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volumes thus recovered to Ireland; premising that they were 

 both in the handwriting of the celebrated friar, Michael 

 O'Clery, well known as being one of the chroniclers to whom 

 Colgan gave the honourable appellation of " theFourMasters." 

 The first volume was the original autograph MS. of the Mar- 

 tyrology of Donegal, so often referred to by Colgan in his 

 Acta Sanctorum. It contained the original attestations, in 

 tiie Irish language, of the professional antiquaries, Flan Mac 

 Aodhagain [ Egan] and Conor Mac Brody, together with the 

 approbation (in Latin) of the Roman Catholic Prelates, Ma- 

 lachy. Archbishop of Tuam; Boetius, Bishop of Elphin; 

 Thomas Fleming, Archbishop of Dublin ; and Roch, Bishop 

 of Kildare. These documents possess the autograph signa- 

 tures of the parties, and are dated in November and Decem- 

 ber, 163G, and in January and February, 1G37. Of Michael 

 O'Clery, the principal author or compiler of this Martyrology, 

 we learn from Colgan that he was by profession an antiquary, 

 and eminently learned in the history and antiquities of Ireland. 

 After joining the Franciscan Order at the Convent of Lou- 

 vain, he was permitted by his superiors to continue his fa- 

 vourite studies, and was even sent into Ireland for the purpose 

 of collecting materials for a work on the lives of the Irish 

 saints, which was contemplated by the guardian of the con- 

 vent, the learned father Hugh Ward, but which his death in 

 1G37 unfortunately put an end to. The volumes now before 

 the Academy were in part the results of O'Clery 's researches; 

 and having been placed in the hands of Colgan, after the 

 death of Ward, they have been virtually the means of pre- 

 serving to us almost all that is now known of the history of 

 the saints of Ireland. Colgan's labours, however, were also 

 interrupted by his death, after he had completed but three 

 months of the year, and we must, therefore, still have recourse 

 to original sources for information respecting the saints whose 

 festivals occur in the nine remaining months. This circum- 

 stance greatly enhances the value of the volumes now reco- 



