-1002. The Monarch of Ireland at this time was Malachy II., who, although he defeated the Danes in several engage-ments, was unable to keep them in check. Many of the nobles and people, finding the Danish power to gain ground, at last compelled him to surrender the Royal Sceptre of Ireland into the hands of Brian Boru, whose superior ability and greater experience qualified him to make head against the common enemy. In one of the expeditions of Malachy II. against the Danes of Dublin, he is said to have carried off the Collar of Tomar. It was a golden torque which he took from the neck of a Danish Chief whom he had conquered. This gave occasion to the lines of Moore- "When Malachy wore the collar of gold Which he won from the proud invader." Malachy died in 1022, and was buried with great honours at Armagh. Brian Boru and his army remained for a whole week in Armagh in 1004, and on his departure left a ring of gold, weighing 28 ounces, as alms on the great altar of the church. The Oratory of Armach at this time was covered with lead, and in 1008 the Four Masters inform us that Muireadhach, a learned man, lector of Ardmach, and intended successor of Patrick, died after the 74th year of his age, and was buried with great honour and veneration in the great Church of Ardmach before the altar. At the same time a pestilence raged in Armagh from the Feast of All Souls till the beginning of May. Many members of the Academy, as well as many of the citizens, fell victims of this fearful malady. At the battle of Clontarf, which took place on Good Friday, 23rd April, 1014, the renowned Brian Boru, Monarch of Ireland, fell by the hand of Brodar, the Danish Admiral, in the eighty-eighth year of his age. (The Annals of Ulster state in the seventy-third year of his age.) The last request of the dying Monarch was that his remains should be buried at Armagh, the Cathedral of which he had endowed with large donations of gold and cattle. On Easter Saturday, the day after the battle, the body was conveyed in solemn procession to Armagh, where it arrived on the fourth day. The body was embalmed with great magnificence, and the remains, after lying in state for twelve successive nights, were then deposited in a stone coffin at the north side of the great altar of the Cathedral. The bodies of his two sons, together with the heads of his nephew and the Prince of Desies, were buried at the same time in the south side of the Cathedral. "Brian Borumha in the north, in the church; "Brian O'Neill, of red armed Oileach, "Further to the west is the descendant of Conn, of Cobha, "And his feet towards Brian Borumha." People slain in battle were buried by the Ancient Irish on the north side of the Church, which is still called the side of the slain men. This great Irish Monarch, it is said, was a patron of the science of music. His harp, which is fully described in the thirteenth number of Vallancey's Collect. Hib., is still preserved in the Museum of Trinity College, Dublin. D'Alton (i.a. Trans., vol. xvi., 378,) says that the powerful musical pre-eminence of this beautiful Island guided the early taste of Wales, Scotland, and perhaps Italy, and commanded the praises of Giraldus Cambrensis, Polydore Vergil, Paulus Iovius, Fordun, Glynn, Stannihurst, Fuller, Gallilei, Dante, Bacon, Handel, and Geminiani. The city was scarcely rebuilt after being burnt by the Normans in 1016, when we direct attention to the following passage taken from an old manuscript translation of the annals of Ulster, preserved in the British Museum. -1020. All Ardmach burnt wholly, viz. :-Ye Damhliag with its howses (howsings) or cover of lead- ye steeple with ye belles ye savall and toag and chariot of ye abbots, with ye old chaires of precepts, on ye 3 kal: of June-Monday before Whitsuntide. By another account we find that Ardmacha was burned with all the fort, without the saving of any house within it, except the library only, and many houses were burned in the Trians; and the Damhliag Mor was burned, and the Cloictheach (or steeple) with its bells, and the Damhliag-na-Toe, -and Daimhliag-an-tsabhaill, and the old Preaching Chair, and the chariot of the Abbots, and the books in the houses of the students, with much gold, and other precious things. "Forming part of the monastic group," says Dean Reeves, "was the Teaeh screaptra - house of writings, or library. It was the only building within the Rath which escaped the devouring element in the great of fire of 1020.