Kinel Owen

The main sacred place of the early Christian Ulaid was Cráeb Telcha, the 'tree of the small hill /hillock', which was undoubtedly a sacred tree. Sacred trees, usually ash, are known to have been important ritual objects in early Ireland and were usually known in Old Irish by the words Cráeb and Bile (Lucas, 1963). Irish Cráeb gave the modern place-name elements Crew and Creeve. Near Glenavy are the adjoining townlands of Crew and Crew Park, and in the first is Crew Hill, locally 'the Crew' (not Crewe, as the district council would have us believe, judging from the road signs!). In the sixteenth cenlury Crew Hill was known as Crewhollage and Knockcruhollogh (from the Irish Cráeb Telcha and Cnoc Cráeb Telcha, 'the hill of Cráeb Telcha') (Flanagan, 1970).

On Crew Hill is a very large basalt boulder, possibly a glacial erratic (that is, deposited at this spot by melting ice in the ice age) and therefore probably always at or near this spot. It is locally called 'The Crew Stone' and local tradition is very strong that this is the site of the Cráeb Telcha (O'Laverty, 1880, 294f; Watson, 1892, 52; McKavanagh, 1968, 8; Totten, 1980, 30 with photograph; Flanagan, 1970, 29. I am indebted to Mr. F. McCorry of Crew for assisting me in my inspection of the monuments on Crew Hill). The Craeb Telcha may be anywhere in the townlands of Crew and Crew Park by the implication of the name of a farm in the latter-Crew Mount.

THE PARISH OF GLENAVY lies along the eastern shore of Lough Neagh. On the north it is separated from the Parish of Antrim by the Donore River, and extends southward into the Civil Parish of Ballinderry beyond Portmore Lough. On the north-east it is separated from Templepatrick by the Clad)' Water. It is bounded on the east by Tullyrusk, Stoneyford, and Magheragall. On the south-east it extends to within five miles of the town of Lisburn. Measuring, as the crow flies, from the Donore River on the north to Galwey's Gate on the south, or from Langford Lodge Point on the shore of Lough Neagh to the confines of Ligoniel Parish, we have in either case a distance of eleven miles. But perhaps the fact that there are houses at different ends of the parish separated by a journey of sixteen miles will give a better idea of its size. The Ecclesiastical Parish of Glenavy includes the Civil Parishes of Glenavy, Camlin, and Killead, and the greater part of the Civil Parish of Ballinderry. This extensive parish contains two Catholic churches—one at Glenavy and the other at Aldergrove—and has at present a Catholic population of 1,850.

The Civil Parish of Glenavy lay within the boundaries of the ancient Dalmunia. (Oal mDuinne = the race of Buinne, son of Fergus Mac Roy). This gives it another link with the legendary past. The territory of Dalmunia, or, as it is sometimes called, Dalboyn, included also Kilultagh, Kilwarlin, Hillsborough, and Lisburn, and was peopled by the race of Fergus Mac Roy. Fergus was King of Ulster about the beginning of the first century, .A. D. He wished to marry the beautiful widow Ness. She would not give her consent unless on the understanding that her son Conor, then a mere boy, should be allowed to be king for a year. To this Fergus, with the consent of the nobles, agreed. When the yeare was up, the queen-mother had guided her son so wisely in the use of his power that the nobles now refused to supersede Conor. This is what the mother had anticipated. And so Conor Mac Nessa remained King of Ulster Fergus Mac Roy acquiesced in the situation, and became chief-counsellor of Conor and tutor of the infant-hero Cuchullain. Some years later, when war broke out between Conor and Maeve of Connacht, we find Fergus as chief-counsellor of Queen Maeve. He had abandoned the service of Conor, and not without good reason. Naoise, one of the nobles, had eloped with Deirdre, the most beautiful of the women of Erin, who was destined to be the wife of King Conor himself. "Therefore, accompanied by Deirdre and his own two brothers, Ainle and Ardan, the sons of Ushna, he fled from the anger of Conor into Scotland. They remained in exile many years, and Conor and Fergus pledged their word of honour that, if they returned home again, they would be unharmed. Deirdre had a foreboding of evil, but the sons of Ushna calmed her fears, and they all returned home. In spite of the royal guarantee, however, they were foully put to death. Fergus Mac Roy could not brook to be a party to such treachery, and it was for this reason he abandoned the Ulster King and took service with Maeve of Connacht. These are but specimens of the numerous legends that group themselves around the ancient inhabitants of Antrim, Down, and Armagh.

