L 123 ] 



VI. 



AN lEISH HISTOEICAL TEACT DATED A.D. 721. 

 By JOHN MACNEILL, B.A. 



Bead April U. Ordered for Putlication April 13. Published July 15, 1910. 



CONTENTS. 



1. Introductory, . . . . 123 



2. Textual extracts ■with translation, 125 



3. The Middle-Irish redactor of Z, . 137 



4. The date and original of Z, . . 139 



5. The chronological hasis of Z, . 140 



6. Comparison of Z with A and li, . Ml 

 7- The doctrine of A, .... 142 

 8. Z the foundation of later Irish chrono- 

 logies 144 



ABBREVIATIONS. 



A = the Irish synchronistic tract headed "A" in Todd Lecture Series (Royal Irish 



Academy), vol. iii., p. 278. 

 B = the Irish synchronistic tract headed " B," ib. p. 286. 

 Z = the Irish synchronistic tract quoted in this paper from 

 BB = the Book of Ballymote (R.I. A. facsimile), and 

 Lecan = the Book of Lecan, ms. in Royal Irish Academy. 



1. Introductory. 

 The Irish Synchronisms represent the earliest essays to construct the history 

 of Ireland before St. Patrick. The origin of the Synchronisms has been well 

 explained by the late Dr. Bartholomew MacCarthy in one of his Todd 

 Lectures.^ They were written in imitation of St. Jerome's Latin version of the 

 Chronicon of Eusebius. Dr. MacCarthy brings forward evidence to show 

 that one of the synchronistic tracts printed by him, the tract which he 

 designates by. "A," "may date from the end of the sixth century." In a 

 later work, he writes of this tract that it " was composed towards the end 

 of the sixth century."'' The text dealt with in the present paper 

 represents an original composed early in the eighth century. Two sections 

 of it are quoted by Dr. MacCarthy. The remainder may have escaped 

 his notice by reason of the peculiar form in which the document has 

 been preserved. 



I have called this document Z. It does not appear to exist anywhere as 

 a whole. Separated portions of it are embodied in the versions of the Lelor 



' R. I. A., Todd Lecture Series, vol. iii., pp. 244, 245. 

 ''Annals of Ulster, MacCarthy's Introduction, vol. iv., p. cix. 



R.I. A. PROO., VOL. .\XVII1., SECT. C. [19] 



