326 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. 



north of Louth, and then through Ireland to the Shannon at Eoosky, so 

 preserving the historical alteration of boundary from the Boyne to the 

 northern limit of Louth, and thence by a devious route to the Shannon^ 

 where it ended. 



All the above legends deal with purely pagan times ; I have only met 

 one which purports to be later. This comes from Granard also, and refers 

 the origin of the earthwork to a demon who was exorcised by St. Patrick. 

 It is as follows : — An evil spirit used to appear at night like a flaming fire 

 moving about the country. The inhabitants, much terrified, sent to 

 St. Patrick for aid. The holy saint thereupon came to exorcise the demon. 

 But when he pursued the light, it vanished, and the demon changed himself 

 into a turkey and other animals, which the saint in vain attempted to 

 overtake. When, however, the form of a black pig was assumed, St. Patrick 

 took fresh courage, and, following the deep track or furrow that it left behind, 

 succeeded at length in running it down at Granard, where the animal was 

 killed, and the demon no more disturbed the countryside by his apparition. 



The above does not throw any light on the subject, but there remain 

 two traditions, the first of which is from Monaghan. 



The Worm Ditch (in Irish cIai-o wis peifce) near Clones is believed by 

 the farmers through whose fields it runs to have been raised as a boundary 

 between two great kings, and that anyone transgressing the limit on either 

 side would incur the penalty of death. Here we find preserved the facts that 

 this great earthwork was a defensive boundary between certain provinces, and 

 the danger of crossing it. — The other is found in Leitrim, as well as in Ulster 

 (Parney and Louth), and may be a superstitious survival of the above, 

 complicated with some reminiscences of the Ulster plantation, when large 

 numbers of the native Irish were driven out of that province into Connaught 

 and forbidden to return. O'Kearney, writing in 1856,^ mentions a belief 

 held by many natives of Ulster that the English will some day make a bloody 

 massacre of the Irish in the Valley of the Black Pig. " This delusion," he 

 says, " caused the breaking up of many a happy home in Ulster in times not 

 very far gone by. It was the opinion of the people of Ulster, grounded on a 

 pagan tradition, that some parts of Connaught and beyond the Boyne were 

 safe from the range of this midnight massacre" ; and he goes on to quote an 

 Irish distich in elucidation of this widespread belief — 

 1]' |:eA^\]\ |:eice mine o]' cionn Donine 

 Wts buii^exyt d\\\ lb- n"Oi.in 'Oexst^^Mn. 

 A peck of meal is more valuable above the Boyne 

 Than a bushel of gold in Dundalk. 



1 Op. cit. 



