198 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. 



Dungarvan in 1468. The earl was beheaded as a traitor at Drogheda, but the 

 Crown was too unstable to dare to follow up the attainder. About 1480 

 Thomas, Earl of Desmond, settled Decies on his eousin-german Gerald 

 fitzJames and his son John, from whom it descended to Sir John FitzGerald 

 in 1619. Sir Maurice, descendant of the above Gerald, was in 1533 created 

 Baron of Dromana and Viscount Decies ; he died without issue in 1572. His 

 father Gerald was son of John, son of the earlier Gerald. 1 



The only other family, besides the Desi and Geraldines, to have put its 

 mark on the country history to any notable extent, on this coast, is that of 

 Le Poer or Power. The Barony of Gaultiere probably coincides with the 

 cantred of the Ostmen, who, as at Limerick and Dublin, were evidently 

 transplanted out of the towns when the English settlers garrisoned the 

 cities. 



Traditions. 



The folk-lore of the coast and its ecclesiastical legends are of considerable 

 interest. The latter centre largely in St. Declan of Ardmore ;. and it is most 

 regrettable that no early " Life " is known to exist, for there is every indica- 

 tion that, like St. Ciaran of Clere Island and Saighir, he belonged to one of 

 the earliest Christian settlements, " the Scots believing in Christ," which 

 existed fifty or sixty years, if not earlier, before the mission of St. Patrick, 

 perhaps about 340 to 390.- A curious relic of early Christianity at Ardmore 

 exists in the " Bigo Esgobi " inscription — vico episcopus — or rural bishop 3 — 

 on the ogham-stone of the descendant of 2sia Segamon, " the servant or 

 champion of Segomo," the war-god. Declan was born about 347 ; bis parents, 

 Ere and Dethain, had been converted by a pious priest Colman (Kilcolman 

 still bears bis name), who baptized their infant son. The existing late " Life," 

 possibly of the twelfth century, is a mass of contradictions and anachronisms. 

 St. Declan 's miracles (the floating stone, the " petrification " of the farmer, 



1 See Carew stss. Cal. (Book of Howth, &c], p. 438 ; see also Charter Roll, xx Ed. I, 

 mem. 28, Xo. 34. The Castle was granted to William of Windsor (Pat R., Ed. Ill, 

 pars 1, m. 27, Tower of London). 



- It is at least noteworthy that at this very time, a.c. 387, St. Chrysostom says " the 

 British Isles .... have felt the power of the Divine Word, churches having been 

 founded" (Opp., torn, i, 508, ed. Bened. " Demonstratio "). This, however, may not 

 allude to Ireland, though he is insisting on the extension to the farthest west. 



3 The last Bishop of Ardmore seems to have been Eugene, witness to a grant to 

 St. Finbarr's, Cork, in 1174. In 1210 the Pope confirmed the Archbishop of Cashel in 

 his control of the Cathedral of Ardmore (CaL Papal letters, vol. i, p. 35) ; in 1217 the 

 Bishop of Waterford held both Lismore and its appurtenance " Armor." (R. Litt. Claus. 

 ann. ii Hen. Ill, m. 2, dorso). Eugene wrote a Life of St. Cuthbert, and after his death 

 Ardmore was united to Lismore. 



