Uses of the Round Towers of Ireland, fyc. 141 



The poem of Flann, in which this curious evidence occurs, is preserved in 

 the Book of Lecan, fol. 44, b, b ; and the passage is as follows : 



" Q rpi r a 'P> ua tnaich a cono, " His three masons, good was their intelligence, 

 Caeman, Cpuichnec, 6uchpcuo lono ; Caeman, Cruithnech, Luchraid strong ; 



IUD oo pijjni oamliaj ap cup They made damlictgs first 



Q n-Gpino; apo a n-imchup." In Erin ; eminent their history." 



It is scarcely necessary to remark, that the word oamliaj, so generally ap- 

 plied by the Irish annalists and ecclesiastical writers to their larger churches, 

 will bear no other translation than stone house: it is so explained in two ancient 

 Glossaries in the library of Trinity College, Dublin, Class H, 2, 16, p. 101, and 

 H. 3, 18, p. 69. Thus in the former: " Ocnmlmcc .1. cegoui] 1 cloc," "Dam- 

 Hag, i. e. an edifice of stones ;" and in the latter, " Ooimliaj, .1. cejaif clac," 

 " Doimliag, i. e. an edifice of stones." 



And it is also thus explained in the Office of St. Cianan, or Kienan, the founder 

 of the church of Daimhliag, now Duleek, in Meath, which is extant in MS. in the 

 public library at Cambridge, as quoted by Ware, Harris's edition, p. 137, viz. : 

 " That St. Kenan built a Church of Stone in this Place ; and that from thence 

 it took the name of Damleagh : for that before this Time the Churches of Ire- 

 land were built of Wattles and Boards." See also Colgan, Trias Thaum. 

 p. 217, col. 2. 



That this church was one of the first buildings of stone and lime cement 

 erected in Ireland is, I think, highly probable, if not certain, though it may be 

 doubted that it was the very first ; for in the oldest of the authorities extant re- 

 lative to the life of St. Patrick, the Annotations of Tirechan, preserved in the 

 Book of Armagh, it would appear to have been the eighth church erected by 

 St. Patrick in the plain of Bregia, in which he first preached the gospel and 

 built churches. The passage in Tirechan is as follows : 



" De aeclesiis quas fundavit in Campo Breg, primum in Culmine ; ii, oeclesise Cerne, in qua se- 

 pultus est Hercus qui portavit mortalitatem magnam ; iii. in cacuminibus Aisse ; iiii. in Blaitiniu ; 

 v. in Collumbos, in qua ordinavit Eugenium Sanctum episcopum ; vi. aeclesia filio Laithphi ; vii. im 

 Bridam in qua fuit sanctus dulcis frater Carthaci ; viii. super Argetbor in qua Kannanus episcopus 

 quern ordinavit Patricius in primo Pasca." Fol. 10. 



It is very probable, however, that in this enumeration Tirechan may have 

 had no idea of arranging the churches in the order of time, as regarded their 



