BOOK REVIEWS Analecta Hibemica No. 18. "The O'Clery Book of Genealogies." Edited by Seamus Frend.er, M.A., Dublin : Stationery Office (10/-) 1951. ·Except for- the very important three page statutory report, of the Irish Manuscri·pt Commission, the two hundred odd pages of Analecta No. 18 1are entirely :devoted to Mr. Prender's editing of the Royal Irish Aoademy. Mss. 23. D.. 17; kr:iown as "The O'Cle.ry Book of Gen.~logies." The mss. is believed to have been written by Cucogry O'Clery the lasit survivor of T!he Four Masters. He was driven t,o western Mayo by the Cromwellian wars 1and plant1a tions and at his death, cir,ea 1664, bequeathei a fine collection of Iriish manuscripts to his sons. Early in the l!ast century part of these manuscripts, which sutivived a ,disastr.ous fire, were le!1t to borrowers whose representat1v,es sold them by public auction, after \Vhich th2y 1passed iI11to the custody of 'the 1Royal Irish Academy. rvrss. 23 :D 17 was one of them. 1:\fr. cr?render, who is .now: Lecturer in History at University :College, Cork, iwci.s formerly iiln Assistant Libr1arian to the Ao::idemy. (1Many of us have plea~sant recollections iof the kind- . ness, and as.sistiance received foam him while working (there). He is an expert in the hi1ghly .specialised 1\\0rk of readin~ ,~_md deciphering the ·various manuscripts iin that great treasure hous~ of Trish culture. Amongst the many, otherwise inaccessible, works which hfr; scholarship has 1made availiable is "'.,he Census of Ireland 1'65D"; a monumenhtl wo:·k which a:iso was published through the good offices of the Irish M:1 nuscripts' Commi·ssion. His li~ test WO!'k continues to bear the imptint of good editing. Cucogry O'Clear.y was one of the heriditary histo:::ians of Tir Conail and it was hut natural for him to gi,ve much p:!:ominence to the survivors of the Celtic aristocracy of the North-West, particu1nr1y the Cinel Conai1 .and their a11ied famLics. The only incong~·uous note in the format of his Book of G-enealog·ies is the precedence given to the O'Nei:Js over the O'Donnel!s. Beyond mentioning this noticeah:e ac'.mission in his Introduction. Mr. Prender refrained from further comment on an authority whose famil~ was, :fbr generations, the official historians to the O'Dor-;·1eEs. Su2h an •admissi:on by an earlier generation of O'Clery:s would have been such rr;~k heres~ as tt0 merit the ver-.geance of O'Donnell in the form of n speedy exile or a .swift ending on the gallows. But times had changed :arid the O'Donnells, like O'Clery, him333.
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