No traces of the old monastery now remain, but its site is probably marked by an old church-yard in the townland of Binnion, situated close to a narrow inlet of the bay, and in a spot which a sea-king of old might fitly choose as the site of his stronghold. The place got its name of Both-chonais—the House of Conas—from its founder, who was the husband of St. Patrick’s sister, Darerca, and by her the father of two holy bishops, Mael and Maelchu. It is referred to at intervals as a place of some celebrity during the ninth and tenth centuries, and the death of its Airchinneach is recorded in A.D. 1049.
Maelisa O’Brolchain shunned church dignities, if he were not indeed a lay professor; but all the same he certainly acquired great fame even in this remotest corner of Erin both as a teacher and a scholar. The Four Masters describe him as “the learned senior (or sage) of Ireland, a paragon of wisdom and piety, in poetry as well as in both languages—(Irish and Latin).” The term ‘chief senior’ is never given except to the most eminent men, who were recognised as such by their contemporary annalists. Colgan speaks of him, too, in the highest terms as an humble man shunning all worldly honours, and devoted to a pious and studious life. He was the author of many books “replete with genius and intellect,” which were preserved in the neighbourhood of Both-chonais in Colgan’s time, but have since unfortunately perished. “I have in my own possession,” adds Colgan, “some few fragments which he wrote,” and which also appear to have completely disappeared since Colgan’s time. Even the site of his monastery is uncertain. O’Donovan seems to think it was in the townland of Binnion; but Reeves places it in the townland of Carrowmore, parish of Culdaff, on the left-hand side of the road from Moville to Carn, and about three miles from the latter village.[287] It is said that he founded an oratory at Lismore, which was burned in A.D. 1116, and is called the Oratory of Maelisa. He may have spent some time either as a student or as a teacher in that celebrated seminary. He died in A.D. 1086 at a very advanced age, for he had no sickness, but simply gave back his soul to God. This holy and eminent scholar seems to have belonged to that class of learned lay professors, of whom Conn-na-m-Bocht at Clonmacnoise was the most remarkable example. They were equally renowned for holiness and learning, but abstained from taking Holy Orders either from humility, or in order to have more leisure and more freedom in the pursuit of knowledge.
The death of Aedh, son of Maelisa O’Brolchain, who is described as “an eminent professor” (praecipuus lector), is recorded in A.D. 1095. He was, doubtless, the son of Maelisa of Both-chonais, and probably lectured either there or in the monastery of Derry. Two years afterwards, in A.D. 1097, the Four Masters record the death of Maelbrighde Mac-an-tsaer O’Brolchain, Bishop of Kildare, who is described as a ‘learned doctor.’ There can hardly be a doubt that he was the son of that chief builder—prim saer—whose fame as a mason or architect was known throughout all Erin, and who died in A.D. 1029. Then we find two members of the family raised to the primatial Chair; one was Maelcolaim—disciple of Columba—O’Brolchain, who died in A.D. 1122; and another, named also Maelbrighde O’Brolchain, who died in A.D. 1137. It is not unlikely he belonged to the class of laymen who claimed jurisdiction over, and called themselves “Bishops of Armagh” during a portion of the eleventh and twelfth centuries; for “Flaithbhertach, ‘son of Bishop O’Brolchain,’”[288] was Comarb of Columcille in Derry from A.D. 1150 to 1175. The history of this remarkable man is especially noteworthy.
