This is, perhaps, the most fitting place to give an account of the life and writings of the celebrated Cormac Mac Cullinan, the Bishop-king of Cashel. It is as a Gaedhlic scholar he is best known to posterity, although his high position, his valour, his piety, as well as his tragical end, have all combined to render his career singularly interesting to his fellow countrymen.

Cormac was born so early as the year A.D. 835, at the very time when almost all Ireland was writhing under the oppression of the Danes. He was sprung from the chief royal family of Desmond, that is, the Eoghanachts of Cashel. It is well known that the entire province of Munster was divided between two sons of Ollioll Olum--Eoghan, the elder taking Desmond, and Cormac Cas the younger getting Th.o.m.ond for his princ.i.p.ality, with alternate right for both brothers to the sovereignty of the entire province. The Eugenian line, however, contrived to keep the sovereignty of the province for the most part in their family; and, as these kings lived generally at Cashel, the royal family of South Munster came to be called the Eoghanachts of Cashel.

No mention of Cormac is made in our Annals until he was called to the throne of Cashel by his fellow tribesmen, A.D. 900, when he had attained the mature age of sixty-five. The Four Masters, however, tell us that Sneidgius, the wise man of Disert-Diarmada, was his tutor; the latter died A.D. 885 (_recte_ 888), as we find it in the more accurate _Chronicon Scotorum_. Disert-Diarmada, now called Castle-Dermott, is a place of ancient fame in the south of the County Kildare. It took its old name from a hermitage founded there by St. Diarmaid, otherwise called Ainle, because he was a 'fresh-complexioned youngling,' as the Gloss on aengus tells us, when he retired to the hermitage that has borne his name ever since. The ancient round tower still standing, as well as the old stone cross, and the broken shaft of a second cross, show that the old abbey, on whose site the Protestant Church now stands, was a place of great ecclesiastical importance. The Crouched Friars were established there by Walter de Riddlesford, and Thomas, Lord of Offaley, founded a convent for Franciscans in the same place. It was called Castle-Dermott from the castle erected by de Riddlesford in the reign of King John. It was a place of much strength, surrounded by walls, and defended by this strong castle; and hence we find that two Parliaments of the Pale were held here--one in the reign of Edward IV., and the other in A.D. 1499. Its chief glory, however, will always be that it was there Cormac Mac Cullinan was educated, and there he was buried. It gave him knowledge, and when his brief and stormy reign was over, it gave him the rest of the grave.

It seems that during the ninth century at least, the abbots of Disert-Diarmada enjoyed quasi-episcopal jurisdiction. Some of them were certainly bishops; and, no doubt, had a territory which owned their spiritual sway. In A.D. 842, we are told that "c.u.msudh, son of Derero and Maenach, son of Sadchadach, who were both bishops and anchorites, died in one night at Disert-Diarmada." A.D. 895 died Muirghaes, Bishop and Abbot of Disert-Diarmada; and again in A.D. 1038, we hear of the death of a 'distinguished bishop' of Disert-Diarmada.

The learning of Cormac Mac Cullinan was, no doubt, acquired within the walls of this ancient monastic school. Sneidgius, the sage (_egnai_) of Disert-Diarmada, was his tutor, and from the acquirements of the pupil, it is not difficult to infer the learning of the master. We have now no means, however, of knowing how long Cormac remained at Disert-Diarmada.

