158 Proceedings of the Rot/al Irish Academy. 



length elsewhere,^ Tirechan "U'as personally acquainted with, the 

 geogi'aphy of Connaught and Meath ; and we must feel the utmost 

 hesitation in imputing to him the apparent absurdity. 



These considerations seem to me so weighty as to he fatal to the 

 notion that Tirechan supposed Patrick to have crossed the river in the 

 neighbourhood of Clonmacnois. But the argument becomes simply 

 iiTesistible when we turn to the details which the memoir supplies as 

 to the crossing. The crossing was at a river-swelKng (^aluem fluminis) ; 

 and this condition is not fulfilled by O'Donovan's Snamh-da-en. In 

 order to meet the difficulty, it might be proposed to take the words 

 per alueum flumi^iis per uadum duariirn auium in an unnatural way, so 

 as to mean that Patrick, having travelled along the left shore of L. Eee 

 {alu.flum.), proceeded down the river to the Snamh-da-en, and there 

 crossed. But if we coidd entertain such a forced explanation, it 

 would be only to encounter a new difficulty on the other bank. 

 Having crossed over by the uadum, Patrick and his companions came 

 to another river-svjelling : — 



Et uenienint per altieuni fluminis Sinnae quae dicitiu- Bandea ad tumulum 

 Gradi (31 83). 



Thus Patrick, having already crossed the Shannon by the uadum, 

 has again to cross the alueus ' Bandea,' in order to reach Duma Graid.- 

 Unfortunately Duma Graid no longer bears that name ; and we cannot 

 make use of it to determine the situations of other places. But it 

 was clearly in Connaught, on the western side of the Shannon, on the 

 same side as Mag Glais ; for Patrick proceeds fi'om it into Mag Glais 

 without again crossing the river. 



If any doubts be still felt as to the justice of my negative criticism 

 on the view that Patrick (according to Tirechan) crossed by O'Dono- 

 van's Snamh-da-en, they must yield to the positive fact that there is 

 another place on the Sliannon which satisfies fully the conditions of 

 the problem. The essential condition is that having crossed by a 

 river-swelling, Patrick should then come to another river- swelling 



1 English Historical Eeview, April, 1902. 



- The only -n'ay out of this conclusion would be to assume that here per nliieum 

 does not mean ' across ' but ' along the banks of — ^^jer in these passages being used 

 in different senses with alneam and with uadum. In that case the alueus Bandea 

 might be sought anywhere (except in L. Eee, which, on this theory, would he a 

 ditferent alueus), since, ex hypothesi, circuitous routes not traced by the writer are 

 admissible. But such possible attempts at exegesis will not satisfy a reasonable 

 critic. 



