144 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. 



quity ; but yet it is possible an earlier church may have occupied its 

 site. Mr. Thomas 0' Conor, a writer engaged on the Ordnance Survey, 

 supposes this local denomination to have been derived from a Saint 

 Ethne ; and he says, the Irish name should probably be written Cill 

 Gichne (0. S. Letters; Queen's Co., vol. i., 181-4.) The etymon 

 of Killenny must, however, be derived from a different source. 



The townland of Killenny, undoubtedly, takes its name from the 

 old church founded there. The ruins now measure thirty-seven feet, 

 six inches, and eighteen feet in breadth interiorly (stated by Mr. 

 O'Conor, in his 0. S. Letters, as 36 and 16 feet respectively) ; while 

 the gable walls yet standing are over three feet in thickness,* the side 

 walls only measuring two feet seven inches across. The east window 

 is very rude in design ; it was about three feet in length, by only 

 ten inches in width on the outside ; interiorly, however, it was 

 more deeply splayed. The door-way was either in the south side 

 wall, f which, at present, is very much ruined, or, perhaps, it was an 

 apparent low opening, in the west end. J But, if we admit this latter 

 supposition, it must afterwards have been closed with masonry. A 

 rich mantle of ivy screens the two gables, as also the north side-wall. 

 A small grave-yard, nearly circular, surrounds the old church. Al- 

 though thickly covered with many graves, and a burial-place from 

 time immemorial, the cemetery is now disused for interments. § 



In the centre, and on the south angle, the east gable is now quite 

 ruinous ; but the north angle is covered with masses of ivy to a con- 

 siderable height. The west gable is well preserved. The side-walls 

 on the north and south are not up to their original height. This old 

 church has been built of a fine lime- stone peculiar to the district. A 

 shallow fosse and a low ditch, crowned with a hedge of fine old haw- 

 thorns, enclose the burial ground. A fertile meadow field is entered 

 from the adjoining road, and an ancient pathway towards the ceme- 

 tery has not been disturbed, as yet, by the progress of cultivation. 



The commentator on St. Angus' Feilire, in the Leabhar JBreac, 

 seems to have considered that a St. Lassar had been venerated on the 

 17th of March, which is St. Patrick's Day. He says, moreover, that 

 she was the seventh daughter of Bran in, having been venerated at 

 Cill Ingine Branin ( church of the daughter of Branin), in Laiges, 



* Exteriorly the side walls of the nave measure forty-four feet, and the gable 

 or end walls twenty -four feet. 



f Something like the side of a door-way, or window, appears there, not far 

 from the west end. 



J A small enclosure, the walls of which were about twenty-four feet square, 

 stood outside the western gable. 



§ This has been the case, more especially, during the last thirty years, and 

 since a new burial-ground has been opened around an adjoining Catholic chapel, 

 which ha^ been built on a verge of the Great Heath of Maryborough. 



