Society, of which body the late lamented Professor Mac Cullagh, of Trinity College, was at that time an active member. With that honourable zeal, on this, as on other occasions, for the preservation of national remains of art or literature, which too many of far larger means, (and those unearned,) would neither have the spirit to feel, nor the generosity to imitate, Dr. MacCullagh, unwilling that a document, connected with the illustration of the history of the country, should be transferred elsewhere, purchased the Latin MS., in order that, after publication by the Irish Archæological Society, the original might be deposited in the Library of the Royal Irish Academy.

In October, 1842, the Rev. J. H. Todd, Secretary to the Society, addressed a letter to the writer of these lines on the subject of the Latin copy thus discovered, in which communication he observed: "The Council have desired me to return you thanks for the interest you take in the welfare of the Society, and to ask of you the further favour of undertaking to edit the book for us."

This request was acceded to; and the Latin MS., under an impression, at the time, of its being the original of Colonel O'Kelly's work, was transmitted to Denis Henry Kelly, Esq, of Castle Kelly, (the descendant of Lieutenant-Colonel John Kelly, brother to Colonel Charles, the author,) for the purpose of being translated by him into English. In 1843, the whole was translated, and transcribed for the press, by that gentleman. The copy thus made was placed for annotation in the hands of the Editor in 1844, and the "Notes and Illustrations" were finished by him, and deposited with the Secretary, the Rev. J. H. Todd, in December, 1846. Subsequently, however, to the

The Academy is likewise indebted to the liberality of the Professor for the beautiful Cross of Cong, made in the

reign of Turlough More O'Conor, father of Roderic, the last Milesian Monarch of Ireland.

the completion of the translation into English by Mr. Kelly, that gentleman, having learned that a MS. of the Macaria Excidium was in the possession of his kinsman and friend, Count O'Kelly Farrell, in France, it was then determined not to put the work to press, till all the known copies of it should be consulted and compared. Mr. Kelly therefore obtained from the Count his MS., accompanied by a short memoir of Colonel Charles O'Kelly, which has been made use of in that written for this volume. It now appeared, from a collation of the Count's MS. with the others at the disposal of the Society, that there was not sufficient reason for considering the Latin as the original of the work, and therefore an arrangement in printing it, different from what was first intended, was adopted, with the consent, and even at the suggestion, of Mr. Kelly. According to this arrangement, that portion only of Mr. Kelly's task has been retained which contains. the translation of the outline of Irish and British history, prefixed, in the Latin, to the immediate subject of the Macaria Excidium, or is a version of some circumstances in the subsequent portion of the Latin, which seemed fit to be introduced into the English text. To preserve a due distinction between that text, and the additional matter so introduced, such matter has been enclosed in brackets.

The English text of the Macaria Excidium, or of Colonel O'Kelly's history properly speaking, and which begins at paragraph 31, page 32, of this edition, has been selected by the Editor, with the aid of the Rev. J. H. Todd, from four MSS. in that language.

I. A neatly-copied MS. belonging to the Library of Trinity College, half-bound as an octavo volume, and marked, on an engraved plate, inside the cover, as "EX BIBLIOTHECA Michaelis Ignatii Dugan. 17-"; what were the remaining figures not being certainly legible,

but having been, as the Editor thinks, 58. This was the copy, from which it was atfirst designed to publish the work, under the editorship of our distinguished countryman, Dr. George Petrie; whose long labours, and valuable services, in the cause of the antiquities of Ireland, are too well known to need any eulogium from him, on whom the task of editorship has since devolved.

II. A very finely written MS. which was procured by John O'Connell, Esq., M. P., in Paris, as a portion of original materials for an intended History of the Irish Brigades in the service of France. The existence of this MS., in its present complete condition, is curious. It having been written in two separate books, and each of these being put into different trunks or portmanteaus, that which contained the latter portion of the work was lost in England. This portion fell into the hands of S. H. Bindon, Esq., who, considering as a Member of the Irish Archæological Society, that, although but a fragment, it might be of some service for the edition of the work then contemplated by the Society, gave the fragment in question to the Rev. J. H. Todd. The other portion of the MS. which Mr. John O'Connell had not lost, he kindly presented, in 1842, to the Editor, who much regretted the absence of the remainder, when, to his great surprise! he found, last year, on preparing for the present edition, that Dr. Todd had received from Mr. Bindon what exactly completed the copy so long divided. The Editor accordingly presented his portion of it to Dr. Todd, that the whole, so fortunately rendered perfect, might be deposited in Trinity College Library.

