164 Proceedings of the Royal Irkh Aca.demij. 



Connaiiglit three times (329i2) ; and tlie question suggests itself 

 "whether Tirechan, in collecting his information from varions sources, 

 has not gathered up and compressed into the one visit to Connaught, 

 ■^vhich he describes, incidents which really belonged to other visits. 

 At the end of this paper I will adduce a larger argument to prove that 

 Tirechan was guilty of such a confusion; but here I may point out 

 that some of the incidents mentioned by Tirechan imply a previous 

 visit. Thus, we have a statement that, on crossing the Shannon, 

 Patrick ordained Ailbe, cui indicauit alto.re miralile lapideum in monte 

 nepotum Ailello (31 83). The natural implication is that Patrick had, 

 on a previous occasion, visited Sliab hua nAilello, and seen the altar. 

 Again, it is important to observe that, when Patrick comes to Corca 

 Ochhind, he is described as coming not only to the chiefs Hono and 

 Ith, but to Assicus and Betheus, his disciples (SlSij). Thus Assicus 

 and Betheus were already stationed in the district ; and the inference 

 may be that Patrick had visited it before, and planted a small 

 Christian community somewhere. If so, the conjecture that the 

 Senella Cella had been founded on the occasion of the previous visit 

 seems plausible. 



§ 6. At Senella Cella, Patrick was visited by ]\Iathona, the sister 

 of Benignus; and here we encounter a di£B.cult passage, which requires 

 elucidation : — 



Et uenit apud se filia felis in perigrinationem nomine Mathona soror Benigni 

 successoris Patricii quae tenuit pallium apud Patricium et Eodanum. Monacba 

 fuit illis. Et exiit per montem filiorum Ailello et plantauit aeclessiam liberam 

 hiTamnucli. Et honorata fuerat adeo et hominibus, et ipsa fecit amicitiam ad 

 reliquias sancli Eodani, et successores illius epulabantur ad inuicem. 



It is obvious that the words et exiit . . . hiTamnucli interrupt the con- 

 text most awkwardly, and that the sentence should run : Ifonacha fuit 

 illis, et honorata fuerat adeo et hominibus. JEt ipsa, &c. IToreover, the 

 idea forces itself upon us that the subject of exiit 2,rA plantauit in the 

 inserted clause must be Patricius, not Mathona. And, turning to the 

 Tripartite Life, we find that, in the text in the Piolls ed. (p. 98), 

 though it agrees with the Armagh text, the clause in question is 

 referred to Patrick.^ 



^ So, too, in Colgan's Latin translation (Tr. Th., p. 135) ; wbere, bowever, the 

 sentence et ipsa fecit, &c., becomes et ipse fecit, &c., and is postponed to the 

 following notice of the ordination of bisbop Cairell, to whom ipse is made to 

 refer. — In regard to tbe clause /o^/i«!^j« ineclais sair hiTamnach (p. 98i2, ed. Rolls), 



