Catalogue of Irish Manuscripts in King's Inns
MS 24
Grammar
18th cent. Paper. 20.5×16 cms. Pp. 10 + 128 (pagination, 1-115 (on rectos only), now continued in pencil to 128). Scribal signature tom out at p. 115 i. The manuscript was written before May 1729 (cf. p. 118 marg.) and is thus an early copy of Fr Walsh's grammar, which was compiled in 1713 (see P. Mac Aodhagáin, Graiméir Ghaeilge na mBráthar Mionúr (Baile Átha Cliath 1968) xv-xvi) and of which the Irish grammar published by Hugh Mac Curtin (Louvain 1728) is apparently but an edited version. First and third leaves torn away almost completely; bottom halves of pp. 121-4 cut out. Large hole in pp. 39-[40]; smaller holes in pp. 37-[38], 41-[44], Lower margins waterstained ; another stain in middle of pp. 29-[54] (with loss of text). First 5 leaves and pp. 116-17, 119, 120, 126-7, almost completely blank. Bound in boards and vellum; lower spine damaged. Number '() 15' labelled on spine and '215' in pencil inside front cover; number '18' on top outer corner of recto of fourth leaf.
Notes and jottings : (a) Inside front cover. Siomdha súd san liodh. 1 q. (?). 'Paul Ears his Boock Dublin august the' ['22' different ink]. (b) Second leaf (recto). 'Ananim anahir agus amic aspriod neampha amen Iesus Lebar Padruig Remon Sgraim (?) 8 th. (Laighan Nhoram?) one thousand seven hundred agus 48.' Foll. by part of Pater Noster and all of Ave Maria in Irish in same hand. (c) 118 (trans.). 'I Promise To pay Mr Rich Corcoran or order on the fifteenth day of June Next / Twenty four pounds Sterl. Value recd / Dublin (. . .) / Memd. to Enquire for Mr John Mc Mahon at / the Sign of the Sugar Loafe in HigStreet / Wth. whom I'v[e] R(oa)d from Dublin / To Naas May the 17th 1729.' (d) 121. 'This was an I(. . .)' (in pencil). (e) 125, upper outer corner. '[. . .]ys / Books / July 1804' (largely erased). (f) 128. Is masa luim na ann bás. 1 q. Foll. byAn cnoc is airde se is fuarre (1 q.) and Uir mo cairad tair uir eile (1 q.), and some money-calculations. (g) Inside back cover. 'William Halliday.' 'W.H.' (in large ornamental script). 'Merch (?) in Bridgestreet / Dublin.' 'This is an Original Manuscript' (in pencil). Foll. by money-calculation.
p.
1 . AN IRISH GRAMMAR OR A BRIEF INTRODUCTION TO THE IRISH LANGUAGE [by Francis Walsh, O.F.M.]. In fourteen chapters. Foll. (p. [110]) by a short account of some ogham alphabets.