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| Who were Cormac of Cormac's
Hill And Benen of Drumbannon? |
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By T. J. Barron
The purpose of the following notes on the history of the
immediate background of the Bailieborough district is
not meant to be definitive. It is merely to provoke discussion
and glean more information about our fifth century roots.
We are all aware that historical proofs are extremely
difficult to produce where documentary evidence is so
sparse. The evidence now printed is the result of my own
study of our history for many years. If these notes provoke
further study of the beginnings of Christianity in East
Cavan. I shall not have laboured in vain.
Very little is known about what was happening in our district
in the fifth century, or in the twelfth century, yet I
believe there are clues in our place names and oral tradition,
which may help to connect our countryside with the main
course of Irish history.
Persistent Folk Memory The commonwealth Survey (1652)
has the townland of Lisnalee marked as church land; this
record indicates that there must have been the site of
an ancient church nearby. Our first quest is to find where
the church was situated. Ancient church sites are extremely
persistent in folk memory, and survive in our place names
for many centuries, even after nearly all visible evidence
of their existence has vanished. The same can be said
of their founders, whose names live on in our townland
names, such as Tullylorcan and Corrakeeran. We may never
know who Lorcan or Kieran were, though there is some tangible
evidence that they and the churches they founded did exist
in early times. Our own Drumbannon is a case in point,
as we shall see. The earliest form of the name, I know
of, is in the Plantation Survey of 1609. There it is recorded
as Drom Benan.
Tanderagee Motte A mound in Tandragee has come down in
tradition as Tullach-Chaislean, meaning Castle-Mound.
It has been identified as an Irish motte of the Norman
period, built by an Irishman, in imitation of the Norman
defensive structure, of which the motte of Moybolgue is
a good example - the only difference being that the Irish
motte did not require an enclosure at its base. It has
been observed that mottes usually have a church nearby,
so it is likely that our predecessors had a local church
in the twelfth century. Can we penetrate to the origin
of that church? I believe we can.
Drumbannon Let us return to Drom Benan of 1609. The ruined
Church of Ireland church on Drumbannon is of comparatively
recent origin going back only to the early 1700's. There
is some evidence that it was erected on an ancient church
site. Like Moybolgue, Knockbride and Killan, it had a
"mixed" burial ground, for the Catholic poor from the
local workhouse were, I have been told, interred there
as well as the Protestant poor. So it must have been regarded
as consecrated ground down the centuries. Had an early
cleric called Benan or Benen something to do with church
site? We must try to find an answer to this question.
Patrick and Cormac In a recent paper in Guth Agus Tuairm
(1983) I have published evidence that St. Patrick the
Briton, who wrote our first great historical document,
called The Confession of St. Patrick, installed a local
cleric called Cormac in a new church on Corleck Hill north
of Skeagh Lake, about the year 462. In the year 474, the
tribe called the Ui Niallain, to whom Cormac belonged
(ref. 1), migrated to North Armagh, and in 478 Cormac
became "the first bishop to sit in Patrick's chair"(ref.
2 ) on Ard Macha. Cormac, of our local Ui Niallain, was
evidently a local cleric in our area, before Patrick and
his royal patron Conall, son of Niall of the Nine Hostages,
decided to mop up the pagan gods, for which our highlands
were noted. Then the great pagan centre, called by one
of our historians,(ref. 3 ) the heart-pulse of Celtic
Ireland, situated on the Corleck - Drumeague hills, was
put in charge of Bishop Cormac of the Ui Niallain by Patrick
of the Confession. |
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Cormac's Hill Can we probe into the
background of Bishop Cormac? I believe we can. How did
it happen that a local man of the Ui Niallain happen to
be a Christian cleric, when Patrick visited East Cavan
c. 462? We all know that the hill, on which Bailieborough
Castle was erected around 1620, is still called Cormac's
Hill. This Cormac can have been no ordinary man to have
his name so remembered. We have already seen that it was
an Irish custom to perpetuate the memory of an important
ecclesiastic by naming his seat of operations after him.
So it is likely that Patrick found Cormac a cleric on
Cormac's Hill, or perhaps, attached to Benen's church
on Drom Benan, fro Benan appears to have become bishop
of Armagh in 458, (ref. 4) having succeeded Sen-Patrick,
the first bishop of Armagh.
Cill a Chollaigh But there is further evidence to help
us. When William Bailie erected his castle on Cormac's
Hill, it was known as Kilcolhy in the 1609 Plantation
Survey. I have consulted O Donovan's Letters, written
in the 1830's, when he visited Co. Cavan in connection
with his work for the Ordinance Survey. He tells us that
he found Kilcolhy of the Plantation Survey, pronounced
as Cill Colaigh by Irish speaking people, and admitted
that he was not certain as to the spelling or meaning
of Colaigh. Evidently Colaigh was an archaic work whose
meaning was lost. Today scholars recognise that "The Three
Collas" of the fifth century meant Three Princes, sons
of Niall of the Nine Hostages. We have found that one
of them; Conall was a contemporary of Bishop Cormac, and
indeed his patron. (ref. 5) So Cormac's cell on Cormac's
Hill was known as The Cell (or church) of the Prince,
alias Cill a Chollaigh, which closely resembles the Cill
Colagih heard from native speakers by O Donovan in the
1830's.
