Chapter VIII
[P. 151.]—Relics. For the notices in Tírechán see [App. C, 16]. The relics at Armagh are also mentioned in Liber Angueli, 354. A ridiculous story was afterwards invented that Patrick threw all the inhabitants of Rome into a miraculous sleep, and then plundered the city of its most precious relics (Vit. Trip. p. 238). It illustrates the moral ideals of medieval Irish ecclesiastics, but hardly proves, as Todd suggests (p. 481), “the unscrupulous manner in which the lives were interpolated to prop up later superstitions.” For the extension of the cult of relics from the seventh century forward see Zimmer, Celtic Church, pp. 119 sqq.; but his thesis that relics were unknown before in Ireland is highly improbable.
[P. 155.]—Emain, Navan. For a description and plan of the remains see M. d’Arbois de Jubainville, Rev. Celt. xvi. p. 1 sqq.; and cp. Westropp, Trans. of R.I.A. xxxi. p. 684.
[Ib.]—House of entertainment at Navan: Ann. of Four Masters, s.a. 1387.
[Ib.]—If Daire was King of Oriel, one is surprised at the way he is introduced by Muirchu (290) as quidam homo dives et honorabilis in regionibus Orientalium (i.e. in Orior = Airthir, the eastern part of Oriel = Oirgialla. This passage proves that Orior extended further westward than the regions comprised in the two modern baronies of Orior). This looks as if he were only an under-king, perhaps King of the Hy-Nialláin (O’Neill-land) cp. Book of Rights, p. 146, for he was a descendant of Niallán, cp. Trip. p. 228, and Todd, p. 481. On the other hand, if the tradition that Daire co-operated with Loigaire and Corc in initiating the Senchus Mór is correct, it looks as if he may have been King of Oriel. In a tract in the Lebor na hUidre (edited by Stokes in his Tripartite Life, pp. 562 sqq.) he is called rí Ulad (p. 564) by an anachronism. It seems that he was in any case chief of the Hy-Nialláin, and probable that he was also King of Oriel. The mere fact that Armagh was chosen by Patrick as his chief seat seems to me (as I have indicated in the text) an argument in favour of this conclusion.
[P. 156.]—Date of foundation of Armagh, A.D. 444. We must here follow the Annals (see [Appendix A, iii. 1]). In the story of the foundation of Trim in the Additional Notices, it is stated that Trim was founded immediately on Patrick’s arrival in Ireland, i.e. A.D. 432, “in the twenty-fifth year before the foundation of Armagh.” This would place the foundation of Armagh in 457—a date which is obviously too late, and has been rightly rejected by Todd (St. P. p. 470). Is it possible that there had been a pre-Patrician foundation at Trim, twenty-four years older than Armagh, and that the statement is due to a confusion between this and Patrick’s second founding?
[P. 159.]—Northern Church at Armagh. The church which Patrick founded on the hill is called by Muirchu “northern church,” sinistralis aeclessia; hence Reeves supposes it “to have stood somewhere near the extremity of the north transept of the present cathedral” (p. 15). On the other hand, it has been suggested that the adjective means that the church was built north and south (cp. Todd, St. P. p. 412, and Stokes, note on Muirchu, p. 292). The argument for this interpretation is that the church was called the sabhall, and that the other church which bore the same name (at Saul) lay north and south (transverse) according to the Vita Tertia, c. 31; hence it is suggested that churches with this peculiarity were called sabhalls. Reeves had taken this view in an earlier work, Antiquities of Down and Connor, pp. 220-1.
[P. 159.]—Graveyard. Vit. Trip. 228, “the place where is the ferta to-day” (Stokes), not as Colgan (so Reeves and Todd), “the place where are the two graves, da ferta.”
[P. 162.]—Clogher (in Tyrone). No connexion of Patrick with Clochar is mentioned in the Lib. Arm., but there is a good deal about it in the Vit. Trip. 174 sqq. The Bishop of Clochar, macc Cairthinn, is described as Patrick’s champion. (It is not clear that he is the same as filius Cairthin in Add. Notices, 338₃). The Domnach Airgit was preserved at Clochar, at the time when the Part III. of the Vit. Trip. was compiled (p. 176), and afterwards transferred to Clones. It is now in the Dublin Museum, and its history will be found in the papers of Dr. Petrie (Trans. of R.I.A. vol. xviii. 1838), and Dr. Bernard (ib. vol. xxx. Pt. vii., 1893). An inner box of yew is protected by a silver-plated copper cover, which is enclosed in an outer case of gold-plated silver, richly ornamented. It contained, but not originally, a copy of the Latin gospels, of which mutilated fragments are preserved. It used to be thought that this MS. dated from the fifth century, and belonged to Patrick, but Dr. Bernard’s careful examination proves that it can hardly be earlier than the eighth century. As for the box, which was probably meant for relics, not for a MS., it may be identified with the Domnach Airgit of the Vita Trip., and is therefore at least as old as the tenth century; but more cannot be said.
It may be observed that Clochar is called Clochar macc nDoimni (Vit. Trip. p. 178), and one of the bishops whose consecration Tírechán notices (304) is Iustianus mac hu Daiméne.