226 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[2°<« S. IX. Mae. 24. 'CO. 



players are called her Highness the Duchess of York's 

 servants (French Players)."— MS. Diary, Aug. 1GG1. 



Ithoriel. 



[Most, if not all, of Shakspeare's plays were performed 

 at the Globe, or the theatre in Blackfriars. It appears 

 that they both belonged to the same company of come- 

 dians, viz. His Majesty's servants — which title they as- 

 sumed after a licence had been granted them by James I. 

 in IG03, having been before that time called the servants 

 of the Lord Chamberlain." — Genest's Hist, of the Stage, 

 i. 3.] 



italics!. 



DONNYBROOK, NEAR DUBLIN. 

 (2 na S. viii. 129.; ix. 171.) 



In reply to your correspondents, Abhba and 

 C. le Poer Kennedy, I beg to inform them that 

 the ancient spelling of this name in the Irish 

 language is Domhnach-broc, "the Church of Broc," 

 or Saint Broc. 



Domhnach (Dominica domus), is a frequent 

 element in Irish topographical names : as Domh~ 

 vach-patruic, now Donaghpatrick (" the Church 

 of Patrick"), co. Meath ; Domhnach-mor, now 

 Donaghmore (" the Great Church"), a name given 

 to several places in Ireland ; Domlinach Maighen 

 ("Church of St. Maighen"), now Donaghmoyne, 

 co. Monaghan, &c. 



Douenachbrock* \ the old Anglicised spelling of 

 the name " Doinhnachbroe," very well represents 

 the Irish pronunciation, if we read Dou as if Doiv, 

 to rhyme with the English word how, and pro- 

 nounce the e short. We find also, in the Anglo- 

 Irish authorities, the spelling of Dunhamhroke, 

 Donabrohe, &c, which are corrupt : although the 

 latter approaches very nearly the present pronun- 

 ciation of the name Donnybrooh. 



The name of St. Broc does not occur in the 

 Irish Martyrologies ; but she is mentioned in the 

 unpublished work of Aengus the Culdee, On the 

 Mothers of the Saints of Ireland, and again in (he 

 Genealogy of the Saints of Ireland, attributed to 

 the same author, — both which tracts are pre- 

 served in the valuable MS. called the " Book of 

 Leacan," now in the library of the Royal Irish 

 Academy.f 



As this author flourished in the latter half of 

 the eighth century t, St. Broc must have lived in 

 or before that period, if we receive the works 

 alluded to as genuine. They are repeatedly 

 quoted as the genuine works of Aengus by Col- 



* Dean Butler, in his edition of the Registrum Priora- 

 tus onmium Sanctorum (published by the Irish Arclueol. 

 Society), spells this name Donenahcbroch (p. 67.) Jut 

 this is a mistake. 



f The tract, On the 3Tothers of the Saints, is now ready 

 for publication by the Irish Arc'h«ol. and Celtic Society, 

 with a translation and notes by the Rev. Dr. Reeves. 



J See Ware's Writers of Ireland, ed. Harris, p. 51. sq. 



gan, in his Acta Sanctorum Hibernicc*, but it is 

 more than probable that they have been inter- 

 polated. So that the absence of her name from 

 the Martyrologies (including the Metrical Mar- 

 tyrology of Aengus himself), militates undoubt- 

 edly against this early date. 



In the tract, On the Mothers of the Saints 

 ("Book of Leacan," fol. 34. a. a.),' St. Broc is 

 enumerated amongst the seven daughters of Dall- 

 bronach in these words : — 

 " Secht ningena la Dallbronach, do quibus dicilur: — 



Broicseach, Sanct-broc, Cumman, Caemell, 



Faiuche, Fimlbarr, Feidelm, 



Secht ningena sin adeirim, 



Dallbronaigh adfeidim." 



I make no apology for translating this : — 



" Dallbronach had seven daughters, of whom the poet 

 says : — 



Broicseach, St. Broc, Cumman, Caemel, 

 Fainche, Findbarr, Feidelm, 

 These the seven daughters, I say, 

 Of Dallbronach, I relate." 



And again, in the book Of the Genealogies of 

 the Saints (" Book of Leacan," fol. 46. b. b.) : — 

 " Secht ningena Dallbrouaich, do Dal-Concobair, las na 

 Desib breg, anso 



Broicsech 



Sanct-Broc 



Cumain 



[Caemel] 



Fuinche 



Finbarr 



Feidil." 



Which may be thus translated : — 



" The seven daughters of DallbronaJh, of Dal-Concho- 



bhair, of the Desii of Bregia, viz. : — " 



[Then follow the same names as before, with the excep- 

 tion of Caemel, which is necessary in order to make up 

 the number of seven.] 



We know nothing of this Dallbronach, except 

 what we learn from this short notice, viz. that he 

 was of Dal-Conchobhair (the territory of the Con- 

 nors), in Desii of Bregia, now the barony of 

 Deece, in the south of the co. Meath, called also 

 the Desii of Tara. See Dr. O'Donovan's note 

 (Four Mastei-s, a.d. 753, p. 356.). 



Although no records, so far as I know, exist of 

 the ancient monastic establishment of St. Broc at 

 Donnybrook (for it had probably ceased to exist 

 before the English invasion of Ireland in the 

 twelfth century), it seems certain that there was 

 what we would now call a nunnery there in an- 

 cient times, from the following notice of St. Mobi, 

 in the " Martyrology of Donegal" (MS.) at the 

 30th of September : — 



" Mobi Cailleach Domhnaigh Broc." 

 (i. e. Mobi, a nun of Donnybrook.) 



J. H. Todd. 



Trinity College, Dublin. 



* See Act. SS., p. 52. n. 5. ; p. 142. n. 33. ; p. 189. n. 

 6. ; p. 783. n. 2, 3. Trias Thaum,, p. 477. col. 2. et alibi. 





