34 
vered a relic, or more probably by a spirit of avarice, took away 
the cross before mentioned. 
Many fabulous and superstitious stories, relating to this piece of 
antiquity, have been handed down by tradition, and are still impli- 
citly believed by the illiterate of the neighbourhood in which it was 
found. As these tales may happen to prove serviceable to the an- 
tiquary, or entertaining to the less scientific, I shall here recount a 
few of them. Thus it is said, that any person, who was fortunate 
enough to gain possession of the Barnaan Cuilawn, was always at- 
tended by good luck superior to that of any of his neighbours; and 
that one Burke, who inhabited the Castle of Burrissileigh about 
the commencement of the seventeenth century, having by some 
misfortune lost the Barnaan Cuilawn, in a few nights after an in- 
visible hand brought it back while he was sleeping, and placed it 
upon a table near his bed side.* 
It is likewise a story among the people, that a noted hurler, 
named Fitzpatrick, wanting a hurl on the eve of some great match, 
went to the tree in which “ the Saint’s work” was found, in order 
to lop off a branch ; but, when in the act of cutling it, happening 
to look towards his house, which stood at a little distance, he ima- 
gined he saw it in flames. Affrighted, he leaped from the tree, and 
ran to save his burning house. On his approach, however, to his 
astonishment, the house was in safety, and no appearance whatever 
* The following inscription, still legible on a stone, which is in one of the walls adjoining this 
Castle, and is supposed to have been formerly placed over the principal entrance, gives one a 
strange idea of the hospitality and ferocity of that age in which it was written: 
“ Richard Burk—Allice Hurly— 
“ Marmoreum cur surgat opus 
“ Facit hospes et hostis: hospes in 
“ Amplexus, sed procul hostis eat. 
« 1643.” 
