463 



speak of him as celebrated " for bestowing of jewels and 

 wealth upon the clergy and the churches, an improver of ter- 

 ritories and churches," so that it is in strict accordance with 

 this character to find his name on the richly ornamented reli- 

 quary before us. 



Third Inscription. 



OR bo cat>5 mc meic cayichaigi Oo pig 



" A prayer for Tadhg son of Mac Carthy Righ[damhna of Mini- 

 ster] " 



The letters pi 5 are probably the commencement of pi 5- 

 Oamna mumain, a title which belonged to this Tadhg, grandson 

 of Carthy, who was brother of Cormac, of Avhom we have just 

 spoken. 



Fourth Inscription. 



Op OoOiapmaic mac meic oenirc Oo comapba L 



" A prayer for Diarmait, son of Mac Denisc, comharb of L 



It is greatly to be regretted that the next word is not le- 

 gible, as it would probably have given us the name of the 

 Saint whose relics were contained in this reliquary. The first 

 letter seems to be L, in which case it was probably Lachcm. 



Smith, in his History of Cork (vol. i. p. 84), mentions a 

 reliquary called the Arm of St. Lachteen, which in his time 

 was preserved at Donoghmore, in the county of Cork, by the 

 Roman Catholic priest of the parish, and tells us that the 

 people used to swear on it on solemn occasions, until it was 

 removed by the Roman Catholic bishop, who probably found 

 that a superstitious abuse of it had grown up. 



Mr. Curry also states that he remembers to have met with 

 a person of that country, whose habit it was to swear by the 

 arm of St. Lachtin, although he was unable to tell what the 

 arm was. 



All these circumstances, and the fact that St. Lachtin was 

 a native of the same country, render it highly probable that 



2 y 2 



