122 Proceedings of the Roi/al Irish Academy. 



brief list of persons belonging to Maelruain's eomnmnity {LucTit oe'iiiaA 

 iioA'i-vM.in : versified in column 4), and among these is named Maddithruh 

 anchorifd Tiri da Glas. We are therefore justified in identifying the 

 Maeldithruib of our document with the Maeldithruib. " anchorite and sage 

 {sdoi) of Tir da Glas," whose death is recorded by the Four Masters «w/m> 840. 



One other reference to him, though of later date, is worth recording. 

 Among the spurious " Prophecies," published by X. O'Keamey m 1856, there 

 is one (p. 95) which is attributed to " Maeltamlacht," who addi'esses his 

 utterances to " Maeldithridh." These names evidently disguise Maelniain of 

 Tallaght and his disciple Maeldithruib. There is a copy of this poem in a 

 Trroity College manuscript H. 1. 10. p. 167 ; it is of no interest except as 

 showing that the connexion between MaeLruain and Maeldithi-uib was not 

 forgotten in later times. 



We have thus obtained a lower limit of time. Most of the document was 

 written before 840, the year of Maeldithruib's death: a httle was added 

 later. An upper limit can be fixed by the references to Diannait, abbot of 

 lona, in §§ 47, 65, 80. He was Abbot from 815 till 8-31 or later (Beeves' 

 Adamnan, 388). The phrase in § 47, " Three words that Diarmait left to 

 bishop Carthach," seems to imply that he was dead at the time of writing. 

 If so, we have 831 as an upper limit, 840 as a lower limi t. 



These dates agree with the notes of time supplied by references to other 

 persons, so far as they have been identified. The bishop Carthach mentioned in 

 § 47 may be the Carthach, Abbot of Tir Da Glas, who died in 851 (Four 

 Masters) : there is nothing to show whether the person referred to by our 

 author was alive or dead. Several of the other personages mentioned are known 

 to have been contemporaries of MaeLruain ; such are Samdan, Mocholmocc, 

 Mae Oige of Lismore, Cainchomrac, Fer Da Chrich, Helair, Dublitii-, Eochaid 

 ua Tuathail, Blathmac ; also probably Colchu and Clemens mac Xuadat. 



The few facts hitherto known about Maelruain have been put together by 

 Eeeves in his work on the Culdees, p. 7; see also O'Hanlon, Iiish Saints, 

 \M, 98; Contents of Bk. Leinster, p. 66J. His name is still famUiar in the 

 traditions of Tallaght (see F. E. Ball, ffistory of Co. Dublin, iii, 43). He is 

 remembered mainly as founder of that monastery and author of the so-caUed 

 Ride of the Celt De which exists in the Leabhar Breac, pp. 9-12, and was 

 published by Eeeves, with a translation by O'Donovan. Our text has a 

 close affinity with this Eule. The particular points in which the two 

 docximents coincide with or illustrate one another are indicated in our Notes. 

 Which of them borrows from the other, or whether they di-aw from a common 

 source, it is impossible to say. Eeeves (on O'Donovan's authoritj' no doubtj 

 speaks of the Hide as being in its present form a production of the twelfth or 



