From Lives and Legends of Saint Brendan the Voyager
By
Denis O’Donoghue (1893)
Onomasticon
THE LATIN LIFE OF ST. BRENDAN
XVIII.— ST. BRENDAN ERECTS A CELL IN INIS-MEIC-ICHUIND. THE KING OF
CONNAUGHT MAKES A GIFT OF THE ISLAND TO HIM.
ST. BRENDAN then came to the country of Connaught, and went
into an island called in Irish Inis-meicIchuind, where horses of the
king were on pasture. Here the saint when building an oratory, set
the king's horses to draw materials. The holy bishop Moenu was
there with St. Brendan at the time. When the King Aedh, son of
Eathach Tirmcarna, heard of this, he declared in his wrath that he
would surely put to death the person who had done him so great a
wrong. In his rage he hastened to the island, but when he was
preparing to
Connaught
InismeicIchuind
Moenu
King Aedh, son
of Eathach
Tirmcarna,
Page 219
cross over in a boat, a violent storm suddenly arose, which agitated
the waters of the lake from its depths for the space of three days,
during which the king had to await a calm. On the night of the
third day the Lord appeared to him in a dream, and said to him:
"Take care that you do no harm to My servant Brendan: otherwise
you will soon meet your death." When the storm subsided, the
king made a gift of the island, together with the horses, to St.
Brendan, for ever.
[St Brendan had now completed his pilgrimage in Britain, and
returned to Ireland about A.D. 550. He had been absent on that
mission perhaps ten years, and we should expect that after his
return he would make an early and anxious visitation of his various
monasteries throughout Munster, and especially of his earliest
foundations in West Munster or in his native Kerry. He, no doubt, St. Ita, Killeedy
visited his dear friend and foster-mother, St. Ita, at her convent of
Killeedy, and gave her, for her edification and "mental recreation,"
an account of his missionary labours and peregrinations among the
Britons, as he had years before, on his return from his famous
voyages, entertained her "with the wonders he had seen on the
ocean." It would appear that on his return to Ireland certain
disciples and friends from Britain accompanied him, and among
these was, probably, "the son of a king of Britain," whom St.
Brendan had brought with him, and placed for a time in his
monastery in the Lower Shannon at Inis-da-dromand. Regarding Inis-dadromand
this king's son, we have an
Page 220
extraordinary tale in the Life of St. Ruadhan, in the Codex
Salmanticensis, as follows:—
"On a certain occasion the boat of Brendan was sunk to the
bottom of the sea in the Lower Shannon (Mare Luiemnech in the
text), and the son of the King of Britain was at the time asleep in
the prow of the boat, and went to the bottom with it. Then Brendan
told his monks to go at once to St. Ruadhan, for to him had God
granted the power to raise their boat from the depths of the sea, and
to restore to life the king's son that was drowned in it. They went
accordingly to St. Ruadhan, and he came with them at once to the
place where the boat had sunk, and when he had offered a prayer
the boat instantly rose to the surface with the king's son in it alive
and safe; whereupon he told them that St. Ruadhan had placed his
cowl around his head, so that he felt not the water."
It is not stated whether St. Brendan was present on this occasion;
very probably he was not; and when the story reached him at a
distance, he directed his monks to call in their saintly neighbour,
St. Ruadhan, from Lorrha, on the other side of the Shannon, to
perform the needful miracle for his special friend, St. Brendan.
Another disciple who accompanied our saint from Britain was
"that monk who had come from his parents with him from
Britain," of whose death and miraculous restoration to life we will
read in a succeeding chapter of this Life, and whose name is stated
in the Life of Brendan, from the Codex Salmanticensis, to be
Senan, whom St. Brendan restored to life, "because he had
promised his parents, when they committed their son to his care,
that they would see him again safe and sound."
St. Ruadhan
Shannon
Mare
Luiemnech
St. Ruadhan
Lorrha,
Senan
Page 221
I cannot help thinking that St. Brendan about this period visited
his proto-monastery at Ardfert, and remained there for some time,
in loving intercourse with his spiritual children in that religious
house, which was his earliest foundation, and in which he, no
doubt, retained an affectionate interest amid all his missionary
labours and solicitudes. Here he may have sought and taken some
needful rest after his many wanderings by land and sea, and having
now long passed his sixtieth year, it would be natural enough that
he should say: "Here, among my first-born spiritual children, is my
rest for ever and ever; here will I dwell, for I have chosen it." But
this was not his choice, for he knew for many years that "the place
of his resurrection" should be elsewhere. Hence he soon after
turned his face once more to "the country of Connaught;" and for
this new missionary toil he had, I believe, a special reason and
attraction.
For some time before this period a remarkable migration of St.
