Mr. Petrie on the History and Antiquities ofTara Hill. 81 



jecture is supported by the Annals of Ulster, so remarkable for their accuracy, 

 which record at the year 438 the composition of the Chronicon Magnum, or, 

 as it is called in the original Irish, in the fine MS. of these Annals in Trinity 

 College, Seanchus Mor, a statement most probably derived from the older 

 Annals of Tighearnach, which are now defective at that period. 



2. If, as has been shewn, there is not sufficient historical evidence to establish 

 the fact of the compilation of the Seanchus Mor by St. Patrick, or the celebrated 

 Committee of Nine, it follows that the statement with respect to the burning 

 of the Druidical books by Patrick, as consequent on that supposed proceeding, 

 cannot be sustained. Indeed, for this statement, which has been so much dwelt 

 upon by Kennedy, Toland, O' Conor, and others, as an argument for the use of 

 letters anterior to the introduction of Christianity, no ancient authority or 

 reference has been found ; and it appears to rest solely on an assertion of 

 O' Flaherty, derived, as he states, from a letter addressed to him by the cele- 

 brated Duald Mac Flrbis : — " Postremo Dualdus Firbisslus patris antlquitatum 

 professor haereditarius ex Majorum monumentis. Uteris datis refert 180 Druidum, 

 seu Magorum disciplinae tractatus S. Patricii tempore igni damnatos." — 

 Ogygia, p. 219. But though a careful search has been made, no such state- 

 ment as that here attributed to Mac Firbis has been as yet discovered in any 

 of the works of that antiquary. 



In concluding this notice of the most important facts connected with Tara 

 during the reign of Laoghaire, it may be briefly stated that it will be shewn 

 from very ancient historical evidences, which will be adduced in the succeeding 

 portion of this memoir, that Laoghaire was interred after the manner of the 

 pagans, within his own rath, on the Hill of Tara. 



II. Oilioll Molt, son of Dathi, the predecessor of Laoghaire, after being 

 King of Connaught, succeeded, and, after a reign of twenty years, was killed by 

 Lughaldh, son of Laeghalre, in the battle of Ocha, in the year 482 or 483 of 

 the common era, as thus stated in the Annals of Ulster : 



A.D. 482. Bellum Oche la Cujaio mac A.D. 482. The battle of Oche, by Lughaidh, 



Caejaijie a^up la niuipcheapcach ITIac son of Laeghaire, and by Muircheartach Mac Erca, 

 ©pea, in quo cecidit Qlill TTlolc. in which fell Alill Molt. 



A ConcoharoJUio Nesse, usque ad Cormac, From Concobar, the son of Nesse, to Cormac, 



Jilium Airt, anni cccviii. A Cormac usque ad son of Art, 308 years. From Cormac to this 

 hoc bellum ccvi., ut Cuana scripsit. battle 206, as Cuana has written. 



VOL. XVIIl. / 



