Mr. Petrie on the History and Antiquities of Tara Hill. 45 



These remarks of Dr. O' Conor are well worthy the attention of the learned, 

 and should excite an ardent desire for the publication of documents so important 

 to the history of Western Europe. It should be stated, however, that in the 

 translation of the preface to this work, Dr. O' Conor has fallen into several 

 errors, but it is not considered necessary to enumerate them here, as, excepting 

 in one instance, none of them affect the general sense of his version. This 

 instance occurs in the last line of the quatrain, where "war-songs" is incorrectly 

 given as the translation of Duil Rosgadhach, which is, in fact, simply the title 

 of Cennfaela's Commentary on the Laws, as appears from Cormac's Glossary, 

 in which it is frequently quoted. 



3. That the Psalter of Tara was really, as stated, compiled in the time of 

 Cormac, is an assertion the truth of which is much more difficult to prove than 

 his claims to the authorship of laws. The very title given to this work is suffi- 

 cient to excite well-founded suspicion of its antiquity ; and no allusion to it has 

 been found in the works of any author anterior to the eleventh century. It 

 may also be remarked, that if such a work had ever existed, it would naturally 

 be expected that, even though lost, it would have been quoted as authority, like 

 the Psalter of Cashel, in the great compilations of Glendalough, Ballymote, 

 Lecan, and Hy-Many ; but no extract from it, at least nothing given as such, 

 has been found in any of those or other works. It is true that the Four Masters 

 refer to Leabhar na h-Uidhri and the Dinnseanchus, as containing transcripts 

 from the Psalter of Tara ; but on an examination of those MSS., nothing has been 

 found that could, at least in their present mutilated form, be considered as the 

 composition of so remote an age. The oldest authority yet discovered for the 

 existence of the Psalter of Tara is to be found in the following verses in a poem 

 by Cuan O'Lochain, which will be given entire in the course of this memoir. 



Copmac po clai caejao each, Cormac gained fifty battles, 



t)o pilao palcaip Ceariipach ; He compiled the Psalter of Temur ; 



Ip in cpalcaip pin a ca In this Psalter is 



Qn up oeach puim peanchuppa. What is a good summary of history. ' 



Ip pi m q^alcoip pin ao beip It is this Psalter that gives 



Secc n-aipopi j 6penn inoBip ; Seven monarchs of Erin of harbours ; 



Coic pi na coicceo pop gn' Five kings of the provinces it makes, 



Ri Gpenn ip a h-eppi. The King of Erin and her toparchs. ' 



Ip innci a cu oe cec leich In it are [entered] reciprocally 



