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following answer is given :-There was an appointed meeting held here of the men of Munster and the men of Connaught, to which the respective kings of both parties brought their gladiators. These were the two sons of Smucaille, the son of Bacdbh, and their names were Rinn and Teabhar (that is, Spear and Sword). Of these champions, one put himself under the protection of Bonhbh Dearg (Bone the Red), the great Tuath Dedanaan Chief of Mag Femen in Tipperary; and the other had taken the protection of Dehall, chief of the Hill of Crudchain (in Roscommon). These champions having met in the assembly, exhibited specimens of their gladiatorial accomplishments, after which, they descended to the strand to compete in single combat for the championship of the two Provinces. The hosts, on both sides, were clad in gray-green "Luimins" (cloaks), and when the combat commenced, and the assembled crowds pressed down to see and enjoy it, the heat became so great, that they threw off their "Luimins," in heaps on the strand; and so intensely was their attention engaged by the combatants, that they did not perceive the flowing of the tide until it had swept them away, upon which some of the spectators cried out-"Is Luimenochola in t-inbhear anossa," i.e. "cloaky or cloakful is the river now," hence the name Luimenach. "From this legend it would appear," says Mr. O'Curry in his letter to the author, "that Luimeneach-Liathanglas, (and not Lethanglass) or Luimenach of the Gray Green, was the proper old name of Limerick." It is thus it is written in Rumann's Extempore poem on the Sea, composed for the Danes of Dublin before A.D. 742, in which year Rumann died.'

An early record of the name of Limerick is contained in the Annals of the Four Masters, where in the 15th year of King Cormac (A.D. 221) a battle, we are told, was fought here. A battle, at the same time was fought at a place which is supposed to be the Hill of Grian, over Pallasgrene, in the barony of Coonagh, Co. Limerick. In a century afterwards, viz. in the year 334, the Great Crunthaun, one of the most remarkable of the ancient Kings of Ireland, a descendant from Oliall Ollum of the line of Heber, died in Limerick. This king succeeded Eochaidh Moighmeodhin upon the throne, reigned seventeen years, carried his name into Britain in the reign of Valentinian, where he was aided by the Picts, who were then his tributaries,-thence sailing to Armorica, now Bretagne, in France, he plundered that country, and returned with great booty and hostages to Ireland. He is also mentioned by others of our early annalists and historians, and the occasion of his death is related as having been caused by the wickedness of his sister, who administered to him a dose of poison.5

Lovely and attractive for the charms with which even in far distant times it was surrounded, Limerick, soon after the arrival in Ireland of the Apostle St. Patrick, received the inestimable blessing of Christianity. We are told that in the year 434, the first district which St. Patrick visited, after his departure from Cashel, was the extensive flat portion of country between Cashel and Limerick called Muscrighe Breogain. The apostle founded several

1 Petrie's Round Towers.

2 Annals of the Four Masters. O'Donovan's Edition, Vol. I., p. 113. 3 Ibid.

Note.

Bede and Psalter of Cashel.

"Having won many battles and wonderful fame, notwithstanding his fine accomplishments, Criomthan could not secure himself from the large attempts of his sister, Mung Fionn, who poisoned him with a prospect to obtain the crown for her son Brian, whom she had by Eochaidh Moighmedhin. However, the better to oblige the king to take the fatal dose, she drank it herself, which also dispatched her at Innis Dongulas. The king died near Limerick."

churches in the district, and left some of his teachers at one of them, viz. Kilfeacte. Thence he went to the territory called Arva-cliach, in the adjacent counties of Tipperary and Limerick, in part of which, Hy-Cuanach (now the Barony of Coonagh) he was at first instantly opposed by the dynast Oldid. But a miracle having been performed by the Saint, Oldid and his family were converted and baptised; while at Ara-chihach, Colgan states that Patrick foretold many occurrences, among others the foundation of a monastery at Kill-ratha, and of a church at Kill-teidhill, in the county of Limerick. We find the Saint next in the tract of country east of Limerick, where he was hospitably entertained by a chieftain named Locan, and met with young Nessan, whom at the same time he placed over the monastery of Mungret, which he had founded. The inhabitants of Thomond, hearing of the advent of St. Patrick, crossed the Shannon, for the purpose of seeing him, and when they were instructed, were baptised by him in the field of Tir Glas (Terry Glass, in Ormond). He was waited on by prince Carthen, son of Blod, who is said to have been converted and baptised at Sanigeal, now Singland, near Limerick. Colgan remarks that this family was the same as that of the O'Briens of Thomond, and that Carthen was the chieftain of North Munster.

