Rob Tú Mo Bhoile

"may this great plague pass by me and my friends, and restore us once more to joy and gladness"

It is one thousand three hundred and fifty years tonight since Jesus Christ was born, and in the second year of the coming of the plague to Ireland was this written and I myself am full twenty one years old....and let every reader in pity recite a ‘pater’ for my soul. It is Christmas Eve tonight, and under the protection of the King of Heaven and earth I am on this Eve tonight. May the end of my life be holy and may this great plague pass by me and my friends, and restore us once more to joy and gladness. Amen. Pater Noster. Aed, Mac Concubair mac Gilla na Naem, Mic Duinnslebe Mic Aodhagain wrote this on his father’s book the year of the great plague.

The following year he wrote at the top of the same page:

It is just a year tonight since I wrote the lines on the margin below; and, if it be God’s will, may I reach the anniversary of this night many times. Amen. Pater Noster.

~Pangur Bán - A white cat belonging to a monk in the famous 9th century poem of the same name. 

~ Breone - “Little Flame”, acc. Kelly. Murray suggests that it’s closer to “Meone”, possibly representing the purring of the cat. Responsible for “purring and protecting”. 

~ Glas Nenta - “Nettle-Green” 

~ Meone - “Little Meow”. Called in the text, “A mighty cat that mews.” Pantry cat. 

~ Crúibne - “Little paws” (Alt. “Little Claws”). A cat that guarded the barn, mill, and drying-kiln.

~ Rincne - POSSIBLY “Spear”, Kelly wasn’t sure on that one. Murray suggests it might come from “tears, mangles.” It referred to a child’s cat. Both kittens and dogs are referenced among common children’s playthings.

~ Folum - A cat who herded cattle. 

~ Íach - Suggested by Murray to have something to do with mousing. 

~Baircne - Kelly suggests it’s a basket for women’s cats, Murray believes that it’s a type of cat, specifically those used for women, that were, to quote the original texts, “On a pillow beside women always.”

Our God is the God of all men, the God of heaven and earth, of the sea and the rivers, God of the sun and the moon and all the stars, the God of high mountains and low valleys; God above heaven and in heaven and below heaven, He has His dwelling in heaven and earth and sea and in everything that is in them. He breathes in all things, makes all things live, surpasses all things, supports all things; He illumines the light of the sun, He consolidates the light of the night and the stars, He has made wells in dry earth and dry islands in the sea and stars for the service of major lights. He has a Son, coeternal with Him, similar to Him; the Son is not younger than the Father, nor is the Father older than the Son, and the Holy Spirit breathes in them; the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit are not separate.