tutor for several months teaching him to say, "I will upon condition I get them again." Having appeared before the perjured judge, whose ostensible object was to do justice, but whose real aim was to plunder for himself and a wicked jury, the chief, having heard the words, "O'Brennan, O'Brennan, of the County of Roscommon, come in, and give up your estate to the king," answered: "I will upon cundhirs I get um again." Not having spoken the words required by law, though clearly understood by the Court, his claim was rejected. Such was O'Brennan's just hatred of foreign rule and of the tyrant's jargon that he could not be got to articulate distinctly a few English words. We are not to wonder that a native chieftain had such an antipathy to so grating a language; some of the English nobles themselves, in olden times, abandoned its use for the euphonius Irish.

Great care should be taken not to mix up names together, because though the names may be like, still the septs or clans were different, and had their names from totally different circumstances. At the same time, it is wrong to infer, that, because a letter may be in one name which does not appear in another, both names are not of the same ancestor. However, as we are not writing a history of names, it is not our province to enter deeply into that subject. The O'Brennans of Iduagh, of Down, of Roscommon, Mayo, and Kerry were the chief branches. In some of these districts they are still numerous, except in the last-mentioned place, where there is only a family.

The translation of Keating's "History of Ireland," confounds O'Brennan of Clonfert, in Galway, who endowed that Church, with O'Brennan of Ardfert and Kerry. In several passages the translator, however, distinguishes the two names. He mentions, in describing

the seats of the bishops, who attended the synod, called by the bishop of Limerick, in i115, one of the seats by the name of Cluan Fearta Breanoin. In another page of Keating it is said, that there were fourteen eminent saints of that name, the most distinguished of whom were O'Brennan of Birr, and O'Brennan of Ardfert. Of these saints we have to write farther on, towards the end of the poem.

We have entered thus far into this patriarchal name, not because we bear it, but because a learned antiquary, whose opinion we respect, has, in a work of his, wiped away the name in toto from his topographical notes, and that, contrary to the evidence of O'Brien, O'Flaherty, Keating, O'Halloran, Mac Curtin, Rev. James Graves, Kilkenny, and the accomplished O'Donovan, in his notes on the "Tribes of Ancient Ossory."

Eogan More (Owen More), King of Munster, was father of Oilioll Ollum, by Beara, a Spanish princess. Cas was father of Caisin, by the daughter of Conn of the Hundred Battles. From Caisin (Cassin), fourteen generations before Brien (O'Brien), sprang Mac Namara, king of a part of Clare. Breanainn (O'Brennan) was second son of Caisin, and was chieftain or prince of Baoisgine, also in Clare. From O'Brennan is descended the O'Gradys, who also inherited in the same place. There is a lake there called Lough O'Grady. There are also the O'Brainans of Cineal Aodhe (Kinnel Ee), descended of Dathí (Dhahee), successor of Nial of the Nine Hostages, so called as having one hostage from each of the Pentarchs of Ireland, and four from Scotland and other British isles.-For these facts see Keating, Mac Curtin, O'Flaherty, &c. From what has been written it will be learned, that all of the same name have not had the same ancestor. From Eugenius

Irish, Eogan-eldest son of Niall, sprang the illustrious O'Neills, kings of Tir Eoghan (Tyrone), or TirowenOwen's land; also the O'Canes, Mac Sweenys, O'Dalys, O'Hay, or Hayes, O'Conallin, O'Creagh, O'Hagan, O'Duan, O'Mulligan, and O'Horan. From Conall Gulban, son of Niall, descended the renowned families of O'Donell, kings of Tirconnell, the noble O'Doherty, O'Gallagher, O'Boyle, O'Connell, and many other illustrious branches.

SAINT PATRICK'S BIRTH-PLACE.

SAINT PATRICK was born at Holy Castle, a town of the Morini, in Belgic Gaul. We find in the first book of "Cæsar's Gallic War," that the Belgæ inhabited all the northern parts of Gaul, as far as the mouth of the Seine, which formed a part of the boundary between the Celta and Belgæ. The reader will bear in mind that the ancient Belgium was more extensive than the modern one. It comprised all the maritime parts of France, and a part of the modern Germany. This can be easily seen by glancing over the maps of ancient and modern Gaul, or, still better, a map of the Roman Empire in the time of the Cæsars or Constantine. Though Cellarius is good, we prefer Atlas Universel de Geographie, &c., par A. H. Brué, a Paris, 1822.

We are not writing a history of our glorious apostle, we are simply commenting on a poem, in which his venerated name turns up. Hence it is not to be expected that we will go at length into all disputed points. Moreover, we are not inclined for controversy, farther than an absolute necessity of placing an important national fact in as clear a view as possible, and in as few words as the nature of the subject may demand.

Now, let us say that there never was a more obvious translation of any two words from one language into another, than "Holy Castle," or Tower, is of neaṁ tur; and we are not disposed to place a false interpretation on the text, for the purpose of pleasing the wishes or prejudices of persons.

St. Fiech, to give weight to his statement of Patrick's place of nativity, adds, "as is read in stories,"* meaning *See notes on Fiech's hymn.

d

history. We saw it stated, that if Fiech (Feeugh) intended the expression to convey more than "Nempthur," one term, he would have written Tur neam, because in

Irish the adjective comes after its noun. To this we answer, that theorising often leads men into laughable mistakes. It is true, that analogy is very good with respect to the rule of having the adnoun after the noun in the Celtic, as in other languages. But each of the ancient and modern Continental tongues affords many examples of exceptions from the above rule. To quote instances is idle, as the youngest reader is acquainted with them. And so it is in our language, the word neam, or nem, is always before the substantive; so much so, that in the Irish Lexicon it is prefixed and joined to its noun. The General Confession, in Irish, is a sufficient illustration. But neaṁia* (blessed), which is a participle, comes after the noun. Thus we say Neam Pattrjċ, Saint Patrick, and Pattric Neamta, blessed Patrick.

There is a vast difference between the two phrases. A man may be blessed, and yet not a saint, according to the sense of the Church, which confines the latter name to a person who was canonized.

We are at a loss to understand how any man, having any knowledge of the Irish, could have translated "Tor," or "Tur," Tours. More especially as Tours was, and is a considerable city, about two hundred and fifty miles north of the Loire, south by west from the Department Artois, comprising the ancient Morini, in which was Castellum, aliter Gessoriacum, the present Boulogne-sur-mer. We would be more inclined to write that the town of Castle is Calais, the Iccius Portus of the Romans, were it not that Ainsworth, Lempriére, Cellarius, and others are

* Pronounced nheefa.