The Parish of Glenavy is rich in legendary and historical associations. The ancient name of the territory lying along Lough Neagh and stretching from Larne to Magheralin was The Country of the Cruithni (Cpíoc na SCpuitne), or of the Irish Picts. The earliest inhabitants of this territory of whom we have any record are described in the Book of Lecan as the race of Conall Cearnach. They claimed descent, therefore, from one of the noblest of the Red Branch Knights, Conall the Victorious (Conall Ceapnad). The old Irish genealogies trace their descent back to another of the Red Branch Knights, Keltar, who lived near Downpatrick, at a place still called Rath Keltair; they tell us that Neim, the daughter of Keltar, was the wife of Ailinn, son of Conall Cearnach. These Red Branch Knights, according to the ancient legends, were the great warriors of the North about the time of Christ. Their King, who ruled the Province of Ulster, was Conor Mac Nessa, and his residence was the famous Palace of Emania.

Navan Fort, about two miles outside the city of Armagh, still marks the place where the palace stood. In all the wars that Conor Mac Nessa waged against Queen Maeve of Connacht and the other provinces, Conall Cearnach, Leary, Keltar, and the mighty hero Cuchullain were ever foremost in the fray. And when the enemies of the Ulster King were beaten off and peace restored, the victorious chieftains would return home each to his own stronghold, and there they led a gay and enterprising life. Now they would feast and revel with their retainers, and the banquet-hall would ring with merry song and boisterous laughter. Again they would ride forth with wavy crest and glittering spear to hunt the wild boar over mountain, wood, and glen. Such was the life of chieftain and warrior in those far-off days in Heroic Ireland, when Patrick had not yet set foot on Irish soil, nor had the light of Christianity come to dispel the gloomy clouds of Paganism : for Paganism, with all its careless., joy and revel, left the minds of thoughtful men a prey to-dread anxiety as to the unseen world to come.

The subsequent history of Glenavy is closely connected with that of the Kingdom of Uladh. The Kings of Uladh were proclaimed on the Crew Hill, on the eastern side of the parish. The coronation-stone is still to be seen on the summit of the hill, but the "spreading tree," under which the ceremony took place, and from which the place itself is named, vas cut down in 1099 by the Kinel-Owen, the hereditary enemies of the Ulidians. There is a large rath, which may have been the royal residence, on the south side, as you approach the top of the hill. On the summit there have been discovered some stone-lined graves belonging to the Pagan period. Nothing more remains to mark the scene where many a time the clansmen of Uladh gathered round their king from far and wide, to be drilled and marshalled for many a fierce encounter.

In A.D. 1099, according to the Annals of Ulster, just such an event took place here, when the king of the Cenél Eógain from Co. Tyrone took his armies 'across Toome into Ulaid; the Ulaid were in camp at Cráeb Telcha. The two forces of horsemen meet, the force of the Ulaid is defeated ....The Ulaid leave their camp and the Cenél Eógain before the Ulaid, to avenge this act, made an expedition to Tulach Óc and cut down its trees'. Tulach Óc was the sacred grove of the Cenél Eógain, and was at Tullaghoge in Co. Tyrone. For this the Ulaid in their turn paid dearly soon after, loosing a thousand cattle to the king of Cenél Eógain- one of the main branches of the Northern Uí Neill.

Cráeb Telcha had been the scene of a terrible defeat for the Ulaid in A.D. 1004, when the Cenél Eógain slaughtered 'Eochaid son of Ardgal, king of the Ulaid, and his kinsman Dub Tuinne.and his two sons, Cú Duilig and Domnall, .... and the army both noble and base, Gairbíth king of Uí Echach, and Gilla Pátraic son of Tomaltach, and Cumuscach son of Flathroí, and Dub Slánga son of Áed, and Cathahán son of Étrú, and Coinéne son of Muirchertach, as well as the elite of the Ulaid: and the combat ranged as far as Dún Echdach [Duneight] and Druim Bó [Drumbo]'. The only consolation for the Ulaid, who lost there a whole generation of nobility, was that the king of the Cenél Eógain, heir apparent to the high kingship of Ireland, died in the same battle. That such an important and decisive battle should have taken place at a sacred spot is not unexpected. According to the Cogadh Gáedhel re Gallaibh (the War of the Gaedhil with the Gaill, 136) the high king Brian Borúma (Brian Boru, in A.D. 1006, made a circuit of Ireland crossing into Ulaid at Camus, near Coleraine, and stopped at Cráeb Telcha where he received from the Ulaid' 1200 beeves, 1200 hogs and 1200 wethers' and gave to the Ulaid' 1200 horses, gold, and silver and clothing'. He also received pledges of support from the kings and nobles of the Ulaid, and the sacred tree of the Ulaid was an appropriate place for this to be done.

