Uses of the Round Towers of Ireland, fyc. 43 



express this day than La peile bpfjoe, i.e. the day of the festival of Bridget: 

 and that it was to this great patroness of Ireland the church of Rosenallis was 

 dedicated, and probably owed its origin, and not to the Virgin Mary, we have suffi- 

 cient evidence from the work of Colgan, the learned editor of her published lives, 

 who, in his 16th chapter "De Ecclesiis & locis S. Brigidas in Hibernia dicatis," 

 inserts this very church in the following words : " Templum S. Brigida? in vico de 

 Rosfinnglas in Hyriegain." And this leads us to the true etymology of the name 

 of which Rosenallis is a corruption, and not of Rossa Failgea, as this writer ab- 

 surdly states. T?op pinnglap signifies the wood or shrubbery of the bright stream. 

 It is true that Colgan also gives it, in the same list, under its Anglicized name as if 

 it were a different one, thus : " Ros-analluis Eccl: par: Diec. Killdarien. in De- 

 canatu de Kill-eich, vel rectius Kill-achuidh." But this error, if it be one, of 

 supposing that the places were not the same, can easily be accounted for in a 

 writer living out of the country, and depending for his information on the lists 

 of the churches and parishes dedicated to St. Bridget sent him by the Roman 

 Catholic prelates of the several dioceses. There can be no doubt, however, that 

 Ros Finnglas and Rosenallis are the same name, from the intimation given of 

 Templum Brigidce being in the village of Ros Finnglas in Hyriegain, as there 

 was at the time no other village in that ancient territory. 



I have dwelt at greater length on these erroneous statements in Miss Beait- 

 fort's valuable Essay than I, and perhaps the reader, could have wished ; it will, 

 however, render unnecessary any lengthened examination of the proofs, ad- 

 vanced in support of this hypothesis in the more recent essay by Mr. D' Alton 

 the evidences relied on being often the same in both. Besides, Miss Beaufort's 

 authority has added weight to those evidences, and even increased the diffi- 

 culty of sifting them. Thus, when Mr. D' Alton states that " the Psalter of 

 Cashel expressly declares that they (the Towers) were used for the preser- 

 vation of the sacred fire" (p. 139), he judiciously refers us to Miss Beaufort's 

 Essay ; and that lady refers us to the inferior authority of a Parochial Survey ; 

 and that again, in regular progression downwards, cites an abridged history of 

 no character, in which, after all, no such statement is to be found ! And thus, 

 if any reader should, in the face of such bold assertion, still feel disposed to 

 be sceptical, he would if unaccustomed to the mode in which, unfortunately, 

 antiquarian questions are so often investigated find himself entangled in a 



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