He was certainly a bishop before he became King of Cashel, but it is difficult to say what See he was placed over, or whether he ever had charge of any See at all. We do not read in any of our Annalists that he was Bishop of Cashel before he became King of Munster; indeed it is very doubtful if he were ever Bishop of Cashel at all. There is no reference made to a Bishop of Cashel before this period, so far as we know, in any of our ancient authorities. It was the seat of the temporal royalty, but it had not yet become the seat of spiritual authority. The Four Masters say that Cormac was King and Bishop, but they do not say he was Bishop of Cashel. The _Annals of Ulster_ call him King of Cashel, but do not call him 'bishop' at all. The _Chronicon Scotorum_ describes him as "King of Cashel, a most excellent scribe, a bishop, and an anchorite;" but makes no reference to his See. Keating is, so far as we know, the first who calls Cormac, not Bishop, but Archbishop of Cashel. In fact down to the year A.D. 1101, Cashel was simply a royal dun, which gave its name to the kingdom of South Munster. There was up to that time no church or monastery at Cashel, of which we have any information. But in that year a remarkable event took place, thus recorded by the Four Masters: "A meeting of Leath Mogha was held at Caiseal by Muircheartach O'Briain with the chiefs of the laity, and O'Dunan, n.o.ble bishop and chief senior with the chiefs of the clergy; and on this occasion Muircheartach O'Briain made a grant, such as no king had ever made before, namely, he granted Caiseal of the kings to the religious, without any claim of laymen or clergymen upon it, but the religious of Ireland in general." Here we find at the beginning of the twelfth century, that for the first time in its history, Cashel was given up for religious purposes, and ceased to be the royal residence of the southern kings. We find down to that time frequent mention in our Annals of the kings and royal heirs of Cashel, but of no Bishop of Cashel.

Thenceforward, however, we hear of the Archbishops, but not of the kings or tanists of Cashel. The thing appears to have been brought about in the following way.

In consequence of the temporal sovereignty of Cashel, the prelates of Emly, in whose diocese it was situated, began to claim metropolitan jurisdiction over all Munster, especially when the O'Brian family began to claim the sovereignty of Ireland during the eleventh century. Hence we find that Domhnall Ua Heni is called in the _Chronicon Scotorum_ 'Archbishop of the men of Munster' (Anno 1094). Celsus, the Primate, was anxious to oblige the King of Munster, and, moreover, O'Dunan, successor of O'Heni (from A.D. 1094-1118), was the personal friend and admirer of Celsus. Hence St. Bernard tells us that Celsus consented to establish _de novo_ a second metropolitan See in Ireland, subject, however, to the primatial See of Armagh. O'Dunan was the first who _de jure_, if it can be so called, enjoyed the metropolitan dignity in the South of Ireland; and we know that St. Malachy was anxious to obtain the pall for the new See of Cashel, as well as for his own primatial See of Armagh. And it was doubtless to provide a sufficient endowment and a becoming See for the new metropolitan that the king made over his own royal fortress, and a part of his mensal estates for that purpose.

King Murtogh O'Brian was succeeded in the year A.D. 1119 by Cormac Mac Carthy, a pious and munificent prince. He did not reside at Cashel, for it was now church property; and it is highly probable the 'n.o.ble senior and chief bishop of Munster' had already established his episcopal palace on the famous Rock. He was not yet, however, formally recognised as archbishop, for he was present at the Synod of Fiadh Mic aenghusa, which, according to the Four Masters, was held in A.D. 1111, and he is there simply described as 'n.o.ble senior of Erin,' and as _Bishop_ of Munster, or as others have it, Bishop of Cashel. He was the first prelate who bore that t.i.tle _de jure_, and he was a man who in every respect seems to have been worthy of the eminent dignity to which he was now elevated. He died at Clonard in the year A.D. 1117, according to the Four Masters, who describe him as "the head of the clergy in Ireland (in merit) and lord of the alms deeds of the West of Europe."

If, as the Four Masters say, his death took place in A.D. 1117, it was just two years before the death of his friend Murtogh O'Brian, "King of Munster and of Ireland," the munificent prince who gave over Cashel for religious purposes. Cormac, his successor, was not to be outdone in generosity, so we find that in A.D. 1127 he began to build the beautiful church on the Rock of Cashel, which has ever since been known as Cormac's Chapel. It is sometimes ascribed to Cormac Mac Cullinan, but Petrie conclusively shows that it was begun about A.D. 1127 by Cormac Mac Carthy, and consecrated seven years later in A.D. 1134, as all our annalists declare.

