108 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. 



With zeal and energy this religions community set to work in 

 establishing their new foundation. King Cormac himself frequently 

 superintended their labours, supplied them with the necessaries of life, 

 and made a liberal provision for their support. On this occasion, says 

 St. Bernard, " monasterium Ibracense constructum est."* Here, too, 

 St. ATalachy and his religious seem to hare lived a regular community 

 life, until a. d. 1182, when the Superior was unanimously elected 

 Primate of Armagh, in a council of the bishops and chief men of Ire- 

 land, convoked by ALalchus, Bishop of Lismore, and Gillibert, Bishop 

 of Limerick. f 



Alost of our writers on Irish ecclesiastical history appear to have 

 hazarded very wild conjectures regarding the position of St. Malachy's 

 southern monastery. Sir James Ware was greatly in error;]; with re- 

 gard to the " ITonasterium Ibracense," when treating about the Cister- 

 cian Monasteries of Ireland ;§ and again, when conjecturing that it was 

 identical with St. Barr's or Finbar's Abbey, near Cork. Aleraand was 

 more strangely of opinion that Ibracense might be applied to Beg-Erin, 

 near Wexford;]] and this he thought most natural, because he ima- 

 gined Ibracense might be confounded with St. Ibar, the reputed 

 founder of, and professor of all sciences in, its first monastery. *| With- 

 out much serious thought being bestowed by him on the subject, the 

 Rev. Alban Butler only remarks that some supposed this place to 

 have been near Cork, while others believed it was in the Island of 



bhaeh O'Brien and the two sons of O'Connor Kerry, x. d. 1138. See Dr. O'Donovan's 

 "Annals of the Four Masters," vol. ii., pp. 1058, 1059, and «. (r), ibid. The 

 " Annals of Innisfallen," as quoted by Dr. Petrie, have his death somewhat more 

 circumstantially related at the same year, where they notice that he was " a man 

 who had continual contention for the sovereignty of the entire province of Mun- 

 ster." 



* See " Yita S. Malachite," cap. Lx., § 18. 



f For a more detailed account of the foregoing particulars, the " Life of St. 

 Malachy O'Morgair," issued by the present writer, may be consulted. See chaps. 

 iv. and vi. Dublin, 1859, 8vo. 



1 See "DeHibernia et Antiquitatibus ejus," cap. xsvi., p. 228. Londini, 1658. 

 12mo. 



§ A list of these, -with the dates of their foundation, will be found in a MS. 

 (classed E. 3. 8.) in the Library of Trinity College, Dublin, p. 65. It is in the 

 handwriting of the seventeenth century, hut it professes to have been copied from 

 older MS. bulls and other documents. Some modern names, given in the last 

 column, have been added by the Rev. Pilchard Butler, M. B. I A. It is published 

 in his edition, " Jacobi Grace Kilkenniensis, Annales Hiberniae," App. No. 1, pp. 

 169, 170, and printed for the Irish Archasological Society in 1842. 



I See "Histoire Monastique d'Irlande," p. 54. A Paris, 1690. 12mo. 



II In another place, when treating of XewTy, in the county of Down, Alemand 

 savs — " EUe estoit appellee en Latin Nevoracense Monasterium, et comme elle 

 s' appelloit aussi en Irlandois Monaster-tbkair-chinn Traghas, on la nommait aussi 

 Ibracense ccenobium, si cet Ibracense ne designe point seulement l'Abbaye de saint 

 Ibare de Chanoines Beguliers dans 1' Isle de Beg-Ery ou petite Irlande, sur les 

 costes du courts de "Wexford dont nous avons parle." P. 194, ibid. 



