who blinded, killed, and subdued the greatest number of rebels and enemies. He was the most gentle and peaceable of all the kings that ever reigned in Ireland. It was he who founded and endowed the largest number of churches and monasteries, and established permanent congregations, of any of his contemporaries. He was a supporter of the poor and humble people of God with food, raiment, and all other necessaries of life, in his own palace. He was the man above all men whom God endowed with the greatest benignity, and on whom He bestowed prosperity, plenty, and abundant crops during his reign. He was, without exception, of all his contemporaries, the man who won for himself the character of purity of mind and amiability towards all persons. He was, indeed, a man who remained contented with his lawful wife, and who, after her demise, observed the strictest continence until the day of his own death. He was a charitable discreet man towards laymen as well as ecclesiastics; he was mild, respectful, and tender towards females; liberal, open-hearted, and friendly to poets, and all professors of science without distinction; he was the same person whose existence had been predicted by saints and holy seers; a man who witnessed the most strange scenes and valour in course of his battles and conflicts, but God preserved him, yet it was often feared he would not escape; God, however, supported him and delivered him from all his difficulties. He was endowed with courage since he left the milk of his nurse. He was a man who sustained his dignity with a rare degree of bravery and manliness; a man who never refused to concede her own proper laws to the Church; he was a just, upright, friendly, pious, justice-loving man; a man who never meditated treachery or injustice against any man, even when provoked or angry, up to the moment of his universally-lamented death, on which occasion he received the sacrament of Extreme Unction, after having done penance for his sins. It is necessary to remark, for the reader's information, that Cathal Carrach O'Conor disputed the sovereignty of Connaught with Cathal Crobhdhearg; and that the English took part in the contention in support of both claimants, viz., John De Courcy supported Cathal Crobhdhearg, and William Fitzadelm, Cathal Carrach. 43 |