“Time to barter the transitory things for the country of the King of heaven;
Time to defy the ease of the little earthly world of a hundred pleasures;
Time to work at prayer in adoration of the high King of angels.”

The obituary notices, however, were not always complimentary.  We find the following entry in the Annals of Clonmacnois:—­“Tomhair Mac Alchi, King of Denmark, is reported to go [to have gone] to hell with his pains, as he deserved.”

[Illustration:  GREY MAN’S PATH, GIANT’S CAUSEWAY.]

[Illustration:  RATH AT LEIGHLIN, CARLOW]

FOOTNOTES: 

[192] Expanded.—­I take this opportunity of requesting from laymen or ecclesiastics who may read this announcement, the favour of any information they may consider valuable.

[193] Heaven.—­Ec.  Hist. lib. iv. c. 26.  “From that time the hopes and strength of the English crown began to waver and retrograde, for the Picts recovered their own lands,” &c.  The Annals of the Four Masters mention a mortality among cattle throughout the whole world, and a severe frost, which followed this invasion:  “The sea between Ireland and Scotland was frozen, so that there was a communication between them on the ice.”—­vol. ii. p. 291.  They also mention the mission of Adamnan to “Saxon land.”

[194] Galls.—­Gall was a generic name for foreigners.  The Danes were Finn Galls, or White Foreigners, and Dubh Galls, or Black Foreigners.  The former were supposed to have been the inhabitants of Norway; the latter, of Jutland.  In Irish, gaill is the nom., and gall, gen.

[195] Streets.—­In Armagh the buildings were formed into streets and wards, for the better preservation of monastic discipline.  Armagh was divided into three parts—­trian-more, the town proper; trian-Patrick, the cathedral close; and trian-Sassenagh, the home of the foreign students.

[196] Michaelmas.—­Annals, p. 371.  Another fearful thunderstorm is recorded in the Annals for 799.  This happened on the eve of St. Patrick’s Day.  It is said that a thousand and ten persons were killed on the coast of Clare.  The island of Fitha (now Mutton Island) was partly submerged, and divided into three parts.  There was also a storm in 783—­“thunder, lightning, and wind-storms”—­by which the Monastery of Clonbroney was destroyed.

[197] Reachrainn.-Rechru appears to be the correct form.  It has not yet been ascertained whether this refers to Lambay, near Dublin, or the island 01 Rathlinn.  See note, p. 32, to the “Introduction” to the Wars of the Gaedhil with the Gall.

[198] Mistake.—­Ethel.  Chron.  Pro. book iii.