OMNIUM SANCTORUM HIBERNIAE

Tag: Saints of Fermanagh

  • Deacon Aedh of Cuil-Maine, July 10

    On July 10 Canon O’Hanlon brings details of a Saint Aedh, described in the Martyrologies as a ‘Deacon’. He identifies the locality associated with this holy man as Clonmany, County Donegal. Pádraig Ó Riain’s entry for the saint, however, places him instead in the County Fermanagh parish of Magheraculmoney and suggests that he is identical with Saint Maodhóg of Ferns. Deacon Aedh has a second feast day on August 31, one he shares with a couple of namesakes. So, he is one of the Irish saints who well illustrates the difficulties in trying to work through the evidence from genealogical, martyrological, and place name sources. Ó Riain’s account of the saint can be found on page 70 of his  A Dictionary of Irish Saints (Dublin, 2011), below is that of Canon O’Hanlon from Volume VII of his Lives of the Irish Saints:

    Deacon Aedh, of Cuil-Maine, now Clonmany, County of Donegal. 

    Veneration was given, at the 10th of July, to Aodh Deochain in Crichmaine, according to the Martyrology of Tallagh. Elsewhere this record styles him Mac Maine. Marianus O’Gorman remits his feast to the 31st of August, as the Bollandists, who notice him at the 10th of July, observe. At the the same date, an entry appears in the Martyrology of Donegal, regarding Deacon Aedh, of Cuil-Maine. This was the ancient name of the parish of Clonmany, in the north-western part of the barony of Inishowen, and county of Donegal. This church was served by a vicar, to the close of the fifteenth century. The village here is pleasantly situated on a small rivulet, which rising in the adjoining mountains finds its course to the Atlantic Ocean. Another festival, in honour of the present saint, seems to have been observed, on the 31st of August.

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  • Saint Lucán of Tamhnach, January 23

    On January 23 the Irish calendars commemorate Saint Lucán of Tamhnach. The problem appears to be in identifying whether the locality associated with the holy man lies in the lakeland county of Fermanagh, or in County Dublin. Canon O’Hanlon’s account though starts off by saying that the place name Tamhnach is not a common one in Leinster and is illustrated by Wakeman’s sketch of the Fermanagh site:

    St. Lucain or Lucan of Tamhnach, or Tawny. 

    In reference to the etymological meaning of this saint’s place, we are told, that Tamhnach (Tawnagh) signifies a green field, which produces fresh, sweet grass. This word enters very generally into names in Ulster and Connaught, especially in the mountainous districts; it is found occasionally, though seldom, in Leinster, and still more seldom in Munster. In modern names it usually appears as Tawnagh, Tawny, and Tonagh, which are themselves the names of several places. In the north of Ulster the aspirated m is often restored, and the word then becomes Tamnagh and Tamny. In composition it takes all the prreceding forms, as well as Tawna and Tamna. We find, according to the Martyrology of Donegal, that Lucán of Tamhnach, was venerated on this day. And in the Martyrology of Tallagh, we meet a nearly similar entry, on the 23rd of January. The Irish form of his place, is Anglicized, Tawny. There is a Tamhach-an-reata, now Tawny—said to be in the parish of Derryvullan, barony of Tirkennedy and county of Fermanagh. Not far removed from this, on the townland of Derryvullan, in a parish bearing this same name, is represented a “holy well,” beside the modern Protestant church, and close to Tamlacht Bay, on the River Erne. In Tamlacht, belonging to this parish, there is an ancient church, and “St Patrick’s well,” which flows beside a gigantic tree. There is likewise a parish, called Taney or Tawney, in the half-barony of Rathdown, and county of Dublin. Here the old church-site and cemetery may be seen delightfully situated on a green knoll, near the railway station at Dundrum. Prior to 1152, it is said, this was a rural see. St. Laurence O’Toole, in 1178, confirmed  its possessions to Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin, under the title of  “Churchtown with the Grange of Clonskene.” It does not seem an easy  matter to determine the site of this saint’s church nor his period.

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  • Saint Sinell of Cleenish, November 12

    On November 12 we commemorate Saint Sinell of Cleenish island in County Fermanagh. Saint Sinell was one of the disciples of Saint Finnian of Clonard, ‘tutor of the saints of Ireland’ and in his turn acted as tutor to the great Saint Columbanus, who will himself be commemorated later this month. The site has recently been subject to excavation and a brief account, along with pictures of the island, can be found here and here. Below is the entry for Cleenish from 18th-century writer Mervyn Archdall’s classic account of the monasteries of Ireland. Archdall gives Saint Sinell’s feastday as October 16, but it is recorded at 12 November in both the Martyrologies of Marianus O’Gorman and Donegal:

    Clinish, An island in Lough-Earn, three miles south of Enniskillen. St Synell, son of Manacus, or Maynacur, was abbot of Cluain Inis about the middle of the sixth century; his feast is held 16th of October. St. Fintan dwelt with this saint upwards of eighteen years. Cleenishe is now a parish church in the diocese of Clogher.

    In his expanded and annotated edition of Archdall’s text, Bishop P.F. Moran adds:

    Clinish now Cleenishe a corruption of the original name Claen-inis, or Cleen-inish, which, as Joyce informs us means “the sloping island.” The Martyrology of Donegal has at 12th November — Sinell, son of Mianach (or Moenach), of Claoin-inis, in Loch Eirne. St. Sinell was a disciple of St. Finnian of Clonard, and founded the Monastery of Claein-inis about the year 550. It was here that the great missionary, St. Columbanus, first applied himself to sacred studies; and before he quitted this monastery he composed his Commentary on the Psalms which affords abundant proof that the Greek and Hebrew languages were profoundly studied by the disciples of St. Sinell. Another illustrious ornament of Cleenish was St. Fintan Munnu, who, towards the close of the 6th century, passed sixteen years in the paths of sanctity on this island.

    Rt. Rev. P.F. Moran, ed.,M.Archdall, Monasticon Hibernicum, Volume II, (Dublin, 1876), 147.

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