III. The MS. of Count O'Kelly Farrell in France, already mentioned as having been obtained for the Society by Denis Henry Kelly, Esq., together with a short memoir of the author, Colonel Charles O'Kelly.

IV. The text published, under the editorship of Thomas Crofton Croker, Esq., for the London Camden Society, in 1841; and of which

the

the Editor of the present edition, when in London that year, was politely presented with a copy by Mr. Croker.

From these four copies, what appeared the best readings have been carefully selected; the oldest forms of expression and orthography have been generally preferred; and, in fine, a suitable difference in the mode of printing has been adopted, between the more ancient portion of the text alluded to, and that only translated from the Latin, and already specified, as having been consequently enclosed in brackets.

The author of the Latin version, according to the information possessed by the branch of the O'Kellys in France, or that of Count O'Kelly Farrell, was a Roman Catholic clergyman, the Rev. John O'Reilly. In the Preface to the work, under his feigned appellation of " Gratianus Ragallus," the reason for his making this translation is alleged to have been the great resemblance he perceived between certain occurrences then recent in Europe, and several circumstances related in the Colonel's history. This is, most probably, an allusion to the attempt in 1745-6 of the grandson of King James II., Prince Charles Edward Stuart, to recover his grandfather's crowns; that enterprize, like the Jacobite war in Ireland, having occurred during a war with France; having been supported, though inadequately, by the same power; and having deprived the Stuarts of any chance, they might have had, of the crowns of England and Scotland, as the contest described by Colonel O'Kelly had stripped the same dynasty of the crown of Ireland.

Harris, in the Preface to his Life of King William III., published in 1749, says: "I first undertook this task at a time when his Majestyd was engaged in a War for the same Cause, that in the last Century sent King William to our rescue, and when the Son of an abjured Popish

d King George II.

Popish Pretender had invaded a part of these Dominions, with an intention to intail on Great-Britain and Ireland Misery, Superstition, and Slavery; and I did it with a view of fortifying the well affected in their Zeal and Allegiance during those perillous times, when all hands were necessary for opposing the common danger. It cannot," he adds, "be amiss now, and at all times, for the same end." So far Harris, as the advocate of the Revolution under King William III.; and as opposite feelings were certainly excited in the minds of the older Irish, or Roman Catholic and Jacobite population of the country, by the stirring events of Prince Charles Edward's expedition in Scotland and England, it would be natural, that, in those times, the MS. of the Jacobite Colonel's Memoir, falling into the hands of a clergyman of the race, religion, and political principles of the O'Reillys, should suggest the task, or amusement, in his lonely hours, of turning

• The O'Reillys were among the leading supporters of King James II. in the War of the Revolution. The two principal representatives of the race, Colonel Edmund Buidhe O'Reilly, and Colonel John Reilly, (for the latter had the bad taste to drop the old O'), each commanded a regiment in the King's service; the one, of foot, and the other, of dragoons. Another gentleman of the name, the Rev. James O'Reilly, who is mentioned as having been a good poet, and was Chaplain to a Regiment in the Irish Army, was of great service, by his presence of mind, after the fortune of the day turned against his countrymen, at the battle of Aughrim. Abbé Mac Geoghegan, in noting how "l'élite de l'armée périt dans cette malheureuse journée," adds, " & sans l'adresse d'un Aumônier de Régiment, nommé ô Reil

it

ly, qui s'avisa de faire battre la charge par un Tambour Major sur une colline à l'entrée du marais, où les Royalistes devoient passer, la perte eut été plus grande; par ce stratagême, il donna le temps aux vaincus de prendre le chemin de Limerick.” The Irish Roman Catholics, or Jacobites, it should be observed, considered themselves, in this war, as the royalists, or loyalists, and looked upon the English, as supporting the Revolution at the expense of King James, to be rebels. English writers in favour of the Revolu tion, on the contrary, give the appellation of rebels to the Irish Jacobites.-(Extracts from Copy of Count Alexander O'Reilly's Pedigree, and other MSS.-Harris's Life of William III., p. 248: Dublin, 1749. -Mac Geoghegan, Histoire de l'Irlande, tome iii. pp. 747, 752: Amsterdam, 1763.)