From the mid-5th century to the beginning of the Viking Wars
in 795, the Irish experienced a golden age during which it found itself the
center of education and culture in Europe as well as the preserver of its
literary antiquities. Students from
across the Continent and from next door flocked to its monastic schools, which
quickly supplanted the druidic colleges.
Patrick’s first stay in Ireland was as a slave captured
during a raid on Roman Britain by warriors from the island next-door. When he returned as missionary bishop, he did
not go to the already evangelized south but to the pagan north (Ulster) and
later the more pagan west (Connacht).
Enda’s abbey on Inishmore included what became the best
known seminary and college of Ireland.
Legend has it that Enda was granted the territory by the king of
Munster, though since at this time the Aran Islands were ruled by a branch of
the Corco Mruad in the later Co. Clare which was then part of Connacht, the
donor was more likely the king of Connacht, or of Corco Mruad.
The exponential spread of schools across Ireland came with
the generation that followed. St.
Finnian founded Clonard around 520, the school mistakenly credited as the
well-spring of the “Twelve Apostles of Ireland”. Later in that decade, St. Jarlath founded the
abbey at Tuam which came to host among other things one of the best medical
schools on the island. Two decades
later, St. Ciaran the Younger founded Clonmacmoise, around 545, but died the
next year ending a long life of teaching.
St. Ida of Kileedy, “foster mother of the Irish saints”, established her
abbey and its school in the middle of the century, as did St. Brendan of
Clonfert.
Ireland’s greatest saint, St. Colmcille of Iona, born into
the Cenel Connaill of the northern Ui Neill, is credited with founding 150
abbeys and other monasteries in Ireland and among the Cruithni (Picts) of
northern Britain, not to mention hundreds of local churches. He established his first abbey among the
Cenel Connaill at Derry in 545, the same year that Ciaran founded his last at
Clonmacnoise the year before his death.
The Cruithni, incidentally, rather than being an entirely
different ethnic group, were actually non-Romanized Britons in the
northernmost reaches of the island of Britain, by this time having coalesced
into two confederations whose descendants were to dominate the politics of
Scotland down to the mid-13th century. In
the latter two centuries of Rome’s dominance on the island of Great Britain,
writers referred to its northern inhabitants as the Britticuni, or Little
Britons.
Colmcille’s most prominent abbeys were at Doire (Derry) and
Raphoe in Tir Connaill, Kells in Meath, and Iona in the Sea of the Hebrides in
the sphere of influence of the Pictish kingdom of Fortrenn. The last became the single-most important and
revered center of Christianity in Ireland and northern and western Britain
until the Viking Age. No other see or
abbey came close.
Besides manual labor and missionary work, one of the chief
occupations of the Irish monks and nuns was collecting and copying literary
works, not just Scripture or those of Christian theologians, but of classical
authors shunned on the Continent. In
fact, this function was so highly valued that a Scribe often ranked next to the
Abbot in the day-to-day life of the Abbey (though as far as precedence
ecclesiastically, it was the Bishop who ranked second to the Abbot). Had it not been for the Irish, along with the
scholars of the Islamic Caliphate on the other side of the still extant Roman
Empire, many of the most treasured of ancient works would have been lost
entirely.
Aran of the Saints
What is by far the most important and influential Christian
institution in Iar Connacht is the Abbey and College of St. Enda on the eastern
end of Inishmore Island in Loch Lurgan in the area known as Killeany, founded
in 485. Enda was a prince of the
Airghialla in Ulster converted by his sister, St. Fanchea. After his conversion, he went to the abbey
and school of St. Ninian at Candida Casa across the Irish Sea among the
Novantae in the region of southwest Scotland later known as Galloway.
Though communal living had been a feature of the Irish
church since Christianity was first introduced, Enda is called the father of
Irish monasticism because his foundation was the first major house that
practiced the asceticism of the Egyptian desert monks, with their life
revolving around manual labor, prayer, and study.
Most accounts claim that Enda was given Aran by his
brother-in-law, the then current king of Munster, but at the time the islands
were ruled by a sept of the Corco Mruad.