Brendan's countrymen, the Ciarraidhe, was in progress from the
plains of their native Kerry to the wide and beautiful plains of
Roscommon and Mayo, in Connaught. This migration commenced
early in the reign of Aedh, son of Eochaidh Tirmcharna, probably
before A.D. 550, under the conduct of a Kerry prince, Cairbre
MacConuire, who, because of some intestine broils, of which
neither history nor tradition tells, was driven into forced exile,
with large numbers of his clan. John O'Donovan (Book of Rights
Page 100, n.f.) gives an account of this migration from an ancient
Gaelic MS. in the library of Trinity College, Dublin, which is very
interesting :—
"When first did the Ciarriadhe come into Connaught'? Not
Ardfert
Connaught
Ciarraidhe
Roscommon
and Mayo
Aedh, son of
Eochaidh
Tirmcharna
Cairbre
MacConuire,
Ciarriadhe
difficult.
In the time of Aedh, son of Eochaidh
Page 222
Tirmcharna. Which of them came in first? Not difficult. Coirbri
MacConuire, who came from the south of Munster, whence he had
been expelled. He came with all his people to Aedh, son of
Eochaidh Tirmcharna. Coirbri had a daughter famed for her beauty
and accomplishments, and Aedh asked her of her father in
marriage. After the marriage she came one time to visit her father,
who showed great grief in her presence. She asked him whence his
grief arose. "My being landless in exile," said he. Messengers
came from the king for his wife, but she would not go to him until
he should give a good tract of land to her father. "I will give him,"
said Aedh, "as much of the wooded lands to the west as he can
pass round in one day, and St. Caeilin, the pious, shall be given as
a guarantee for' it." The tale goes on to say that Cairbre had made a
wide circuit in his day's journey, to the great jealousy and vexation
of King Aedh's subjects, who conspired to poison Cairbre in a
draught of beer; but this was revealed to St. Caeilin, who
indignantly demanded why the king had violated her guarantee by
conniving at this intended murder. "I will violate thee," said she to
Aedh, "as regards thy kingdom." The king submitted to her award
of punishment for his share in the conspiracy, which was a singular
one. "Because you sought to destroy Cairbre, in a drink of beer,
may the King of Connaught meet decline or certain death, if ever
he drink of the beer of the Ciarraidhi,"* He then gave the saint the
land on which her church of
Aedh, son of
Eochaidh
Tirmcharna
Coirbri
MacConuire,
St. Caeilin
Ciarraidh
* It would seem from this that the beer of the Ciarraiilhe was remarkably
good; whereas, in the judgment of this saint, the privation of it was condign
penance for the crime of a king. Ancient Kerry was famous also for its mede or
metheglin, for O'Heerin sings of the King of Kerry, as
The chief of the mede-abounding land
From Tralee to the fair-streamed Shannon.
Page 223
Termon Mor or Termon Caeilinne was afterwards built.
The migration thus commenced continued for many years, so
that three extensive colonies of the Ciarraidhe were settled in
large districts of Roscommon and Mayo, respectively called the
Ciarraidhe-Aei, the Ciarraidhe Locha na n-Airneadh, and the
Ciarraihde Airtich. These emigrants mostly belonged to one of the
principal branches of the Ciarraidhe to which the sept of
Altraighe, St: Brendan's own sept, gave its kinglets or chiefs, as
O'Heerin tells us :—
All the Altraighe return
Two kings of the Plain of Ciarraidhe,
A tribe ever ready in a point of difficulty,
O'Neidhe and the Clann-Conaire.
O' Donovan's Translation.
The saint must have, therefore, as a loyal clansman, taken a
special interest in the fortunes of the exiled members of ClannConaire, and we may well believe that this was a strong incentive
for his second journey into Connaught, where he may minister to
Termon Mor
or Termon
Caeilinne
Ciarraidhe-Aei,
the Ciarraidhe
Locha na nAirneadh,
Ciarraihde
Airtich
Altraighe
O'Neidhe and
the ClannConaire
their spiritual wants, and, if necessary, protect and defend them, as
St. Caeilin, the holy nun, had occasion to do, from harsh or unjust St. Caeilin
treatment from their new rulers.* Some of these exiles were near Fintan
relations of St. Brendan, one of whom, Fintan, who is said to have
been a son of a Kerry prince and a nephew of the saint's, had been
King Brudin,
received at the court of King Brudin, in North
* An instance of such treatment is given in the Book of Rightss: From the
Ciarraidhe heavy the tribute
That is given to the King of Connaught.
On this O'Donovan notes “ that the Kings of Connaught contrived to make the
Ciarraidhe and other tribes who had migrated from Munster pay more than a
rateable tribute for their territory." (Book of Rights, page 103, n. g.)
Page 224
Connaught, as a soldier of fortune, from which he had to fly, and
take refuge with St. Brendan, in his monastery at Inisquin, after his
secret marriage with a niece of the king's; the firstborn of the
marriage being the renowned St. Fursey, who was baptized by St.