It is a singular fact, too, that Cormac Mac Carthy, shortly after the chapel on the Rock was begun, was driven from his throne by Turlough O'Conor, and was compelled to take refuge at Lismore, and there also "took the staff-bachall"--or crozier[447]--and was honoured with the counsels and friendship of St. Malachy. Hence he is called a bishop-king by a contemporary writer, Maelbrighte, in his copy of the Gospel now preserved in the British Museum. The Four Masters also referring to his murder in A.D. 1138, describe him as Lord of Desmond, and Bishop-king of Ireland; and add, that he was treacherously slain by Turlough, son of Diarmaid O'Brian, a grandson of the previous king. Our own opinion therefore is, that O'Dunan, the n.o.ble senior, was the first Bishop of Cashel, that it was Murtough O'Brian gave him his See-lands, and that it was Cormac Mac Carthy, himself a King-bishop, who built the beautiful chapel on the Rock, rather, however, as an episcopal oratory, than as a cathedral properly so called.

Now to return to Cormac Mac Cullinan. He became King of Munster in the year A.D. 900, when, as the _Annals of Ulster_ tell us, there was a 'change of kings' at Cashel, viz.: Cormac Mac Cullinan in the place of Cenngegain, that is Finnguine--the former term was, it seems, a nick-name of the previous king, who became unpopular and was deposed by the tribesmen. Next year he was murdered, but it was by his own kinsmen.

There is no doubt that Cormac was, as we have said, a bishop at this period. He was not Bishop of Emly, for the See was then filled. Neither was he Bishop of Lismore, as some writers have a.s.serted, for his namesake, the Bishop of Lismore, lived until A.D. 1119. It is not necessary, indeed, to a.s.sume that he had any See. Hitherto he seems to have been a man of studious habits, as he certainly was a man of great learning. Being a member of the royal family of Munster, it would, so to speak, be the right thing to make him a bishop; but, in all probability, he spent most of his time in retirement at Disert-Diarmada, and was no doubt reluctantly called to the throne, as next in blood, by the revolution which deposed his predecessor.

All our annalists agree in representing Cormac as both a pious and learned prince; but we cannot call him either a great king or a great saint. That he was a just man according to the ordinary standard, he gave proof soon after his accession to the throne of Munster. The old rule of alternate succession between the Eugenian and Dalca.s.sian lines had, as the learned Cormac was well aware, been scandalously violated. He resolved, so far as he could, that justice should be done when his reign would come to an end.

Calling around him the chiefs both of Desmond and Th.o.m.ond, he reminded them of the ancient rule of alternate succession, and confessing that the Eugenian line hitherto had enjoyed more than they were ent.i.tled to of the sovereign power, he besought the princes of his own house to consent to the succession of a Dalca.s.sian prince to the throne of Munster. The princes of Desmond listened in respectful silence, and pretended to a.s.sent to the proposed arrangement, but afterwards declined to carry it out.

The seven years' reign of Cormac was full of stirring events. The first or second year of his reign was marked by "the expulsion of the Gentiles from Ireland, _i.e._, from the fortress of Ath-Cliath," as the _Annals of Ulster_ express it. They had, for some years, been losing ground on the eastern coasts, but at this period met with such a crushing disaster from Cearbhall, King of Leinster, that all the foreigners fled from Dublin, half-dead with terror, having left most of their ships behind them. It was the beginning of the 'forty years' rest,' which poor Ireland then enjoyed from their perpetual incursions. No doubt colonies of Danes still remained in the great sea-port towns, which they had built; but they were too much broken down by defeat to risk any new enterprises, and gladly confined themselves within their walls, spending their time rather in trade and commerce than, as. .h.i.therto, in war and rapine.

