12 The Eev. J. H. Todd on an Ancient Irish Missal. 



period to which this inscription belongs; or, if Dr. O'Conor be correct in sup- 

 posing the third letter of the second line to be D, the name may be Ua Dubhlaig 

 [O'Dooley], — a family who were lords of Feara-Tulagh (Fartullagh), a barony in 

 the county of Westmeath.* But it is not improbable that what now seems to 

 be I may be the remains of an n, as the rude chisel of the mutilator has ap- 

 proached it very closely. If so, the name may be Ua Uisheiinaigh, or 

 O'Tighernaigh [O'Tierney]. 



Dr. O'Conor's proposed restoration, however, of the first line of this in- 

 scription is plainly untenable, although he speaks of it with great confidence. 

 " If the last name," he says, " could be restored, no doubt can remain of its being 

 in other respects perfect. "f He proposes to read it thus : — 



"And FOR THE SOOL OF 



O'D . . . . LAIG." 



But anmam, the soul, is never, I believe, written with the termination ano, 

 or ann ; and Dr. O'Conor himself, in his restoration of the former inscription, 

 writes the word anmain. The hu is confessedly the family designation hu, or 

 O, and was, therefore, in all probability preceded by the Christian name of the 

 individual intended ; for " O'Dooley," without a Christian name, would not be 

 a sufiicient designation of an individual. 



We come now to the other side, or top of the box. It is divided into four 

 compartments, the first of which contains a rude representation of the Cruci- 

 fixion ; the second has the Apostle St. John, holding his book ; the third has 

 the figure of the B. V. Mary; and the fourth contains a bishop in pontificalibus, 

 in the full ecclesiastical dress of the fourteenth century. These figures have 

 been so well and so fully described by Dr. O'Conor, that nothing need be added 

 to what he has said of them. The four compartments are surrounded by plates 

 of silver, forming the sides of a square, as represented in Dr. O'Conor's engrav- 

 ing already referred to, which gives an extremely good idea of the original. 



• Four Masters, A. D. 1040, 1144, ct alibi. f Stowe Cat., Appendix I., p. 3. 