Brendan, and nurtured and instructed by him in his early youth. In
his journey to "the country of Connaught," the saint was
accompanied by a younger brother of his, Faitleac, (See note 3 on
Irish Life, page 35, supra) and when he had founded what was
probably his first monastery at Connaught, at Cluaintuasceart,
within the present county of Roscommon, among the exiled
Ciarraidhe, who had settled there; he, after some time, left that
foundation in charge of his brother, Faitleac, as we read in
MacFerbuis, that "Fergus MacRahilly made reverence to Faitleac
MacFinlogh of Cluaintuascart, as successor to Brendan, for it was
to him that Brendan left his monks." He then proceeded farther
west, along the great plain of Aei, with which he was familiar in
his early journeys in Connaught, before his priestly ordination,
until he reached Lough Corrib; and here, upon the largest of the
beautiful islands that stud that magnificent sheet of water, he
founded another monastery. This island is named in our text Inismeic-ichuind (the island of the son of Ui-Cuin or O'Quin), now
known as Inchiquin or Inisquin; it lies about half a mile off the
eastern shore of the lake, and is more than a mile and a-quarter in
length, containing nearly two hundred and thirty acres. The date of
this foundation was about 552, a few years after King Aedh
MacEochaidh had begun to reign, and probably after his marriage
with the daughter of the exile Cairbre MacConuire of the
Ciarraidhe. He is stated to have been the eighth Christian
king of
Inisquin
St. Fursey
Faitleac
Cluaintuasceart,
Faitleac
MacFinlogh of
Cluaintuascart,
Aei,
Lough Corrib
Inis-meicichuind, UiCuin or O'Quin
Inchiquin
King Aedh
MacEochaidh
Cairbre
MacConuire
Page 225
Connaught reigning at the royal seat of Rath Croghan, in
Roscommon, for twenty-five years, and to have been killed at the
battle of Binne-Baghna, in A.D. 576 (Annals of Ulster), by the UiBriuin, some of his own tribesmen. He is mentioned in the Annals
of Ulster at A.D. 561, as one of the allied chiefs who gained the
victory at the famous battle of Cuildreimhne over the forces of the
Ard-righ Diarmait MacCearbhail, who had put to death his son,
Cornan, despite of the protection and intercession of St. Columba,
with whom the young prince had taken refuge after an
unpremeditated homicide he had committed at Tara during the
Rath Croghan
Binne-Baghna
Ui-Briuin,
Cuildreimhne
Diarmait
MacCearbhail
Cornan, Tara
St. Columba
public games. This death of Cornan is said to have occasioned that
battle.
From the story given in our text, I would infer that St. Brendan,
having at first obtained the consent of King Aedh for his
foundation on the island of Inisquin, was proceeding with his holy
work there, when hostile influences wrought a change in the royal
mind, as in the case of the king's dealings with the exile, Cairbre of
the Ciarraidhe, and urged him to withdraw his consent, and even
"to declare in his wrath" that he would take summary vengeance
on the saint for trespassing on his favourite horse pasturage.
Fortunately, a storm arose to prevent him from immediate action
and to give time for reflection, when calmer and wiser counsels
prevailed, so that when the storm blew over (in the royal mind, as
well as in the elements), "the king made a gift not only of the
whole island, but of all the king's horses thereon to St. Brendan for
ever."
In this holy work Bishop Moenniu, who was a near relative of
his, was associated with our saint. It is said that he had
accompanied him on his famous Atlantic voyages, as one of the
chosen clerics or priests from his West Kerry monasteries, and that
he was his
King Aedh
Inisquin
Cairbre of the
Ciarraidhe
Bishop
Moenniu,
West Kerry
Page 226
companion also during his pilgrimage and missionary journeys in
Britain. We have no account when or where he was consecrated
bishop. It was at some date probably before he joined St. Brendan
at Inisquin, and if he had spent any time in his native Kerry, after
his return from Britain, as I believe St. Brendan had done, he may
have there received episcopal consecration from some of the
bishops (See note 3, Irish Life, Page 34, supra) who had assumed
jurisdiction in Kerry after the death of St. Erc, the foster-father of
St. Brendan. The name has taken various forms in our early
records, but that form we have in our text is probably as early and
authentic as any of the others.
The first part of the name Mo-ennu, is the term of endearment
Mo (my) prefixed to the names of so many of our early Irish saints,
in the language of their devout clients; and, taking this away, we
have the proper name Ennu, in the genitive case Ennean, as the
name of this holy bishop. This was probably the name of the
founder of the ancient church of Killeiny, near Castlegregory,
barony of Corcaguiney, which has been sometimes accredited to
St. Enda of Arann, because of the similarity of the name, and for
no other reason that I have heard, but which more probably was a
foundation of this St. Ennu, or Mo-ennu, who was a companion
and fellow-labourer of St. Brendan's in so many of his missionary
enterprises at home in Kerry as well as in foreign countries.
When St. Brendan founded his great church and monastery at
Clonfert, in A.D. 560, he was selected by the saint to preside over
them as bishop, and if he outlived his master, to succeed him as
bishop-abbot. After
Page 227
governing Clonfert for many years with a great repute for learning
and sanctity, and with great prudence and success, he died there
on March 1st, A.D. 571, or 572, on which day his festival is noted
Inisquin
St. Erc
Mo-ennu
Ennu
Ennean
Killeiny, near
Castlegregory
St. Enda of
Arann,
Clonfert,
in the calendars of Irish saints.]
.