Clonmacnoise

“ Moreover, there were fifty tame horses with Ciaran for tilling and ploughing the ground.' The unworldly character of Clonmacnoise, as compared with Saigir, was calculated to attract popular sympathy and regard, and hence it is that the former occupies so prominent a place in the religious history of Ireland, while Saigir is little noticed, notwithstanding its greatness and wealth. ”

“ COLCHU, Saint (d. 792) , of the family of Ua Dunechda, was ferleighinn or prelector, that is in modern style head-master, of the famous school of Clonmacnoise. He is termed in the ' Annals ' ' chief scribe and master of the Scots ' (Irish) , the office of scribe being so honourable in those days that the title was frequently added to enhance the celebrity of an abbot or bishop ; and from the specimens which have come down to us, such as the 'Book of Kells,' many of them appear to have been artists of no mean skill. ”

“ St. Ængus says that it is a solemnity that “fills territories and impels fast-going ships” on sea and river—hurrying to celebrate the glorious festival of Ciaran of Cluain.
Anyone who visits Clonmacnoise on the 9th of September will see the “territory” of the saint still filled with pilgrims, and the ‘ships’ laden with crowds of men and women crossing the Shannon to visit his holy shrine. St. Cummian of Clonfert in his Paschal Epistle, of which we have already spoken, ranks Ciaran, and most justly, amongst the “early Fathers of the Irish Church.” ”

“ Some thirty years later in A.D. 1065, Aedh O’Rorke and Diarmaid O’Kelly plundered Clonfert and Clonmacnoise, and once more speedy vengeance overtook the robbers; for Aedh O’Connor came against them and defeated them through the miracles of Ciaran and Brenainn, whose churches they had plundered. ”

“ Clonmacnoise preserved its independence three centuries longer. It was incorporated with Meath in 1569. Thus at length the dream of the fathers of Rathbreasail was fulfilled. There were two dioceses in the ancient kingdom of Meath—Meath and Kilmore. ”

“ Quiaranus, is the traditional founder of the see of Clonmacnoise, and is still a popular saint in Ireland, whose ruined church, nearly in the centre of the island, is a place of pilgrimage. It stands in a lonely plain, close to the left bank of the broad, slow flowing Shannon, and in the midst of a group of ecclesiastical ruins; several other churches two round towers, two beautiful crosses, and many ancient ornamental tombstones. A single low ridge, extending out of sight across the plain, seems to suggest rather than form a way to the outer wond. ”

“ Tuam claimed the diocese of Ardagh for the western province, whilst Armagh declared that the Shannon was its boundary, and hence reckoned Clonmacnoise as a northern see, and at the same time claimed, as subject to its own metropolitical jurisdiction, the churches of Killmedoin, Croagh-patrick, Killtulagh, and some others of the diocese of Tuam. ”

“ One of the most important documents contained in the Leabhar-na-h-Uidhre is the ancient elegy on Columcille, composed by another bard, the celebrated Dallan Forgaill so early as the end of the sixth century. This poem is undoubtedly genuine. The language is so ancient that even the great scholars of Clonmacnoise in the eleventh century found it necessary to write an interlinear gloss in order to render it intelligible to ordinary readers at that early date. ”

“ Abban, for whom he built a church. It was, says this Life, his constant occupation to work for the saints wherever he was, but he charged them so dear that he lost his sight through the displeasure of the saints at the greatness of his charges. The Gobban was probably of foreign descent, and tried to make the Scots pay well for their buildings.
It is certain that Clonmacnoise reached a high degree of perfection in architecture, and the Nuns’ Church, Relig na Cailleach, was certainly one of the most beautiful types of the Celtic Romanesque in Ireland. ”

“ His son Luchairen appears as scribe and anchorite at Clonmacnois. Egertach, the son of the latter, is Erenagh of the little church of Clonmacnois, and his son Dunadhach is bishop of Clonmacnois; but Dunadhach’s son Dunchadh is first Ferleighinn, or lector, of Clonmacnois and afterwards its Anchorite. His son Joseph appears as Anmchara, or soul-friend, of Clonmacnois, and he was father to Conn na mbocht, or of the poor, whose death is recorded in 1031 as Cenn na Cele De, or Head of the Culdees, and Anchorite of Clonmacnois. ”