The main body of the Corco Mruad inhabited the northwest of what is now
Co. Clare, the whole of which formed the southern territory of Connacht and was
dominated by the Ui Fiachrach Aidne of Connacht. The later Co. Clare and the Aran Islands did
not fall to the Eoghanachta until the mid-7th to early 8th century.
A disagreement between Enda and one of his disciples led to
St. Brecan establishing another abbey at the western end of the island now
known as Eoghacht. Another famous
prodigy was St. Ciaran, later of Clonmacnoise, whom Enda encouraged to
establish another monastery in the middle section of the island now called
Mainistir. Around a dozen monasteries
eventually dotted the landscape of the relatively tiny island.
Among other standout luminaries who lived, worked, studied,
and trained under Enda and his colleagues and their successors were St.
Colmcille of Iona, St. Brendan of Clonfert, St. Finnian of Moville, and St.
Jarlath of Tuam.
At the beginning of the next century, upon finding Inishmore
somewhat crowded for his taste, St. Cavan founded an abbey on Inisheer, the
island closest to the coast of Aidne .
In addition to study and the contemplative life, the
establishments of Inishmore evangelized the countryside, especially along the
coast. Enda himself founded a satellite
monastery on the northern shore of Loch Lurgan among the Delbhna Tir Da Locha
at Ballynspiddal (Spiddal West). From
there his monks spread out, founding two churches next to the monastery, two
more among the Delbhna Tir Da Locha in Killagooly and Cloonif and one among the
Delbhna Cuile Fabhair in Cloghanower.
Meanwhile, Brecan established a satellite monastery of his
own among the Delbhna Tir Da Locha upon Rosmuck Peninsula at the head of
Kilkieran Bay at Kilbrickan with a dependent church, and two other churches in
the hinterland at Rosscahill East and at Kilannin.
One of Enda’s monks named Gregory made the first attempt to
evangelize the Conmaicne Mara at the extreme northwest of their territory on
Renvyle Peninsula, but he incurred the wrath of the local chieftain, and
possibly the enmity of his druids. His
subsequent beheading around the year 500 was one of the few cases of “red
martyrdom” among the Irish during the period of evangelization. Better known as St. Ceannanach, he is now the
patron saint of the parish of Ballynakill and once had a church dedicated to
him on Inishmaan Island in the middle of the Aran archipelago. In the wake of his death, St. Rioch found a
more hospitable reception among tribes from the same people, but somewhat to
the south.
A companion of Enda’s, St. Coelan, set up a small monastery
in Loch Orbsen on the island of Inishgarraunmore, where his mentor stayed with
him for a time. The island lay in the
territory of the Delbhna Tir Da Locha.
There was another church on Croaghnakeela Island off the coast of
Ballyconneely Peninsula south of Cashla Bay which may have been founded by him
as well, plus another in the lands of the Delbhna Cuile Fabhair at Kildrum.
Aran was hardly the sole center of learning in Ireland,
though it was the most famous, known throughout Christendom and even in the
Caliphate. Other major schools included
Clonmacnoise, Clonfert, Armagh, and Kildare, to name a very few of the very
many.
The next generation of missionaries
After a seven-year stay on Inishmore, Enda’s disciple Ciaran
left the island for the mainland, establishing a monastery and church in the
southwest of the Conmaicne Mara territory, at Kilkieran on the western side of
the mouth of the same-named bay. His
greatest center in the vicinity, though, at least in later years, was the abbey
he founded at Annaghdown among the Delbhna Cuile Fabhair.
While the abbey later came under the Rule of St. Brendan of
Clonfert, the earliest mentions in the annals identify it as a foundation of
Ciaran of Clonmacnoise. Under the later
rulers of the territory, the Ui Briuin Seola also known as the Muintir
Murchada, the abbey rose to become the center of a diocese that survived
attempts to eradicate it by the rival see of Tuam until the 15th century.
