Chapter VII
[P. 127.]—Amolngaid. The name occurs on a gravestone at Breastagh, north of Killala, in King Amolngaid’s country: maq(i) Corrbri maq(i) Ammllongatt—“(monument of ...) of the son of Corpri, son of Amolngaid” (Rhŷs, Proceedings of R.S.A.I. Part iii. vol. vii. 5th series, p. 235, 1898). The Genealogy of the Hy Fiachrach (ed. O’Donovan, p. 11) gives Coirpre as the name of a son of King Amolngaid; likewise a notice in the Book of Lecan (fol. 46, see O’Donovan, ib. p. 12, note a). There is thus ground for supposing that the person commemorated was a descendant of the king.
[P. 129.]—Mathona was connected with Tamnach. Tírechán calls her sister of Benignus, Patrick’s successor. He probably confounded the famous Benignus with an obscure namesake whom he mentions in another place (319₁₅): Benignus frater Cethiaci de genere Ailello. We should expect Mathona, in Tirerrill, to be de genere Ailello.
[P. 134.]—For the place of crossing the Shannon (Sinona) indicated by Tírechán, see my Itinerary of Patrick in Connaught, where it is shown that the view which placed it near Clonmacnois is untenable.
[P. 136.]—On Rathcrochan and the various mounds around it, see O’Donovan’s long note, Annals of Four Masters, s.a. 1223, vol. iii. pp. 204-6; and cp. Westropp, Trans. of R.I.A. xxxi. p. 687. On the red stone: O’Donovan, Hy Fiachrach, pp. 24-5, note (no mention of this stone is found before the seventeenth century).
[P. 139.]—Baptismal queries. Three questions were put in the Roman usage:—
Credis in Deum Patrem omnipotentem?
Credis et in Iesum Christum, Filium eius unicum, dominum nostrum, natum et passum?
Credis et in Spiritum sanctum, sanctam ecclesiam, remissionem peccatorum, carnis resurrectionem?
(Duchesne, Origines du culte chrétien, p. 313.)
[P. 140.]—Death of Ethne and Fedelm after their baptism. The same thing is told in Muirchu’s story de Morte Moneisen Saxonissae (p. 496). Monesan, daughter of a king in Britain, cannot be induced by her parents to marry, but persists in asking her mother and her nurse cosmic questions. Her parents, hearing that Patrick received weekly visits from God, took her to Ireland, and besought the saint to allow their daughter to see God. He baptized her, and she immediately committed her spirit to the hands of the angels: moritur ibi et adunatur. She was buried at a church which Muirchu does not name, but her relics were venerated there in his time. Compare also the story of Ros, brother of Dichu, and the instance in the life of St. Brendan, cited by Todd (St. Patrick, p. 459 and note). The other cases which he quotes (p. 125 and note 2) are not so closely parallel.
[P. 145.]—Inscription at Selce. Tírechán, p. 319; Bury, “Supplementary Notes” in Eng. Hist. Review, October 1902. Bishop Brón MacIcni was consecrated by Patrick (Tír. 305₁₀), and his name appeared as bishop on the Selce inscription (319₇). The inference is that Patrick’s visit to Killespugbrone (327₁₉) was on the first journey; but of course he may have been there twice. Brón is commemorated in the Martyrologies of Tallaght and Donegal at June 8, and in the latter his death is assigned to A.D. 511.
[P. 148.]—Patrick’s foundations in Tirawley. I may refer to two papers by Bishop Healy in the Irish Eccl. Record, 1889 (673 sqq. and 906 sqq.), giving an account of an antiquarian visit which he made to the neighbourhood of Killala.