352 Mr. PETEIE'S Inquiry into the Origin and 



named after Constantine. At this time Cell Belaigh had seven streets of Galls in it ; and Rumann 

 gave the third of his wealth to it, from its size, and a third to schools, and he kept a third with him- 

 self at Rathain, where he died, and was buried in the same bed [i. e. tomb] with Ua Suanaigh, for 

 his great honour with God and man." 



It is not necessary to the value of the preceding extract that it should be 

 considered as authentic history in every respect, for its authority, as to the 

 materials and morethan ordinary size of the duirtheach atEahen, can hardly be 

 doubted, though some of the facts stated, in connexion with its erection, may 

 be legendary, and opposed to chronological history; and that they are so, 

 would seem, indeed, to be the fact. Thus, it can hardly be true that Rumann 

 was interred in the same grave with O'Suanaigh, as the latter, according to the 

 accurate Annals of Tighernach, did not die till 763, unless we suppose a tomb 

 to have been made for O'Suanaigh more than sixteen years previously. And 

 again, it is difficult to believe that Eumann's poem, in praise of the sea, was 

 written, as stated, for the Galls of Dublin, if by Galls we are to understand the 

 Scandinavian invaders, as we find no allusion to their devastations or settle- 

 ments in Ireland, in the Irish Annals, previously to the year 794. Yet the poem 

 ascribed to Kumann is unquestionably of very great antiquity, and may be the 

 composition of that poet, though not written on the occasion stated. And, as 

 the Irish applied the word Galls to all foreigners, those alluded to may not have 

 been the Danes, but the Saxons, who, as we learn from Venerable Bede, infested 

 Ireland long previously. At all events, the story told in connexion with this 

 poem, which seems obviously to be the tradition preserved at Rahen, with 

 respect to the poet Rumann's connexion with' that place, is, on many accounts, 

 of high interest, as furnishing an evidence, hitherto unknown, of the fact stated 

 in some of the oldest Irish calendars, but which I, in common with Dr. Lanigan, 

 had heretofore doubted, namely, that a Briton, named Constantine, was abbot 

 at Rahen, and whose memory was there venerated on the llth of March. In 

 the Festilogy of ^Engus this Constantine is set down as Rex Rathenice, which, 

 as Colgan understands, did not mean that he was king of the place, but that 

 having abdicated his kingdom, he became a monk there, or, as other calendars 

 state, abbot. So the Calendar of Cashel, as translated by Colgan, has, " S. 

 Constantinus ex Britannia ortus Abbas de Cul Rathain Mochuddoe in regione 

 de Delblma Ethra in Media" The Martyrology of Tallaght, " Constantini 