“ The Annals of Clonmacnois was one of the books in the hands of the "Four Masters," but it is now lost, and a different book called by the same name (the original [Pg 207] of which has also perished) was translated into English by Macgeoghegan in 1627. [18] The celebrated Leabhar na h-Uidhre [Lowar na Heera] or "Book of the Dun Cow," compiled about the year 1100, emanated from this centre of learning. Like Clonfert, and every other home of Irish civilisation, the city of Clonmacnois fell a prey to the barbarians. The Northmen plundered it or burnt it, or both, on ten separate occasions. ”

“ But he founded his monastery when very young; his own life was extremely ascetic; and he had amongst his novices and disciples several of the most celebrated founders of religious houses in Ireland. In this way it came to pass that as Finnian of Clonard was the tutor of the Saints of Ireland, so Fintan came to be described as the Father of the Irish Monks. And as Clonard was looked upon as a great school, so Clonenagh, like Aran, came to be regarded during the life of its holy founder as a kind of noviciate for the training of monks, many of whom went to Bangor, and elsewhere ”

“ In any case the statement that he made over Isel to Ciaran is so obviously incongruous with the sense of the passage, that it can be safely rejected as an interpolation. Its purpose is to claim for Clonmacnois the possession of the land called Isel, the site of which is no longer known, though it cannot have been far from Clonmacnois. Conn of the Poor, the great and charitable benefactor of Clonmacnois in the early years of the eleventh century, established an almshouse at Isel ”

“ We have given him as fine a complexion amongst us as if he had been out hunting these three hours; have not we, Grace?'
'When Colambre has been a season or two more in Lon'on, he'll not be so easily put out of countenance,' said Lady Clonbrony; 'you don't see young men of fashion here blushing about nothing.'
'No, nor about anything, my dear,' said Lord Clonbrony; 'but that's no proof they do nothing they ought to blush for.'
'What they do, there's no occasion for ladies to inquire,' said Lady Clonbrony; 'but this I know, that it's a great disadvantage to a young man of a certain rank to blush ”

“ One thing we knew, that if we should be discovered we could each claim five hundred feet along the creek; indeed, we thought twice that, as discoverers, so that our claim on the Klondyke might be two thousand feet in length. Therefore we need not have been so much afraid of being found. I used to say so to Meade, who invariably replied that we were better as we were, and were bound to keep our secret as long as possible. ”

“ But as it is, amidst a storm of shouts, the Scylla wins. The turning-point of victory is one which does not approve itself to modern readers. The sea-deities interfere. Standing high upon his quarter-deck, Cloanthus lifts his prayer to the powers of ocean, not to permit his prize to be snatched from him at the last. He vows an offering of a milk-white bull and libations of red wine if they will help him at his need. ”

“ On our wedding-day Mrs Bell had sufficiently recovered her health and peace of mind to be present at the ceremony. My two brothers were with me, and many of May's friends. Meade's mother and sister came, so did Fanny Hume.
We have bought a little place near the sea, at Bexhill, in Sussex; that is where our home is to be.
There is some talk of my going out to the Klondyke in 1898. I think it is my duty. My wife is dead against it. She has made me promise, at all events, to wait until reports can be received from Bain and Coney. They are due in June. ”

“ Klondyke resumed his frown. He felt rather at sea. He was, in spite of birth and training, a man of primal instincts; he looked at things in an elemental way. Either a man was a good chap or he was not. If he was a good chap, no matter where he may have started from in the race of life, he was fitted by nature to marry his sister. If he was not a good chap, no matter what else he was or might be, he didn't count anyway. ”

“ Looking back from the mountain-side it was said that angels were hovering over the place they had left, and Fintan was at once advised to build his monastery there, which he did about A.D. 548. This place is now Clonenagh, a townland near Mountrath in the Queen's County. Here he led a life of the severest asceticism, but notwithstanding the strictness of his rule many sought admission to his community. 'The monks laboured with their hands after the manner of hermits, tilling the earth with hoes, and, rejecting all animals, had not even a single cow. ”

