Uses of the Round Towers of Ireland, fyc. 229 



pfenning" Histoire de V Academie Royale des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres, 

 torn, xxiii. p. 218. 



If these arguments have any weight, it will not perhaps be an improbable 

 conjecture, that the bracteate pinginns, or pennings, found at Kildare, were 

 ecclesiastical coins minted there. And, in connexion with this conjecture, it 

 may be worthy of remark, that in the Irish Annals at the year 962, where it is 

 stated that a vast number of the seniors and ecclesiastics of Kildare had been 

 made captives by the Danes, it is added that they were redeemed by Niall 

 O'Heruilbh, who was probably the Erenach of the place, though of Danish 

 descent, as his name would seem to indicate, with his own money. The pas- 

 sage is thus given in the Annals of Ulster : 



"A. D. 963. Ceall oapa DO apcam DO ^JallaiB, peo mipepabile [mipabili] pierace mi- 

 pepcup epc cpia Niall li-U n-Gpuilb', peoempcip omnibup clepicip pene ppo nomine Domini, 

 .1. Ian in 00151 moip Sancc Opij-a, 7 Ian in oepraiji ip e DO puajjell Niall onb oia aprqc 

 pepin." 



Thus translated by Dr. O'Conor : 



" A. D. 963. Kildaria spoliata ab Alienigenis, sed miserabili pietate [mirabili] misertus est Niall, 

 filius Erulbii, redemptis omnibus Clericis pene, pro nomine Domini, i. e. quotquot capere potuit 

 domus magna S. Brigidte, et Nosocomium, quos emit Niall ab eis, pretio argenti, eodem tempore." 



The preceding translation by Dr. O'Conor is not, however, strictly correct, 

 for the words cqisac pepn, which he renders, pretio argenti, eodem tempore, 

 should be expressed by propriis pecuniis, and it is so rendered by Colgan in 

 his translation of the record of this transaction, given in the Annals of the Four 

 Masters at the year 962, as follows : 



" A. D. 962. Ceall oapa oo apccain DO ^huM-aiB, 7 bpoio liidp oo ppuiciB 7 DO cleipciB DO 

 jabail ooib ann, 7 Niall Ua h-6puilb oia B-puapclao. dn an roije moip Saricc 6p!joe, 7 

 Ian an oeprfje ap eao DO puaicill Niall oioB oia apjao boo6m." 



" A. D. 962. Nortmanni Kildariam foede depopulati, seniorum & Ecclesiasticorum plurimos 

 captivos tenuerunt : ex quibus tot personas proprijs pecuniis redemit Nellus Oherluibh, quot in 

 magna S. Brigidse domo, & Ecclesia simul consistere poterant." Trias Thaum., p. 630. 



But whether the money here referred to was minted at Kildare or not, it is 

 certain that ecclesiastical money was in use in Ireland at a later period, as it is 

 stated in Mageoghegan's translation of the Annals of Clonmacnoise that money 

 was coined there in the year 1 170. This was in the reign of Roderic O'Conor ; 



