it.  “What!” she exclaimed, “have I made this long and painful journey only to meet with a refusal?  Beware of God’s wrath! for to Him I will appeal, that He may charge you with all the souls whom your delay may cause to perish.”  This was unanswerable.  The Lady Nuala journeyed home with a goodly band of Franciscans in her train; and soon the establishment of the Monastery of Donegal, situated at the head of the bay, showed that the piety of the lady was generously seconded by her noble husband.  Lady Nuala did not live to see the completion of her cherished design.  Her mortal remains were interred under the high altar, and many and fervent were the prayers of the holy friars for the eternal repose of their benefactress.

The second wife of O’Donnell was not less devoted to the Order.  This lady was a daughter of Connor O’Brien, King of Thomond.  Her zeal in the good work was so great, that the monastery was soon completed, and the church dedicated in 1474.  The ceremony was carried out with the utmost magnificence, and large benefactions bestowed on the religious.  After the death of her husband, who had built a castle close to the monastery, and was buried within the sacred walls, the widowed princess retired to a small dwelling near the church, where she passed the remainder of her days in prayer and penance.  Her son, Hugh Oge, followed the steps of his good father.  So judicious and upright was his rule, that it was said, in his days, the people of Tir-Connell never closed their doors except to keep out the wind.  In 1510 he set out on a pilgrimage to Rome.  Here he spent two years, and was received everywhere as an independent prince, and treated with the greatest distinction.  But neither the honours conferred on him, nor his knightly fame (for it is said he was never vanquished in the field or the lists), could satisfy the desires of his heart.  After a brief enjoyment of his ancestral honours, he retired to the monastery which his father had erected, and found, with the poor children of St. Francis, that peace and contentment which the world cannot give.

In the county Kerry there were at least two convents of the Order—­one at Ardfert, founded, probably, in the year 1389; the other, famous for the beauty of its ruins, and proximity to the far-famed Lakes of Killarney, demands a longer notice.

The Convent of Irrelagh, or, as it is now called, Muckross, was founded early in the fifteenth century, by a prince of the famous family of MacCarthy More, known afterwards as Tadeige Manistireach, or Teigue of the Monastery.

According to the tradition of the county, and a MS. description of Kerry, written about the year 1750, and now preserved in the Library of the Royal Irish Academy, the site on which the monastery was to be built was pointed out to MacCarthy More in a vision, which warned him not to erect his monastery in any situation except at a place called Carrig-an-Ceoil, i.e., the rock of the music.  As no such place