OMNIUM SANCTORUM HIBERNIAE

Author: Michele Ainley

  • Irish Saints' Names – April

    Recently while browsing the digitized newspaper collection at the National Library of Australia I came across a series of articles on Irish Saints’ names, written to promote the idea that Irish parents should give their children the names of our native holy men and women. This is a not uncommon theme in the popular religious literature of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, especially that aimed at an Irish expatriate audience. Whilst I am fully supportive of the desire to preserve the names of the Irish saints, I am left wondering how many prospective parents actually followed these suggestions, particularly in the case of the more obscure saints. It is one thing to lecture an Irish-American reader on why no true Irish maiden should be ashamed to bear the name of Saint Brigid, but did the writer of this article really imagine that a poor Irish immigrant was going to name his son Ceannfaelad or Indreactae? Yet in our present age of reenactment, role-playing and Game of Thrones, these ancient names have acquired a certain cachet once again. The newspaper articles on the Irish saints’ names are laid out on a monthly basis, so we can start with the selection for April, and an interesting selection it is too:

    Irish Saints’ Names.
    There are many who think that the Irish saints are only a few, and so their choice of names for their children is very small. Week by week, a list will be given. The name will be spelt as in Irish and the English equivalent will be given in brackets. The sex is marked m. for males, and f. for females. Only one name is given for each day, but more could he given. Year of death as below.APRIL.

    1. Aodan (Aidan), m.
    2. Bronac (Brona). f., Glenshesk. Antrim.
    3. Faolan (Faelan), m.. Iona, 724.
    4. Tigearnac (Tigearnach), bp. Clones, 549
    5. Beacan (Becan), m., Fircall, King’s Co.
    6. Cronan Beag (Cronan), m., Clonmacnoise, 692.
    7. Ceallac (Kellach), m., Armagh, 1149; feast also on August 5.
    8. Ceannfaelad (Kennealy), m.. Bangor, 705.
    9. Aedac (Aeda), m.
    10. Bearcan (Berchan), m., Eigg, Scotland.
    11. Ailioll (Elill), m., Cologne, Germany.
    12. Emin (Evin), bp.
    13. Mocaemoc (Kaevan), m., feast also on March 13.
    14. Tassac (Tassa), bp. Raholp, Co. Down.
    15. Ruadan (Ruan), abbot of Lorrah, Tipperary, 584.
    16. Miolan (Melan), m.
    17. Donnan (Donnan), m., Eigg, 617.
    18. Laisre (Laisrin). m., Leighlin, 639.
    19. Cillene (Killeen), m.
    20. Sedrac (Sedra), m.
    21. Bearac (Berach). m., Bangor. 664.
    22. Lucan (Luchan), m.
    23. Ibar (Ibar), bp., Begeri Island, Wexford.
    24. Flann (Flann), m., Iona. 891.
    25. Maccaille (Maughold), bp., Isle of Man, 489.
    26. Indreactae (Inreachty), m. Bangor, 901.
    27. Leccan (Lecan), m., Iona.
    28. Caoman (Caevan), m., Iona.
    29. Domangan (Domangan), m., Muskerry.
    30. Ronan (Ronan), m., Louth.

    Southern Cross, Friday, 3 April 1914, page 19.

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  • An Irish Easter Legend.

    An Irish Easter Legend.

    Being in the north-west of
    Ireland last summer, on the borders of Sligo and Donegal, I chanced upon
    a famous Shanachie, or story-teller, an Irish-speaking peasant, who
    possessed an almost inexhaustible fund of traditional, historical, and
    legendary lore, and whose manner of relating his stories was so graphic
    that each scene seemed to pass before his own and his listeners’ eyes.
    Amongst the legends he told was one which is now very rare, being, as
    far as I am aware, known only to Irish-speaking people, and even to few
    amongst these, though the sculptured tomb bearing the pictured
    representation of the story being found in Kilree churchyard, almost in
    the extreme farthest part of Ireland from Donegal, would seem to show
    that in olden times the legend was popular throughout Ireland.

    The old story represented by “a cock in a pot, crowing,” was told me by the Shanachie as follows :

    ”
    It was at the time when our Saviour was in the grave, and that the
    soldiers who were set to watch the tomb were sitting round a fire they
    had lighted. They had killed a cock and put it in a pot on the fire to
    boil for their supper; and, as they sat around, they spoke together of
    the story that was told how He that was in the tomb they were guarding
    had prophesied that before three days were passed He would rise again
    from the dead. And one of the men said, in mockery: He will rise as sure
    as the cock that is in that boiling pot will crow again.”

    No
    sooner were the words spoken than the lid of the pot burst open, the
    cock flew on to the edge, flapped his wings, sprinkling the soldiers
    with the boiling water, then crowed three times, and what he said each
    time was:

    ‘ Moc an o-o-o-ye, slaun !
    Moc an o-o-o-ye, slaun !’

    That
    is,’ Son of the Virgin, Hail!’ [Mac an Oige, slan] and ever since that
    hour this is what the cock crows: this is what we hear him say, and if
    you listen you, too, can hear the very words :

    ‘ Moc an o-o-o-ye, slaun !’ ‘

    I
    spell the sound of the Irish phonetically to try and imitate the
    peculiar softening of the words as an Irish speaker softens them, the
    prolonging out of the o-o-o sounding almost precisely like the bird’s
    crow heard from a distance. At least so it has always sounded in my ears
    since I heard this beautiful legend. M. B.

    Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland, Volume 27 (1897), 193-194.

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  • Our Champion has Arisen

    Although Jesus was crucified, 
    our Lord, our Champion,
    he has arisen as the pure King
    of all that he created.


     First Prologue to the Féilire Oengusso

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