“ After remaining thirty years in Britain, partly in the monastery of St. David and partly in other monasteries in Wales, he returned to Ireland followed by several of the ‘religious’ Britons, ‘to gather together a people acceptable to the Lord.’
The school of Clonard. He eventually founded the great monastery of Cluain-Erard, or Clonard, in Meath, which is said to have contained no fewer than three thousand monks, and which became a great training school in the monastic life, whence proceeded the most eminent founders of the Irish monasteries. [100] In an Irish Life of Finnian quoted by Dr. ”

“ It was never suppressed: it exists to this day. So far as it was concerned the canons of Rathbreasail were a dead letter from the beginning.
But let us return to Clonard. It was the business of its successive bishops, in accordance with the decrees of Usnagh, to annex the small neighbouring bishoprics of east Meath. They had considerable success. We possess a list of churches granted by Eugenius, the last Irish bishop of Clonard, to the monastery of St. Thomas the Martyr, Dublin.65 They are scattered over the three deaneries of Dunshaughlin, Skreen and Trim. ”

“ The people of Clonmel repeat the charge, and extend it to the other monks. The Augustinian Canons, in the great monastery of Athassel, of which Archbishop Butler was Prior, were no better. Nor were the mendicants blameless. The Carmelite Prior of Lady Abbey, near Clonmel, which was a parish church, kept a mistress and provided no divine service. The Prior of Knocktopher, also a Carmelite, and the Cistercian Abbot of Dusk, had sons. That secular priests should be fathers of families was of course common both in England and [Pg 299] Ireland ”

“ Lord Colambre did not hear or heed her; his eyes were fixed, and they never moved.
Lord Clonbrony was at the open carriage-door, kneeling on the step, and receiving Lady Clonbrony's 'more last words' for Mr. Soho. The two waiting-maids stood together on the steps.
'Look at our young lord, how he stands,' whispered Mrs. le Maistre to Anne, 'the image of despair! And she, the picture of death!—I don't know what to think.'
'Nor I; but don't stare if you can help it,' said Anne. 'Get in, get in, Mrs. le Maistre,' added she, as Lord Clonbrony now rose from the step, and made way for them. ”

“ Allow me to look over his account; and whatever the honest balance may be, let him have it.”
“My dear boy!” said Lord Clonbrony, “you’re a generous fellow. Fine Irish heart!—glad you’re my son! But there’s more, much more, that you don’t know,” added he, looking at Sir Terence, who cleared his throat; and Lord Clonbrony, who was on the point of opening all his affairs to his son, stopped short.
“Colambre,” said he, “we will not say any thing more of this at present; for nothing effectual can be done till you are of age, and then we shall see all about it.” ”

“ Soho, and made him magnify the ridicule, till it was apparent even to Lady Clonbrony. He observed the anxiety, lest his mother should expose her own foibles—he was touched by the respectful, earnest kindness—the soft tones of persuasion, with which she addressed his mother—the care not to presume upon her own influence—the good sense, the taste she showed, yet not displaying her superiority—the address, temper, and patience, with which she at last accomplished her purpose, and prevented Lady Clonbrony from doing anything preposterously absurd, or exorbitantly extravagant. ”

“ Much must be allowed for an inflammation in the eyes, and something for a rheumatic fever; yet it may seem strange that Lady Clonbrony should be so blind and deaf as neither to see nor hear all this time; that having lived so long in the world, it should never occur to her that it was rather imprudent to have a young lady, not eighteen, nursing her—and such a young lady!—when her son, not one-and-twenty—and such a son!—came to visit her daily. ”

“ Lord and Lady Clonbrony, the absentees, are drawn with vivid touches: she is devoured by ambition to shine in a society for which she is not fitted, and voluntarily submits to any humiliations and rebuffs, any sacrifices, to attain this end; he, uprooted from his wonted surroundings, cannot acclimatise himself to new ones, and, merely to pass his time, sinks into the vices of gaming and betting. Lady Clonbrony affects a contempt for her native land, and pretends she is not Irish. ”