Bishop Graves — On Cahirciveen Ogham. 157 



XXIII. — Remarks upon an Ogham Inscription at Cahirciveen. Ex- 

 tracted from a letter addressed to S. Ferguson, LL. D., V. P. 

 by the Right Ret. Dr. Grates, Lord Bishop of Limerick. 



[Read November 11, 1872]. 



I had hoped to he ahle to lay hefore the Academy during my present 

 visit to Duhlin a detailed account of the principal steps which I have 

 made at different times in the deciphering of Ogham Inscriptions, but 

 more urgent demands upon my time and attention have quite frustrated 

 this hope; and I find myself obliged either to give up the attempt al- 

 together for the present, or to content myself with some brief and 

 hastily written remarks upon a single Inscription. Though I have 

 none of my books or papers at hand I prefer the latter alternative ; 

 and beg that you will allow me to make my communication to the 

 Academy in the form of a letter to yourself. 



In the year 1868, being at Caherciveen, 1 heard of a Giant'' s Grave 

 in a Killeen, or disused burial-ground, a few miles from the town. 

 Suspecting that this might be an Ogham Monument, I visited it and 

 ascertained that my suspicion was well founded. At the head of what 

 looked like a long grave stood the monument in question, a tall slen- 

 der stone, bearing a rudely incised Greek cross ; at the foot, a much 

 smaller stone with an elaborate cross and a dove engraved upon it in 

 a very peculiar manner, 



The Ogham Inscription on the head-stone reads as follows: — 



Gnm llloeleagoemip Qoinaci peacimean. 



Upon this short text I shall hereafter find occasion to make a long 

 comment. Lor the present I shall call attention only to a few principal 

 points. First, the inscription is the only one in Ireland, so far as my 

 knowledge extends, in which we find the Ogham character which denotes 

 the diphthongs beginning with the letter 0. The inscription on theBres- 

 say Stone, of which I gave a reading many years ago [Proceedings of 

 the Royal Irish Academy, vol. vi. p. 248] furnishes, I believe, the only 

 other known example of the use of this character on a stone monument. 



Xow, passing from letters to words, I must direct your attention to 

 the formula anni with which the inscription commences. About 

 twenty years ago I communicated to the Academy a paper on Oghams, 

 in the course of which I described a monument bearing the legend, 

 Gnm Cpunan rflacu Lucuin ; and I then made bold to assert that the 

 three first letters were to be read as the wordemam, equivalent to the 

 Latin animd. But at that stage of the research I was not in a position 

 to prove my assertion. For it might have been urged that the amn 

 was part of a proper name, like Anmchad ; and I only knew at that 

 time of three other Ogham inscriptions beginning with anm, and 

 these were hard ones to deal with. I refer now to the Fortwilliam. 

 Aghabulloge. and Maumanorig stones. I felt that I had no argument 

 upon which I could so well depend as the one which I brought forward, 

 viz.. that the pedigrees of the BookofLecan actually supply the name 



K. I. A I'KOC. — VOL. I., SER. II., POL. LIT. AND ANTIQ. 2 A 