No sooner, however, did the native princes once more breath freely, than they turned their arms against each other. Flann Sionna, son of Maelsechnaill, was then King of Ireland. He had already reigned more than twenty years as Ard-righ; and what is more wonderful still, he was destined to reign sixteen years more, and, strangest of all, to die in his bed. He was a restless and ambitious prince, and seems to have inherited all the ancestral jealousy of the South of Ireland. In A.D. 904 he made a wanton raid into Ossory. Next year he led a hosting against Munster, and in conjunction with Cearbhall, King of Leinster, he plundered all the Golden Vale, from Gowran to Limerick. The men of Munster were now fairly roused, and even the Bishop-king was put upon his mettle. He levied a great army, and marched northwards to meet the troops of Flann and his allies in a fair fight. The rival hosts met on the same field of Magh Lena, which had witnessed the great battle between Conn the Hundred Fighter, and Eoghan Mor. Once more it was North and South arrayed against each other in fratricidal strife, whilst Danish colonies still held all the ports of the kingdom. Of old the North was victorious at Magh Lena; but now fortune favoured the men of Munster. Flann and his allies were completely defeated, and driven off the field. Not content with this victory, the King-bishop crossed the Shannon, and marching into the very heart of Connaught defeated and plundered the Connacians, who were allies of Flann. The hostages of the western provinces were carried off in triumph, and the fleets of Munster sailing up from Killaloe plundered the islands of Lough Ree.

So far no blame can be thrown on the King-bishop. He had merely defended his own territories, and chastised the insolence of an aggressive foe. But the victors were now grown wanton from success, and resolved to carry their triumphant arms into Leinster, as they had already done into Connaught. The pretext for this wanton invasion was the recovery of the old Borrumean tribute, which, it was alleged, the Leinster men had not paid for 200 years, and which the chiefs of Munster were now determined to exact. Cormac was himself entirely opposed to this unjust war. He felt, no doubt, that this alleged non-payment of the tribute was merely a pretext for a war of conquest. But his subjects were full of confidence from previous success; and, moreover, he was urged on to battle by his evil genius, Flaithbeartach, abbot of Inniscathy, a member of the royal house of Munster, and subsequently King of Cashel.

This restless ecclesiastic was the real author of all the evils that followed. He seems to have been a headstrong and impetuous man, fond of strife and prodigal of blood.

Cormac's greatest fault was weakly yielding against his own better judgment to the counsels of this evil adviser, who urged him to prosecute a war which Cormac in his own conscience believed to be unjust. The Leinster King had sent an emba.s.sy to Cormac offering to submit the questions at issue to the decision of a friendly conference--meantime asking a cessation from arms, and offering to give as a hostage the abbot of Cormac's own monastery of Disert-Diarmada. Cormac was willing to accept these terms; but the abbot of Inniscathy spurned them and declared he would alone fight the Leinster men. "Then," said Cormac, "I will not desert you, but I feel the issue of this battle will be fatal to me and mine." Thereupon he made his will, leaving rich gifts in gold and vestments to many churches, and desiring that his body should be buried, if possible, at Cloyne; if not, in Disert-Diarmada, where he was educated, and had spent so many quiet and happy years before he was called to bear the burden of a crown.

The battle was fought at Ballaghmoon, close to the ancient Campus Albus, where the great Synod was held in A.D. 630 with reference to the Paschal question. On this historic field the old quarrel of North against South was once more to be fought out. Flann, the King of Erin, and Cathal, son of Conor, King of Connaught, came to aid the King of Leinster with all their forces. On the other side were, besides Cormac and his chiefs, Ceallach, King of Ossory who, like Cormac himself, had suffered much from Flann's previous incursions, and other subordinate kings. From the first the tide of battle turned against the South. The gallant chieftains of Leath-Mogha would not desert their king, but they had no stomach for the fight. Ceallach of Ossory fled ingloriously from the field, and it is said that one Munster prince, a friend of the king, turned his horse's head from the foe, crying out bitterly, "It is a battle brought on by clerics--let the clerics fight it out." Cormac's horse, it is said, slipped in the blood pools, and fell upon his rider, who was thereupon seized and beheaded by a soldier of the North, on a stone which is still shown at Ballaghmoon. The n.o.bles of the South fell thick around him, and the White Field was made red with the blood of the men of Munster. Amongst the slain were several abbots and other ecclesiastics who had followed the King-bishop to the field, but Flaherty, abbot of Inniscathy, the author of all the mischief, succeeded in effecting his escape.

