BuiCK — On Ogams discovered near Connor, Co. Antrim. 271 



Thus the reading may he represented as T. maqui Vobraci, which 

 may he rendered ' (The monument) of T. son of Fohrach.' Por 

 Vohrac — would in later Irish have to become either Fohrach or 

 Fohracc, while the genitive of the former would he Fohraich or 

 Fohrich, and the latter occurs in the Book of Leinster in the 

 genealogy of Dal Corpri Arad, fol. 312°,^ This is not all, for an 

 entry under the year 500 in the ' Annals of Innisfallen' (as published 

 by Stokes in the Revue Celtique, xvij. 126) reads as follows : *K. uii. 

 Mac[c]nisBi .i. Aengus espoc Conddere quieuit, cuius pater Fobraech 

 dictus est, cuius mater Cness ingen Comcaide de Dail Ceterne, a qua 

 nominatus est Mac Cneisse.' In spite of the spelling Fobraech.,^ 

 instead of the Fohrach or Fohraich to be expected, there seems to be 

 no sufficient reason to dissociate it fi'om Fohrach, and if Fobraech was 

 the name of the Bishop of Connor's father, or Mac Nisse, as he is com- 

 monly called, one is at liberty to suppose the man commemorated in 

 our inscription to have been Mac Msse's brother. This would carry 

 with it the approximate date of the inscription, for Mac Nisse died, 

 according to the ' Annals of Innisfallen,' in the year 500 : the 

 ' Chronicum Scotorum' makes it 508, while the 'Annals of Ulster' 

 have it under the year 513. It is very possible tliat the pedigree of 

 the Bishop of Connor's family still exists, and that the names of his 

 brothers are given. In that case one might see whether any such bore a 

 name which would fit into the Ogam, but I do not know where to search. 

 ' ' More might be written on most of the points which I have touched 

 upon, but as my remarks are chiefly intended to elicit criticism and fresh 

 suggestions, I have endeavoured to avoid overloading them with details. 

 I will only add, that I am convinced that where inscribed stones are 

 found in the walls or roofs of subterranean chambers like the Connor 

 one, the stones were stolen from burial grounds ; and in the case of the 

 Vobraci stone I notice that it had been long enough exposed to the 

 weather or the tramp of feet to have its edge worn clown to its present 

 state of illegibility in the matter of the name with which the Ogam 

 began." 



1 In a passage, of the meaning of whicli I am not sure, we have (fol. 333*) 

 tSord a quo Sordraige la Crimthannu. Is uadibside Episcopus Ibar for Fohrech. 

 What does /or Forbrech exactly mean? For is abbreviated in the usual way p. 



- The spelling Fobraech is most likely due to a misreading of an older spelling 

 Fobraech, while the spelling Fobrecc which occurs in a Lebar Brecc gloss on the men- 

 tion of Mac Nisse on the 3rd of September in the Calendar of Oengus is probably 

 due partly to Fobraech and partly to a wish to explain the name by introducing 

 the adjective brecc, 'speckled.' 



