218 
every dialect of the Irish language, fearlessly asserts that a transla- 
tion of the Brehon Laws is “ a thing impossible.”* These autho- 
rities, at first sight, might appear sufficient to persuade a man whose 
curiosity might be easily gratified, without the trouble of investiga- 
tion, that an attempt to translate the Brehon Laws would be an un- 
availing experiment. Yet these authorities should not deter the 
Trish scholar from making the attempt. They are, in fact, to be 
considered as no authorities. Charies O’Conor does not say, that he 
himself had studied the Brehon Laws, and found by his own expe- 
rience that they were not to be deciphered. He only says, that he 
was told by some Irish scholars that “ to them both text and gloss 
“ were equally unintelligible.” But this is not sufficient to prove 
that they are equally so to all others. As for the assertion of Led- 
wich, that ‘* the thing is impossible,” it can have no weight with 
any person acquainted with the language, history, and antiquities of 
our country ; who must perceive that the book, which he has miscalled 
the “ Antiquities of Ireland,” is, from the beginning to the end, a 
mass of misrepresentation and falsehood, that proves nothing more 
than the self-sufficiency of its author, and his utter ignorance of the 
genuine History and Antiquities of Ireland. 
Tt must be admitted, that a translation of the Brehon Law would 
be a work of considerable labour and difficulty ; but to a man of in- 
dustry and talent, who has a thorough knowledge of the ancient 
Irish language, the accomplishment of such a task is by no means 
impossible ; nor would it, perhaps, be so difficult as at first view it 
may appear. The text of all our law books is in the Fenian dialect ; 
but it is accompanied by an interlined gloss, which, in more modern 
language, explains the terms contained in it. Both text and gloss 
are, it is confessed, obsolete, and to the person who is acquainted 
with only the vulgar dialect of the modern Irish must be unintel- 
* Ledwich’s Antiquities, edit. 1803, p. 302. 
