312 Mr. PETEIE'S Inquiry into the Origin and 



"OR DON Rl DO COlRDeC,6UCh U ChONChO&dlR O~R DONChCteR* DO 



^\LLU CR U Ch**** t)O ****." 



" A PRAYER FOR THE KING, FOR TOIRDELBUCH U CHONCHUBAIR. A PRAYER 

 FOR THE ARTIST, FOR GILLU CHRIST U CH * * FOR * * * *." 



It may be doubted, however, that the date assigned to the erection of the 

 church of Tuam, by Ware, is the true one, and there is, I think, greater reason 

 to believe that it was erected many years earlier, or, at least, previously to 

 O'Hoisin's having received the pall as an archbishop in 1152, or even to his 

 succession to the archbishopric in 1150. For though, in one of the inscriptions 

 above given, he is called the Comharba of larlath, which might equally imply 

 that he was archbishop or abbot of Tuam, yet in the following inscription, on 



the base of the great stone cross, now lying in the market-place, he is distinctly 

 called abbot ; and it is not in any degree likely that this inferior title would 

 have been applied to him after his elevation to the archbishopric ; for in one 

 of the inscriptions on the cross, or crozier, of the archbishops of Tuam, or Con- 

 naught, now, through the liberality of Professor Mac Cullagh, preserved in 

 the Museum of the Royal Irish Academy, his predecessor, Domhnall, the son 

 of Flannagan O'Dubhthaigh, is expressly called Gpipcop Conr.achc; and that 

 O'Hoisin was Comharba of St. larlath, or abbot of Tuam, as early as 1134, is 

 proved by an entry in the Annals of Innisfallen at that year, stating that he was 

 sent by King Turlough O'Conor to effect a peace between Minister and Ulster; 

 and indeed there is no reason to doubt that he became abbot as early as the 

 year 1128, on the death of Muirges O'Nioc. 

 The above inscription reads as follows : 



"OR DO U OSS1N: DONDC(&&aiD : tdS IN D6RNCID." 

 "A PRAYER FOR O OSSIN; FOR THE ABBOT, BY WHOM IT WAS MADE." 



A second inscription on the opposite side of the same base, preserves the name 

 of the king, Turlogh O'Conor, as in that on the slab already noticed, and reads 



as follows : 



"OR DO ChOlRDet&UCh UO CONChU&UlR. DON ********* 

 6QS IN D6RNQD 1NSQ6 ******. 