When he was elected as Comarb of Columcille to the abbacy of Derry, in A.D. 1150, that ancient monastic seat of learning was, it appears, very much dilapidated. Like other places near the sea, it was greatly exposed to the ravages of the Danes, and had been several times plundered and burned. Most of the buildings were of wood, for the great stone church—Temple-more—was not yet built. A new era of ecclesiastical architecture was, however, inaugurated in Ireland towards the middle of the twelfth century by the workmen whom the Cistercians brought over from France and England to build their own magnificent churches and monasteries. Nothing like them had yet been seen in the land. There were Irish workmen, however, who, if opportunity offered, would be worthy rivals of the masons that built the Norman abbeys in France and England; and they gave proof of their capacity in the building of Cormac’s Chapel at Cashel, which is a gem in its own way that cannot be surpassed. The Abbot of Derry came of a family that had won renown as builders, and he was anxious to show his own taste and skill in the renovation of the ancient monastery over which he had just been placed. Money, of course, was wanting, but it could not be long wanting to the Comarb of Columcille, if he were resolved to procure it. He made an official visitation of the Cenel-Eoghain, to whose kith and kin he himself belonged, and ‘received his tribute,’ in A.D. 1150—the year of his appointment to Derry. Next year he made a visitation of the Siol-Cathusaigh in the County Antrim, “and he obtained a horse from every chieftain, and a sheep from every hearth, and his horse and battle dress, and a ring of gold, in which were two ounces, from O’Lynn, their lord.” In A.D. 1153 he made a visitation of the Dal Cairbre, and the Ui Eathach Uladh, and got a horse from every chieftain, and a sheep from every house, and a screaball, a horse, and five cows from O’Donlevy himself, and an ounce of gold from his wife. Coined money was scarce; but cattle and horses were plenty, and would do as well. Later on he even visited Ossory, and raised his tribute, and procured immunity for the Columbian churches in Meath from all assessments except, we presume, his own. Being at this time Head of the Columbian Order, he was, doubtless, present at the great Synod of Kells, which was held in that city by Cardinal Paparo in A.D. 1152; and during that year we find he made no official visitation elsewhere. No doubt he had enough on his hands; and we may be sure he voted for that Canon of the Council which ordered tithes to be regularly assessed for Church purposes on all the lands of Erin. It was what he had himself twice done already, and what he could now do, not only with custom, but with law also in his favour.
O’Brolchain made an excellent use of the funds which he thus procured. He removed all the houses that surrounded and disfigured the church of Derry, and then built on the site of the old church that new Temple Mor which gives its name to the parish, and appears to have been a large and imposing structure. The Four Masters say it was eighty feet long, and that it was built by O’Brolchain and his clergy, with the help of the king of Ireland, in forty days. If so, the materials must have been all prepared, and a large number of tradesmen must have been employed, which is not unlikely, seeing that he had already built a limekiln[289] measuring seventy feet every way, which took him twenty days to construct. The limekiln was built in A.D. 1163; but the church was not erected until A.D. 1165, and it is highly probable that the walls were being built in the meantime, and that the Four Masters mean that the church was covered in during the space of 60 days, which might easily be done. Doubtless, O’Brolchain constructed many other buildings also at Derry, for otherwise he would scarcely have occasion for building that enormous limekiln.
The merits of O’Brolchain were fully appreciated by the clergy and people of the north, and led to his formal elevation to the episcopal order in the year A.D. 1158. He had previously enjoyed large jurisdiction as Comarb of Columcille not only in Derry, but over the Columbian Churches generally. It was felt, however, especially after the Synod of Kells, that this state of things was now becoming anomalous and unsatisfactory, and might lead to a conflict of jurisdiction between the Comarb of Columcille and the regular diocesan authority. Hence it was resolved at a meeting of the Irish Clergy, held in Meath in that year, to raise O’Brolchain to the episcopal dignity, and circumscribe his jurisdiction by assigning him a definite territory. The Four Masters record it in this manner:—
A.D. 1158. “A Synod of the Clergy of Ireland was convened at Bri Mac Taidgh in Laeghaire (near Trim), when there were present twenty-five bishops, with the legate of the Successor of Peter to ordain rules and good morals. It was on this occasion the clergy of Ireland, with the successor of Patrick, ordered a Chair, like every other bishop, for the successor of Columcille—Flaithbheartach Ua Brolchain—and the Arch-abbacy of the churches of Ireland in general.” Very little is known of the history of this Synod; but we may note the following important facts:—The legate of the Comarb of Peter was Christian, Bishop of Lismore; his presence at the Synod was sufficient to authorize the bishops to proceed to the erection of a new See. The ‘Chair’ spoken of means not merely a chair in that assembly, but a new diocese, with all the rights and privileges canonically appertaining thereto. The new bishop was, however, still allowed to retain, and perhaps for the first time canonically to acquire, the Headship of all the Columbian monasteries. It may be that Kells was still a rival, and that its abbot also claimed to be Comarb of Columba; if so, this decree settled the question; and the new bishop of Derry was formally recognised as the Head of all the Columbian houses in Erin—for at that time there could be no question of any other.
