OMNIUM SANCTORUM HIBERNIAE

Category: Saints of Louth

  • Saint Maonach of Dunleer, October 17

    At October 17 the Martyrology of Donegal records:

    17. C. SEXTO DECIMO KAL. NOVEMBRIS. 17.

    MAENACH, son of Cláirin, Abbot of Lann Léire, A.D. 720.

     

    A footnote adds that the year 720 is the date given for the repose of this saint in the Annals of Ulster. The place name associated with the saint, Lann Léire, is modern Dunleer, County Louth and a local researcher has made an interesting historical archive on the district available here. In the nineteenth-century Bishop Reeves sought to derive the name from the old Irish words lann, church and léire, austerity, but modern scholarship inclines to the view that it simply means ‘the church in the district of Léire’ rather than ‘the church of austerity.’ The name was in common use up until the twelfth century but after the coming of the Normans the lann element was replaced by dún, fort. The monastery of which Saint Maonach was abbot was originally founded by the saintly brothers Furadhran and Baithin. Our saint is the first abbot to be mentioned in the Annals after the founders. Thus Lann Léire must have been a foundation of some importance and various commentators have noted that no other County Louth monastery is referenced so frequently in the Irish Annals. Not only are its abbots recorded but so too are other events such as as attacks by the Vikings as well as by native marauders, culminating in the burning of the monastery in 1148.  One can only hope that Saint Maonach exercised his abbacy in less interesting times.
    Pádraig Ó Riain in his Dictionary of Irish Saints records a number of later literary sources which take our saint out of his Ulster monastery and seek to place him in Munster. A poem, for example, listing those on whom Saint Seanán of Scattery could call on in a time of need include ‘great Maonach, son of  Láirín’. It may be, however, that in some of these sources our saint has become confused with others of a similar name. Interestingly though, the name of Maonach, in its Latin guise of Monachus is to be found at October 17 in a fifteenth-century martyrology written in Cologne. It rather suggests that our saint, although today an obscure figure, was at one time much more well known.
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  • Saints Furadhran and Baithin of Dunleer, June 18

    At June 18 Canon O’Hanlon brings us details of two saintly brothers who flourished in Lann-Leire, which he believes to be modern Dunleer, County Louth. We start with Abbot Furadhran and then move to the notice of his brother Baithin. I thought they were commemorated with a particularly beautiful verse in the Martyrology of Aengus, which remembers Furadhran ‘with keenness’ and ‘fair, happy Baithin’:

    ARTICLE I.—ST. FURADHRAN OR FURODRAIN, ABBOT OF LANN-LEIRE, NOW DUNLEER, COUNTY OF LOUTH.

    SIMPLY the name, Furodrain, occurs in the Martyrology of Tallagh, at the 18th of June. According to the Calendar of the O’Clerys, he belonged to the race of Colla Dachrioch. In the Festilogy of St. Aengus, at the 18th of June, his feast is commemorated. On this notice, there is an Irish comment, which states, that Boethin and Furodran were two sons of Moenan of Lann Luachain, in Bregia. The place of this saint had been identified with the old church of Lynn, on the east side of the beautiful Lough Ennell, in the barony of Fartullagh, and county of Westmeath. So early as the beginning of the eighth century, an abbey seems to have been existing in this locality. It seems, however, that his place must be sought for, within the former territory of Feara-Arda-Cianachta, so called from the race of Cian. The Rev. Dr. Reeves has identified the ancient Lann-Leire with Dunleer, in the barony of Ferrard, and in the county of Louth. This seems to be the true conjecture. The Welch or old British term Lann is usually found, to be the equivalent for a church; and, according to a statement sent forth, Lann Leire has been interpreted the “Church of Austerity.” We find bishops presiding at Lann Lere, from the middle to the close of the ninth century….In the year 921, the district of Feara Arda, and also Lann Leire, and Fearna Rois, were plundered by the foreigners. At this day, the Martyrology of Donegal registers our saint as Furadhran, Abbot of Lann-Leire. He is called likewise the son of Maonán.

    Article II.—St. Baithin or Baothan, of Lann-Leire, now Dunleer, County of Louth.

    A festival in honour of Baithin is set down in the Martyrology of Tallagh, at the 18th of June. He is there properly joined with the previous saint, who was his brother. His habitation seems to have been likewise at Lann Leire. This place is identified with Dunleer, county of Louth, as we have noticed, in the preceding article. When both of these brothers—who no doubt lived contemporaneously—flourished does not seem to be on record. The Felire of Aenghuis calls him Baithin. In the Leabhar Breac copy, we have the following stanza. Its English translation is
    furnished by Dr. Whitley Stokes :—

    “With fair, happy Boethin,
    Furodran with keenness,
    Moenan’s sons with virginity,
    of beautiful Lann Lere.”—

    Father John Colgan alludes to St. Baithin, as having been venerated, at the 18th of June, according to our Irish Calendars. The Martyrology of Donegal records him, likewise, and at the same date, as Baothan, son of Maonan. To the foregoing notice, the word (Juvencus), within brackets and Italicised, occurs after his name, as found in the Table to this Martyrology. The Irish Calendar, preserved in the Royal Irish Academy, enters him, at the xiv. of the July Kalends.

