O'H.ixLON — On St. Malachifs " Monaster ium Ibracense." 109 



Beg-Erin.* The acute and judicious ecclesiastical historian, Dr. 

 Lanigan, seems to have heen the first of our modern writers not only 

 to detect those mistakes, hut even to point out the very obvious fact, 

 that St. Bernard's Latin spelling of the word " Ibracense" can he 

 resolved into Ibrach or Ibrac. The letters b and v being commutable 

 in Irish, this etymon again may be rendered Ivrach or Ivrac, now the 

 district or barony of Iveragh, in the county of Kerry. This very tract 

 was likewise included within the boundaries of Cormac Mac Carthy's 

 kingdom. f And what seems most remarkable is the circumstance, 

 only this one Iveragh — a purely territorial denomination — is to be 

 found among those names marked on the Ordnance Survey Maps of 

 Ireland. 



While the district itself was thus ingeniously discovered, yet, to 

 the present time, few modern persons had been aware of the exact 

 locality where the " Monasteriuni Ibracense" stood. During the month 

 of July last, in company with a friend and member of the Royal Irish 

 Academy, ;£ the writer of this paper visited the remote town of Cahir- 

 civeen and the Island of Valencia, in the county of Kerry. On re- 

 turning from Valencia, our boatmen made us acquainted with the 

 circumstance, that near Beg-Innis, and on Church Island — or Illaun a 

 Teampull as they named it — there were some interesting ruins, well 

 worthy of a visit. The sea being calm, and time permitting it, we 

 signified a wish to be rowed over ; and accordingly we were landed on 

 a very small and rocky islet, which stood boldly prominent near the 

 northern harbour entrance to Cahirciveen.§ Soon were we enabled to 

 ascend the rocks which cropped up from the little harbour where we 

 landed, and after subjecting the existing ruins to a tolerably minute 

 examination and admeasurement, we again prepared for departure. 

 The intelligent owner of the boat could only inform us that the ruins 

 on Church Island always went by a traditional name, "the monastery," 

 but that nothing more was known by the coast population regarding 

 their structure or their history. 



The most exact and detailed description of the old ruins on Church 

 Island that can be found is one written by John O'Donovan, LL. D., 

 while engaged on the antiquarian literary work of the Irish Ordnance 

 Survey. || It is subscribed, Q 5-Cacaip Scu&IMn a n-Llib ."Rdch- 



* See " Lives of the Fathers, Martyrs, and other principal Saints," vol. xi., at 

 the 3rd of November. 



t See " Ecclesiastical History of Ireland," vol. iv., chap, xxvi., § xi., p. 86, and 

 n. 67, pp. 89, 90, and § xii., nn. 73, 74, 75, pp. 91 to 93. 



% The Rev. James Gaffney. 



§ This islet, and Beg-innis, quite close to it, although within the parish of 

 Caher, is situated still nearer to the island and parish of Valencia. See Lewis' 

 "Topographical Dictionary of Ireland," vol. i., p. 237. This ascertained fact may 

 lend some probable confirmation to a tradition hereafter noticed, that originally 

 these islands had been united to the mainland. 



|| See the MS. " Letters containing Information relative to the Antiquities of 

 the county of Kerry, collected during the progress of the Ordnance Survey in 

 1841," pp. 127, 128. 



