328 Proceedings of the Boyal Irish Academy. 



bear better fruit, and assist students who have been too often working 

 by guessing, not by the careful study of the oldest forms of the place- 

 names. 



A Preface is usually written after the completion of a book or 

 Paper, so I do not attempt one here ; nevertheless, some previous notes 

 are absolutely necessary. These I will give with no further prelimi- 

 nary remarks, save that I have here followed, but with far greater 

 fulness, the lines of my survey of the churches in County Clare, 

 published in these pages in 1900 J 



JS'OTES ON THE ToPOGEAPHY. 



I. Divisions. — The County of Limerick is divided naturally into 

 four by the Rivers Deel, Maigue, and Mulkeare, running northward to 

 the Shannon. The eastern section is further subdivided by the 

 Cammoge, the Saimer, or Morning Star, and the Loobagh, running- 

 westward to the Maigue. The county is bounded by the Shannon, to 

 the north, by the mountain masses of Luachair to the west and south- 

 west, by the Galtees and their offsets to the south-east, and Slieve 

 Phelim to the north-east ; between these, however, no great natural 

 bounds mark its limits with the Counties of Tipperary and Cork. Of 

 the natural bounds, the Mulkeare now, as in 1116, divides the Sees of 

 Limerick and Killaloe ; the greater rivers, save the Shannon itself, 

 mark off none of the main divisions. The county is covered by the 

 Bishopricks of Limerick and Emly, the latter lying partly within the 

 eastern limits of Limerick. The baronies are Shanid, Glenquin, and 

 Upper and Lower Connello, to the west; Kenry, Pubblebrian, and 

 Clanwilliam, running eastward along the Shannon ; Coshmagh and 

 Coshlea along the southern, and Owneybeg, Coonagh, and Small 

 County along the eastern border from north to south. 



II. The Diocese of Limerick. — It seems strange that the Irish 

 Church did not sooner adopt the wise expedient of appointing a bishop 

 over a group of tribes, which succeeded so well in later days. St. 

 Patrick and the early churchmen evidently felt the risk of trying to 

 establish bishopricks among jealous and recently converted tribes, who 

 would have resented the rule of a spiritual superior of another and, 

 perhaps, hostile tribe-group. Even if St. Patrick did not consecrate 700 

 bishops,^ the number was vast, and discipline was out of the question. 

 Well might the better-ordered churches abroad look with dislike on a 



iProc. R.I.A., Ser. 3, vol. vi., p. 109. 



2 Ann. F. M., under 493. 