1, 2, 3, 4, 5

The main sacred place of the early Christian Ulaid was Cráeb Telcha, the 'tree of the small hill /hillock', which was undoubtedly a sacred tree. Sacred trees, usually ash, are known to have been important ritual objects in early Ireland and were usually known in Old Irish by the words Cráeb and Bile (Lucas, 1963). Irish Cráeb gave the modern place-name elements Crew and Creeve. Near Glenavy are the adjoining townlands of Crew and Crew Park, and in the first is Crew Hill, locally 'the Crew' (not Crewe, as the district council would have us believe, judging from the road signs!). In the sixteenth cenlury Crew Hill was known as Crewhollage and Knockcruhollogh (from the Irish Cráeb Telcha and Cnoc Cráeb Telcha, 'the hill of Cráeb Telcha') (Flanagan, 1970).
	On Crew Hill is a very large basalt boulder, possibly a glacial erratic (that is, deposited at this spot by melting ice in the ice age) and therefore probably always at or near this spot. It is locally called 'The Crew Stone' and local tradition is very strong that this is the site of the Cráeb Telcha (O'Laverty, 1880, 294f; Watson, 1892, 52; McKavanagh, 1968, 8; Totten, 1980, 30 with photograph; Flanagan, 1970, 29. I am indebted to Mr. F. McCorry of Crew for assisting me in my inspection of the monuments on Crew Hill). The Craeb Telcha may be anywhere in the townlands of Crew and Crew Park by the implication of the name of a farm in the latter-Crew Mount.
THE PARISH OF GLENAVY lies along the eastern shore of Lough Neagh. On the north it is separated from the Parish of Antrim by the Donore River, and extends southward into the Civil Parish of Ballinderry beyond Portmore Lough. On the north-east it is separated from Templepatrick by the Clad)' Water. It is bounded on the east by Tullyrusk, Stoneyford, and Magheragall. On the south-east it extends to within five miles of the town of Lisburn. Measuring, as the crow flies, from the Donore River on the north to Galwey's Gate on the south, or from Langford Lodge Point on the shore of Lough Neagh to the confines of Ligoniel Parish, we have in either case a distance of eleven miles. But perhaps the fact that there are houses at different ends of the parish separated by a journey of sixteen miles will give a better idea of its size. The Ecclesiastical Parish of Glenavy includes the Civil Parishes of Glenavy, Camlin, and Killead, and the greater part of the Civil Parish of Ballinderry. This extensive parish contains two Catholic churches—one at Glenavy and the other at Aldergrove—and has at present a Catholic population of 1,850. The Civil Parish of Glenavy lay within the boundaries of the ancient Dalmunia. (Oal mDuinne = the race of Buinne, son of Fergus Mac Roy). This gives it another link with the legendary past. The territory of Dalmunia, or, as it is sometimes called, Dalboyn, included also Kilultagh, Kilwarlin, Hillsborough, and Lisburn, and was peopled by the race of Fergus Mac Roy. Fergus was King of Ulster about the beginning of the first century, .A. D. He wished to marry the beautiful widow Ness. She would not give her consent unless on the understanding that her son Conor, then a mere boy, should be allowed to be king for a year. To this Fergus, with the consent of the nobles, agreed. When the yeare was up, the queen-mother had guided her son so wisely in the use of his power that the nobles now refused to supersede Conor. This is what the mother had anticipated. And so Conor Mac Nessa remained King of Ulster Fergus Mac Roy acquiesced in the situation, and became chief-counsellor of Conor and tutor of the infant-hero Cuchullain. Some years later, when war broke out between Conor and Maeve of Connacht, we find Fergus as chief-counsellor of Queen Maeve. He had abandoned the service of Conor, and not without good reason. Naoise, one of the nobles, had eloped with Deirdre, the most beautiful of the women of Erin, who was destined to be the wife of King Conor himself. "Therefore, accompanied by Deirdre and his own two brothers, Ainle and Ardan, the sons of Ushna, he fled from the anger of Conor into Scotland. They remained in exile many years, and Conor and Fergus pledged their word of honour that, if they returned home again, they would be unharmed. Deirdre had a foreboding of evil, but the sons of Ushna calmed her fears, and they all returned home. In spite of the royal guarantee, however, they were foully put to death. Fergus Mac Roy could not brook to be a party to such treachery, and it was for this reason he abandoned the Ulster King and took service with Maeve of Connacht. These are but specimens of the numerous legends that group themselves around the ancient inhabitants of Antrim, Down, and Armagh. The Parish of Glenavy is rich in legendary and historical associations. The ancient name of the territory lying along Lough Neagh and stretching from Larne to Magheralin was The