492 



all these might be regarded in the light of voluntary offerings. "We 

 shall see, however, that no such conclusion can safely be drawn from 

 the silence of the Eental Book. Examples of this explicit declara- 

 tion of "grant" occur in very many of the sections, those on the Mac 

 Murrough's Country, on the O'Nolan's, on the O'More's, the Mac Gil- 

 patrick's, and the Mathona's [Mac Mahon's] ; and there is another 

 class of entries in which, although the word " grant" does not occur, it 

 may naturally be inferred from the identity or analogy of the circum- 

 stances. 



There is a fourth class which appears to me to carry much weight 

 in determining the character of the title under which these claims were 

 made or submitted to — viz., an assignment of the fines, or a portion of 

 the fines, levied in the sept. Thus in the section on the O'Tholis 

 (O'Toole's) Country, one of the items of tribute is "half kanys'' and 

 penalties within the land of Gleancappa. It is difficult to separate from 

 such a payment the notion of a tributary recognition of superior 

 authority and an acknowledgment of subjection. 



Last in order comes a numerous and interesting class of payments 

 for which there is an express recital of consideration — viz., " for 

 defence," or " for the defence." No further explanation is given in the 

 Eental Book itself. It is not said who are the enemies against whom 

 defence is guaranteed, what are the rights to be defended, or, in a 

 word, what is to be the nature of the stipulated protection ; although, 

 from the use of the form, u the defence," I think it may be inferred 

 that the term was well defined, and understood by the parties. These 

 entries are found in a large number of the Irish " Countries," as that of 

 the Mac Murroughs, the O'Murroughs, the O'Nolans, the O'Birnes, the 

 O'Mores of Leix, and Clancolman. It may be observed that they are 

 particularly numerous in the first and fourth of the above-named dis- 

 tricts, four such entries occurring in the section on Mac Murrough's 

 Country, and no fewer than nine in that on O'Birne's. 



Such are the various forms of recital in which the " Duties upon 

 Irishmen" are recorded in the Eental Book. 



On a general consideration of these recitals, it will be observed — 



First, that there is not the slightest reason to suppose that the 

 payments, or any of them, were rendered exceptionally to the Ninth 

 Earl Gerald, and not to the Earls before and after his time. On the 

 contrary, very many of the entries contain an express recital of perpe- 

 tuity, as in perpetuum, "for ever,'' and " to the Earl and his heirs for ever 

 and, to remove all doubt as to the fact that the "'Duties" did not in any 

 case form a personal appanage of the Ninth Earl in particular, it is only 

 necessary to point out that the Pvental Book in express terms recites, 

 in recording some of the Duties, the names of other Earls, as well the 

 predecessors as the successors of the ill-fated ninth inheritor of the 

 earldom. At least two of the " Duties," — one in the O'Byan's* and 

 one in the McGeoghagan's Country f — had their origin under Gerald Fitz 



* "Kilkenny ArchaeologicalJournal." Ibid., p. 122. f Ibid., p. 127. 



