TRANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS. 125 
question. A rude pillar-stone, having upon it a tolerably straight edge, was 
in early times notched along its angle which served as a stem-line, by nicks formed 
on it, and straight or oblique lines, singly or in clusters, proceeding from the 
stem. The decipherers of these inscriptions have, one and all, agreed upon the 
fact that these lines represented letters, syllables, or words, and that the language 
is either Irish or Latin. Therefore the persons who made them must have been 
aware of alphabetic writing and grammar. These carved monoliths are chiefl 
found in Kerry and Cork. Upon some of them Christian emblems are figured. 
The incising of the stone has evidently been performed by some rude instrument, 
either a flint or metallic pick ; and it is remarkable that these pillars present scarcely 
any amount of dressing. 
In Connaught, in my youth, the exception in remote districts was where the 
person spoke both English and Irish. In 1851, when we first took a Census of the 
Srish-speaking population, after the country had lost three-quarters of a million of 
people, chiefly of the Irish race, we had then (to speak in round numbers) one and 
a half million of Irish-speaking lage In 1861 they had fallen off by nearly 
half a million; and upon the taking of the last Census in 1871 the entire Irish- 
speaking population was only 817,865. The percentages, according to the total 
opulation in our different provinces, were these :—In Leinster 1:2, in Munster 27-7, 
in Ulster 4°6, and in Connaught 39-0 ; for the total of Ireland 15:1. Kilkenny and 
Louth are the counties of Leinster where the language is most spoken. In Munster 
they are Kerry, Clare, and Waterford ; in Ulster, Donegal, where 28 per cent. of the 
population speak Irish; but in Connaught, to which I have already alluded as con- 
taining the remnant of the early Irish races, we have no less than 56 per cent. of 
Irish-speaking population in the counties of Mayo and Galway respectively. Of 
my own knowledge I can attest that a great many of these people cannot speak 
English. We thus see that of the population of Ireland, which in the present day 
might be computed at about five and a half millions, there were, at the time 
of taking the census in April 1871, only 817,865; and I think I may prophecy that 
that is the very largest number that in future we will ever have to record. On 
the causes of this decadence it is not my province to descant. These Celts have 
been the great pioneers of civilization, and are now a ine in the world. Are they 
not now numerically the dominant race in America? and have they not largely 
peopled Australia and New Zealand ? 
We have now arrived at a period when you might naturally expect the native 
annalist to make some allusion to conquest or colonization by the then mistress of 
the world. Without offering any reason for it, I have here only to remark that 
neither as warriors nor colonizers did the Romans ever set foot in Ireland ; and 
hence the paucity of any admixture of Roman art amongst us. 
To fill up a hiatus which might here occur in our migrations, I will mention a 
remarkable circumstance. A Christian youth of Romano-Saxon parentage, and 
probably of Patrician origin, was carried off in a raid of Irish marauders, and em- 
ployed as a swine-herd in this very Ulster, the country of the Dalaradians, and 
lived here for several years, learning our customs and speaking our language. He 
escaped, however, to Munster, and thence to his native land of Britain or Nor- 
mandy, from whence he returned in A.p. 432 with friends, allies, and missionaries, 
and passing in his galley into the mouth of the Boyne, walked up the banks of that 
famed stream, raised the paschal fire at Slane, and speedily introduced Christianity 
throughout Iveland. : 
In thus briefly alluding to the labours of St. Patrick, I wish to be understood to 
say that about the time of his mission there was much Saxon intercourse with this 
country, and the great missionary had not only many friends but several relatives 
residing here, and some of them on the very banks of the Boyne; and I believe 
that a considerable amount of civilization and some knowledge of Christianity had - 
been introduced long previously ; so that, although old King Laoghaire or Loury 
and his Druids did not bow the knee to the Most High God, nor accept the 
teaching of the beautiful hymn that Patrick and his attendants chanted as they 
assed up the grassy slopes of Tara, still there were many hundred people in 
Freland ready to receive the glad tidings of the gospel of salvation. 
Having finished with the Milesians, we now come to the Danes (so called), the 
