114 



Poetry, especially of the rhythmical character used by the Irish, 

 the formation of which Dr. O'Conor has employed some of his valu- 

 able pages in illustrating, naturally introduced music, and while the 

 authority of Diodorus (as cited ante, p. 80,) seems to suggest the 

 early use of the harp in Ireland, {KiOapiaras,) George Buchanan fully 

 strengthens the application of the passage, where he describes Etho- 

 dius, a king who reigned in Scotland before the colonization by Fergus 

 Mac-Erc, retaining a harper from Ireland, as was the custom of the 

 Scotch nobles, to play to him in his bed-chamber at night ;* and the 

 knowledge of music in Ireland is further confirmed by the several 

 ancient musical instruments which have been discovered in the 

 country.-^- 



It cannot be doubted, after the deep intelligence in navigation 

 that Dionysius attributes to the Phoenicians, the extended voyages 

 and migrations of the eastern colony that peopled Ireland, the com- 

 merce of that country spoken of by Tacitus, and the more recent 

 expeditions of the Irish to Scotland and Britain, that the art of sail- 

 ing must have been well understood even at this early period, while 

 the nature of their naval architecture will be more aptly referred to the 

 following section. 



to join the king's army in Scotland. In the reign of Elizabeth, the O'Kellys are enumerated 

 among the chief families of Ireland, and those of Galway are particularised by Spencer, as of 

 the septs whom it was most essential to restrain within that district. In the contest between 

 James the Second, and William the Third, the O'Kellys espoused the cause of the former, and 

 some of the family followed his fortunes into France, subsequently to which, we find an officer of 

 the name among the wounded in Lally's Regiment, at the battle of Lauffield village. In the 

 ecclesiastical history of Ireland, the name is yet more remarkable, and of the archbishops 

 and bishops before the commencement of the sixteenth century, about twenty are O'Kellys. 

 An ancient pedigree of the family is still extant at Stowe. 



• " Cum, de more procerum Scotorum, fidicinem ex Hibemia in cubiculo suo pernoctan- 

 tem haberet, &c."— Rer. Scot. Hist. Lib. 4. (25th king.) 



f Vide, Mr. Neville's paper. Lond. Phil. Trans. No. 337. Art. 32. 



