This letter is of great general interest, O'Donovan in the early 1850's published his famous edition of the Annals of the Four Masters. Here he adverts to the head for a new edition in recounting earlier historians on the death of Hugh de Lacy in 1186 and the ownership of Geashill Barony.

ORDNANCE SURVEY LETTERS KING'S COUNTY

[ Letter no. 15 from John O'Donovan ]

Tullamore,
January 6th 1838.

Dear Sir,

I now translate the account of the murder of Sir Hugh De Lacy given in the Annals of Kilronan, from which the 4 Masters copy their account of it in a very imperfect manner:-

"A.D. 1186. Uga de Laci (goes) to Durrow-Columbkille to erect a castle in it (innti) accompanied by a countless host of Englishmen. For he was the King of Meath, Breifny and Oriel, and it was to him the tribute of Connaught was paid. He won all Ireland for the English. All Meath, from the Shannon to the sea, was full of (his) castles and Englishmen. After having offered (resolved) to accomplish this labor (work) i.e., to erect the Castle of Durrow, he came out with three Englishmen to view the castle, rectius to view the progress of the work. But one youth of the men of Meath came to (towards) him with an axe concealed under his garment. His name was Giolla-Gan-Ionathar O'Meeyey, and he was the foster son (Dalta) of Fox himself. He gave De Laci one blow and cut off his head, so that he fell both head and body into the ditch of the castle."

This seems the true account.The following remark of Moore is unwarranted:-

"Geoffry Keating, with that love of dull invention which distinguished him, describes the assassin as a young gentleman in disguise." (How does Moore know what authority Keating had for this assertion?).

And Keating had respectable authority for this description, for the fosterson of Fox, Chief of Teffia, was certainly entitled to that name (i.e., Duine Wassal). Moore should have known that Keating himself has not fabricated or invented one word and that the only thing he can be accused of is want of judgement in distinguishing the genuine historical records of Ireland from the historical tales and romances. His translator has interpolated Keating's original, which Moore knows or ought to know.

(Annals of Inishfallen):-

1186. Hugo de Lacy, the powerful Lord of Meath, was treacherously slain by an Englishman as he was building a castle near the Church of Colum Cill; he left two sons viz., Walter, King of Meath, and Hugo, who was Earl of Ulster.

(Moore's Hist. of Ireland, Vol. II, p. 321):-

1186. De Lacy met his death this year, from a hand so obscure that not even a name remains associated with the deed. (Gulielm. Neubrig. Ut. supra). Several names have been assigned to the perpetrator of this act, but all differing so much from each other as to shew that the real name was unknown. Geoffry Keating, with that love of dull invention which distinguished him, describes the assassin as a young gentleman in disguise.

He had been engaged for some time erecting a castle at a place called Darmaigh, in the southern part of ancient Meath, upon a spot hallowed in the eyes of the natives, as being the site of a Monastery founded by their great Saint Columba. Being in the habit of attending personally to the building, De Lacy had gone forth to inspect the outworks, attended by three English soldiers and an Irish labourer, and just as he was in the act, we are told, of stooping down to mark out the line of some wall or trench, the Irish workman (1) drew forth a battle-axe, which he had brought concealed beneath his mantle for the purpose, and at one blow smote off the Baron's (Earl's) head (2). The assassin escaped to a neighbouring wood and being doubtless favored in his flight by the country people contrived to elude all pursuit (3). ...

(1). This will not do; I would not believe Leland himself. - J. O'D.
(2). He was more than a Baron. Nugent of Delvin was one of his Barons. He was an Earl and a most powerful Earl. - J. O'D.
(3). Guliel. Neubrig. Ut supra, Ware's Annals, Ad. Ann 1186. - J. O'D.

The language is decidedly ancient, as appears from the orthography and the cast of the phraseology.

The O'Maidhaighs (O'Meeyeys) are still very numerous in Teffia but none of them, as far as I could learn, are gentlemen, according to the general application of that word in this country i.e., a man who has an estate and who has not to earn his bread by any profession, trade or calling. The O'Meeyey who murdered the Earl de Lacy was evidently one of that description, else he would not have been fostered by the Chief of Teffia.

