206 Proceedings of the Boyal Irish Academy. 



on its western face, as indicated in the Tripartite, the very cross in- 

 scribed in the circle, which the Irish text states was "made" by 

 Patrick. Proceeding towards Killala, we see to the left Mullaghfarry, 

 the forradh, or assembly -place of Awley, where Patrick baptized that 

 prince, his sons, and multitudes of his people. Then comes on the right 

 Cross Patrick, the scene of his contest with the Hy-Fiachran Druids, 

 with its Ail na rf dhriiaidh, where the lives relate the fall of his anta- 

 gonists. Then comes Killala ; and passing onwards towards Fersad 

 Tresi, we see on the right of the road, opposite the demesne of Castle- 

 rea, the remains of Kilgobbin, with what the people allege was the 

 lime-kiln of the Goban Saer, by whom the round tower of Killala 

 was huilt. But they say that, although the master-mason prepared 

 the topstone for the tower, it was never set up, but remains to this 

 day beside the lime-kiln, where certainly there is a stone of a trun- 

 cated conical shape, having a circular cavity on the top, as if for the 

 reception of some finial, though possibly it may be the rude font of 

 the primitive church, from which the place takes its name. 



In all these peregrinations one moves in what our oldest books 

 allege to be the footsteps of Patrick, and everywhere meets the same 

 pious and gentle-mannered people as those whom he may be supposed 

 to have gone amongst more than fourteen hundred years ago. Such 

 excursions give occasion to various kinds of learning, not the least 

 valuable of which is the knowledge and love of the people. The 

 preservation of monuments likely to attract men of literary and 

 general culture to distant parts of the country, is an object as 

 valuable in a social as in a scholastic sense. Two of the monuments 

 referred to in this Paper are eminently attractive, and equally im- 

 perilled. The sculpture reputed to be from the hand of Patrick, at 

 Liag, and of which I exhibit a cast, will soon be overlaid by inter- 

 ments, which already partly cover the top of the rock that bears it. 

 The Ogham-inscribed stone of Breastagh, if exposed on the flat for 

 another winter, may be split by the wedge of the frost, if it escape the 

 crowbar of the churl. I appeal to the ecclesiastics, who can control 

 the burials at Liag, to prohibit further interments against the face of 

 the rock which bears the reputed sign-manual of the Irish Apostle ; 

 and I appeal to the Boyal Irish Academy to re-erect, and take steps 

 for the future preservation of the magnificent Ogham monument now 

 lying prostrate on the lands of Breastagh. 



[Note. — Steps have been taken by the Academy to secure the re-erection of the 

 Breastagh monument.] 



In order to bring toe/ether the several papers on the subject of Oghamic 

 loiiting, read in the Sessions 1872-3 and 1873-4, so as to issve them in one number 

 ( = pp. 157-206), some of the other papers have been necessarily displaced from 

 their proper chronological sequence. They will note follow in order. — Ed. 