In addition to these, Ciaran, or his disciples, established
two churches among the Conmaicne Cuile Tolad at townlands both since named
Kilkeerin. After a long life of
teaching, Ciaran founded his crowning achievement, the abbey and school at
Clonmacnoise. Unfortunately, his tenure
as abbot there lasted only a year before he died in 546.
A Christian convert named Sinach left Inishmore in the early
6th century to live a life of contemplation as a hermit on a small island off
the coast of Carna peninsula between Kilkieran and Cashla Bays. The island lies in the territory of the
Conmaicne Mara. As so often happened
with the green martyrs of Ireland, he began to attract disciples and companions
to what is now known by his patronymic as St. Macdara’s Island.
Possibly working from a base on Inisheer Island where they
are reputedly buried, the Seven Daughters of Connemara worked throughout the
territory of that people, at least along the coast, and were revered throughout
the territory. Also referred to as the
Seven Sisters, none of them are known by name.
During the time he stayed on Inishmore, or perhaps
immediately after leaving, St. Brendan established a monastery on Omey Island
at the far western reaches of the territory of the Conmaicne Mara. He also organized a church on Inishnee Island
off their southern coast.
The pinnacle of Brendan’s career was the abbey of Clonfert
among the Ui Maine along with its college, which became their foremost
Christian institutions, as well as one of the most respected in the Isles. From Clonfert, he established a satellite
abbey and church among the Partraige an-t Sliebh in Iar Connacht.
Near Ciaran’s abbey at Annaghdown, he set up a convent for
his sister St. Briga. When he retired
from his position of abbot at Clonfert, Brendan went west to live near his
sister and established a small abbey on Inchiquin Island in Loch Orbsen just
off the coast. Upon handing over that
post to St. Meldan, he lived in his sister’s convent until his death.
St. Brigid of Kildare visited the area and worked among its
people, but confined herself to the Partraige an-t Sliebh, among whom she
founded two churches.
Somewhat later in the century, most likely between the
foundation of the abbey of Derry in 545 and the foundation of the abbey of Iona
in 563, Colmcille returned to Iar Connacht, perhaps revisiting Inishmore
initially, to plant a number of abbeys and churches. Here he established an abbey and church at
Cloghmore on the shores of Loch Lurgan among the Delbhna Tir Da Locha, but
there is no record of whom he left in charge there.
At the head of Loch Lurgan, a contemporary admirer of
Colmcille, St. Colgan, established Kilcolgan Abbey in the territory of the
Meadhraighe, while his sister, St. Foilan, established another just to the east
at Killeely. Very active, Colgan
established a daughter church just north across the river in Stradbally South,
and also what became the parish church of Ballynacourty. Colgan later became abbot of Clonmacnoise.
In the lands of the Delbhna Cuile Fabhair,
Colmcille founded Kilcoona Abbey and church at Kilcoona, leaving St. Cuana
in charge. To the north, at the
intersection of the lands of the Partraige an-t Sliebh, the Partraige Locha,
and the Conmaicne Cuile Tolad, he set up an abbey and church on Inishmaine
Island under the care of St. Cormac.
Cormac’s abbey established daughter churches on the islands
of Inishrobe and Ilauncolmcille, making it a virtual Columban lake. The monks there are probably responsible for
the church of Colmcille in the townland of Ballinchalla. From Kilcolgan Abbey, Colgan’s monks
established at least one daughter church in Ballynacourty townland. Kilcoona Abbey founded daughter churches in
Callownamuck among the Delbhna Tir Da Locha and at least one other among the
Soghain to the east in Garrafine.
Before he founded the famous Fenagh Abbey in the lands of
the Conmaicne Magh Rein, later of the Ui Briuin Breifne, St. Callin, a near
contemporary of Colmcille, studied at Taghmon Abbey in Munster, under its
abbot, St. Fintan. Callin was born among
the Conmaicne Dunmore, just outside the boundaries of Iar Connacht. Though there is no record of any missionary
activity by him in the region, there were churches dedicated to him in Dovepark
and Killcallin among the Delbhna Tir Da Locha and among the Conmaicne Mara off
the coast of Ballyconneely Peninsula on Chapel Island.