It is necessary to remark here that the Four Masters must have had other authorities besides the Annals of Kilronan for this account of the murder of De Lacy, for they add that O'Meey, after having despatched the Earl, fled to Killinclare (which was a wood on the borders of Munster-Hagan) where he met Fox and O'Breen, at whose instigation (desire) he had achieved this glorious action. Henry II rejoiced at the news, for he dreaded De Lacy's power in Ireland, as it was generally rumoured that De Lacy aimed at the Sovereignty of all Ireland and wished to shake off Henry's controul altogether.

The Four Masters, in transcribing the original Annals of Ireland, have frequently abstracted and condensed passages and thus, as in the present instance, omitted many curious phrases, which to their ideas were quite redundant, but which in reality throw great light on history. I ascertained this to be a fact by comparing their Annals with the copy
of the Annals of Ulster in the College Library. It shews that although the compilation of the Four Masters is exceedingly valuable to the Irish scholar, as modernizing and explaining many obscure passages in the original Annals, still the historian should not rest content with procure the very words of the various original authorities in examining every doubtful or disputed point.

It is stated in the Annals of Inishfallen, as translated by Peter Connell and improved by O'Flanigan and O'Reilly, that Sir Hugo de Lacy was treacherously slain by an Englishman. How is this stated in the original Irish?

The Annals of Inishfallen, however, cannot vie as an authority on this subject with those of Kilronan, and it is to be suspected that Englishman here (oen d'a ghallaibh feisin?) is a modern interpolation. If the old Annals of Inishfallen published by Dr. O'Conor be the Annals of Inishfallen at all, this copy translated by Connell or O'Flanigan or O'Reilly can have no claim to that title, and if it were ever compiled in the Monastery of Inishfallen (which is to be doubted) it has been much interpolated in comparatively modern times, so that on such a point as this it could not fairly be called an evidence. (The oldest copy of these Annals extent was made in France, A.D. 1760, by John Conry; Charles O'Connor says that it is full of errors). ...

Here I must attack Sir Charles Coote again, as I do not wish to let any false history pass unnoticed. He writes of the Barony of Geshill as follows:-

"Geishill has been (is?) a place of great antiquity and here are the ruins of a lofty and spacious castle; its derivation alludes to the sons of the forest and it was the noted residence of the O'Molloys or the chiefs of Hy-Falgia. An engagement was here fought by two sons of Milesius, King of Ireland, who jointly reigned over the kingdom for a short period, but by the disagreement of their wives, they fought in the village!!, where one of them was slain. The castle was battered by Cromwell and was remarkable for standing a long siege; the garrison was commanded by a woman; she was called the Lady Ophelia. The Parish Church adjoining is recorded in history to have existed twelve hundred years." - p. 141.

I never read anything so childish as this. How is it knowen that Geshill signifies the Sons of the Forest? I think it could be more easily interpreted the sons of the goose q.d., Ge-Sil, from Ge, a goose and Sil, seed, progeny etc. but a more sublime derivation could be given from Ge, the earth, and Sil, seed, the same as the Gignates of the greeks. But all this is like O'Brines Bod ge

Geshill was not the noted residence of the O'Molloys, for they never possessed a sod of it, and the O'Molloys were not the chiefs of Hy Falgia. "All Hy Falgia, consisting of the Baronies of Geshill Upper and Lower, Philipstown, Coolestown, Warrenstown, Ophaley (in Kildare) Portnahinch and Tinahinch belonged to O'Conor Faly and his Urriaghs (sub-chiefs) and was in Leinster, but O'Molloy's Country was in ancient Meath, as the Irish and English monuments will prove. The two sons of Milesius did not fight in the Village of Geshill, for there was no village there at the time. No one ever said that Milesius was King of Ireland nor that he was ever in Ireland. What history records that the old Parish Church of Geashill has existed these 1200 years?

I think that the Castle of Geshill was built by a branch of the Fitzgeralds. (No! but by O'Conor Faly; see farther on).

A very old man of the name Kelly who lives near Geshill told me that his own ancestor, who lived originally near Dysart in the Queen's County, settled under Lady Ofalia after the "Conditions of Limerick" and that it is the constant tradition in his family that her name was Fitzgerald. (She was a Fitzgerald, but the wife of O'Conor Faly). He also adds that Geshill passed from the Fitzgeralds to the ancestor of the present proprietor by intermarriage with the family of Fitzgerald, but he could not explain to me when or how.

Sir Charles Coote, Rawson, Beauford and all those who were guided by Vallancey's Collectanea have spoiled our Irish history, but we have not only Irish but also English records still extant to correct them.

Your obedient servant,
John O'Donovan.