O'Rahilly — Irish Poets, Historians, Sfc, in English Documents, 116 



" hath oideyned an Irishe judge called Shane M'^Clannaghe [Scan JMay 

 Fldannchadha], and that the said Shane useth Brehens lawe and ordreth 

 the matters of variannce of the countie moche after her will and commaunde- 

 ment, and taketh for th' use of his judgement called Oylegeag \oik-dlidacj'] 

 xvi* stg. of every mark stg., and taketh as moche of the playntif as of the 

 def," ih., 199. From the presentment of the jury of Irishtown, part of 

 Kilkenny city, we learn that among the judges in Kilkenny were " Donoughe 

 Makhewgan [Donnc/iadh Mac Aodhagdin], by the commaundyment of the 

 Lorde Grace, Richard Sertall, and JVIalayhan Ogge Clerry" [^Maoileachlainn 

 'Og '0 CUirighy ih., 135. 



54. In a presentment of sessions held in Cork in 1576 it is complained 

 that " all the lords of this country " use the following " extortion," viz., 

 " that when any frehoulder or inhabitant within their severall countries is 

 maried, the rumor [rimer] of that lord called Olafi' Danie [ollamli ddna] will 

 take the best apparaill of the womane so maried or the juste value thereof." — 

 Annuary of E.S.A.I. for 1868-9, p. 273. A particular instance of this 

 curious privilege is given further on in the same presentment [ib., p. 277), 

 where it is asserted that " one Dermond Odayly in the name and to the use 

 of Odaly Fynyne came to Kile Weybowd in the countie of Cork in June last 

 past," and " haith forceably taken of Margeret ny Scally of the said Kile 

 Waiebowed all the raynient that shee did weare, that day being newly 

 mareid, or else the valwe of the same, to his oune contentacon, alleadginge 

 the same to be due to the forsaid Odayley of everye womane that is maried 

 ihroughowt all Desmond and M^Donoghe countrye, because he is their clieef 

 Rymor otherwise called Olowe Dane." " Odaly Fynyne " is '0 Bdlaigh 

 Fionn, who, in 1576, may well have been Aonghus (cf. §29). "Kile 

 Weybowd " is evidently in Duhallow (MacDonagh's country), and would 

 seem to be the present Killavoy (spelled " Kylewoy " in Fiant 5903), in the 

 parish of Clonmeen. 



As to the origin of this curious exaction, it is probable that at first the 

 gift of the wedding-clothes to the poet was looked upon as an appropriate 

 reward for the epithalamium which he doubtless produced on such occasions. 

 A good illustration of the conservative spirit of the Irish literary class is 

 afforded by the fact that towards the end of the seventeenth century, if not 

 later still, we find a poet, Peadar '0 Maolchonaire, claiming wedding-clothes 

 as his due.- A similar custom existed in Gaelic Scotland down to the 



' For the Kilkenny branch of this family see O'Donovan's Hy-Fiachrach, pp. 72, 

 89, note. 



^ Viz., in a short poem addressed to Tadhg 'O Rodaighe, and beginning A mine 

 Geroid an ghldir ghloiii{K. 0. 15, p. 82). The poem itself states the claim vaguely, but 



