Uses of the Round Towers of Ireland, fyc. 07 



attached to their monastery, it is quite ridiculous to suppose the monks of St. 

 Boetius would have deposited their little library and other precious things in a 

 wooden edifice for safety. 



But I have yet to show, that notwithstanding all Dr. O'Conor's ingenuity 

 in defence of a weak position, he must, or at least should have been himself 

 aware, from the very same Annals from which the preceding passages are 

 quoted, that the cloictheachs or belfries were unquestionably not of wood but 

 of stone. What could he have said to a passage in the Annals of the Four Mas- 

 ters, at the year 1121, which occurs but a few pages after that last referred to, 

 stating that the cloictheach, or belfry of Telach n ionmainde in Ossory sup- 

 posed to be the present Tullamaine, near Callan, in the county of Kilkenny 

 was split by lightning, and that a stone which flew from that belfry killed a 

 student in the church ? The passage, as printed and translated by Dr. O'Conor 

 himself, is as follows: 



" A. D. 1121. Cloicteach Thelcha n ionmainde in Osraicch do dlu/ge do chaoirteinn, agus dock do 

 tffeinm as an ccloictheach ishin, co ro mharbh. me leighinn isin ct/l." 



" A. D. 1121. Campanile Telchionmandense in Ossoria dijectum a fulrnine, et lapis divulsus e 

 Campanile isto occidit juvenem lectorom in Ecclesia." 



More to the same effect might be still adduced, but I trust it will be consi- 

 dered as unnecessary, and that I have now sufficiently refuted the authorities, 

 etymologies, and arguments, adduced by Dr. O'Conor in support of these theories. 

 I have reluctantly entered the lists with that celebrated man, and I have com- 

 bated his assertions, only because the sacred cause of truth required the contest. 

 But I should be sorry to have it supposed that I would insinuate an unfavour- 

 able opinion of his general accuracy, or attach a harsher character to his va- 

 luable labours than that, which the historian Warner tells us the Doctor's grand- 

 father acknowledged to be applicable to his own, namely, " that the Amor 

 Patrice might have inclined him to extend the matter (of the Antiquities of Ire- 

 land) somewhat beyond the rigour, to which he should have confined himself." 



To the preceding notices I have now to add the arguments of two gentle- 

 men, who have lent their talents to sustain the hypothesis under consideration, 

 since this Inquiry was originally written and presented to the Academy, namely 

 our great national poet, Moore, and the ingenious Mr. W'indele, of Cork. In 

 the arguments of the former, indeed, I find little but a repetition, embodied in 

 more graceful language and a more logical form, of the evidences which I have 



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