St. Patrick, on his way to Connaught, passed the Shannon at Limerick ; and it was in the vicinity of the city, in Singland (Sois Angel) the Saint is said to have seen the vision of the angel. The holy well and stony bed and altar of St. Patrick are to this day existing in Singland. Tradition speaks of his having preached here. He appointed first Bishop of Limerick Saint Manchin, "a religious man, having a complete knowledge of the Scriptures, and placed him over the subjects of Amailgaid, King of Connaught, then lately converted to the Christian faith. The mountain of Knock Patrick, in the western barony of Connoloe, county of Limerick, the base of which is washed by the Shannon, whose course for sixty miles may be traced from its summit, is the place from which tradition alleges our Apostle to have blessed Connaught.' We thus catch a glimpse, through the dimness and obscurity of distant time, of the halo which encircled the name and character of Limerick. We thus perceive the close acquaintance which its inhabitants made with Christianity, when Europe for the greater part was shrouded in the darkness of Pagan superstition. Were we in search of further evidences of the early Christian devotion of the people of the district, it is supplied by abundant facts. In the fifth century St. Sinan founded the monastery of Canons Regulars of St. Augustine at the island of Inniscathy, on the Shannon. In the sixth century St. Ita, an illustrious native of the county, whose festival is celebrated on the 14th of January, founded at Cluain Credhail (Kileedy), a nunnery of Canonesses Regular of St. Augustine. St. Eden founded Clum Claidech in the same century, and St. Mochelloch, Kilmallock, in the seventh century-these two last mentioned were for Canons Regular of St. Augustine.2

A beautiful sonnet from the pen of the late Sir Aubrey de Vere, Bart of Curragh Chase, embodies the tradition in language of fire and beauty.-Lamentation of Ireland and other Poems. 2 Allemande gives the order of St. Augustine the first place before all others that were in Ireland-first, because it is the most ancient of all the regular orders in general-deriving its origin from the apostles themselves, and allowing St. Augustine. afterwards Bishop of Hippo, in Africa, only to have formed a particular congregation, which was subsequently divided into many others-secondly, it is certain that the particular rules which prevailed in this country in the 5th, 6th, and 7th centuries, consisted of religious men who were regular canons, or something so like them, that at the time in which those rules were obliged to be incorporated into the rule of St. Benedict, or into that of the Regular Canons of St. Augustine, they all made choice of the latter, as being much more agreeable to them than that of St. Benedict. In short, so numerous

Doubt has existed as to the date of the foundation by St. Manchan of the Cathedral of Limerick, and as to the time the Saint lived, but this arises from the similarity of the name with that of Mancheus, whom the Annals of Ulster call Abbot of Menedrochit, and say that he died in 651 or 652. The commemoration of the death of Mancheus is pointed out under the name of Manicheus, the "Wise Irishman," in the books de Mirabilibus Scripturæ, by some erroneously ascribed to St. Augustine. The name too, not only is not unlike, but the times occur exactly, the festival of St. Manchin being celebrated in January. St. Manchin lived two centuries at least before the period assigned to St. Mancheus by the martyrologies. The Annals of Innisfallen, A.D. 567, state there was a great battle fought here in that year. It was here that Saint Cumin Fodha, son of Fiachna, Bishop of Clamfearta Breainirn now Clonfert, died on the 12th of November, A.D. 661, and on this occasion Colman-na-Claisagh, the tutor of Cumin, composed these suggestive and touching verses which show that the Shannon then was called by the name of Lumineach :

"The Lumineach did not hear on its bosom of the race of Leathcluinn,
Corpse in a boat so precious as he, as Cumine son of Fiachna;

If any one went across the sea to sojourn at the seat of Gregory, (Rome,)
If from Ireland, he rejoices in none more than the name of Cumin Fodha,
I sorrow after Cummine from the day his shrine was covered,

My eye lids have been dropping tears; I have not laughed, but mourned
Since the lamentation of his barque."2

These verses establish the fact of the constant intercourse of Ireland with Rome, the uninterrupted devotion of the Irish Bishops to "the mother and mistress of all Churches."