Iar Connacht’s third Christian century
In the late 6th century, a scion of the Cenel Aeda na
hEchtage in Aidne later known as St. Colman Mac Duagh studied at Inishmore
under the successors of Enda, then returned home early in the 7th century to
found an abbey at Kilmacduagh that became the central institution among the Ui
Fiachrach Aidne. His female associate
St. Soarney founded an abbey at Drumacoo, probably a satellite of
Kilmacduagh.
Among the Delbhna Cuile Fabhair, he or his monks founded an
abbey and church at Baile Clair (now Claregalway), of which the church named
for him in Moyrus townland in the territory of the Conmaicne Rein is probably a
satellite. On the northeast shore of
Loch Lurgan, among the Conmaicne Cuile Tolad, he or his monks founded an abbey
and church in Ramolin, and another church at Kilmainebeg.
St. Mochua, also known as St. Cronan, founder of the abbey
of Balla among the Partraige Ceara, established churches at Barna among the Delbhna
Tir Da Locha and across Loch Orbsen at Annaghkeen among the Delbhna Cuila
Fabhair.
After years of study at Brendan’s abbey on Inchiquin Island
in Loch Orbsen under the founder’s successor Meldan, St. Fursey crossed to the
shore and established Rathmat Abbey in the Killursa parish townland of
Ower. Naturally, it followed the Rule of
St. Brendan.
The abbey and its daughter church (called the Church of the
Two Kings) in the townland of Killursa, both in territory then held by the
Delbhna Cuila Fabhair, eventually became the patron establishments of the Ui
Briuin Seola after their invasion and conquest of the region. Another daughter church stood among the
Partraige Locha in Ballymacgibbon North.
Fursey became the first Irish missionary among the pagan
English when he went to East Anglia in 633 with volunteers he recruited among
his monks. He and some companions, both
Saxon and Irish, departed for France in 644.
Fursey died at Mezerolles, which was renamed Forsheim in his honor.
The founding saint of the 7th century monastery in the
northern Delbhna Tir Da Locha townland of Lemonfield (formerly known as
Kilcummin) may have been purely local, but this St. Cuimin could also be St.
Cuimin Fada, abbot of Clonfert. That
would explain why the O’Flahertys so readily adopted his cult after their exile
from Maigh Seola (and displacement of the MacConroys and the O’Heaneys); their
own patron St. Fursey also followed the Rule of St. Brendan.
Further west, on the peninsula now named for him between
Mannin and Ardbear Bays, St. Flannan of Killaloe made his home at the monastery
and church he established among the Conmaicne Mara. A colleague of Fechin of Cong, he later
became abbot and bishop at St. Molua’s abbey at Killaloe. Flannan had another church at Gortnashingaun
among the Delbhna Tir Da Locha, and he also worked among the Dal Riata in the
Hebrides.
By far the most significant figure of this period is St.
Fechin, for centuries dubbed the Apostle of Connemara. His principal house was at Fore, founded in
630, but in Connacht he is known as Fechin of Cong, after the abbey he founded
there among the Partraige Locha on the outskirts of their territory with those
of the Conmaicne Cuile Tolad. For a time
the kings of Connacht made their home in its vicinity, raising its stature.
Histories disagree about the order in which Fechin founded
his abbeys and other houses and churches, but Ballysadare Abbey among his own
people the Luigne may have been his first house. He went west to the furthest reaches of the
lands of the Conmaicne Mara, where he founded abbeys on Omey and High
Islands. He had another abbey on
Inishmaan Island among the Corco Mruad Arann, apparently having found Inishmore
too crowded. Refusing the entreaties of
his disciples, he continued aiding the stricken during the Plague of Connaill
in the mid-660’s and eventually succumbed to it himself.
In the third quarter of the century, St. Colman, formerly of
Lindisfarne, arrived in the extreme northwest of the territory of the Conmaicne
Mara, bordering the lands of the Ui Mhaille.
