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XIX. 



ADDITIONAL EESEARCHES ON THE BLACK PIG'S DYKE. 



By W. F. DE VISMES KANE, M.A. 



Plate XLVIII. 



Read November 13, 1916. Published April 17, 1917. 



In a previous paper' on " The Black Pig's Dyke " or " Valley " I attempted to 

 show that the entrenchments which can be discontinuously traced from the 

 Newry Valley along the southern borders of the counties of Armagh and 

 Monaghan, as well as some fragmentary portions which are still extant in 

 the counties of Cavan, Longford, and Leitrim, the extreme western terminal 

 of which was identified on the Atlantic seaboard at Bundoran, formed once a 

 continuous frontier fortification defining the southern boundary of Uladh at 

 some early date. Following the localities recorded by Keating as marking 

 the northern frontier of the ancient province of Meath, I showed that for the 

 most part they coincided with those I had traced as marking the above 

 alignment of the Black Pig's Dyke. I ventured, however, to suggest one or 

 two possible corrections of the text of Keating, such as " Athlone " following 

 Mohill, and Muckno instead of his " Magh Cnodbha." 



Since the publication of my paper, an important contribution appeared in 

 the first vol. of " Archivium Hibernicum," by the Pi.ev. Paul Walsh, b.d., of 

 Mullingar, dealing with the Irish MS. used by Keating in compiling this 

 portion of his work. Father Walsh states that it is preserved in the E. I. 

 Academy as an insertion in a later hand on a spare leaf of a MS. written at 

 Kilcormae in the year 1.300, and mentions a less complete copy preserved in 

 the Bodleian Library. Father Walsh found that in several instances Keating 

 had failed to decipher accurately the Irish text, and so these lapses confused 

 the true sequence of certain of the locahties named. Students of early Irish 

 history therefore owe Father Walsh a debt of gratitude for his revision of the 

 text. I shall therefore commence by recapitulating the boundary localities, 



1 Proc. R.I. A., vol. xxvii, Sect. C, No. 14. 1909. - - 



R.I, A. PKOC, VOL. XXXIII, SECT. C, [77] 