Records of the barbarous and unrelenting cruelties of the Danes, of sacrilegious attacks made by them on those sacred edifices and holy men which were now becoming numerous, are found in the Annals long before Yorus surrounded the city with a wall, and erected the fortress which enabled his countrymen to hold their position for some ages after against the combined strength and opposition of the native Irish. In 843 Foranan, Primate of Armagh, was taken prisoner at Cluan-Combarda,3 (a place unidentified by the commentators) with his relics and people, and brought by the pirates to their ships at Limerick. The statement is corroborated by the Annals of Clonmacnoise, which designate Forannan Abbot of Armagh, and allege that the crime was perpetrated by the Danes at Cloneowardy, adding that his family, attendants, &c., relics and books, were led from thence to the ships in Limerick.

Our annals, during those dark and dismal ages, present but little, on which to dwell with satisfaction. The Danes, to retain their hold of maritime places, were busy and aggressive. The Irish in turn revenged the injuries and injustices of their cruel oppressors; but in the midst of every difficulty and danger, religion was speeding its bright way. The succession of bishops, in several of the Irish sees, had continued with regularity since the preaching of St Patrick. Up to this period" Luimenach" was the original name of the

were the monasteries of the Regular Canons of St. Augustine, not only in the early ages of the Irish Church, but at the suppression of the monastic institutions by Henry VIII. and Elizabeth, that the number of houses then are said to have had, far and away, exceeded the houses of the other orders.-De Burgo's Historical Collections, &c.

I Ware.

Annals of the Four Masters.

Annals of the Four Masters. 4 Ware.

Lower Shannon, as appears from the life of St Carbrach of Lismore,' but in the year 861, it ceased to be the name of the river and was usually applied to the Danish fortress already referred to, and the city now became known by the designation which before had been exclusively given to that portion of the river between it and the sea, and by which it is called to this day. The Danish occupation was ever a source of intense dissatisfaction and commotion. Perpetual war was its result; the invaders, who were everywhere regarded with horror, were no where more detested than in the neighbourhood of the Shannon, of which they endeavoured to monopolise to their exclusive possession. In 884 the Connaught men attacked and destroyed numbers of Danes, But the day was approaching in which the sacrilegious tyrants were destined to meet a decisive check-in which the Irish by their strong arms were to win for a season protection and tranquillity. Cashel had long before embraced the Christian faith, had two of its bishops-viz, Olchobar who died in 851, and Cenfelad, who died in 872, who were kings as well as bishops; and their jurisdiction extended to Emly, and they were the predecessors of the learned and warlike Cormac, son of Cullenan, who derived from Engusa Nafrach the first son of the king of Cashel who was baptised by St. Patrick.* The aggressions of the Danes of Limerick had everywhere become so intolerable that Cormac resolved to curb their insolence. To reduce the people to order, to quell their intestine dissensions, to show the results of those insane divisions which even in the time of which we treat, had rendered them feeble when opposed by a united enemy, was the grand aim of Cormac Mac Cullenan, who during the heat of conflicts and troubles ascended the throne of Cashel, in 901, and wore the mitre of the united sees of Cashel and Emly. His example and influence were all-powerful in the achievement of the grand object on which he had set his princely heart.

"Such," says Keating, "was the state of the kingdom when Cormac wore the crown of Munster, that the contests and animosities between the petty princes were happily concluded, insomuch, that the Danes, fearing the effects of this reconciliation, desisted from their usual hostilities. Though the desire of plunder remained and nothing of their savage disposition abated, yet they apprehended their lives were in certain danger from the natives, who, by their common union and friendship, were able to drive them out of the kingdom; and therefore a great number of these foreigners retired to their ships of their own accord and bade adieu to the island." We here perceive what one able and wise ruler was enabled to effect for his country.

