260 



is called Mac hua Corraac, being descended from an ancestor of that 

 name, who is said to have been a king of Leinster. 



In the appendix to this life, Colgan enumerates more than sixty 

 persons of this name who were eminent for sanctity, among whom ap- 

 pears Cormac huaLethain, the Abbot of Durmagh, and friend of St. Co- 

 lumkille, who met with a tragical fate in that territory which is now 

 the southern part of Kildare. 



It has been suggested that Killeen Cormac may be no other than the 

 Kil-Fine, or Ecclesia Fine of the various Lives of St. Patrick, and the 

 third church the foundation of which is referred to Palladius. A great 

 many indirect arguments may be adduced to sustain this opinion. As the 

 writer has made these churches a special study, and alighted on some 

 interesting relics in the localities in which they are said to have been 

 founded, he hopes to be able at a future period to mature his views on 

 this subject, and to gather new facts, and evidence to sustain them, which 

 will be found satisfactory and intelligible ; and he trusts that stronger 

 evidence and future investigations will make it possible, to connect 

 these very remarkable and unique monuments with the names of Palla- 

 dius and Dubhtach mac ua Lugair — a personage celebrated in con- 

 nexion with our early ecclesiastical and national records, and in whose 

 history and acts the recent publication of the " Senchus Mor" must 

 awaken no inconsiderable interest. 



Mr. D. H. Kelly presented a MS. Collection of Extracts, made from 

 Memoranda .Rolls of the Exchequer, and other record authorities, by the 

 late James F. Eerguson, Esq., accompanied by the following letter : — 



" Gentlemen, — The four volumes which I have now the honour to 

 present to the Academy, were for sale at Kelly's, in Grafton-street, and 

 on the point of being sold to Sir Thomas Phillips, and sent out of the 

 country, when I fortunately became the possessor of them. On show- 

 ing them to my learned and excellent friend, the Rev. W. Reeves, D. D., 

 Secretary to this Academy, I was by him confirmed in my opinion of 

 their value as a national record ; and I was by him most generously 

 presented with a considerable number of additional extracts, in Fergu- 

 son's own handwriting, and, amongst them, with his original auto- 

 graph ' Inventory of Hugh Roe O'jSTeill's Effects,' which was pub- 

 lished by him in the 1 Topographer,' a copy of which is now extremely 

 rare. Of these additional pages, which are placed in the end of vol. iii., 

 a valuable synopsis has been made, followed by an index to their contents, 

 both Nominum et Locorum, by our brother Academician, J. Huband 

 Smith ; and vol. iv. contains a very complete Index Nominum et Lo- 

 corum to the main body of the collection, by the same skilful hand. 



"Iam indebted principally to my friend, Dr. Reeves, for the fol- 

 lowing account of the gifted compiler of this, I believe, valuable col- 

 lection : — 



" The late James E. Eerguson, of Bellfield House, Rathmines, 

 was himself an Englishman, and in England became acquainted with 



