Crom Cruach
In the Pre-Christian Irish Pantheon, Crom Cruach (alternative spellings Crom Crúaich, Cromm Crúaich, Crom Cróich, Cromm Cruach, Cenn Cruach, Crom Cruagh, Crom Crooach, Crom Cruaidh, Ceancroitihi, Crom Dubh, Black Crom and as Crom-cruaghair, the great Creator, he has, by some writers, been identified with the Persian Kerum Kerugher) was the chief god of Ireland. He was both a solar deity and a fertility deity. The ancient and only name by which it is known in the language of the country is Comrich, a Gaelic word signifying protection.
The ancient texts tell us that there was an idol on Magh Slécht, which is the plain of adoration or prostration, in the Parish of Templeport, County Cavan, Ulster named Crom Cruach. Magh Slécht formed part of the Province of Connacht until the 16th century when it was made part of the Province of Ulster.
It was originally named Magh Senaig (the plain of the hill-slope) and under this guise is mentioned in The Metrical Dindshenchas (Poem 25 Ailech III) in the story of the Dagda, Corrgenn and Ailech, wherein it states the Corrgenn travelled from Tara to Lough Foyle in the Inishowen peninsula via Mag Senaig. In Pre-Christian times the small area where the Crom Cruaich idol stood at Kilnavert was originally named Fossa Slécht or Rath Slécht and it is from this small location that the wider Magh Slécht area received its name. Into the fourth millenium of constant occupation, in 1911 B.C. during the reign of Fodbgen, the Firbolg High-King of Ireland, the name Magh Senaig was changed to Magh Slécht (The plain of prostrations) as it became the nationwide centre of the cult of the god Crom Cruaich. His statue was an upright stone pillar coated in gold and silver (To symbolise the sun and moon) and surrounded by twelve smaller, stone statues that were of bare stone or covered in bronze (according to different sources). This alignment would have represented the sun surrounded by the signs of the zodiac. Since the death of the High King of Ireland, Tigernmas & 4,000 of his followers in the Seventh Plague of Ireland while worshipping Crom Cruaich on 31st October (Samhain, Halloween), 1413 B.C. Only about 1,500 survived.
Tigernmas' genealogy is: Tigernmais m.Fælad m.Etheuir m.Iriail m.Erimoin. And his name is spelled in various ways: Tigernmas, Tighernmas, Tigernmais, Tighernmais, Tigernmair, Tiernmas, Tiernmais, Tighearnmhas, Tighearnmas, Tighearnmais, Tigearnmas, Tigearnmais, Tigearnmhas, Tigearnmhais, Tigernmus, Tighernmus.
On the annual feast of Samhain (sabbatical Old Norse Summer, later renamed Halloween, November 1) his followers sacrificed one third of their firstborn to him in exchange for milk, corn, the fertility of cattle and a fertile growing season. The god horrified many because of his terrible demands. The tradition of offering the First-Born to a god was still continued by the christian priests, successors to the Crom priests, at least as late as the 8th century A.D. The destruction of the idol Crom Cruach (The phallic La Tène Killycluggin Stone) by Saint Patrick in the 5th century A.D. and the founding of a church there at Fossa Slécht under St. Methbrain and murder of King Conall Gulban of Donegal by the Masraighe in 464 A.D preceded the Battle of Magh Slécht in 1256 A.D.
The Masraige tribe were the inhabitants of Magh Slécht at the time of St.Patrick. It was this tribe who supplied the ancient Druids and High Priests of the god Crom Cruaich and their successors the Christian priests. Saint Dallan Forgaill, the Chief Ollamh or Poet of Ireland was a member of the tribe. History is vague as to what happened to them. They survived at least until the coming of the Uí Bhriuin in 700 A.D. who then dispossessed them and took control of Tullyhaw. The word Masraige means "Kings of Death", which may be related to their worship of Crom. The High King most connected with the worship of Crom was King Tighernmas. Again his name means "Lord of Death". There is another standing stone also named Crom Crúaich in Drumcoo townland, County Fermanagh.
The area was first inhabited by Neolithic hunter-gatherers who arrived via the river (originally called the Gráinne river & now canalised as the Woodford Canal or the Shannon-Erne Waterway). The first named inhabitants were the Masraighe tribe who ruled Magh Slécht until they were conquered by the Uí Briuin tribe in the 8th century A.D.