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  • Saint Suairleach of Linn Duachaille, April 23

    April 23 is the commemoration of an eighth-century abbot of the monastery of Linn Duachaille, Saint Suairleach. The locality of this monastery has been the subject of some dispute; in the mid-nineteenth century the Anglican Bishop William Reeves was confident that Linn Duachaille was to be identified with Magheralin in County Down but at the beginning of the twentieth century this thesis was challenged by another Anglican cleric in favour of Annagassan, County Louth. In his entry for today’s saint, Canon O’Hanlon, writing in the 1870s, follows the thinking of Bishop Reeves and describes the saint as being from Magheralin, County Down. I will bring that account first and then the evidence in favour of Annagassan. Whatever the truth of the location of this monastery, it was a sufficiently well-known foundation that the passing of some of its abbots were recorded in the Irish Annals. Saint Suairleach is among these, with his death being recorded in the year 770. Sadly, Linn Duachaille monastery features even more heavily in the Annals thanks to the frequency of the Viking attacks upon it beginning in the ninth century.

    St. Suairleach, Abbot of Magheralin, County of Down.

    According to one account, this holy man is said to have belonged to the northern province, and to the parish of Magheralin. This lies, partly in the barony of Oneilland East, county of Armagh, but chiefly in that of Lower Iveagh, county of Down. However, the entry in the Martyrology of Tallagh, at the 23rd of April, for the saint of this day, is Soardlech ind Edhnen. There he seems to be associated in locality, with the holy man, of whom a notice succeeds. One townland in the parish of Magheralin is yet called Linn Huachuille, where the old monastery stood. It was so called, from St. Colman, or Mocholmoc, the founder, who died in 699. On this day, the Martyrology of Donegal, registers a festival in honour of Suairleach, Abbot of Linn Duachaille. According to some accounts, this holy abbot died, A.D. 770; while A.D. 774 is set down for that event, in the Annals of Ulster. Subsequently to this date, that place was frequently ravaged by the Danish invaders, as recorded in our chronicles.

    Rev John O’Hanlon, Lives of the Irish Saints , Volume IV, (Dublin, 1875), 465.


    Monastery of Linn Duachaill.—It is in the townland of Linns, close to the village of Annagassan, that we find the first trace of an ecclesiastical establishment in the Parish of Gernonstown. St. Colman MacLuachan is said to have founded a church or monastery here in the seventh century. It was known by the name of Linn Duachaill (i.e.. Duachaill’s pool), or Linn Uachaill from a demon named Duachaill, who is said to have infested the place and terrified the neighbourhood until destroyed by St. Colman. Duachaill’s pool is still pointed out at the junction of the Clyde and Dee before they enter the sea at Annagassan. Dr. O’Donovan once thought that Linn Duachaill was Magheralin. Co. Down, and at first Bishop Reeves seems to have had the same opinion. But both those antiquaries found it necessary to correct their opinion on becoming acquainted with the topography and traditions of Annagassan. For Linn Duachaill was on the banks of the river called Casan Linne (Martyr. Doneg., Mar. 30, p. 91, cp Colgan Acta SS., pp. 792-703), and this river is mentioned in the “Circuit of Ireland ” as lying between the Vale of Newry, or Glen Righe, and Ath Gabhla on the Boyne. The name ” Casan”=”paths” survives in Annagassan. According to Joyce (Names of Places, p. 373) “Casan ” was originally joined with “Linne Duachaill” and became shortened to ” Casan linne,” which is preserved in Annagassan=Ath-na-gcasan, “the ford of the paths.” Dr. Todd, who has an important note on the subject in ” Wars of the Gaedhil with the Gall,” p. lxii., says, Annagassan=Aonach g Casain, i.e., the ” Fair of Casan.” Joyce’s interpretation is, I think, to be preferred, as the people still speak of the “Pass of Linns ” and this pass, as pointed out, lay further up the River Glyde, about a quarter of a mile from Duachaill’s pool, and near the spot where the monastery founded by St. Colman is believed to have stood.

    The Four Masters and Annals of Ulster do not tell very much about the Monastery of Linn Duachaill. The following entries in the former refer to it : —

    699. — Colman of Linn Duachaill died on 30 March.

    752. — Siadhail, Abbot of Linn Duachaill, died.

    758.— Anfadan, Abbot of Linn Duachaill, died.

    770. — Suairlech, Abbot of Linn Duachaill, died.

    803. — Thomas, Bishop, Scribe, and Abbot of Linn Duachaill, died.

    826. — Clemens, Abbot of Linn Duachaill, died.

    Rev. J. B. Leslie, History of Kilsaran Union of Parishes in the County of Louth, (Dundalk, 1908), 89-91.

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