The head of Cormac, after the battle, was carried by some soldiers to King Flann, but he rebuked them for their brutality, and ordered the body of his fallen foe to be sought for on the field of battle, and buried with the head at Disert-Diarmada, which was not far from the fatal field.[448]

IV.--WRITINGS OF CORMAC MAC CULLINAN.

Cormac Mac Cullinan is described by the Four Masters "as a king, a bishop, an anchorite, a scribe, and profoundly learned in the Scotic tongue." The _Martyrology of Donegal_ adds that although he had been married to the celebrated Gormlaith, daughter of Flann, his conqueror, he had always lived a perfect virgin, sleeping covered only with his thin tunic, and frequently immersed in cold water whilst chanting his psaltery. We, however, are more concerned with the king's writings than with his penances. Enough of his works still remain to prove the truth of the Masters' statement, that he was profoundly versed in the Scotic tongue, and we may add, not only in the language, but in the laws, the literature, the history, and the antiquities of his native country.

Cormac's _Glossary_ is a work that is now well known to Irish scholars, thanks to the diligent labour of John O'Donovan and of Dr. Whitley Stokes, by whom it was translated and published in 1868. The book is now a rare and dear one, but invaluable for a student of the Celtic language and literature. It contains quotations from Latin authors, from Irish chronicles, and from the poems of our native bards and ollaves. There are also numerous references to the laws, romances, druidism, and mythology of ancient Erin. From another point of view the work is interesting, not so much for its philological learning, as because it shows the extent and variety of the scholarship, cultivated in our Irish Schools during the ninth century. As O'Curry says--"The author (of the Glossary) traces a great many of the words, either by derivation from, or comparison with, the Hebrew, the Greek, the Latin, the British, and (as he calls it) the Northmantic language, and it contains at least one Pictish word--_Cartait_--almost the only word of the Pictish language that we possess."[449] There is no work in any living European language that gives such evident proof of high culture in the ninth century as this most interesting monument of Celtic learning.

A second great work that has been usually attributed to Cormac is the _Psalter of Caiseal_. O'Donovan in his learned Introduction to the _Book of Rights_ explains, we think, very satisfactorily the conflicting statements that have been made by Irish scholars with reference to this famous compilation. Colgan and Keating, two eminent authorities, both ascribe to Cormac Mac Cullinan the composition of that n.o.ble work, "which," says Colgan, "has always been held in the highest estimation." On the other hand, Connell Macgeoghegan, the translator of the _Annals of Clonmacnoise_, ascribes it to Brian Boru, and that, too, in the most formal language. Stranger still, Colgan himself, in another pa.s.sage attributes the famous Chronicle called the _Psalter of Caiseal_ to St.

Benignus, the favourite disciple of St. Patrick; but he cautiously adds that Benignus began its composition--inchoavit et composuit--which can be well reconciled with what he says of Cormac Mac Cullinan's share in the work. In a word, Benignus began it, and made it suitable to his own time; Cormac enlarged and perfected it, making all the necessary changes in point of language and matter, which the lapse of 350 years imperatively demanded; and finally, in the time of King Brian Boru it may, as Macgeoghegan a.s.serts, have been still further corrected and enlarged to suit the needs of the time, and then formally approved of by that monarch, as well as by his bishops and his n.o.bles.

