Lawlor — ^lie Ancient List of the Coarbs of V<t trick. 35:1 



original List, or in a copy of it wiiicli was tlR' c-(innii(in ancestor of our 

 four authorities, the terminal number was written «, in error for xu. Since 

 Gorman puts Fetl)gna's death early in 874 (February 12),' Macl Coba's 

 incumbency, not counting tlie period of Catliassacli's usurpation (if such it 

 was), mii;ht liave been reckoned as fifteen years, hi that case the compiler, 

 following his usual custom, included the period of ulliee (if C'atliassacb within 

 that of Mael Coba. 



Mael Coba was followed by two ablmts, Mael Brigte and Joseph, wiio, as 

 we saw, were not of the L'lann Sinaich ; ant! immediately afterwards began 

 the period in which none who were not of that sept were able to get posses- 

 sion of the abbacy. We expected to find in the period which has now been 

 surveyed a fierce contest, and our expectation has been amply fulfilled. 

 Dub da Lethe I and his son and successor, Connmach, had to face many 

 opponents. Strife was renewed eleven years after Connmach's death, and 

 continued, with an intermission of perhaps twenty-two years during I'ethgna's 

 incumbency, for seventy years (8 1 8-888). It is at least possible that the casus 

 helli was then the same as it had been in tlie early years of the century — the 

 claims of Clann Sinaich. Some of the abbots, or aspirants to the ofhce, in 

 those, seventy years must certainly have been members of that tribe. But 

 the Clann Sinaich, as it happens, is never mentioned, though the antecedents 

 of a majority of the persons concerned in the disputes are given. From 

 Torbach to Joseph there were fourteen legitimate or intruded abbots. Of 

 live of them in the List, and of four others in the Annals," there is evidence 

 that they were not of the Clann Sinaich. Of one abbot, not mentioned in 

 the List (Toiclitech), we have not sutficient information to guide us to a 

 conclusion. Of the rest — Mac Loingsig, Eogan, Dermait, and Mael Coba — 

 we are told nothing. We may reasonably infer that they were descendants 

 of Sinach. In a List drawn up when the succession was firmly established 

 in one family it would be natural that the septs of persons who did not 

 belong to it would be recorded, while silence was kept about those who did. 

 We take it then that the contests of the ninth century were in all instances 

 waged between the Clann Sinaich and its opponents, and that in them the 

 clan was represented by the four persons just mentioned. 



The result to which our meticulous examination of the second section of 

 the List seems to lead may be expressed thus. The compiler took his list 

 of names from the diptychs of the cliurch of Armagh. But for the years of 

 office of tiie several coarbs of Patrick he had recourse to two otlier lists 



' But the ADnals of Ulster date liis death October C. 



- Two of those are omitted in L, aud coiiseciueutly the notes in the List are not 

 available. 



