Armstrong and Lawlok — The Domnaeh Airgid. 123 



makes no reference to this tradition, which is the strongest argument in favour 

 of his theory of the identification of the two shrines. 



4. The inscription on which Petrie relied fur the identification of the 

 Academy shrine with the shrine of Clogher is now shown to have been mis- 

 read; and the only historical inscription on the shrine connects it with 

 Clones, not with Clogher. 



5. The Academy shrine was found to have contents quite different from 

 those known to have been in the Clogher shrine. 



II. — From these facts I draw the following conclusions : — 



1. The Clogher shrine is not identical with the Academy shrine. The Clogher 

 shrine, with its relics, is lost ; probably it disappeared at the Eeformation. 



2. The Academy shrine is a Clones shrine, to which no authentic tradition 

 attaches. But the nature of the more important relics in the Clogher shrine 

 was well known : and after the disappearance of the Clogher shrine the 

 popular traditions with regard to them became attached to the Clones shrine 

 and its then unknown contents. 



III. — With regard to the contents of the Clones shrine, it is to be noticed — 



1. That the book was a crushed, illegible fragment, not a carefully pre- 

 served MS. such as we usually find in book-shrines (e.g. the Cathach, or the 

 Stowe Missal). Therefore, either the book was itself preserved, not for study 

 but as a relic ; or else was a worthless bit of padding squeezed into the box 

 when its legitimate contents were either lost or abstracted. Of the two 

 theories, the former is by far the more probable. It explains at once what 

 would otherwise be unintelligible — why were these fragments, from a literary 

 point of view useless, deposited in the case ? 



2. This being assumed, the following further deductions appear probable : 



a. That the book belonged, or was supposed to have belonged, to some 

 important saint connected with Clones, and was there preserved as a relic of 

 him. Most likely this would be Tigernach himself, the founder of Clones. 



b. That it was for a long time used as a wonder-working relic, and 

 maltreated in various ways as such — cut up for amulets, soaked in water 

 to be subsequently administered for curative purposes, &c. Such treatment 

 would be sufficient to account for its condition. 



c. That after it had suffered serious injury from a continuance of this 

 treatment, it was encased in the yew box, perhaps for convenience of trans- 

 port rather than for preservation. This box could be opened, and the 

 maltreatment of the MS. continued as before. 



d. That in time the ecclesiastics of Clones realized that the relic would 

 disappear under this treatment altogether, and therefore they hermetically 

 sealed it up by enclosing the box in bronze plates. 



