Uses of the Round Towers of Ireland, fyc. 55 



passage in the Annals of the Four Masters, which sufficiently proves that the 

 erdam, or erdomh, was not a belfry. 



" A. D. 1006. Soisceel mor Cholaimchille do dubhgoid is in oidhche as in erdomh iatharach [recte 

 iartharach] an Doimhliacc moir Cenannsa, fyc. 



" A. D. 1006. Evangelium Magnum ColumbiE-Cille a furc ablatum nocte ox sacra domo inferior! 

 Ecclesise lapidese magna Cellensis, &c." 



The truth unquestionably is, that there was no substitution by the annalists, 

 as Dr. O'Conor supposes, of one synonymous word for another, and that the dif- 

 ference of language used by them was only such as might be expected among 

 writers living in different ages and different localities. But in none of them is 

 there any evidence to be found that the word pibneirhe6 was applied to a tower; 

 nor had any Irish writer, before Dr. O'Conor, ever understood the term in that 

 sense. In proof of this I shall first adduce the translation of the passage, relative 

 to this event, in the Annals of Ulster, from the copy of those annals made 

 in the commencement of the seventeenth century, and now preserved in the 

 British Museum. Ayscough's Catalogue, No. 479-5, Clarendon MSS. No. 4<J, 

 fol. 2, b. 



" 995. Y e fyre dial taking Ardmach, and left neither sanctuary hoieses or places, or churches en- 

 burnt:' 1 



It will be seen, then, that, whatever may be the word understood by the 

 translator in the sense of sanctuary, he did not at least understand any word 

 of the original as signifying a celestial index or a tower of any kind. 



In the next authority which I have to adduce, namely the Chronicon Scoto- 

 rum, which was compiled from the old Annals of Clonmacnoise, it will be seen, 

 that, while the Annals of Ulster omit noticing the burning of the belfry or bel- 

 fries, this older authority, on the other hand, omits the pibneirheb and ejiocnn. 

 The passage is as follows : 



" A. D. 996. CCipjialla D' opjain Qpomacha 50 pucpac pice ceo bo eipce. Gpomachu DO 

 lopcao caijib, cemplaib, ocup a cloijceach." 



And this passage is not inaccurately rendered by Connell Mageoghegan, who 

 understood the Irish language perfectly, in his translation of the Annals of 

 Clonmacnoise, made in 1()27, thus : 



" A. D. 989, \_recte 996.] They of Uriel preyed Armach, and took from thence 2,000 cows. 

 Armach was also burnt, both church, houses and steeple, that there was not never such a poor 

 spectacle seen in Ireland before." 