Thus it was that the See of Derry was established. Mention is made of a Bishop of Derry previously, and of a Bishop-abbot of Derry; but it was, so to speak, by accident that this took place. There was no See of Derry, and no Diocese of Derry until A.D. 1158, when O’Brolchain was formally elevated to that dignity. It is not unlikely that he too was in Episcopal Orders previously—but now for the first time he got a chair or diocese. This eminent ecclesiastic, the founder of the Diocese of Derry, died in A.D. 1175, and the Four Masters record his death with the following honourable testimony:—
“Flaithbhertach O’Brolchain, Comarb of Columcille, a tower of wisdom and hospitality, a man on whom on account of his goodness and wisdom the clergy of Ireland had bestowed a bishop’s chair, to whom the abbacy of Hy had been offered (in A.D. 1164), died in righteousness, after exemplary sickness, in the Duibhregles of Columcille; and Gilla Mac Taidgh Ua Brenain was appointed to his place in the abbacy.” It is a curious fact that in A.D. 1173, we find recorded the death of Muiredhach Ua Cobthaich, Bishop of Derry and Raphoe; but it only implies that before the year A.D. 1158 he was the bishop territorially of Derry; for after that date he could have no legal claim to the See.
During the half-century between A.D. 1100 and 1150, Iona was under the influence of the Kings of Norway, especially of Magnus the Great, who subjected the island to the jurisdiction of the Bishop of Man; but in A.D. 1156 royal Somerlid recovered Hy and others of the ‘Southern’ islands. Being himself a Celt of Irish blood, he was anxious to restore the Celtic influence in the island; and hence we find that in A.D. 1164, at his instance the abbacy of Hy was offered to O’Brolchain, Abbot and Bishop of Derry. But O’Brolchain being now Bishop of Derry, and the recognised head of the Columbian Order, declined to accept the abbacy of Hy, preferring to remain in Derry. Domhnall O’Brolchain, however, was appointed to the insular abbacy, and being, like all his family, a building man, he determined to signalize his reign by the erection of a great church in Hy. It was the cathedral whose ruins are still to be seen, and they furnish a striking monument of the taste and munificence of the Irish Abbot. On the capital of the tower column are inscribed the still legible words—Donaldus O’Brolchan fecit hoc opus. We cannot have absolute certainty; but there can be no reasonable doubt of the identity of this name with the Domhnall O’Brolchain, the prior and exalted senior, whose death the Annals of Ulster record in A.D. 1203, and the Four Masters in A.D. 1202. After his death a certain Cellach,[290] “without any legal right, and in despite of the family of Hy, erected a monastery there in the middle of Cro-Hy.” But the clergy of the North of Erin, bishops and abbots, passed over into Hy and pulled down this new monastery; and Awley O’Ferrall was elected Abbot of Hy by the suffrages both of the Foreigners and Gaedhil. This points to an attempt made by the foreign influence to eject the Irish monks from Hy; but for once it signally failed. The last entry in our Annals records the death of Flann O’Brolchain, the last Irish Abbot of Hy, in the year A.D. 1219. Thenceforward it ceased to be Irish, and became a purely Scottish monastery and remained so until the Reformation.