to "do shlioch Brian mc Eathach Muighmheadhoin/the lineage of Brian son of Eochaidh Muighmheadhoin." That August saw him complete a catalogue of the Kings of Ireland, from Partholón to Ruaidrí Ua Conchobair, entitled Réim Ríoghraidhe Éireann. He names the source of this material as Leabhar Airisean Fhearghail Uí Ghadhra, an alternative name for the Annals of the Four Masters. Exactly how this work reached Galway has never been explained. Réim Ríoghraidhe Éireann was completed on 8 August 1649, just as the bubonic plague entered Galway on a Spanish ship. Over the next nine months it killed some 3,700 of the town's inhabitants. Of Dubhaltach's whereabouts and activities in this period, Ó Muraíle has the following to say: In fact, Dubhaltach's only remark thought to be connected with this time is what Ó Muraíle calles a "breathtaking understatement" that Dubhaltach writes in the Díonbhrollach (preface): {{quote|"Ma ta aoínní inbéme ann seacha sinn, iarruim are an tí fhéudas a leasughadh, go ttuga Dia duinn airthearrach uaine (as suaimhnighe ina an aimsir-si) / If there is anything in it deserving of censure apart from that, I ask him who can to amend it, until God give us another opportunity (more peaceful than this time) to rewrite it."}} With most of the text compiled, Dubhaltach added an index of just under three thousand entries, an index being rare in a Gaelic manuscript. This was completed on the Feast of the Holy Innocents (28 December 1650) just as English parliamentary forces, completing the Cromwellian conquest of Ireland, crossed the Shannon. In July, these forces, under Sir Charles Coote, began a nine-month siege of Galway which ended in the town's surrender in April 1652. In July 1653 at an unknown location, perhaps still in County Galway, he added further material, along with a separate index to the book's list of Saint's pedigrees. Ó Muraíle identifies one of his probable sources for this material as "one of two early-12th-century manuscript-recensions of the work known as the Irish Liber Hynorum, while another was the great early-15th-century manuscript now known as the Leabhar Breac, formerly Leabhar More Duna Daighre". 1656 to 1662 In April 1656, Dubhaltach acted as a witness to his hereditary lord, Dathi Og O Dubhda (David O Dowd) upon his marriage to Dorothy O Down. He may have drafted the "Articles of Agreement" or marriage articles, in English. Two other Mac Fhirbihisgh family members -- his