To prove that I am not alone in the estimate that I have thus formed of the speculations of Mr Beauford, I shall here cite the opinions of a gentleman, the best acquainted of all modern writers with this subject, the venerable Charles O’Conor, of Belanagare, who, in a letter to the Chevalier Thomas O’Gorman, dated May 31, 1783, speaking of two tracts which he had published, to refute some errors of Dr Ledwich and Mr Beauford, says-- “Both were drawn from me to refute very injurious as well as very false representations published in the 9th number of the same Collectanea by Mr Ledwich, minister of Achaboe, and Mr Beauford, a schoolmaster in Athy. Little moved by any thing I have written against these gentlemen, the latter published his Topography of Ireland in the 11th number, the most flagrant imposition that I believe ever appeared in our own or in any age. This impelled me to resume the subject of our antiquities, and add the topography of Ireland, as divided into districts and tribes in the second century; a most curious record, preserved in the Lecan and Glendalough collections, as well as in your Book of Ballymote. I have shown that Beauford, a stranger to our old language, had but very slight materials for our ancient topography, and distorted such as he had to a degree which has no parallel, except perhaps in the dreams of a sick man in a phrenzy.”[1] Again, the same gentleman, writing to his friend J. C. Walker on the same subject, expresses himself as follows:-- “Mr Beauford has given me satisfaction in his tract on our ancient literature, published in the Collectanea, and yet, in his ancient topography of Ireland, a book as large as his own might be written to detect his mistakes.” It is quite obvious from the whole testimony of authentic Irish history that the names of tribes in Ireland were not derived from the territories and localities in which they dwelt, but from distinguished ancestors; for nine-tenths of the names of territories, and of the names of the tribes inhabiting them, are identical. The tribe names were formed from those of the progenitors, by prefixing the following words:-- 1. _Corc_, _Corca_, race, progeny, as _Corc-Modhruadh_, now Corcomroe in Clare, _Corca-Duibhne_, now Corcaguinny in Kerry. 2. _Cineal_, race, descendants; _cineal Eoghain_, the race of Eoghan; _cineal Conaill_, the race of Conall. This word is translated _Genus_ throughout the Annals of Ulster. 3. _Clann_, children, descendants; as _clann Colmain_, the tribe name of a great branch of the southern Hy-Niall.