[ 153 J 



X. 



THE ITINERARY OF PATRICK IN CONNAUGHT, 

 ACCORDING TO TIRECHAN. 



By J. B. BURY, M.A., LL.D., Litt.D., 

 Regius Professor of Modern History in the University of Cambridge. 



[Read January 26, 1903.] 



If we attempt to trace on a map tlie itinerary whicli Tirechan marks 

 out for St. Patrick through the kingdom of Connaught, we are met by 

 several difficulties, but by none perhaps more awkward at first sight 

 than that which arises at the very outset in regard to the point where 

 Patrick crossed the Shannon. In the present paper I propose to 

 show that this difficulty is only apparent, being due to an erroneous 

 identification which has been accepted without question, and to deter- 

 mine as nearly as possible the alleged route of Patrick from Granard 

 to Rath Crochan. Further, I shall have occasion to point out a funda- 

 mental confusion which pervades Tirechan's memoir. 



To avoid misconception, it may be well to state explicitly that I 

 am concerned here merely with the interpretation of that document ; 

 not directly with what Patrick did, but with what Tirechan says 

 he did. 



§ 1. At the end of Book i., our text of Tirechan thus marks the 

 progress of Patrick from the cacumen Graneret to the Shannon : — 



venit in campum Rein (Slls Rolls ed.) ;i 



venitque P. ad alueuni Sinone ad locum in quo mortuus fuit auriga illius 

 Boidmalus et sepultus ibi in quo dicitur Call Boidmail usque in hunc diem (Slln). 



That is : Patrick proceeded through Mag Rein, and reached a place 

 on the Shannon, which, in the writer's time, was Cail Boidmail. Mag 

 Rein included the southern part of County Leitrim ; and the name is 



1 While I supply the reference to the Rolls edition, I give the text of the 

 passages wliich I quote from the proof-sheets of Dr. Gwynu's edition of the Codex 

 Armaclianus which is shortly to appear. 



