A Precocious Infant

Patrick Weston Joyce
1911

A wonderful male child was born in the year of our Lord 822, at a place called Creeve Lassera near Clonmacnoise, wonderful at least in one respect: for he spoke quite plainly when he was only two months old. This phenomenal infant is recorded by several of the native annalists, including the Four Masters. The Annals of Clonmacnoise state that the words he spoke were, "Good God!" (in Gaelic of course). But our Book of Ballymote, in noticing this infant among the Wonders of Ireland, goes much farther; for the writer asserts that it spoke like an adult, and revealed many strange things to the people.