Mr. Petrie on the History and Antiquities of Tara HUl. 89 



However improbable the statement in the Book of Lecan may be, that the 

 Irish Apostle did not come to Ireland before the time of Lughaidh, it is still 

 not wholly impossible that it may be true ; and, if it be, this legend must neces- 

 sarily be regarded as a fiction invented to reconcile the account given of the 

 opposition of Lughaidh to Patrick, with other legends in the lives of the saint 

 manufactured at various subsequent periods. But, however this may be, the 

 mere fact of the opposition, as stated in the Book of Lecan, would certainly 

 seem to be borne out by the notice, taken literally, of the death of Lughaidh, 

 in the authentic Annals of Tighearnach : 



508. 6app Cujoacti, mic 6ae jaipe, pij A. D. 508. The death of Lughaidh, the son 



Cempach in Qchao phapcha .1. papcha of Laeghaire, King of Temur, at Achadh Fharcha ; 



cenoioe do nirh po itiupb lap noiulcao in , i. e. a flash of lightning from heaven killed him 



Cailjinn. after rejecting the Tailghinn.* 



It is true that the account in the Book of Lecan of the coming of St. Patrick 

 to Ireland in the reign of Lughaidh, cannot be reconciled with any of the other 

 accounts preserved of the acts of the Irish apostle ; but there is the less reason for 

 suppressing any new fact bearing upon the subject, where the entire of the details 

 given are in themselves so self-contradictory. Even the learned Dr. Lanigan 

 appears to have succumbed to the difficulties that presented themselves in the con- 

 sideration of this question, for though he has laboured with great ingenuity, and 

 with even more professional zeal than he usually displays on other subjects, to place 

 the life of Patrick on a solid foundation, he has not succeeded to such an extent 

 as would satisfy a critical inquirer ; and indeed the very line of argument which 

 he has chosen has rather tended to involve the question in deeper obscurity. 



As already stated, however, it is not intended in this memoir to enter fully 

 upon an inquiry of such magnitude, but it may not be improper to state briefly 

 the most striking difficulties which Dr. Lanigan has attempted to remove, — 

 difficulties so great as to have even induced some learned men too hastily to 

 deny the existence of St. Patrick altogether. 



From the various authorities, as honestly published by Colgan, one would, at 

 first sight, be inclined to believe, that instead of the one Patrick of Dr. Lanigan, 



• For Tailghinn, in this passage, tlie Chronicon Scotorum lias Padruig, and it has been shewn at pp. 77 and 78, that 

 Tailghin, which is translated Asciciput, in the Book of Armagh, Archicapus in the third life, vir cum corona decorata in 

 the fourth iife, artis caput in Probus, and in circulo tonsus in capite by Jocelin and Colgan, was a name given to Patrick 

 by the Druids. 



VOL. XVIII. m 



