142 Mr. PETKIE'S Inquiry into the Origin and 



erection ; and if so, the assertion in the Office of St. Cianan, that the church of 

 Daimhliag, or Duleek, was the first stone church erected in Ireland, may be 

 quite true. The question is, however, of no importance either way in this ar- 

 gument ; it is enough that the fact is ascertained of a stone church having been 

 erected by St. Patrick, or in his time, in the district of his first labours. From the 

 Annotations of Tirechan we also learn that St. Cianan, or, as his name is la- 

 tinized, Kanannanus, or Kenannanus, was consecrated bishop by St. Patrick ; 

 and we have the unexceptionable authority of the annalist Tighernach, that he 

 died in the year 490, three years before the apostle himself, Avith whom he 

 must have been an especial favourite, as Patrick bestowed upon him a copy of 

 the Gospels, a gift of inestimable value at that time. The passage in the Annals 

 of Tighernach is as follows : 



" A. D. 490. K. v. Quiet S. Cianani faaimhliaj. Ip DO cug parpaic a Soipcella." 



" A. D. 490. K. v. The rest of St. Cianan of Duleek. It is to him Patrick gave his Gospels."" 



2. That the art of building churches of stone and lime cement, introduced 

 into Ireland at this early period, was generally adopted throughout the island, 

 at least in the larger churches connected with the abbacies and bishoprics, 

 would appear certain from the fact, that the term damhliag became the Scotic 

 or Gaelic name by which the Irish writers designated a cathedral or abbey 

 church, though they also used the terms tempull, eclais, regies, and in one or 

 two instances baslic, words obviously adopted from the Latin language : and 

 hence, their ecclesiastical writers, when writing in that language, always render 

 the damhliag of the Irish either by the word ecclesia or basilica, though, on no- 

 ticing the same buildings when writing in the Irish language, they apply the terms 

 damhliag, eclais, and tempull, indifferently. This is a fact which I shall clearly 

 prove, and which should necessarily be borne in mind, because, as by far 

 the greater number of notices of ancient Irish churches are contained in the 

 Lives of the Saints, which are usually written in Latin, it might otherwise 

 be supposed that the words templum, ecclesia, and basilica, used by those 



8 It may interest the reader to be informed, that it appears from a topographical account of the 

 County of Meath written in 1682 3, that the copy of the Gospels here alluded to, was then pre- 

 served in the neighbourhood of Duleek, and that it is probably one of those venerable monuments 

 of the Scriptures at present in the library of Trinity College, Dublin. 



