284 Mr. PETRIE'S Inquiry into the Origin and 



the Lagenians, and over the son of Domhnall, son of Maol na m-bo [king of Leinster], and over 

 Diarmaid O'Brien, and Enda, son of Diarmaid, and a great slaughter was therein made of the 

 Lagenians, together with the son of Murchadh O'Domhnaill, lord of Hy-Drone, and Conall O'Ciar- 

 maic, and O'Neill of Magh da chon, and others." 



I may also remark, that the name O'Ciarmaic 4s still numerous in the 

 County of Kilkenny, though usually metamorphosed into the English name 

 Kirby by those speaking English. The name of the female in this inscription 

 is probably that of the wife of Mathghamhain, or Mahon, as it was the custom 

 anciently in Ireland, and indeed still is to some extent, for married women to 

 retain their paternal names. An instance of this usage is also found in an in- 

 scription on the tomb of Maeleachlainn O'Kelly, in the abbey of Knockmoy, in 

 which inscription his wife is called by her maiden name Finola, the daughter of 

 O'Conor. Of the name O'Cuirc, which is now anglicised Quirk, there were 

 two chieftain families in Ireland, as appears from the Book of Lecan, fol. 105, b, 

 and fol. 115, b, one seated in the territory of Fothart Airbreach, in Leinster, 

 and the other in Muscraighe Chuirc, now the barony of Clanwilliam, in the 

 county of Tipperary ; but it would be idle to conjecture to which of these 

 families this Lady Niam belonged. 



Of the third name, which is undoubtedly an Irish one, it is only necessary 

 to remark, that as it was clearly that of the architect, it may not have belonged 

 to the district, as professional men of that description exercised their art wher- 

 ever they found employment ; and that many of them were of distinguished ce- 

 lebrity in their day is sufficiently proved from records of their deaths, which 

 have found place in the authentic Irish annals.* 



* It would be scarcely worth while, as a characteristic example of the charlatanism of some of 

 the Irish antiquaries of the last century, to notice here a copy with a translation of the preceding 

 inscription, which was originally published in the Anthologia Hibernica, by Mr. Beauford, one of 

 the original contributors to that work, and also to Vallancey's Colkctanea de Rebus Hibernicis, if his 

 interpretation of it had not found its way into Gough's edition of Camderi's Britannia, and other 

 topographical works of character. The article to which I refer is as follows : 



" No. 2 is an inscription over the door of the old church of Freshford, in the county of Kilkenny. 

 It is in old Irish, engraven on several stones, as shewn in the drawing, and runs thus : 



" ' Aodos M'Eoen ocas cuce cneabdocum doiamrac neibnisan cuirce . acos dor eacleag amarc 

 mearg use acos elar sni deorsoich en argis.' 



" In modern Irish 



