OMNIUM SANCTORUM HIBERNIAE

Category: Saints of Leitrim

  • Saint Curcach of Cloonlogher, August 8

    One of our enigmatic female saints, Curcach of Cluain-Lothair, is commemorated on the earliest of the surviving Irish calendars, the Martyrology of Tallaght, on August 8. Canon O’Hanlon identifies the locality associated with her as the modern Cloonlogher in County Leitrim:

    St. Curcach, Virgin, of Cluain-lothair, now Cloonlogher, County of Leitrim.

    At the 8th of August, the published Martyrology of Tallagh, records the simple entry, Curcach, Cluana Lothair.  This place must be Cloonlogher, in a parish of the same name, barony of  Dromahaire, and County of Leitrim.  It is a vicarage in the Diocese of Kilmore, consisting chiefly of mountain land.  Her name appears, also, in  the Martyrology of Donegal,  at this same date, as Curcach, of Cluainlothair, Virgin. There is a Curcach, daughter to Dael, son of Maisine, and belonging to the race of Colla Menn, adds the calendarist. There is a Cluain Lothaire in Breifne O’Ruairc, and Curcach is patron there, follows the foregoing announcement.
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  • Saint Colman of Drumlease, June 19

    At June 19 we commemorate one of the many Irish saints who bear the name of Colman but about whom nothing is known. This one is associated with Drumlease, County Leitrim, as Canon O’Hanlon explains:

    ST. COLMAN, OF DRUIM LIAS, NOW DRUMLEASE, COUNTY OF LEITRIM.

    ON this day, veneration was given to Colman, of Dramlias, said to have been in Luighne, by Marianus O’Gorman. This we read, also, in the Martyrology of Donegal. In the Table appended, the Carthusian Martyrology is quoted, after the entry of this saint’s name and place. The latter is now known as Drumlease, and there is an old church now in ruins, near the eastern extremity of the beautiful Lough Gill. It is situated in the barony of Dromahaire, and in the county of Leitrim. The monastery at this place was burned, in the year 1360. It lay in West Breifne. There is also a village of Drumlish, in the parish of Killoe, in the barony and county of Longford. A Manuscript Calendar, which belonged to Professor Eugene O’Curry, enters a festival for St. Colman of Druim Lias, at the 19th of June.

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  • Saint Tocomracht of Conmaicne, June 11

    At June 11, Canon O’Hanlon has a notice of a female saint, Tocomracht, immediately followed by that of a saint Tochumra. He suspects that they may be one and the same person, which does indeed appear to be the case. Although Canon O’Hanlon was unable to associate this holy lady with a locality, in his 2011 Dictionary of \Irish Saints Pádraig Ó Riain was able to place her in Kiltoghert (Ceall Tochomhracht), County Leitrim. He confirms her status as an intercessor for women in labour, mediated via her bejewelled bell, noted in a seventeenth-century list. He also notes that as her name and association with the people of the Conmhaicne suggest, she also had a cultus in Connacht. Below are Canon O’Hanlon’s individual entries for the saint, taken from Volume VI of his Lives of the Irish Saints:

    Tocomracht, Virgin.

    The Martyrologies of Tallagh, and of Donegal, mention that Tocomracht, Virgin, of Conmaicne, had veneration paid her, at the 11th of June. The latter Calendar only gives the territory, with which she had been connected; but, as this territorial designation is applied in composition with different localities, it is not so easy to determine where the present saint lived. At this date, also, in the Rev. Alban Butler’s work, and in the Circle of the Seasons, St. Tochumra, Virgin, is found entered.

    St. Tochumra. Virgin.

    There is apparently another St. Tochumra, Virgin, whose feast occurs at 11th of June, in Butler’s Lives of the Saints, where we are told, she belonged to the diocese of Kilmore, and that she was much honoured in Ireland, being invoked by women in labour. Colgan could discover no Acts of her. Likewise, in the Circle of the Seasons, we have the name of this St. Tochumra entered. It is likely, she is not a different person from the preceding Tocomracht.

    Note: The introduction to this post was updated in 2025.

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