370 Mr. PETKIE'S Inquiry into the Origin and 



were erected, were recognized by the Irish to a very late period, may be in- 

 ferred from a passage in the ancient Registry of Clonmacnoise, as translated 

 from the original Irish for Sir James Ware, by the celebrated antiquary, Duald 

 Mac Firbis, and which is now preserved in the British Museum. In this Re- 

 gistry the great Round Tower of Clonmacnoise, popularly called O'Rourke's 

 Tower, which, according to this authority, was erected by Fergal O'Rourke, is 

 called " a small steep castle or steeple, commonly called in Irish claicthough" 

 The entire of the passage will be found, in connexion with the description of 

 this Tower, in the Third Part of this work. 



4. It may be clearly inferred, from several records in the Irish annals, that 

 the Towers were used for the purpose of safety and defence. One of the most 

 important of these records, as given by the Four Masters, has been already 

 quoted in the examination of Dr. O'Conor's theories, in the First Part of this 

 work ; but I feel it necessary to repeat it here from the various annals, as sig- 

 nally supporting the hypothesis under consideration. The passage I allude to 

 is as follows : 



" A. D. 949. Clotcceach Slaine oo lopcao bo 5 a ^ a '^ Cfc a cliach : bacall mo eplatha 7 

 cloc ba oec oo clocaib ; Caenechaip pepleijinn, 7 pochaioe imbe, DO lopcao." Annals of 

 Ulster. 



Thus rendered in the old translation of these annals in the British Museum : 



" A. D. 949. The steple of Slane burnt by y e Gent [Gentiles] of Dublin ; and burnt y e Saints 

 Crostaff and a ston" [correctly belf] " most p r tious of stones" [correctly bells'] ; " Cinaoh and a great 

 number about him burnt, being the Lector." 



This event is thus recorded in the Chronicon Scotorum, which is a con- 

 densed copy of the Book of Clonmacnoise, corrected, in its chronology, from 

 the Annals of Tighernach : 



" A. D. 950. Cloacae Slaine DO lofjao oo jencib co n-a Ian DO ooimB ann, .1. im Conecap 

 peplejmn Slaine." 



" A. D. 950. The cloigtheach of Slane was burnt by the Pagans, with its full of people in it, 

 i. e. with Conecar, the reader of Slane." 



Thus rendered by Mageoghegan in his translation of the original Annals of 

 Clonmacnoise, under the year 945 : 



" A. D. 945. The steeple of Slane was burnt by the Danes, which was full of worthy men, and 

 relicks of saints, with Kennyagher, Lector of Slane." 



