CIIC no. 002

Location and history:

The stone was discovered around 1908. Its first description was published by J. Mac Neill who had been informed by one Th. Kennedy. This was the first Ogham stone discovered in the county of Leitrim; Mac Neill underlined the fact that the churchyard of Cloonmorris where it was found is within Leitrim, "hardly a stone's throw from the boundary" between Longford and Leitrim, i.e. between Leinster and Connacht. At Mac Neill's time, the stone stood "opposite the middle of the eastern gable of the ruin" of the church inside the churchyard, "used to mark the burial-place of the Kellagher family". The stone was removed from that position before 1978 and placed upon a pedestal near the entrance of the churchyard; doing so, it was inverted (top-down) as against the position in which it had been seen by Mac Neill (and Macalister still). Cf. Gippert, Präliminarien, 303 for details.

Size according to Macalister, CIIC: 2'10" x 1'0" x 0'7"

Published illustrations:

Mac Neill, JRSAI 39, 1909, 136 (sketch of the inscription only);

Macalister, CIIC 1, 4 (draft).

Reading Mac Neill, JRSAI 39, 1909, 132 ff.:

Reading downward:

QENU[VI]N .... or QENU[VE]N .....

Reading upward:

...... Q[IT]UQEN or ...... Q[ET]UQEN

Mac Neill had the stone raised "out of the ground" in order to inspect it: "Of the portion of the stone underground, about one half of the engraved arris had been carried away by a large flake" (cp. his sketch). - "After careful inspection, I arrived at the conclusion that the .. stone, in its present position, was inverted, the uninscribed portion now at the top being the part originally underground. .. If it were to be read upwards, there would, at all events, be hardly room for any more characters below the lowest one now visible, so that Q**UQEN would have to be taken as the whole name, and a very unlikely name it would seem .. - There was no trace of scoring visible on the basal edges of the stone .. - It did occur to me that one might read QEDATOQI, corresponding to Cetadach, the name of an abbot of Clonmacnois in the ninth century"; cp. Cedattoqa as appearing in "Macalister's collection" [i.e., on a stone at Kilcoolaght: {206}]. But how to account for the "five consonant scores which now stand at the head of the inscription" in this case? - If read Qenuvin ... or Qenuven ..., this could easily be identified with the name Qenuvin[di] or a "derivative form" Qenuvin[dagni], corresponding to the "early MS. forms" Cenond, Cenondán, Cenindán, Mod.Ir. Ceannan, Ceanannán; "the etymological elements are the Celtic *qvennos `head' and *vindos `white'. .. The ending -gni" > -n "is familiar to students of the Ogham forms". - Cenond, ceanann, "sometimes etymologically written cennfind, ceannfhionn," means `white-headed'". The usage of the "simple consonant N" for "strong or tense" nn is frequent, cp. CUNACENA = Conchenn, Coincheann {199: Coolmagort}. "The substitution of U for A .. indicates comparative lateness in the Ogham period"; cp. CONUNETT {176: Camp} for Cunanetas, ms. Connath, Connad a.o. - "The older Celtic stem vowel -o, and also the link-vowel -o- after a consonant-stem in compound words, are regularly represented in early Ogham forms by -a", but "the neutral a would normally tend to become o or u when followed by the consonant v"; cp. CALUNOVICA {273: Drumloghan}, DENOVAL {233: Dromkeare} [thus in accordance with Macalister, Epig. 2, 86, whereas the CIIC has TIDONNA], DUCOVAROS {158: Ballintaggart}, VALUVI {302: Ballyvellon}. [For the composition vowel further cp. CUNOVATO at Drummin {11}.] - For Qennovindagni cp. the Parcau inscription {364: Henllan Amgoed} reading Quenvendagni fili Barcuni; according to Holder [Sprachschatz] this has to be dated between 500 and 700 A.D. and commemorates a Gaelic, not a British person because it contains a Q, not a P. The Cloonmorris inscription must be older because of the "joining vowel, u". - There is no "Cenindán among the ancestors of the O Fearghail (O'Farrell) and Mag Raghnaill (Reynolds)" who were the "chiefs of" the local "section of the Conmhaicne of Magh Réin the "ancient territory" of which Cloonmorris is located in; but the name is found in other pedigrees.

Reading Macalister, CIIC:

"Second" angle:

QENUVEN ...

G and T are the only readable letters on the "first" angle; after T a single H-stroke follows, most probably part of a second T; "a name like Gattagni (cp. Windgap {107}) followed by maqi mucoi", would fit. But there are no traces of GN; mucoi is improbable, because this would mean that exceptionally "the name of the owner of the monument" had been destroyed, not the name of an ancestor. - On the "second" angle nothing remains after the second N; QENUVENDI as proposed by Mac Neill would "amply fit the available space".

Interpretation Korolev, DP, 58:

G(A)T[TAGNI MAQI MUCOI (?)] QENUVEN[DI]

The number of letters that would have to be assumed to fill the gap between the preserved parts of the inscription is undefinable.

Reading Gippert (1978):

Dexter angle up - top - sinister angle down:

QEN[OVE]N[A.....A]|QI [T|......A]M[A.....]G[...]T[H

ᚊᚓᚅ[ᚑᚃᚓ]ᚅ[ᚐ.....ᚐ]|ᚊᚔ ᚈ|[......ᚐ]ᚋ[ᚐ.....]ᚌ[...]ᚈ[ᚆ

ᚆᚆᚆᚆᚆᚐᚐᚐᚐᚁᚁᚁᚁᚁᚐ[ᚐᚁ](ᚁᚁᚐ)ᚐᚐᚐᚁᚁᚁᚁᚁ[ᚐ...ᚁᚁ.....ᚐ]|ᚆᚆᚆᚆᚆᚐᚐᚐᚐᚐᚆᚆᚆ|
[.........ᚐ]ᚋ[ᚐ........]ᚋᚋ[.......]ᚆᚆᚆ[ᚆ

*QENOVENAGNI MAQI C MUCOI LUGUDDECCAS ??

For the reading cf. Präliminarien, 303 f., for the restitution the following entry in Genealogies, 120 a 5: Cenannán m. Ceise m. Lugdech.

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