184 



Vallancey gives the following account of its discovery : 



"This brooch wasdiscovered by apeasant, turning up theground 

 on the hill of Ballyspillan, on the farm of Charles Byrne, Esq., the 

 estate of Lord Ashbrook, in the barony of Galmoy, in the county of 

 Kilkenny, in the month of September, 1806." — Collectanea, vol. vii. 

 p. 149. 



The front of the brooch is ornamented by a device of en- 

 twined serpents, such as is met with frequently on objects of 

 the same kind. The back presents four lines of writing in the 

 Ogham character, which read thus : 



rninoDop muao 

 Cnaempeoch Ceallach 

 TTlaeolmaipeo 

 TTlaeoluaoaig maeolmaipeo. 



Mr. William Halliday, using the ordinary key, deciphered 

 these words pretty correctly ; but in translating them he had 

 gone astray, in consequence of his not perceiving that, with the 

 exception of the second, they are all proper names. 



Professor Graves, hoping by means of the names to de- 

 termine the date of the inscription, requested Mr. Eugene 

 Curry to search for them amongst the pedigrees of the families 

 which have inhabited the district where the brooch was found. 

 The search was not fruitless; the name Cnaempeoch, a name 

 of rare occurrence, was found in a genealogy in the Book of 

 Lecan (folio 108 b. col. 2), as belonging to a person in that 

 country, the fourteenth in descent from Cuaimpnariia, vvho, as 

 we learn from the Annals of the Four Masters, was killed 

 A. D. 676. Allowing thirty years to a generation, this would 

 bring the time of Cnaempeoch down to about the year 1100. 

 The names Ceallach and ITIaeolmaipeo are too common to be 

 of any use in ascertaining the date of the brooch, or the iden- 

 tity of the other persons named on it. 



J. Huband Smith, Esq., exhibited to the Academy a fac 

 simile made from a rubbing of an ancient inscription in the 



