Ardmore I ogham stone, Co. Waterford

The following has been copied from the Ogham in 3D website: https://ogham.celt.dias.ie/stone.php?lang=en&site=Ardmore&stone=263._Ardmore_I&stoneinfo=description

Site

Early ecclesiastical site (Ard Mór/Uí Seasta – Ardocheasty townland). Early features at this site include St Declan's oratory, cathedral ruins (Romanesque), round tower, and 1 other ogham stone (CIIC 265) still on site inside cathedral walls and 1 other now in the National Museum of Ireland (CIIC 264).

Monument

'The stone is chipped on the top, probably by the masons who adapted it as building stone, but is otherwise in good condition'. Greenstone, 1.27m x 0.28m x 0.30m (converted from Macalister 1945, 258).

Text

According to Macalister (1945, 258) the stone 'bears two independent inscriptions in Ogham: the first, on two angles, (up-down), pocked; the second, on a third angle, [up,] chiselled'. McManus (1991, 65), however, appears to regard it as a single inscription.

According to Macalister (1945, 259) the gap in the 'first inscription' between MAQI and MUCOI gives sufficient space for a short name. He adds that 'the MU and C1 of MUCOI are lost. Below NETA the angle is spalled, but the fracture must have preceded the cutting of the inscription, as the lettering follows the present line of the edge'. The final I of MAQI is not visible to McManus (1991, 65) but faint traces of 4 of the 5 notches can be seen on the 3D model.

With regard to the 'second inscription' Macalister (1945, 259-60) says that 'there is nothing surviving after the final B: vague scratches on the fourth angle exist, but are too indefinite to suggest a continuation of the epitaph'.

Transcription

Translation

Commentary

• The personal name LUGUDECCAS is a compound of LUG and DECAS (*dek- 'best of/through Lug (uel sim.)' (McCone 1996, 119) or possibly with E reflecting lowered *i, *dik 'pointing out Lug (uel sim.)' (Stifter 2011, 24). This name displays a pre-apocope -as ending (i.e. probably pre 6th century, cf. Later spellings in 286. Kilgrovan, Waterford (LUGUDECA), 4 Kilmannin, Mayo (LUGUDEC) and 108. Kilcullen South, Cork (LUGUDUC for -DEC?) [-DECAS > -DECA > -DEC] (McManus 1991, 103, 116). In this occurrence of the name we also have an example of 'apparantly meaningless' doubling of consonants with CC rather than a single C elsewhere (McManus 1991, 124-5).

• The kindred or sept name NETA-SEGAMONAS consists of the element Nad- 'sister's son, champion' and a personal name Segamon (McManus 1991, 109-10, 112). One theory is that this may be the Gaulish name Segomo (McManus 1991, 179 n. 46). It is noteworthy that a Nia Segamon is listed in the historical sources as a prehistoric king of Cashel and that his 'supposed grandson, Lugaid Luaigni, is also listed as a prehistoric king of Munster and Ireland' (Bhreathnach 2014, 43-4). It may be that this inscription commemorates this important king. The fact that MUCOI NETA-SEGAMONAS 'descendant of Nad-Segamon' is also found on an ogham stone at nearby Island (CIIC. 300) and possibly also Knockboy (CIIC. 292) may suggest that this was a dynasty which controlled the area of west Waterford in the 5th century.

• Macalister's (1945, 260) interpretation of this inscription as bearing the equivalent of vici episcopus (BIGA ISGOB) is 'extremely doubtful' (McManus 1991, 61).

Locations

History of Recording

First noted in 1855 as having been discovered by Mr. Windele (Fitzgerald 1855, 230).

References

• Bhreathnach E. (2014): Ireland in the Medieval World, AD400-1000: Landscape, kingship and religion. Dublin.
• Fitzgerald, E. (1855): 'On St. Declan's Oratory at Ardmore, County of Waterford, and the Old Irish Inscription built into its East End', JRSAI 3, pp 226, 230-1.
• Macalister, R.A.S. (1945): Corpus inscriptionum insularum Celticarum, pp 257-60.
• McCone, K. (1996): Towards a Relative Chronology of Ancient and Medieval Celtic Sound Changes (Maynooth: Department of Old and Middle Irish).
• McManus, D. (1991): A guide to ogam. Maynooth Monographs 4, pp 61, 103, 108, 109-10, 112, 116, 117, 125.
• Moore, M. (1999): Archaeological Inventory of County Waterford. Dublin, p 197.
• Rhys, J. (1903): 'The Ardmore ogam stones', JRSAI 33, pp 381-6.
• Stifter, D. (2011): 'review of: Graham R. Isaac, Studies in Celtic Sound Changes and their Chronology, Innsbruck: 2007' in Journal of Celtic Linguistics 14, p 24 in full online version only at http://www.univie.ac.at/lexlep/wiki/Stifter_2011.
• Westropp, T. J. (1903): 'Notes on the antiquities of Ardmore', JRSAI 33, pp 353-80.