24 
Mr. O’Donovan’s opinion. The consideration of it, however, 
led Mr. Todd to conjecture, that the Book of Kilronan, from 
which Charles O’Conor made the extracts in question, could 
not be the Annals of Kilronan, which were in the hands of 
the Four Masters. Mr. O’Conor describes it as the book of 
the church of Kilronan, and from the extracts he has made 
from it, it appears to have begun at least with the times of St. 
Patrick, whereas the Annals of Kilronan, as described by the 
Four Masters, began with the year 900, and are expressly 
called by them the Book of the O’Duigenans. The one, there- 
fore, was a church book, or chronicle kept by the ecclesiastics 
connected with the church of Kilronan, whereas the other was 
the family chronicle of the Mac Dermots, compiled by their 
family bards, the O’Duigenans, of Kilronan. This conclu- 
sion is interesting, as acquainting us with the fact, that the 
Book of the Church of Kilronan existed so lately as the year 
1728, when O’Conor made the extract from it, which is now 
in the Stowe Library, and that it may perhaps exist to this 
day unknown, or under some other name. 
The discovery of the Book of the O’Duigenans, or An- 
nals of Kilronan, will be of great importance, if ever the 
liberality of government, or the contributions of individuals, 
should supply the means of printing the ancient historical 
records of this country. Toacomplete edition of the Annals 
of the Four Masters, it is essential that as many as possible 
of the original documents from which they drew their ma- 
terials should be in our hands. And this discovery supplies 
us with one of these documents, whose existence was hitherto 
unknown to Irish antiquarians. Of the ancient annalists, 
whose works formed the basis of the Annals of the Four 
Masters, there are now not more than two or three that are 
not to be found in the Library of the Academy, or in that of 
Trinity College. 