He came with a retinue of fellow Columban monks, exiles from Northumbria
who were both Irish and Saxon. On the
island of Inishbofin off the western coast, he founded an abbey for himself and
the men who had come with him in 667.
After a year, it became obvious that habits of the Irish and
of the Saxons were becoming incompatible.
Colman therefore took his Saxon monks inland to the territory of the
Ciarraighe, where he founded for them a house which became known for centuries
as Mayo-na-Saxon since until the 12th century it housed only English
monks. Mayo became an independent house
under St. Gerald after two years.
Lesser known luminaries of Iar Connacht
In probably the 7th century, a hermit now called St. Leo set
up a cell on the island of Inishark just south of Inishbofin. Like his fellow green martyr Macdara, he soon
attracted a number of others seeking to emulate him.
The Delbhna Tir Da Locha had a St. Corkey, who established a
church in the townland since named Kilcorkery.
A St. Kilkilvery had a church in Bunrabaun among the Delbhna
Cuile Fabhair.
Nothing but a name is known of St. Mocan who had his abbey
of Barraderry or St. Kelly who may have had the abbey of Maumeen on Gorumna
Island (the former parish of Killinkelly and a chapel on the adjacent shore of
the mainland were named for him).
Interestingly, there is a church named for a St. Cuthbert in
the Delbhna Tir Da Locha townland of Curraghrevagh. Perhaps this refers to the St. Cuthbert who
succeeded Colman as abbot and bishop of Lindisfarne. Or it could have been a same-named missionary
from the abbey of Mayo-na-Saxon.
There are others, of course, but they are all listed in Part
11 at the end of this essay.
Some of the churches are not named for saints at all, though
at least two of these are known to be dedicated to specific saints.
The Church of the Love of God on Inishmore Island is
dedicated to St. Gobnait.
The intriguingly named Church of the Secret in the Tir Da
Locha townland of Laghtgannon is dedicated to one St. Croinne, a virgin
venerated in the Carlow area of Leinster.
The most interesting name of the others is the Church of the
Thorns in Rathfee townland in the territory of the Delbhna Cuile Fabhair.
Later milestones related to the early Irish church
Many of these actually took place during the
century-and-a-half long conversion of Iar Connacht. While they may have affected the region’s
periphery, they were not intrinsic to events within. However, they did help create the world in
which those things which created the church in Iar Connacht flourished.
The mission of St. Columban (Columbanus) to Gaul in 590
heralded the beginning of a new era both for the Irish and the Continent, that
of the White Martyrs, missionaries who left Ireland usually never to
return. At the various abbeys he and his
followers founded in Gaul, Germany, and Italy, life followed the Insular model,
including the celebration of Easter, which was synchronized with the
calculations of its date in the East. So,
besides beginning the revival of the moribund church on the Continent, Columban
and his monks made Rome aware of the differences between the two varieties of
Christianity.
The Battle of Magh Rath (Moira)
in 637 is often portrayed as the final battle of Christianity over paganism in
Ireland. In truth it was a struggle for
control of the north of Ireland, and all forces of both sides were Christian.
At Magh Rath, the forces of the high king, Domnall mac Aedo
of Cenel Connaill of the northern Ui Neill, and his allies the Sil nAedo Slaine
defeated those of Domnall Brecc of the Dal Riata and Congal Caech of the Ulaidh
and the Dal nAraidi, supported by Oswald of Northumbria.
On the same day, Domnall’s fleet defeated those of Dal Riata
and Cenel nEoghan at the Battle of Kintyre.
The outcome of these two battles was domination of the north by the Ui
Neill for the next thousand years along with their subjugation of western Dal
Riata, while eastern Dal Riata became a client of Northumbria, then of Fortriu.
In the mid-660s, the Yellow Plague, known in Ireland as the
Plague of Connaill, the high king at the time, devastated not only the Irish
church but all of Ireland, as well as the various Pictish, Irish, Brythonic,
and Germanic kingdoms of Britain. Among
its most prominent victims was St. Fechin of Fore (or of Cong).