Country of the Cruithni (Cpíoc na SCpuitne), or of the Irish Picts. The earliest inhabitants of this territory of whom we have any record are described in the Book of Lecan as the race of Conall Cearnach. They claimed descent, therefore, from one of the noblest of the Red Branch Knights, Conall the Victorious (Conall Ceapnad). The old Irish genealogies trace their descent back to another of the Red Branch Knights, Keltar, who lived near Downpatrick, at a place still called Rath Keltair; they tell us that Neim, the daughter of Keltar, was the wife of Ailinn, son of Conall Cearnach. These Red Branch Knights, according to the ancient legends, were the great warriors of the North about the time of Christ. Their King, who ruled the Province of Ulster, was Conor Mac Nessa, and his residence was the famous Palace of Emania. Navan Fort, about two miles outside the city of Armagh, still marks the place where the palace stood. In all the wars that Conor Mac Nessa waged against Queen Maeve of Connacht and the other provinces, Conall Cearnach, Leary, Keltar, and the mighty hero Cuchullain were ever foremost in the fray. And when the enemies of the Ulster King were beaten off and peace restored, the victorious chieftains would return home each to his own stronghold, and there they led a gay and enterprising life. Now they would feast and revel with their retainers, and the banquet-hall would ring with merry song and boisterous laughter. Again they would ride forth with wavy crest and glittering spear to hunt the wild boar over mountain, wood, and glen. Such was the life of chieftain and warrior in those far-off days in Heroic Ireland, when Patrick had not yet set foot on Irish soil, nor had the light of Christianity come to dispel the gloomy clouds of Paganism : for Paganism, with all its careless., joy and revel, left the minds of thoughtful men a prey to-dread anxiety as to the unseen world to come. The subsequent history of Glenavy is closely connected with that of the Kingdom of Uladh. The Kings of Uladh were proclaimed on the Crew Hill, on the eastern side of the parish. The coronation-stone is still to be seen on the summit of the hill, but the "spreading tree," under which the ceremony took place, and from which the place itself is named, vas cut down in 1099 by the Kinel-Owen, the hereditary enemies of the Ulidians. There is a large rath, which may have been the royal residence, on the south side, as you approach the top of the hill. On the summit there have been discovered some stone-lined graves belonging to the Pagan period. Nothing more remains to mark the scene where many a time the clansmen of Uladh gathered round their king from far and wide, to be drilled and marshalled for many a fierce encounter. In A.D. 1099, according to the Annals of Ulster, just such an event took place here, when the king of the Cenél Eógain from Co. Tyrone took his armies 'across Toome into Ulaid; the Ulaid were in camp at Cráeb Telcha. The two forces of horsemen meet, the force of the Ulaid is defeated ....The Ulaid leave their camp and the Cenél Eógain before the Ulaid, to avenge this act, made an expedition to Tulach Óc and cut down its trees'. Tulach Óc was the sacred grove of the Cenél Eógain, and was at Tullaghoge in Co. Tyrone. For this the Ulaid in their turn paid dearly soon after, loosing a thousand cattle to the king of Cenél Eógain- one of the main branches of the Northern Uí Neill. Cráeb Telcha had been the scene of a terrible defeat for the Ulaid in A.D. 1004, when the Cenél Eógain slaughtered 'Eochaid son of Ardgal, king of the Ulaid, and his kinsman Dub Tuinne.and his two sons, Cú Duilig and Domnall, .... and the army both noble and base, Gairbíth king of Uí Echach, and Gilla Pátraic son of Tomaltach, and Cumuscach son of Flathroí, and Dub Slánga son of Áed, and Cathahán son of Étrú, and Coinéne son of Muirchertach, as well as the elite of the Ulaid: and the combat ranged as far as Dún Echdach [Duneight] and Druim Bó [Drumbo]'. The only consolation for the Ulaid, who lost there a whole generation of nobility, was that the king of the Cenél Eógain, heir apparent to the high kingship of Ireland, died in the same battle. That such an important and decisive battle should have taken place at a sacred spot is not unexpected. According to the Cogadh Gáedhel re Gallaibh (the War of the Gaedhil with the Gaill, 136) the high king Brian Borúma (Brian Boru, in A.D. 1006, made a circuit of Ireland crossing into Ulaid at Camus, near Coleraine, and stopped at Cráeb Telcha where he received from the Ulaid' 1200 beeves, 1200 hogs and 1200 wethers' and gave to the Ulaid' 1200 horses, gold, and silver and clothing'. He also received pledges of support from the kings and nobles of the Ulaid, and the sacred tree of the Ulaid was an appropriate place for this to be done. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5