e same foreigners, on the day after the killing of
Muircheartach."[207]

Donough died in 942, after a reign of twenty-five years. He was
succeeded by Congallach, who was killed by the Danes, A.D. 954. Donnell
O'Neill, a son of the brave Muircheartach, now obtained the royal power,
such as it was; and at his death the throne reverted to Maelseachlainn,
or Malachy II., the last of his race who ever held the undisputed
sovereignty of Ireland. But it must not be supposed that murders and
massacres are the staple commodities of our annals during this eventful
period. Every noteworthy event is briefly and succinctly recorded. We
find, from time to time, mention of strange portents, such as double
suns, and other celestial phenomena of a more or less remarkable
character. Fearful storms are also chronicled, which appear to have
occurred at certain intervals, and hard frosts, which proved almost as
trying to the "men of Erinn" as the wars of the Gentiles, black or
white. But the obituaries of abbots or monks, with the quaint remarks
appended thereto, and epitomes of a lifetime in a sentence, are by no
means the least interesting portion of those ancient tomes. In one page
we may find record of the Lord of Aileach, who takes a pilgrim's staff;
in another, we have mention of the Abbot Muireadhach and others, who
were "destroyed in the refectory" of Druim-Mesclainn by Congallach; and
we read in the lamentation of Muireadhach, that he was "the lamp of
every choir." Then we are told simply how a nobleman "died in religion,"
as if that were praise enough for him; though another noble, Domhnall,
is said to have "died in religion, after a good life." Of some abbots
and bishops there is nothing more than the death record; but in the age
of Christ 926, when Celedabhaill, son of Scannal, went to Rome on his
pilgrimage from the abbacy of Beannchair, we are given in full the four
quatrains which he composed at his departure,--a composition which
speaks highly for the poetic powers and the true piety of the author. He
commences thus:--

"Time for me to prepare to pass from the shelter of a habitation,
To journey as a pilgrim over the surface of the noble lively sea;
Time to depart from the snares of the flesh, with all its guilt;
Time now to ruminate how I may find the great Son of Mary;
Time to seek virtue, to trample upon the will with sorrow;
Time to reject vices, and to renounce the demon.

* * *