Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 06.djvu/319

 Brian Armagh.' The book itself, written on vellum about 807 by Ferdomnach, contains the gospels, a life of St. Patrick, and other compositions, some in Latin and some in Irish, and in 1004 was already considered one of the chief treasures of Armagh. Its subsequent history has been carefully traced, and it is now preserved in the library of Trinity College, Dublin. On the back of the sixteenth leaf of the 'Book of Armagh' is part of the life of St. Patrick with an account of grants of land in Meath made to him and to his disciples and their successors by Fedelmid mac Loiguire, king of Ireland. The writing is in two columns, and at the foot of the second the original scribe had left a blank, in which the charter of Brian was appropriately written. Maolsuthain wrote in Latin, translating his own name into Calvus Perennis, and Cashel into Maceria. 'St. Patrick,' says the charter, when going to heaven, ordained that the entire produce of his labour as well as of baptism, and decisions as of alms, was to be delivered to the apostolic city, which in the Scotic tongue is called Arddmacha. Thus I have found it in the records of the Scots. This is my writing, namely Calvus Perennis, in the presence of Brian, imperator of the Scots, and what I have written he decreed for all the kings of Maceria.' This grant, besides its intrinsic interest, is of importance as confirming the accuracy of the early chronicles which mention Brian's visit to Armagh. He received hostages from all the chief tribes of the north except the Cinel Conaill, who remained unconquered in the fastnesses of Kilmacrenan and the Rosses. His next action was to make a circuit of Ireland demanding hostages of all the territories through which he passed. This was probably suggested by a similar act of Muircheartach na gcochall gcroicionn, king of Ailech, who in 941 marched from the north through Munster taking hostages to secure his own succession to the chief kingship of Ireland.

The poem which Cormacan mac Maolbrighde, Muircheartach's bard, composed in honour of his exploit mentions (ed. O'Donovan, line 129) that the king of Ailech on his expedition passed a night at Cenn Coradh, Brian's home, and even if Brian did not witness the progress of the northern king, its memory must have been fresh in Munster in his youth. Cenn Coradh was near Killaloe, within the limits of the present town, and starting thence Brian marched up the right bank of the Shannon and northwards as far as the Curlew mountains, which he crossed and descended to the plain of the river Sligech, which falls into Sligo Bay, and then marched by the sea to the river Drobhais, then as now the boundary of Ulster. Brian forded it and followed the ancient road into the north over the ford of Easruadh, the present salmon leap on the river between Loch Erne and Ballyshannon. From this he marched to the gap called Bearnas mor, probably keeping to the coast. He passed unattacked through the long and desolate defile, and beyond it emerged into Tir Eoghain, which he crossed, and entered Dalriada by the ford of the Ban at Feartas Camsa, near the present Macosquin. He passed on into Darnaraidhe and ended his circuit at Belach Duin, a place in Meath three miles north of Kells.

He was thus, by right of his sword and admission of all her chiefs, Ardrigh na Erenn, chief king of Ireland, and so remained till his death. After so much war there was an interval of peace. Brian is said by the historians of his own part of the country to have built the church of Killaloe and that of Inis Cealtra, and the round tower of Tomgraney; but the ruins on the island in Loch Derg, and the ancient stone-roofed church of Killaloe, are later than the buildings erected by him. He himself lived in the Dun of Cenn Coradh, probably in a house resembling the dwellings of the peasantry of the present day, with an earthen floor, thatched roof, and a hearth big enough to boil a huge cauldron, whence the king and his guests drew out lumps of meat, which they washed down with draughts of the beer which, tradition says, they had learnt to brew from their Danish friends, and of the more ancient liquor of the country made from honey. Senachies, historians who knew how to turn history into poetry, and who like poets often excelled in fiction, were the men of letters of Brian's court. They feasted with the king and his warriors, and sang the glories of the Dal Cais and the great deeds of Brian, son of Cenneide, in strains some of which have come down to our own times. It was perhaps one of these who first gave Brian the name by which in modern times he has become the best known of all the kings of Ireland ; few Englishmen can, indeed, name any other. Borama (Book of Leinster, facs. 294 b) na boromi (Leabhar na Huidri, facs. 118 b), a word cognate with Φόρος (, Revue Celtique, May 1885, p. 370), is an Irish word for a tribute, resembling the indemnity of modern warfare, as distinguished from cdin and cis, or rightful dues and taxes payable according to fixed usage. Thus, in the 'Annals of Ulster' under 998 A.D. : 'Indred loch necach la haedh mac domhnaill co tuc boroma mor as' (Plundering of Loch Neagh by Aedh mac Domhnaill, and he took a boroma thence) ;