St. Benignus, though born in Meath, was of Munster origin. St. Patrick sent him to preach especially in those districts which he did not himself visit. Hence Benignus, we are told, went through Kerry and Corcomroe in his missionary labours; but particularly devoted himself to Southwestern Connaught, and built his chief church at Kilbannon, near Tuam. He also specially blessed that province, the natives of which still affectionately revere the memory of the gentle saint with the sweet voice and winning gracious ways.

Now, when the Munstermen heard of the preference and the blessings which Benignus gave to Galway, they were jealous, and complained that he slighted his own kindred. So to please them, Benignus went down to Caiseal, and remained there from Shrovetide to Easter, composing in his own sweet numbers a learned book, which would immortalise the province of his kinsmen, and be useful, moreover, both to her princes and to her people.

Such was the beginning of the _Psalter of Caiseal_, the great Domesday Book of the South, written in verse, and recording the sub-divisions of the kingdom, the rights and privileges of its various sub-kings, the gifts they were ent.i.tled to receive from the King of Caiseal, the boundaries of their territories, and so forth. A portion of this primitive _Psalter of Caiseal_ appears to have been embodied in the existing work, the authorship of which, although not in its present form, has been rightly attributed to the same St. Benignus.

Cormac Mac Cullinan in his own day undertook to re-edit this _Psalter of Caiseal_, and no man was better qualified for the purpose, both by his office and by his learning. In the accomplishing of his task he was a.s.sisted by his secretary, Selbach, the Sage, a Munster poet, whom Colgan describes as a man of singular piety and learning,[450] and also by aengus, another sage, of whom nothing else is known. Several poems have been likewise attributed to Cormac, but their authenticity is very doubtful.

Colgan, Keating, and Sir James Ware all speak of the _Psalter of Caiseal_ as extant in their own time; but it has since unhappily disappeared, although a very considerable fragment is contained in a MS. now in the Bodleian Library of Oxford. That MS. was, O'Donovan tells us, transcribed in A.D. 1453 for Mac Richard Butler, by Shane O'Cleary, doubtless a member of the famous antiquarian family of that name. It contains several ancient poems and other treatises which undoubtedly formed part of the _Psalter of Caiseal_ as compiled by King Cormac.

Besides his share in the composition of the _Psalter of Caiseal_, Selbach, Cormac's learned secretary, is also said to have been the author of a work well known to Irish scholars as the _Naoimh-Senchus_, or poetical history of the saints of Erin. It is one of the authorities which Michael O'Clery constantly quotes in the _Martyrology of Donegal_; and Colgan expressly attributes its authorship to Selbach the Sage, or, as he calls him in Latin, Selvacius, and he frequently cites that work under his name.[451]

The _Naoimh-Senchus_ has also, but with less probability, been attributed to aengus Ceile De, of whom we have already spoken.

There is an excellent copy of this ancient poem in the _Book of Leacan_;[452] there was another copy in the Burgundian Library of Brussels, which is, we believe, now in the Franciscan Convent, Merchants'

Quay, Dublin.

CHAPTER XXIV--(_continued_).

OTHER DISTINGUISHED SCHOLARS OF OUR GAEDHLIC SCHOOLS.

"I'd rather turn one simple verse True to the Gaelic ear, Than cla.s.sic odes I might rehea.r.s.e With Senates list'ning near."

--_M'Gee._

I.--GAEDHLIC SCHOLARS OF THE SIXTH AND SEVENTH CENTURIES.

Besides Cennfaeladh and Cormac Mac Cullinan, there were from the sixth to the seventh century at least twelve or thirteen other Gaedhlic writers, whose names cannot be pa.s.sed over without some notice in a work like this.

Our account of these writers, however, must necessarily be very brief, for in many cases little or nothing is known of the history of their lives, and to a great extent their writings are still unpublished. O'Curry[453]

and O'Reilly[454] are the two princ.i.p.al authorities in this part of our subject.