Prince Cormac's Home Fortunately we have not far to search
for the probable home of Prince Cormac, for on the eastern
side of the Castle Lake; there are the remains of a great
Dun, probably the seat of the local king of the Ui Niallain.
Now let us return to Benen of Drom Benan to whom Cormac
must have been indebted for his Christianity. We are told
that Benignius, called Benen in Irish, was an Irish boy
from Cashel district, adopted by Patrick, evidently Sen-Patrick,
who preceded Patrick of the Confession. Benen is described
as Patrick's psalm-singer, (ref. 6) and may have, at first,
acted as Sen-Patrick's interpreter. We know little of
Benen's movements in Ireland, but there is a record that
he was bishop of Armagh form 458 to 468, where he succeeded
Sen-Patrick, and is described as the second bishop of
Armagh. So sometime before Benen's appointment to Armagh
in 458, he must have established his church on Drom Benan,
today's Drumbannon. We can easily imagine that the conversion
of the local king's family would have been one of Benen's
first objectives. When Patrick of the Confession arrived
c. 462 he found the makings of a bishop in Prince Cormac,
and installed him as bishop on the site of the ancient
gods of Corleck and Drumeague. For fifteen centuries Cormac's
name has clung to Cormac's Hill, where Bailie built his
castle around 1620, and where United Irishmen met with
defeat in 1798. Doubtless Benen and Cormac had like-minded
successors who kept their names alive for many centuries.
This, at least, is my theory of how Cormac's Hill, alias
Cill a Chollaigh, and Drumbannon, alias Drom Benen, got
their names. |
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Summary Cormac of Cormac's Hill was,
by birth, a prince of the Ui Niallain, and probably born
in the dun, now called Porter's Fort in the forest beside
Bailieborough. When still a boy, he came under the influence
of Benignius, called Benen in Irish, who evidently had
a church on Drumbanno, alias Drom Benan. Evidently Cormac
was granted land by his family, which is still called
Cormac's Hill, and his house became known as Cill a Chollaigh
(the Church or Cell of the Prince). Benen succeeded Sen-Patrick
as bishop of Armagh in 458, and left Cormac in charge
of his tribe, the Ui Niallain. Patrick of the Confession
visited East Cavan c.462, to abolish the idols there,
and placed Cormac as bishop of a new church on Corleck
Hill, till then a pagan centre of great importance. In
the year 474 the Ui Niallain, with their bishop Cormac
migrated to North Armagh, and after driving out the Ulaidh,
Cormac was made first Abbot of Armagh, and Patrick, whom
they found in fetters, (ref. 7) was granted the hill known
as Ard Macha (the height of Macha) for his church. This
he resigned in 478, and Cormac then became "the first
bishop to sit in Patrick's chair". In 493 Cormac retired
to his native district and died there in 497. (ref. 8)
As was then the custom, when a saintly man died. Cormac
was enshrined at his church on Corleck Hill … This shrine
gave the district a new name viz, Crioch an Ernaidhe,
which means the Territory of the Shrine Grave. An obvious
corollary to the foregoing notes, is that the Patrick
who died in 361 cannot have been the Patrick who baptised
Conall, one of the Three Collas, in 462: and was found
in fetters in Armagh, by his friends Bishop Cormac and
King Daire of the Ui Niallain, when they drove the Ulstermen
form Armagh in the year 474. obviously Patrick of the
Confession was the Patrick whom our ancient records state
died in 493.
References
1. H.J. Lawlor and R.I. Best. 1919. The Ancient List of
the Coarbs of Patrick in the Proceedings of the Royal
Irish Academy, p. 319. It should be said that the original
List was made in 1020, but the earliest part of the list
was based on the diptychs of The church of Armagh on which
they recorded the names of those for whom prayers Were
offered at Mass. The dates, therefore, deserve our respect.
2. T. F. O Rahilly. The Two Patricks, page 67. 3. Dr.
Anne Ross, in a letter to the writer of this paper. 4.
Lawlor and Best, Pria, 1919, page 318. 5. Guth agus Tuairm,
1983, Saint Patrick's Relationship with Bishop Cormac,
by T.J.B. Pages 83 - 107. 6. Lawlor and Best, 1919, Pria,
page 318. 7. St. Patrick's Confession, paragraph 52. 8.
Lawlor and Best. 1919, Pria, 318 - 319, and Guth agus
Tuairm,1983, pages 83-108.
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