After spending three years back in Iona, Colman, formerly
abbot and bishop of Lindisfarne, migrated to the far west reaches of Ireland,
establishing an abbey off the shore of Connacht on the island of Inishbofin in
667. The monks who followed him were
from Lindisfarne, both Irish and Anglo-Saxon.
After less than a year, friction between the Irish and
Saxons grew to the point where Colman felt compelled to found the separate
house of Mayo-na-Saxon (Maigh Eo, “plain of the yew trees”) some distance away
for the Saxons. It became an independent
abbey in 670 under St. Gerald, and soon eclipsed its mother house, which later
became dependent on it. The abbey, which
remained almost exclusively for Saxons until the 12th century, gave its name to
the later diocese, deanery, and county.
The abbey and the see were referred to as “Mayo-na-Saxon” or
“Mayo-of-the-Saxons” well into the 16th century.
In 697, Adomnan, abbot of Iona and coarb of St. Colmcille in
Ireland and Scotland, presided over the Council of Birr at which the leading
clerics of Ulster, Meath, and Connacht ratified the decisions at Streonshalh,
though Iona itself did not do so until 717.
They also formulated the Law of Innocents (aka the Law of Adomnan),
which forbade the killing of noncombatant women and children, prohibited the
compulsory conscription of women and clerics, and set forth harsh penalties for
wartime rape.
In 793, Vikings destroyed the center at Lindisfarne, looting
its treasure and killing its monks as well as burning its buildings, beginning
the Viking Age in the Isles as well as in Europe. Two years later, they attacked Ireland.
The raid on Rathlin Island off the coast of Antrim in which
the invaders burned a church and killed several monks in 795 heralded the
beginning of the Viking Age in Ireland, which brought about the rapid end of
Ireland’s Golden Age. The monastery on
Inishmurray and Colman’s abbey on Inishbofin were raided the same year by the
same Norse.
At midstream: A politically
turbulent century
The eighth century was a time of turbulence and tribulation
on the political surface of Ireland beneath which the Church provided a bedrock
foundation.
Many of the former ruling tribes of several regions were
displaced or eclipsed by newcomers, as was the case with the Ui Briuin Breifne
over the Conmaicne Magh Rein, though the Muintir Annalaigh (Annaly) of the
latter managed to maintain their independence.
The Fir Ceara of the Ui Fiachrach Muaidhe conquered the Partraige Ceara
and reduced them to the territory then known as Odhbha and later as Ballyovey
and now Partry.
The conquerors often adopted as their own the leading
monastic houses of the conquered, as was the case with those two groups. The Fir Ceara of the Ui Fiachrach Muaidhe
adopted those of the Partraige Ceara whom they squeezed into Odhbha. The Ui Briuin Breifne adopted those of the
Conmaicne Magh Rein.
At the top of the kingship pyramid in Connacht, the Ui
Briuin Ai completely shut out the Ui Fiachrach Aidne from the high kingship at
Cruachan by the fourth quarter of the 8th century.
In Iar Connacht itself, a branch of Connacht’s ruling tribe
that became known as Ui Briuin Seola conquered the Conmaicne Dunmore, the
Conmaicne Cuile Tolad, and finally the Delbhna Cuile Fabhair in Maigh
Seola. Until this last conquest, the
tribe was simply referred to in contemporary annals as the southern Ui
Briuin. Fursey, whom its lead dynasty
took as their patron, may have been the patron saint of the conquered Delbhna
Cuile Fabhair, or maybe not.
Much further to the south, the Ui Fiachrach Aidne lost their
southern territories to the Eoghanachta of Munster, the area that is now Co.
Clare. Their troubles with their
southern neighbors are one reason they lost so much ground in the north to the
Ui Briuin.
West of Loch Orbsen, the Delbhna Tir Da Locha and the
Conmaicne Mara remained independent and in control of their lands, as did the
Ui Mhaille who were occasionally mentioned as being in Iar Connacht.
