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XI. 



ON AN OLD lEISH MS. FOUND IN CO. CLARE. 

 By BRIAN O'LOONEY. 



[Eead June 27, 1892.] 



I BEG to exhibit to the Academy an old maimscript containing, beside 

 other interesting things, a valuable if not unique collection of the ori- 

 ginal writings of the Rev. Dr. Geoffrey Keating. The manuscript was 

 recently discovered at a place called Inch, in the parish of Ballyea, about 

 thi'ee miles west of Ennis, in the county of Clare, by a number of 

 labouring men who were engaged in removing an old foss and clearing 

 out an old drain. "When discovered it was covered with clotted clay, 

 and supposed, at first, to be a slab or tablet. When it came into my 

 hands it certainly bore but little of the appearance of an Irish manu- 

 script. I succeeded, however, in removing the clotted mud with which 

 it was covered, and having separated the leaves, and having cleaned off 

 tbe scum of muddy cement with which they were covered, the writing 

 became visible, and I proceeded to examine its nature and contents. I 

 found it to be a collection of the original writings of the Rev. Dr. 

 Geoffrey Keating, who was admittedly one of the best Irish writers of 

 whom we have any knowledge since the disruption of the ancient courts 

 of Ollamhs and Bardic institutions of Erin, and hence he has been styled 

 the Irish Herodotus, a title to which his claim has been well sustained 

 by the variety and quality of his original writings, and by the beauty, 

 force, and linguistic style of his works — always characterised by a 

 purely classical tone, and free from taint of bigotry of any shade. The 

 contents are mainly ecclesiastical, and of that important class with 

 which Dr. Keating's name has been always identified. It contains a 

 copy of Keating's "Key to the Shield of the Mass"; his "Three 

 Shafts of Death" ; and a series of original discourses on moral and 

 religious questions, all written in the author's best style, representing 

 the Irish language in its purity as written and spoken by educated 

 natives before the leaven of corruption got infused into the Irish lin- 

 guistic system. The style is smooth, flowing, chaste, and classical, 

 and if utilised as a medium of instruction it would be found most 

 useful. 