The first on O'Curry's list is Amergin Mac Awley (Amalgaidh), the author of the celebrated work known as the _Dinnsenchus_. This ancient and highly interesting topographical poem was, it is said, compiled at Tara, so early as the year A.D. 550, that is, during the reign of Diarmaid Mac Cearbhaill, but it has certainly received some additions from later hands.

Amergin himself is described as chief poet of that monarch; but according to O'Reilly, he must not be confounded with another Amergin Mac Awley, who flourished towards the end of the seventh century, and was the author of some law tracts, copies of which are still extant in the library of Trinity College. The _Dinnsenchus_ has been recently published in _fac simile_ by Professor Atkinson of Trinity College. The work is specially interesting and valuable on account of the incidental historical references, which it contains, and the topographical information which it supplies. The stories themselves, though in many instances far-fetched and improbable, are not without their value in ill.u.s.trating the habits and thoughts of our Celtic ancestors. Copies of this ancient tract are found in the _Book of Leinster_, the _Book of Ballymote_, and there is also an imperfect copy in the _Book of Leacan_, which shows the value that was set upon it by our ancient scholars. The published _fac simile_ copy is taken from the _Book of Leinster_.

Of Dallan Forgaill, who flourished towards the end of the sixth century, we have already spoken in connection with the Columbian Schools. Besides the _Amhra Cholumchille_, which is still extant, Dallan also composed an _Amhra_, or Elegy, on the death of St. Senan, or Sena.n.u.s, of Scattery Island, in the estuary of the Shannon. He was recognised during his life as chief poet of all Erin, and he appears to have been on terms of friendly intimacy with Columcille. His death is said to have taken place in A.D. 598, shortly after that of Columcille himself.

Senchan Torpeist, then a young poet of known talents, was called upon to p.r.o.nounce the usual bardic elegy on the death of the Chief Poet of Erin, and acquitted himself so creditably that he was unanimously chosen to take the vacant chair of Dallan Forgaill.[455] He was not insensible to the responsibilities of his high office; and hence, according to the account in the _Book of Leinster_, shortly after his acceptance of the post of chief poet, he called a meeting of all the _Files_ of Erin in order that they might take measures to recover the lost work known as the _Cuilmenn_, and which, it appears, contained the only complete copy of the celebrated historical tale known as the _Tain bo Chuailgne_. How it was recovered is told in prose by O'Curry, and by Ferguson[456] in a poem of marvellous imaginative power, which might have been fitly p.r.o.nounced, if written in Gaedhlic, by Senchan himself. Senchan flourished during the first half of the seventh century, and though his travelling school was a large one, he appears to have always found a welcome in the court of the King Guaire the Hospitable, who dwelt at Durlus, near Gort, in the county Galway. O'Reilly says that one of Senchan's poems, in which he celebrates the victories of Fergus Mac Roy, is still extant in the _Book of Leacan_.

II.--GAEDHLIC SCHOLARS OF THE NINTH AND TENTH CENTURIES.

The ninth was more remarkable than the eighth century for Gaedhlic scholars of distinction. Of these one of the most celebrated was Maelmura of Fathan, called also Maelmura of Othan, for it is the same name when the letter _F_ is aspirated and omitted as silent in the p.r.o.nunciation.

Maelmura merely means servant of Mura, the patron saint of Fathan. The parish of Fahan, which takes its name from St. Mura's ancient monastery near the village, is situated on the eastern sh.o.r.e of Lough Sw.i.l.l.y, under the shadow of Slieve Snaght, the loftiest mountain of Inishowen. The death of Maelmura is noticed by the Four Masters, A.D. 884, and he is described as "a truly intelligent poet, and erudite historian in the Scotic language." The Masters also quote a _rann_, which declares that--

"There trod not the charming earth, there never flourished at affluent Tara, The great and fertile Erin never produced a man like the mild fine Maelmura; There sipped not death without sorrow, there mixed not a n.o.bler face with the dead; The habitable earth did not close over a historian more ill.u.s.trious."