53 



*]th February, 1899. 



The Lord Mayor (Mr. Otto Jaffe, J. P.) in the Chair. 



THE BOYNE VALLEY: LPS HISTORY, SCENERY 

 AND ANTIQUITIES. 



By S. F. Mili.igax, M.R.LA. 



{Abstract.) 



In Ireland the Boyne Valley was the first inhabited terriii ly, 

 as well as the seat of central sovereignty for a period of two 

 thousand years. It has within its borders the richest and most 

 fertile soil ; its lands have always been eagerly sought after ai d 

 fought for by every race that landed on our shores. From iis 

 source in County Kildare to Drogheda, where it empties ni;o 

 the Irish Sea, it has a course of seventy miles. It flows througli 

 a level country, beautifully wooded. Its banks are adorned 

 with memorials of every age — Pagan, Early Christian, Anglo- 

 Norman, Elizabethan, and modern. It may be necessary heic. 

 to mention that the kingdom of Meath was formed in the first 

 century of the Christian Era by the King of Ireland, Tuathal 

 Teachtmar, who took from each of the existing four provinces 

 a portion of territory which, put together, formed Meath. The 

 newly-formed kingdom hencefo th was to belong to the Ard 

 Righ, or Head King, as his special patrimony. Tuathal Teacht- 

 mar, after a long and prosperous reign, fell in a battle in County 

 Antrim, and his grave is still pointed out (a Kistvaen), the King 

 of Ireland's grave on a hill side lying between the village of 

 Ballynure and Ballyeaston in this county. Meath comprised 

 the greater part of the EngUsh Pale; was the seat ct Angio- 



