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Sliabh na mban, mountain of the women, 2564 feet |
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The Archdiocese founded by St. Patrick about 445, as the primatial and metropolitan see of Ireland. The Archdiocese of Armagh at present comprises almost the whole of the counties Armagh and Louth, a great part of Tyrone, and portions of Derry and of Meath. St. Patrick, having received some grants of land from the chieftain Daire, on the hill called Ard-Macha (the Height of Macha), built a stone church on the summit and a monastery and some other religious edifices round about, and fixed on this place for his metropolitan see. In the course of time other religious bodies settled in Armagh, such as the Culdees, who built a monastery there in the eighth century. The city of Armagh was thus until modern times a purely ecclesiastical establishment. About 448, St. Patrick, aided by Secundinus and Auxilius, two of his disciples, held a synod at Armagh, of which some of the canons are still extant. One of these expressly mentions that all difficult cases of conscience should be referred to the judgment of the Archbishop of Armagh, and that if too difficult to be disposed of by him with his counsellors they should be passed on to the Apostolic See of Rome. It was also sacked by De Courcy, Fitz-Aldelm and Philip of Worcester during the conquest of Ulster by the Anglo-Normans. The seizure of the primacy of Armagh by laymen in the eleventh century has received great prominence owing to St. Bernard's denunciation of it in his life of St. Malachy, but the abuse was not without a parallel on the continent of Europe.
ST. PATRICK spent a long time preaching amongst the people of Dalaradia, in North Antrim, and founded many churches in the neighbourhood of Sliav Mish (Su ) slid-). He was proceeding south-wards on his mission of love along the eastern shore of Lough Neagh (Loch nEathach), and at his word the fierce inhabitants of Dalaradia were yielding to the gentle influence of the Gospel, when he encountered unexpected opposition. Five of the six traditional counties of North Ireland have freshwater shores on the Lough: Antrim, Armagh, Down, Londonderry and Tyrone. An old Irish story tells how the Lough was formed when Ireland's legendary giant, Fionn mac Cumhaill (or "Finn McCool"), scooped up a portion of the land and tossed it at a Scottish rival. He missed, and the chunk of earth landed in the Irish Sea, thus creating the Isle of Man.
Patrick's legends portray to promote the ecclesiastical claims of Armagh as Patrick's foundation. Muirchú maccu Machtheni of Sletty, Queens County, represents himself as the first to write on the life of Patrick with that of Tírechán of Tirawley earlier, between 664 and 700. Tírechán relies largely on a now lost text by Ultan, bishop and abbot of Louth who died about 630. Patrick's boyhood was spent in a frontier area of Roman Britian. He names his home village Bonnavem Taburniae where the roads meet, a place otherwise called Nemtrie or Banwen in Glamorganshire. Possibly he was descended from Irish invaders of Wales. In generations before his time, the Munster tribe of Desí who banished from Tipperary and Waterford Ireland entered South Wales in about 368. Proposed birth places are those many spots along the British Coast from the Severn to the Clyde, the Rheged region in Cumberland in Welsh documents as well as the Dunbarton area from the missionary influence of St. Ninian.
Sliabh na mban, mountain of the women, 2564 feet
The pagan King of Uladh, Saron son of Caelbadh, treated Patrick with insult and tried to prevent him from building a church in his territories. We are not certain who was King of Uladh at the time that Patrick was a swineherd on SLIAV MISH - the most remarkable mountain in the county of Kerry. The said mountain much remarkable as the first battle that was fought in Ireland between the Millesians and the people then inhabiting said Island called Tuaha Dedanain, which were Easterlings, was at this mountain said battle fought about 3,050 years ago, when Eire, the Queen then of the Tuaha Dedanain, with her party, were defeated, and Scota, the daughter of the King of Egypt, second wife of Milelius, and six of his sons was (were) slain, which occasioned that her two sons, Herberus fion and Amergin, concerned in said battle, in memory of her, ordered the Island to be called Scota.
Sliav fionleahid is a spacious mountain in the barony of Dunkerron and hills of most note in the county of Kerry and that part formerly called the county of Desmond. The summit itself has a few outcrops, one of which has a small cairn beside it which is probably the highest point. On a good day, views open out right down the Dingle peninsula and to the north Kerry coast.
When St. Patrick returned from the Continent, where he was preparing for the priesthood and for his apostolate to the Irish, the kingdom of Uladh had passed to the two sons of Caelbadh, Saron and Connla. Saron tried to thwart Patrick, and prevent him from founding a church in Glenavy. Connla, on the other hand, did not show the same hostility to the Apostle's teaching. He was ashamed of his brother's conduct, and offered Patrick lands for a church in his own territory. Accordingly, Patrick founded the Church of Cumar on the lands given him by Connla. This, according to some, was the origin of the famous Monastery of Muckamore (the Plain of the Confluence), in the barony of Lower Massareene, county of Antrim, the "great field of adoration,” situated on the Six–Mile-Water river of 1,519 acres covered by Lough Neagh. According to others, Comber in which place also there was an ancient monastery. Patrick blessed Connla, and promised that from him kings and chiefs of that province would be descended. A monastery was founded at Muckamore in 550, by Colman Elo, commonly, from the great number of churches that he had founded, called St. Columbkill. The Catalogue of Kings of Uladh states that no less than eight of them were descended from this Connla. The race of Connla, son of Aífe and Cuchulainn is represented by the Magennises of Iveagh in whose family the lordship of Iveagh was hereditary. His mother Aife was a female warrior from Alba, a rival of Scathach the Amazon. During his journey, Conlaoch came upon Dundealgan, Cuchulainn's home, and was met by his warrior steward Conall. Connla's father Cuchulainn's mother was Deichtine, sister of king Conchobar mac Nessa. One Manx story claims that Cúchulainn (Culann), born at Newgrange, came to the Isle of Man (Fer Falga) to have his spear made by a famous smith in return for the promise of a part of the land he would conquer.
