22 



The Rev. James H. Todd, A. M., M. R. I. A., Fellow of 

 Trinity College, gave an account of a discovery made by 

 Mr. John O'Donovan, of a valuable though imperfect copy, 

 in MS., of the Annals of Kilronan, or Book of the O'Duige- 

 nans, a work that had hitherto been supposed to be lost. 



This MS. was discovered by Mr. O'Donovan while en- 

 gaged in preparing a catalogue of the Irish MSS. preserved 

 in the University Library. 



The volume is in quarto and, in its original state, con- 

 sisted entirely of parchment. It is now imperfect both at 

 the beginning and at the end, and has also some interme- 

 diate chasms. The first and earliest portion appears to have 

 been transcribed by one Philip Badley, who states himself 

 to have been engaged in the task in the year 1 580 ; but two 

 or three other hands, evidently of the same period, may be 

 observed throughout the volume, as if two or more scribes 

 had been simultaneously engaged in its transcription. 



The Chronicle in its present state begins with the year 

 1014 and ends with 1571. The principal chasms are be- 

 tween the years 1138 and 1170, and also between the years 

 1316 and 1462. In the former of these chasms, several 

 leaves of paper have been inserted which are entirely blank. 

 The latter has also been filled with paper, on which some 

 very brief entries have been made relating to the years be- 

 tween 1412 and 1462. Many of these entries, however, re- 

 cord merely the date, with the lunar and solar cycles, indic- 

 tion, and Julian period corresponding. Two copies of this 

 paper portion of the volume are preserved, one of them of a 

 date perhaps a century later than the other. The older ap- 

 pears to have been written in the sixteenth, or early in the 

 seventeenth, century. 



Throughout the book several marginal notes occur, 

 which are for the most part summaries of the text, both 

 in Irish and English. The greater part of the English 

 notes are in the hand-writing of Roderick OTlaherty, the 



