376 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. 



Gormain, and the Dublin Ann. Inisfall. (a.d. 1160) Mac Gormain, without any 

 Christian name. Ware has " Fin an (Mac Tiduain) O'Gorman." This is, no 

 doubt, an error for Finn Mac Cianain 0' Gormain, and is an attempt to reconcile 

 the authority of Keating with that of the Four Masters. But the Four Masters 

 call him Mac Gormain, not O'Gormain ; there is no inconsistency in his being Mac 

 Cianain, or son of Cianan, and also Mac Gormain. At that time Mac Gormain 

 had come to be assumed as a patronymic or family name, instead of the more 

 correct form O'Gormain. See O'Donovan's Topogr. Poems, p. liii., note (433,). We 

 have another instance of this in King Dermod, who is called Mac Murchadha, or 

 Mac Murrogh, from his grandfather, although he was the son of Donnchadh, and 

 ought, therefore, to have been O'Murrogh. Topogr. Poems, p. xlvi., n. (393), and 

 p. 1. n. (405). See his genealogv in O'Donovan's note, Four Masters, a. d. 1052, 

 p. 861; 0' Flaherty, Ogygia, p. 438. 



* The same claim is made in another place in this MS. (fol. 20a) in an addition 

 to a list of the Kings of Leinster, in which Diarmait is thus spoken of — •oiAjvmAic 

 ttiac •ooncriA'OA niAc nmnchA'OA .xlvi. ocuf bA ni bechi tnogAtnte erroe, ocur 

 niTOi efroe. Aec ifennA, iaja rh-buA-ro ongchA ocuf Achnigi in .lxi°. Anno 

 AecACif piAe. " Diarmait, son of Donnchadh, son of Murchadh [reigned] 46 

 [years]. And he was king of all Leth Mogha, and also of Meath. He died at 

 Ferns, after the victory of unction and penance, in the 61st year of his age." This 

 note is in a hand more recent than that of the MS., and was written probably in 

 1177, the year of King Diarmait' s death. 



f See the original Irish in "O'Curry's Lectures," App., No. lxxxv. The first 

 words, " O Mary," are now so obscure in the MS. that they can only be considered 

 as a conjectural restoration suggested by Mr. O'Curry. 



J Meaning the Danes of Dublin. 



§ See Four Masters. The foregoing note gives us the additional fact that 

 Dermod fled on the 1st of August. 



* The Book of Leinster is now very imperfect. The Editor found eleven of the 

 original folia of it at St. Isidore's College, Rome. They were probably lent to 

 Colgan, in accordance with a practice which has proved injurious to many of our 

 Irish MSS. They contain some of the works of iEngus the Culdee, and also the 

 Martyrology of Tallaght, wanting November and the first sixteen days of Decem- 

 ber, by the loss of a leaf. 



t Some few examples of the peculiarities alluded to are given, p. 223, n. 3. 

 They may probably be regarded as characteristic of the old Leinster dialect of the 

 Irish language. 



The following is a short description of the MS. in its present state. 



The Book of Leinster consists of 194 loose leaves — inclusive of 

 short ones and strips. With the folios in the St. Isidore's collection 

 there are 205 still remaining. The general size of the vellum is 1 6£ by 9£ 

 inches. The pages are written mostly in double columns, each column 

 averaging 63 lines. The entire is preserved in a modern book-shaped 

 case, classed H. 2. 18. 



The old pagination followed by O'Curry in his examination of the 

 manuscript extends to 250 folios ; but there are several chasms and 

 defects of which the following is a list. 



The folio references in this list are irrespective of the old paginations 

 and will indicate the order of the folios of the original vellum MS., 

 as at present arranged, while the figures included in square brackets 

 are intended to indicate the pagination of the lithographic fac-simile 

 copy of that book, now in progress of publication by the Academy. 



Folio 16, = pp. [31-2] is defective at both sides. It appears to have 

 been originally too small to correspond with the general size of the 



