579 



cords the bringing of the piece of the cross into Ireland, and 

 the making of this shrine for its preservation. It occurs in 

 the Annals of Innisfallen, at the year 1123, the year in which 

 the first General Council of Lateran was held, during the pon- 

 tificate of Pope Calixtus, and is to the following effect : 



" ' A bit of the true cross came into Ireland, and was en- 

 shrined at Roscommon by Turlough O'Conor.' 



" This entry in our annals gives us all the information 

 that is preserved to us in reference to this relic, which was 

 probably the first of the kind that was sent to Ireland, although 

 we are told by O'Halloran of an earlier gift of a piece of the 

 holy cross, by Pope Pascal II., to Murtogh, the grandson of 

 Brian Boroimhe, and Monarch of Ireland, 'with opposition,' in 

 the year 1110 ; and that in honour of this piece of the cross, the 

 Abbey of Holy Cross, in Tipperary, was founded about sixty 

 years afterwards. But, as O'Halloran gives us no authority 

 for this statement, and though a piece of the cross was pre- 

 served there, and still exists, it is more probable that it was 

 not sent into Ireland till the time of the erection of that mo- 

 nastery, which was in 1 169. 



" It is scarcely necessary to state that it was during the 

 reign of Turlogh O'Conor, and about the period that this 

 piece of the cross was received in Ireland, that successful efforts 

 were made by the Papal See to obtain a reformation in church 

 discipline, and a more absolute domination in ecclesiastical mat- 

 ters in Ireland than it had enjoyed previously ; and we may 

 perhaps very fairly suppose the present of this relic to have 

 been a precursor to those agitations in the Irish Church, and 

 look upon it as an historical memorial of those great events 

 which followed. 



" Of the life and acts of Turlogh O'Conor, or, as he was 

 called, Turlogh the Great, the person at whose instance this 

 shrine was made, our annals preserve abundant notices. His 

 history is, in fact, essentially that of the country over which 

 he ruled, either as King of Connaught or Monarch of Ireland, 

 for no less a period than fifty years. He was one of those 



