280 



historical documents and records, which the antiquarian looks for in 

 vain among any archives or collections of antiquities in Scotland."* 



Some few native annals-writers flourished at this period, whose 

 works have partly descended to the present age. Cormac, a petty 

 king of Munster, is the most remarkable of these, as being the author 

 of the Psalter of Cashel, a MS. we believe yet extant, and considered 

 of the highest authority. Mac Liag was also an eminent annalist of 

 the day. He was chief antiquary of Ireland in the time of Brien 

 Boroimhe, whose life he wrote. He also composed the Munster book 

 of battles, which gives the most authentic account of the rencounters 

 with the Danes down to the memorable action at Clontarf.-f- He 

 Avas likewise an eminent poet, and some of his poems are still extant. 

 Of these an address to Kincora after the fall of Boroimhe, is one of Mr. 

 Hardiman's forthcoming collection, which the author of this Essay 

 has attempted to translate into English verse. Archdall, citing 

 Mac Geoghegan, records a similar union of the historian and poet, in 

 an Abbot of Kenetty who died in 87 !..■{: 



The science of music it is alleged found not only a patron but an 

 adept in even Boroimhe himself, and his harp, which is fully described 

 in the thirteenth number of Vallancey's Collect. Hib., is still shewn in 

 the museum of Trinity College, Dublin. According to generally re- 

 ceived tradition, it was carried to Rome by Donogh his sqn, on his 

 being dethroned in 1064 ; and the exile is said to have laid the harp 

 with the crown and other regalia of the Irish monarchs at the feet of 

 the Pope, as a full submission of the kingdom of Ireland. It is even 

 asserted that Adrian avowed this circumstance as one of the principal 

 grounds for the title which by his alleged Bull h^ transf(?rred to Henry 



* Report of the Highland Society on Ossian, pp. 47-8. 



t Nicholson's Irish Hist. Lib. p. 51. % Monast. Hibern. p. 401. 



