The Irish standard., 1903-09-19
DIOCESE OF ossoRY.
History and Antiquities Compiled by
Rev. William Corrigan.


Rev. William Corrigan.
Rev. William Carrigan, c. c.. of the
diocese of Ossory, Queens County.
Ireland, has just completed what will
prove to be an interesting work in
four volumes, entitled, 1.-The History
and Antiquities of the Diocese of Os
sory.' The work is in the hands of the
printer and will soon be placed on the
market DR.. Carrigan has spared no
effort to bring again into the light of
day the hidden things of the glorious,
if cheuuered, past. He has visited and
examined every ancient church and
abbey, every graveyard, every holy
we'll, every mass-st;tion of the penal
times, and every ancient castle, from
the top of the Sieve Bloom Mountains
to the Bridge of Waterford, and from
the Munster River to the River Bar
row. He has copied every ancient i'll"
scription to be found in the diocese.
He has taken down the Irish forms Of
almost all the Ossory church and town.
land names from the lips of old native
Irish speakers. He has taken copious
extracts from the priceless documents
in the public record office. the Royal
Irish academy, and Trinity college,
Dublin; from the MSS. i'll the British
Museum and the Bodleian library;
from the records of the Catholic see Of
Ossory, beginning with the Episcopate
of Dr. de Burgo in 1853. and now
preserved in the diocesan archives;
from the Red Book of Ossory. Il MS.
of the 14th and 18th centuries; and
from many other MS. collections in
accessible to the general public. The
result of his Investigations is embodied
in his History and Antiquities of the
Diocese of Ossory." Owing to the i'm
mense accumulation of historical mat
ter on his hands, as the years went on,
the writer has been unavOidably COM
PEELED to run the work into four bulky
volumes. In Vol. 1, he enumerates and
Identifies the ancient and medieval
divisions of OssOry. traces the success
sion of the Ossory kings. and of their
descendants, the chiefs, lords. barons
and earls, of Upper Ossory. Then fol-
lows an exhaustive memoir of the
bishops Of Ossory, from st. Kieran to
the present day: after which are fur
nished long lists of the deans. arch
1na0 nd nt Of ia
cathedral chapter, and a detailed ac-
count of the successive diocesan col
leges. In Vols. II. Ill and Nv, which
correspond, respectively, to the three
deaneries-nOrth, middle, and south
into which Ossory has been divided in
modern times, the writer treats of
each parish separately, and, in many
cases, ut great length. All the old
church ruins and church sites are here
described, their ancient names eX
planned, and the acts of their patrons
illustrated, as far as possible, from
printed and MS. authorities and the
traditions of the people; the Open-air
mass stations and sites of the post
reformation chapels are. in almost
every instance. pointed out; upwards
Of one hundred and fifty monumental
inscriptions, dating from the 9th to the
middle of the 18th century have been
inscrted; the principal events in the
history of Kilkenny city. and of the
various towns scattered through the
diocese. are recordrd; extended
families, whether of pure Irish or of
AnglO-Nornan origin. together with
notes on the present state of the
castles which they possessed, and the
traditions that still linger round these
old keeps: and finally the pastoral sue
ccsSion in each parish is traced. with
scarcely Il single break. from the Crom-
welliHn era down to the present time.
AS the publication. ut his own risk.
OF Il work of such magnitude. is alto
grtllcr out of question. the writer is
reluctantly compelled to have recourse
tp publication by subscription. Many
promises of support are already forth
coming, and it is to be hoped that all
friends of Irish archaeology. more es-
pccially the children of OssOry. ut
Lomc and abroad will do what in
them lies to enable the author to bring
his history of this ancient diocese sue
cessfuily through the press. Exclusive
of postage and--in the case of foreign
subScriberS--duty. the price to sub
scribcrs will be 30s. net. per copy: to
non-subscribers, BIS. net. per copy
for + vols. \ full list of subscribers
will he Drrfiycl tO Vol T