581 



character we have evidences in some of the monuments which 

 have remained to us, as the richly adorned church, and stone 

 cross at Tuam, and the beautiful specimen of jewellery now 

 before us. These qualities are thus indicated in the record of 

 his death preserved in the Book of Clonmacnoise, and the 

 works of other annalists : 



" ♦ In tlie year 1156 Tordelbeach O'Conor, king of Con- 

 naught, Meath, Brefiny, Munster, and all Ireland, the supreme 

 head of the ranks and nobles of Ireland, the Augustus of the 

 Western Europe, after having distributed and bequeathed all 

 his precious household furniture, that is, his gold and silver 

 vases, gems, and other such like valuables, his studs and cattle, 

 his gaming utensils, his bow, quiver, and all other weapons, 

 excepting his sword, shield, and goblet, with sixty-five ounces 

 of gold and sixty marks of silver, among all and each of the 

 churches, breathed his last at Dunmore, the nineteenth of May, 

 the first of January preceding beginning on a, Sunday, and 

 was interred with all funeral pomp in the church of St. Kiaran, 

 at Cluanmacnoise, in the sixty-eighth year of his age, and 

 fiftieth of his reign (from the time that he succeeded his brother 

 Donald, in the year 1106).' 



" Of the archbishop, Muireadhach O'DuflFy, the eminent 

 ecclesiastic for whose use the shrine was made, our annalists 

 have in like manner preserved many historical notices; and his 

 acts, as recorded, exhibit a pleasing contrast to those of the 

 ambitious monarch, for they are invariably conducive to hu- 

 manity and peace. He appears, indeed, to have been a truly 

 illustrious person, and in every way deserving of his great re- 

 putation. 



" As a specimen of his acts, and as showing the uses to 

 which such reliques as this before us were applied in Ireland, 

 I shall quote one or two entries in the Book of Clonmacnoise, 

 as preserved to us in the quaint language of its translator. 

 Council Mac Geoghegan : 



"• A. D. 1136, Rory (or Roderick) O'Conor and Uada 



