318 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. 



the ground, by sowing it with the precious pieces of evidence among 

 which he trod so inattentively. 



Further, had he been a rogue, utilising his opportunities, as we are 

 asked to believe, it seems hardly credible that he should have failed 

 to bring in Altoir na greine in aid of his verses. The altar was a 

 permanent stone structure, standing within a furlong of the Ogham- 

 inscribed monument. It offered a substantive corroboration to all 

 that the verses averred touching the worship of the sun at that very 

 place. But, it will be asked, how is it shown that O'Flanagan was 

 aware of its existence ? I am unable to adduce any direct proof that 

 he was so: but the passage from the "Post Chaise Companion" 

 (supra, p. 270) savours so strongly of the style which one might 

 expect from a writer of O'Flanagan' s class, and puts him so promi- 

 nently forward as the discoverer, that it is difficult to resist the con- 

 clusion that it was supplied by himself ; and in that extract, it will be 

 remembered, mention is made of "Altoir na greine "in connexion 

 with the locality. Its omission from the paper in the Transactions 

 seems to me a probable evidence that no misgiving existed in the 

 writer's mind as to his authority being questionable, or standing in 

 any need of collateral support. 



I have, so far, drawn these arguments in favour of O'Flanagan' s 

 innocence from phrase favourable to his case, the benefit of which he 

 has thrown away by imperfect translation. I have now to notice an 

 expression in the text highly adverse to his case — in fact, destructive 

 of it, as it is presented in the "Post Chaise Companion" — which, 

 without any apparent hesitation, he has rendered rightly. 



The monument lies on the southern* slope of the mountain. 

 But the text, which 0' Flanagan is charged with having fabricated, 

 for the purpose of identifying this object on the south of Mount Callan 

 with the monument of Conan Maol referred to, has, after "ro cloidh a 

 Feari" the remarkable expression, "thiar bo tlmaith" that is, "on the 

 west by the north." This is the line that predicates the substantial 

 matter to which " bo diol truaigh" is the mere rhyming complement ; 

 and must be taken to have been deliberately composed. A well 

 instructed scholar of good sense would have pointed out the discre- 

 pancy between the statement and the obvious fact ; but 0' Flanagan, 

 with a levity not easily excusable, takes no notice of it further than 

 by betraying some anxiety to suggest to his reader that the phrase in 

 the text may have had reference to the generally north-west direction 

 of the monument from what he hints may have been its point of con- 

 templation by the author of the poem. He says : — 



" I set off with a companion from Ennis to visit the monument so particularly 



*The word signifying the "sun" enters into the names of so many of the 

 surroundiug local features, Booleynagreine, Altnagreine, Gualanagreine, that, if 

 not imposed with a regard to Altoir na greine and its associations, which is less 

 likely, its frequent employment must be ascribed to the sunniness and obvious 

 southern exposure of that part of the mountain, as compared with Booleyduff 

 of its northern slope. 