1 Book of Lismore.

2 Ware.

3 Ware.

Annals of the Four Masters.-In the Psalter of Cashel, written by his own hand, Cormac thus proclaims the glories of his Dalcasian troops, who always fought for the Kings of Cashel :

"May heaven protect the most illustrious tribe
Of Dalgais, and convey its choicest blessings
On their posterity. This renowned clan,
Though meek and merciful as are the saints,
Yet are of courage not to be subdued.
Long may they live in glory and renown,
And raise a block of heroes to the world."

And O'Dugan, in his poem, says of them :

Keating's History of Ireland, Vol. II.

"The Dailgaisian troops, with glory fired,
Fought for the honour of the Kings of Cashel,
And carried into other provinces

The terror of their arms."

But Cormac was not destined to remain long in the peaceable possession of his rights. Flan, son of Melsechlin, king of Ireland, with a great army invaded Munster, A.D. 906, and destroyed it as far as Limerick; Malachy or Melsechlin, who had been king of Temora, ascended the throne of Ireland, on the death of Hugh, A.D. 879. Cairbhall, son of Muiregan, aided Flan in this expedition: Cormac fled, but the year following, resenting the injuries he had sustained, he entered Meath with his irresistible Dalcassians, overthrew Flan in battle, took pledges from him for the performance of certain articles of agreement, and returned in triumph to Cashel, where he was welcomed by the joyous acclamations of his people, who regarded him as their deliverer from the bondage of domestic as well as foreign enemies.' The spirit of Flan was unsubdued by the triumph of Cormac's arms; another and a more successful attempt was made by him soon afterwards in 908 to recover the losses he had endured. Confederating with the Kings of Leinster and Connaught, he again invaded Munster with a powerful force. The opposing armies met on the 16th of August on the plains of Moy-Albe; the battle was fierce, sanguinary, and protracted, and resulted in the death of the indomitable King-Bishop Cormac, whose army, losing heart at his fall, were overpowered; and on that fatal day most of the Chiefs or Leaders or Princes were also killed; amongst them are noticed Fogertach of Kerry, and Kellach of Ossory."

The death of Cormac was speedily followed by further attempts of the Danes to destroy whatever they could lay hands on to spoliate whatever they could plunder-to wreak vengeance on the holy places in which the monks and religious dwelled, and to show that nothing less than wholesale murder and rapine could satisfy their thirst for blood and booty. Freed from the authority of Cormac, they roamed wherever they pleased, curbed but partially by the native princes, who had again their own intestine feuds to engage them in arms. They now made a successful raid on Clonmacnois, to which they had easy access by the Shannon; they devastated the islands on Lough Ribh, destroyed the shipping of Limerick, and carried away immense quantities of gold, silver, and all manner of riches from the monasteries and shrines in the islands. They were so daring, in their ruthless prowess, that in 922 they were able to make prisoner of O'Flaherty, son of Inmameen, and convey him from the island of Loch Ribh to Limerick. These plundering expeditions of the Danes were favorite occupations in which they ever and anon indulged during these troubled years of their occupation of Limerick. Proceeding from Limerick, their next attempt was on Lough Orisben, and its

I Ware, and Annals of Four Masters.

4

2 Carodacus Shancarvensis (who is quoted by Ware) also says that Cormac was at this time killed by the Danes. Ware adds that he remembers having read in an ancient MS. in the Cottonian Library, that Cormac was killed by a herdsman at Beanree, near Leighlin, while on his knees at prayer, returning thanks to God for the success of his army, which had then been engaged. His body was conveyed to Cashel, and there buried. He was learned particularly in the antiquities of his country. He wrote, in the Irish language, the Psalter of Cashel, which is yet extant, and held in the highest estimation. Ware states that he had some collections from it in an ancient parchment book, called "Psalter Namaan," written 300 years at the time he mentions the fact; and that, in the same book, there were many miscellanies, partly Irish and partly Latin, collected by Angus Celede (Aengus the Culdee), among which there was a bare Catalogue, viz. the names only, of the Kings of Ireland, from Heremon to Brian Boroihme. Our author remarks that Cashel was heretofore the chief seat of the Kings of Munster, and one of the first Synods of Ireland was held there by St. Patrick, St. Albeus, and St. Declan, in the time of King Engusa.—Ware, Keating, Annals of Four Masters, O'Flaherty, &c.

3 Annals of the Four Masters, Vol. II., p. 609.

• Annals of Four Masters, Vol. II., p. 611.

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