328 Mr. PETRIE'S Inquiry into the Origin and 



as appears from the other cotemporaneous inscriptions on the case ; and, it may 

 be presumed, was a great grandson of Tadhgan, as the O prefixed to then ame 

 at this period must not be understood as meaning grandson, but descendant, as 

 the use of family names was then generally established in Ireland. Yet it is pro- 

 bable that this family ordinarily had their burial-place at the great rival monas- 

 tery of Durrow, which was anciently within their own territory, and originally 

 endowed, as Tighernach tells, for St. Columb, by their ancestor, Aed, the son 

 of Brendan, who died in the year 589. Moreover, we find from the Annals of 

 the Four Masters and of Clonmacnoise, that one of this race, Flann O'Tadh- 

 gain, was Erenach of Durrow, where he died in 1022, a clear proof of the 

 continued influence of the family in this monastery : and it is worthy of obser- 

 vation, that of the two monumental inscriptions yet remaining above ground at 

 Durrow, both apparently belong to chiefs of this family. Of these, one bears the 

 name of Cathalan, who was probably the son of Catharnach, from whom the 

 name O'Catharnaigh, the true family name of the Foxes, was derived. The 

 second may be ascribed with greater certainty to a chief of this family, named 

 Aigidiu, as no other person of this name is referred to in the Irish annals. The 

 period at which he flourished is .ascertained from an entry in the Annals of 

 Ulster at the year 955, and in the Annals of the Four Masters at 954, which 

 records the death of Aedh, the son of Aicide, king of Teffia, who was killed by 

 the Danes of Dublin and Leinster. Of this monumental stone I annex an illus- 

 tration, as a further example of the style of ornaments in use in Ireland in the 

 ninth and tenth centuries, and which may interest the reader, from its histori- 

 cal connexion with those already given of other members of the same family. 



Examples of the use of the pear-shaped ornament in architecture have been 

 already given in the description of the monastery church at Glendalough, 



