113 



to be considered its manufacturer. The work is certainly a beautiful 

 imposition, at first too much extolled, and now, by an equality of re- 

 action, too much neglected. 



The enthusiasm and rewards, with which the bards were received, 

 naturally led to their interweaving in their compositions, the praises 

 of their patrons; and more especially to gratify that family pride so 

 peculiar to Ireland, by tracing the lineage of such their favourites 

 through a long line of illustrious ancestors. The vanity of the chief- 

 tain was fed by the flattery of the bard, who, in his turn, received 

 more substantial requital. Hence it was, that pedigrees, which in 

 their later steps, were based on history, rose, like the ladder of the 

 patriarch's dream, into regions of clouds and obscurity ; and, al- 

 though innumerable grateful memories wandered over them, their 

 remoter connexions were for imagination or credulity to complete. 

 Very curious specimens of this science, evidently originating in this 

 age, are yet extant in the books of Ballymote and Lecan, and that of 

 the O'Kellys,* already alluded to. 



* This book was composed for the O'Kellys of Hy Mania, it contains several ancient his- 

 torical poems, and furnishes the pedigrees of all those families, who, like them, have descended 

 from Nial of the nine hostages. Their own lineage is most particularly illustrated from 

 Ceallach, their great ancestor, to the year 1427. The family of Mac-Kellagh or Kelly, is one 

 of the most ancient and certainly the most extended over Ireland. In Connaught they were 

 petty kings of Hy Mania, a tract extending over the counties of Galway and Roscommon, of 

 which they were disposessed by the Berminghams and Burkes. In Leinster their authority ex- 

 tended over a large territory, in right of which they constituted one of the seven septs of Leix, 

 and were of those eligible to the dignity of kings of Leinster. Of these estates they were 

 also deprived by the Fitz-Geralds, Fitz-Henrys, Keatings, &c. In consequence of which 

 vicissitudes, many of the name passed into Scotland, where, in the reigns of Henry the Third, 

 and Edward the First, they will be found scattered over the counties of Haddington, Perth, 

 Berwick, &c., as they were soon after in Warwickshire and Lincolnshire. In 1014, a son of 

 O'Kelly, king of Hy Mania, was killed at the battle of Clontarf. In 1 133, Dunmore, the 

 royal seat of the O'Kellys of Connaught, was destroyed by Conor O'Brien. In 1244, O'Kelly 

 of Crioch Cualan, was one of the Irish chieftains, to whom Henry the Third directed his letter 



VOL. XVI. Q 



