they were not themselves steady to each other, they were crushed by lawless power, and the usurpation of foreigners; may God forgive them their sins."

The period when this church was founded, or by whom, are questions equally involved in obscurity. There were different holy men of the name of Ronan in Ireland, during the early ages of the Church, but the most probable of these to be considered as the founder of Kilronan, was St. Ronan, the son of Berach, who became Abbot of Drumshallon, in the county Louth, and died of the great plague in 665(a). His recorded friend, St. Fechin, was a native of Connaught, and, although resident at Fore, he formed other establishments in the province of his birth, and possibly might have encouraged his holy friend to follow his example. There is extant, however, a pedigree of ancient Irish saints, in which Ronan of Kilronan is mentioned, as of the race of Owen, one of the sons of Nial of the Nine Hostages, while it is not to be forgotten that the Biographer of St. Columba, when he writes of that saint's visit and sojourn at Ballysadare, near Sligo, mentions that he was there attended by many persons celebrated for their sanctity, and amongst these by "Rony, Bishop of Kilroney"(b). An inquisition of 1595, alluded to in the History of the Barony, shews that there also existed here an hospital or religious house, well endowed with termon lands.

(a) Colgan's Acta Sanctorum, p. 141.

(b) Trias Thaum p. 463.

At the foot of the old church, on the opposite side of the road, and on the immediate edge of the lake, is a holy well, dedicated to St. Blaise, an early bishop and martyr of Sebastea in Cappadocia. It is shaded with old ash trees, and is enclosed by an ancient circular wall, partly covered with ivy. Inserted in its front is a stone inscribed with the words, "Pray for the souls of Roger Mac Dermott Roe(a), and his wife Ellen Connor, 1686." Near the well, and now only separated from it by the road, are the scattered stones of what is popularly called Leac-Ronan, i. e. Ronan's Altar; it now appears horizontal, resting on smaller, and on it, says the tradition, the people used to place little round stones, in the observance of some votive rite; such stones are certainly scattered about there, but, it would seem, more probably the remains of an original cromlech. On the 8th and 9th of September a patron used to be held here, which was much resorted to by the peasantry, but the idleness and dissipation, that were induced at these meetings, obliged the Roman Catholic clergy to denounce their recurrence. Another rite, once of popular observance throughout Ireland, but now disused in most other parts of the country, is still preserved here-the lamentations of keeners at funerals, commonly-called "the Irish cry," the coronach of Scotland; and certainly, in this sequestered and romantic situation, when the mourners are seen and

(a) This Mac Dermott Roe had a grant from the Crown, in 1677, of sundry lands in the Counties of Roscommon and Mayo.

heard winding through the mountains, and along the borders of the lake, their measured lamentations, swelling or dying away, until they reach this, the revered goal of the procession, the effect is thrillingly impressive to the commonest auditor, while it affords to the historian an interesting association with Patriarchal days in the east, and an additional evidence of the colonization of Ireland from Asia, at a period, when primeval customs and usages must have been in the full maturity of tradition. Chardin, when speaking of wailings for the dead in the latter country, gives an accurate notion of those practised in Ireland: "They continue a long time, then cease all at once; they begin again as suddenly, at day-break, and in concert; it is this suddenness which is so terrific, with a greater shrillness and loudness than one can easily imagine." The Hebrews had their mourning women: "Thus saith the Lord of Hosts, consider ye and call for the mourning women, that they may come, and send for cunning women, that they may come, and let them make haste and take up a wailing for us, that our eyes may run down with tears, and our eyelids gush out with waters" (a). From them the Greeks, Romans, and Asiatics, adopted the custom. Homer speaks of the women weeping round the corpse of Hector, and Sophocles represents the chorus crying over the remains of Ajax, while, in the Laws of the Ten Tables, it was found necessary to

(a) Jeremiah, ix. 17-18.

restrain this" ululatus," "let all costliness and excessive wailings be banished from funerals;" and again, "let not the women tear their faces, or disfigure themselves, or make hideous outcries." Hired mourning women attend the funerals of the Egyptians at this day; in India funeral cries are yet in use; and, in other parts of the East, travellers still encounter them. Their prevalence in Ireland is shewn from the earliest date. Giraldus Cambrensis found the custom in full vigour, when the English first invaded this island: "Gens Hibernica et Hispanica aliæque nationes nonnullæ, inter lugubres funerum planctus, musicas efferunt lamentationes, quatenus vel dolorem instantem augeant et recentem, vel forte ut minuant jam remissum" (a). Stanihurst gives a faithful and lively description of it, as in his time(b), and such is the unaltered character of the ceremony, as of frequent recurrence at Kilronan.

After these antiquarian remains and observances, the object of most inviting interest in this parish is Alderford, the home of Carolan's happiest days, and where he resigned his last breath. His room, with a recess where he slept, has been reverentially incorporated in the new house, and still contains his chair, and the cupboard, and punchladle, so associated with the habits that hastened his dissolution. The latter was a too appropriate present from his patron, Mr. Stafford, of Elphin, and is (a) Top. Hib. Dist. iii. c. 12.

(b) De Rebus Hib. Lib. i. pp. 47, 48.

marked with the initials I. S. The present house of Alderford is large and comfortable, situated near the east bank of Lough Skean, in the centre of fine plantations, rich lawns, and cherished improvements. The demesne is enclosed by a wall, coped with a singular species of rubble stone, of extremely fantastic and varied natural castings, suggesting ludicrous efforts at sculpture in every specimen. It is taken from the surface of an adjacent quarry in the County Sligo. The vicinity of this seat is highly romantic, and one of the avenues points to, and terminates in, the neat little town of Ballyfarnon.

This mansion and town, being the estate of the lineal representative of the only branch now located within the barony of Boyle, of a family that once were its exclusive lords, it seems more than justifiable here to introduce

66

A MEMOIR OF THE FAMILY OF MAC DERMOT" OR

66 MAC DERMOTT."

The early pedigree of this anciently powerful family is most satisfactorily detailed in the "Book of Lecan," avowedly from the far more ancient "Psalter of Cashel." The "Book of Kilronan," compiled by their chief poets, the O'Duigenans, has, as might be expected, most interesting particulars of their lineage. There is also a pedigree of the family preserved in the Harleian Collection of the British Museum, and various poems, on the successive Tanists of the sept, are to be found in the Manuscript Collections at Stowe. From these sources, and from the Irish Annalists, chiefly Tigernach, the ensuing notices of their early succession are chiefly derived, premising, that the very surname which they assumed, "Diarmid," literally signifies, in Irish, "god of war."