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



formity with the usual arrangement of Irish historians, founded on the Bardic 

 poems and the majority of the published lives of St. Patrick, which allege the 

 conversion of Laoghaire to Christianity before his death. As Dr. Lanigan, 

 however, well observes, " this cannot be reconciled with what we read in other 

 lives concerning his obstinate infidelity, nor by the saint in his confession :" 

 and the correctness of this conclusion will be presently confirmed by an authority 

 unknown to that most critical investigator, extracted from the annotations of 

 Tirechan in the Book of Armagh. 



' I. Laoghaire, the son of Niall of the Nine Hostages, succeeded, according 

 to the Four Masters, in the year 429 ; and, after a reign of thirty years, died in 

 458. The Annals of Ulster, however, place his death in 462, (which, as Ussher 

 correctly observes, corresponds with 463 of our common era,) and O'Flaherty 

 says that the thirty years allowed to his reign must be understood as subsequent 

 to the conversion of his family to Christianity, — " ut in codice Lecano (fol. 

 306, a) ita Latine explicatur : Triginta annis regnum HibernicB post adventum 

 Patricii fenuit." — Ogygia. p. 249. 



With this account the computation of Tirechan, in the Book of Armagh, 

 very nearly concurs, as follows : " A passione autem Christi coUeguiitur anni 

 ccccxxxvi usque ad mortem Patricii. Duobus autem vel .v. annis regnavit 

 Loigulre post mortem Patricii. Omnis autem regni illius tempus xxxvi ut 

 putamus." — fol. 9, p. a, col. 2. 



The Annals of Ulster, Innisfallen, and the Four Masters, as well as all the 

 other ancient authorities, attribute the death of this monarch to the violation of 

 his oath on the divine elements, which he had sworn to the Lagenians, that he 

 would never again demand of them the Borumean tribute. This oath was taken 

 in the year before his death, as stated in the Annals of the Four Masters : 



Qoip Chpirrceicpeceocaosany-eachc. "A.D. 457. In the twenty-ninth of Laogh- 



a naoi piclier do ^Laojaipe. Carh Qcha aire. The battle ot Ath dara by the Lagenians, 



oapa pia CaijiiiB pop ^"ogaipe mac Neill. against Laoghaire, the son of Niall. Laoghaire 



Ro 5aba6 oon Caojiaipe ipin each pin, ajup was captured in that battle, and Laoghaire gave 



DO poro taojaipe pacha ^peine ajup gaoice the guarantees of the sun, and of the wind, and 



ajup na n-oul do lai^niB nach ciocpao of the elements to the Lagenians that he would 



poppoD cpia bichin ap a legaio uaoa. never come against them on their letting him 



from them. 



Qoip Chpipc ceichpe ceo caocca a " A. D. 458. Laogaire, the son of Niall of the 