The territory of North Connaught is connected in a remarkable manner with the mission of St. Patrick to Ireland: Mullagh Farry (in Irish, Forrach-mhac-nAmhailgaidh), now "Mullafarry," near Killala, in the barony of Tyrawley, and county Mayo, is the place where St. Patrick converted to Christianity the king or prince of that territory (Enda Crom) and his seven sons; and baptized twelve thousand persons in the water of a well called Tobar Enadharc. And Croagh Patrick mountain also in Mayo, was long celebrated for the miracles it is said the saint performed there. A cone of quartize rising 2,510 feet over Clew Bay near the Atlantic Ocean, Croagh Patrick is the holy mountain of Ireland. Patrick climed the mountain and rang a bell causing the snakes to leap from the crest of the mountain. The bell is returned to Croagh Patrick each yeare where the pilgrims pass it three times at the last Sunday of July (Garlic Sunday). The name "Brefney" is, according to "Seward's Topography," derived from "Bre," a hill, and therefore signifies the country of hills or the hilly country: a derivation which may not appear inappropriate as descriptive of the topographical features of the country, as innumerable hills are scattered over the counties of Cavan and Leitrim, and a part of the barony of Carbury in Sligo. Brefney extended from Kells in Meath, to Drumcliff in the county Sligo; and was part of the Kingdom of Connaught. On a vast number of these hills over Cavan and Leitrim are found those circular earthen ramparts called forts or raths, and some of them very large; which circumstance shows that those hills were inhabited from the earliest ages. In this territory Tigernmas, the 13th Monarch of Ireland, was the first who introduced Idol worship into Ireland; and set up at Moy Slaght (Fenagh, in the barony of Mohill, county Leitrim) the famous idol, Crom Cruach, the chief deity of the Irish Druids, which St. Patrick destroyed. As several thousands of these raths exist even to this day, and many more have been levelled, it is evident that there was a very large population in ancient Brefney. The erection of these raths has been absurdly attributed to the Danes, for it is evident that they must have formed the chief habitations and fortresses of the ancient Irish, ages before the Danes set foot in Ireland, since they abound chiefly in the interior and remote parts of the country, where the Danes never had any permanent settlement.
Ancient Brefney bore the name of Hy Briuin Breifne, from its being possessed by the race of Brian, King of Connaught, in the fourth century, brother of Niall of the Nine Hostages, and son of Eochy Moyvane, Monarch of Ireland from A.D. 357 to 365, and of the race of Heremon. That Brian had twenty-four sons, whose posterity possessed the greater part of Connaught and were called the "Hy-Briuin race." Of this race were the O'Connors, kings of Connaught; O'Rourke, O'Rielly, MacDermott, MacDonogh, O'Flaherty, O'Malley, MacOiraghty (MacGeraghty, or Geraghty), O'Fallon, O'Flynn (of Connaught), MacGauran, MacTiernan, MacBrady or Brady, etc.
The kings of the old Ulaid, who resided in pre-historic times at Navan (Meath), pushed east of the line between Newry and Lough Neagh. Their descendants who became known as the Dál Fiatach (pronounced dawl veeatagh) were more or less confined to the eastern side of Co. Down- 400 A.D. Many of the early kings of Ulster and Leland through the centuries were of the Dál n-Araidhe and the Dál Fiatach clans of counties Armagh, Down and Antrim. In a similar way, the Cruthin from west of the Bann and was more or less finalised by the yeare 563 when `The battle of Móin Dairi Lothair [Moneymore, Co. Derry] was won over the Cruthin by the Uí Néill of the North'.
By the eighth century, then, the main northern branches of the Érainn and Cruthin were confined east of the lower Bann and the Newry river, where, with people whose ethnic background is unknown, they existed as a number of tribes in a single political federation. The main Érainn tribes were the Dál Fiatach (in modern east Down, these were the descendants of the Ulaid of Navan), the Uí Échach (Ec Eghagh) of the Ards and the Dál Riata of north-east Antrim. Minor tribes included the Uí Blaithmeic (Ee Blahvic) of north Down. The main tribes of the Cruthin were the Dál nAraidi of mid Antrim and the Uí Echach Cobo of west Down. Minor tribes included the Latharna of Larne. The Dál Fiarach were known as the Ulaid to the early writers and the Dál nAraide as Cruthin, though the whole federation of these peoples was also known as Ulaid. It was coterminous with the modem counties of Antrim and Down. The Dál Fiatach king was usually the overking, although occasionally the king of one of the main Cruthin tribes obtained the overkingship. The existence of the federation did not prevent the individual tribes fighting with one another, which they did frequently. Some of the Ulaid kings were powerful in Irish terms, and the fortunes of the Ulaid fluctuated considerably. In the sixth century they probably controlled almost as far south as the Boyne and for a time held the Isle of Man (Byrne, 1965). A Dál nAraidi king, Congal Cláen, made several attempts to win back the territories once held by the north-eastern peoples, his hopes being finally dashed in 637 at the battle of Mag Roth (Moira, Co Down).