well deserves. The materials collected for this part of the work
have therefore been reserved for the present: it is hoped that their
publication will not be long delayed.


[Footnote 1: The name is pronounced as a dissyllable, something like
_Kyee-raun_, with a stress on the second syllable.]

[Footnote 2: The Bollandists long ago remarked as the special
characteristics of Irish Saints' Lives, their doubtful historicity,
their late date, and their continual repetition of stock incidents.
(_At priusquam id agam, lectorem duo uniuersim monitum uelim; primum
est, quod Hibernorum sanctorum acta passim dubia sint fidei, et
a scriptoribus minime accuratis ac aetate longe posterioribus
conscripta; alterum est, quod in iisdem frequens occurrat rerum
simillimarum narratio, quas uariis sanctis adscribunt, ita ut nescias
cui tuto adscribi possint._--Acta Sanctorum, September, vol. iii, p.
372).]

[Footnote 3: Even the date of Ciaran's death may have been
manipulated, in order to make his age conform to the age of Christ.
As we shall see below, traditions vary.]

[Footnote 4: The end of the
world is not actually mentioned in the Annals, but the expected plague
referred to was undoubtedly the apparition of the mysterious _Roth
Ramhach_, or "oar-wheel," an instrument of vengeance that was to
herald the end of all things. For the references to this prophecy see
O'Curry's _Manuscript Materials of Ancient Irish History_ (index, _sub
voce_ "Roth Ramhach"), and the present writer's _Study of the Remains