Matheson Collection > Gleanings from Irish manuscripts

ELEGY ON NIALL GARBH O
DOMHNAILL
The Franciscan MS. A. 14 contains two poems
and a copy of the Forus Feasa of Céitinn. Of
the poems the first was edited by me in the
Irisleahhar Maighe Nuadhat of 1 9 1 3,* while the
main text of the manuscript has been used in
the Irish Texts Society edition of Céitinn's work.
The only portion which has not hitherto been
printed is the elegy on Niall Garbh Domhnaill,
of which the text with a tentative translation is
here given.
The exact date of the manuscript is not known,
but it must be later than 1 6 3 2 , as Emonn O Braonáin
on whom the first elegy was composed, died in
that year. It has been ascribed to Céitinn himself
and to the Cléirigh school. Though the writing
is not of a uniform character the prose is probably
all the work of the same hand. The poems show
certain peculiarities also displayed by a note on
a single leaf containing the genealogy of Maol-
chraoibhe, a quo Maoilchraoibhe, also preserved
in the Franciscan collection. The entry is as
follows : ata an senchus romhainn ar na sgriohhadh
go glan do réir na leahhar as ferr do chonncamar 7
mar dherhhadh air sin ataimsi ag cur mo laimhe
air so Madrid 28 Marta 1658 Tuileagna Mael-
conaire seancha coitchenn Erenn * the above
pedigree has been written accurately according
to the best books we have seen, and as witness
* See the preceding paper.
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