

Bishop Graves — Monataggart Ogham, No. 1. 21 L 



XXXIV. — Remarks on the Ogham Inscription (No. 1.) at Mona- 

 taggart. Extracted from a Letter addressed to S. Ferguson, 

 LL. D., Vice-President, by the Right Rev. Dr. Graves, Lord 

 Bishop of Limerick, &c. 



[Read November 9, 1874.] 



Ie you had not commented upon the Ogham-inscribed monument found 

 at Monataggart, I should have been tempted to do so, for many rea- 

 sons. In the first place, the inscription being complete and perfectly 

 preserved, no room is left to the decipherer for fanciful conjectures. 

 He must take the characters as he finds them ; he must explain the in- 

 scription as it stands ; or give up the attempt to explain it. Moreover, 

 I venture to assert that this particular monument will be found to 

 indicate, in a very remarkable manner, the nature and purpose of 

 Ogham inscriptions in general. 



I had no sooner looked at the woodcut (Proceedings R.I.A., Ser. 2, 

 Vol. i., p. 172), than I perceived, as you did, that the Ogham legend 

 was to be read upwards, and from right to left. Taking it in this way, 

 one is led inevitably to divide it as you have done; and thus we obtain 

 the reading : — 



peqreq moqoi gltjnlegget. 



Happening to be quite fresh from the study of Reeves's edition of 

 Adamnan's Life of S. Columba, I at once identified the first name, 

 feqreq, as the genitive of Fiachra ; and I was confirmed in this con- 

 clusion by the variety of spellings which appear in the manuscripts of 

 Adamnan. 



In what you say with respect to this proper name, I entirely agree. 

 But I speak with less reserve than you do, as to the power of the 

 Q,- symbol in the Ogham alphabet. It stands commonly, as we are told 

 in the Uraicept, for cu. But it is also occasionally used to stand for 

 ch. We find the Ogham c followed by the Ogham h on the Clon- 

 macnoise Ogham, in the word bocht ; in one of the Oghams in the 

 S. Gall Priscian, in the word minchasc; on the leaden inkbottle in the 

 museum of the Academy, in the name meich : and on the Ballyspillane 

 brooch, in the names Cnaemseoch and Ceallach. But again, we have 

 the Q-symbol standing for ch in the name Cillmochohnog, on the leaden 

 inkbottle, and also on the Ballyquin monument bearing the inscription 

 Catabar Moco Firiqor[¥]. For my own part, I suspect there was little 

 difference in old Irish between the sounds of q and ch. Remember 

 that Ech = JEquus, and that sech - the seq in sequor. 



I do not share the doubts which you express as to the interpreta- 

 tion of the word moqoi. I feel quite certain that it = maqi. In support 

 of this view, I must remind you that the MSS. of Adamnan constantly 

 exhibit the form mocu ; and the Ballyquin stone, to which I have 

 already referred, gives us moco. If I am right, the name mucoi rinds 



