“The English power, that is to say, the power of the Burkes descended from William (Fitz Adelm) the Conqueror, having become in the ascendant over the descendants of Eochy Breac, the son of Dathi, the son of Fiachra, &c., several of the latter were separated, and dispersed into various districts, viz, Mac Giolla Kelly went into Western Erris, and a branch of the O’Clerys into Hy-awley Mac Fiachrach. Another branch of them passed into [East] Munster, and settled in the vicinity of Kilkenny, and another again passed into Breifney O’Reilly, and are there known as the Clan Clery. After a lapse of time, a wise and intelligent man of the O’Clerys went from Tir-awley into Tirconnell. Cormac O’Clery was his name, and he was a proficient in both the laws, that is, the civil and the canon law. The monks and learned men of the monastery of St Bernard, called Assaroe (near Ballyshannon), conceived a great respect and affection for him, on account of his councils, his good morals, his wisdom, and his intellect, and they detained him among them for a time. He was at this period young and comely. For a long time previously, O’Sgingin had been the ollave [chief historian] to the lord of the Kinel-Connell, that is the O’Donnell; and it was from Ard-Carne in Moy-Lurg of the Dagda that he came into Tirconnell. When the Cormac O’Clery of whom we have spoken came into Tirconnell, Niall Garbh, the son of Hugh, the son of Donnell Oge, was lord of the country; and O’Sgingin, that is, Matthew, was ollave to him at the time; and there did not then live of children with O’Sgingin, nor yet of his tribe, but an only and beautiful daughter. And this daughter O’Sgingin gave as wife to this Cormac, and all he demanded for her as a dower[1] was, that if ever a son should be born to them, he should be trained up in the knowledge of literature and history, as his own family were all extinct in that country except this only daughter. Cormac promised to fulfil this request, and he did so. A son was born of Cormac and O’Sgingin’s daughter, and he was named Giolla Brighde, in honour and remembrance of Giolla Brighde O’Sgingin, his maternal uncle, who was the intended ollave of Tirconnell, but had died some time before, in the year 1382. Son to that Giolla Brighde O’Clery was Giolla Riabhach; and son to Giolla Riabhach was Dermot of the three schools, so called because he kept a school for literature, a school for history, and a school for poetry. It was to that Dermot that O’Donnell, that is, Niall, the son of Turlogh an fhiona, gave the territory called Creevagh, which was his principal residence for a time, and which was given him in addition to other lands which O’Donnell’s ancestors had previously given to O’Sgingin, in reward for his skill in the science which was hereditary to him, namely, history.