OMNIUM SANCTORUM HIBERNIAE

Tag: Saints of Down

  • 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.

    Content Copyright © Omnium Sanctorum Hiberniae 2012-2015. All rights reserved.

  • Saint Berach of Bangor, April 21

    April 21 is the commemoration of Saint Berach, one of the abbots of the monastery of Bangor, founded by Saint Comgall.  It seems that the abbacy of our saint Berach lasted for a short time, as Canon O’Hanlon, drawing on the evidence from the Irish Annals, explains:

    St. Berach, Abbot of Bangor, County of Down.
    [Seventh Century]

    …The whole of Ireland was filled with monastic houses of great extent. Among these, the famous Abbey of Bangor sent many of its holy inmates from earth, to people the courts of the Heavenly Jerusalem. The name of Berach, Abbot of Bennchair, occurs, in the Martyrology of Tallagh, at the 21st of April. He was born, most probably, towards the opening of the seventh century. We know not the place of his nativity; but, it seems not improbable, he belonged to the community at Bangor, where St. Mac Laisre, the Abbot, died, A.D. 645. We find another Abbot, St. Segan O’Cuinn, who departed, A.D. 662. The holy man Berach was probably his immediate successor; and, if such be the case, he could not have long survived, to rule over that establishment. He died, in the year 663, according to the Annals of Ulster, and of the Four Masters. According to the Martyrology of Donegal, on this day was venerated, Berach, Abbot of Bennchar.

    Content Copyright © Omnium Sanctorum Hiberniae 2012-2015. All rights reserved.

  • Saint Conall of Clonallan, April 2

    April 2 is the feast day of a sixth-century County Down bishop, Conall of Clonallan. Not a great deal is known of him, but he was said to have succeeded the founder bishop of Coleraine around the year 570. Adamnan’s Life of Saint Columba in Chapter 50 of the first book records a Bishop Conall of Coleraine having prepared a welcome for Saint Columba on one of his Irish visits, but it is not known if this was our saint. Canon O’Hanlon has this short account of Saint Conall:

    St. Conall, Bishop of Clonallan, County or Down.
    [Sixth Century.]

    In the Martyrology of Tallagh, the name of Conall, son of Aedha, is found, entered at the 2nd of April. The Bollandists’, while deferring an opinion on the subject, until the Acts of the Irish Saints should receive further illustration, remark, that the saint, venerated on this day at Cluain-dallain, is thought, by Colgan, to have been Connall, Abbot of Killchonail, in the territory, known as Maine, or Hy-Maine. The O’Clerys state, that the saint, venerated on the 2nd of April, belonged to the race of Irial, son to Conall Cearnach. At first, St Conall was president over Clonallan church, county of Down, at an early period. He afterwards succeeded St. Carbreus, as Bishop of Coleraine, about the year 570. His parish was evidently near Carlingford Lough, which becomes contracted at Caol, “narrow,” in the same sense, as that used by the Scotch, in the word Kyles, now the Narrow Water. The name of this church is said, however, to have been derived from St Dalian, who flourished in the sixth century. The O’Clerys’ Calendar states, that his place was near Snamh Each, i.e. the harbour near unto the Cael, in Ui Eathach, of Uladh. We read, in the Martyrology of Donegal, that veneration was paid, on this day, to Conall, son of Aedh, of Cluain, i.e. of Cluain Dallain, now Clonallan parish.

    Content Copyright © Omnium Sanctorum Hiberniae 2012-2015. All rights reserved.