1505.o Menelaus M'Carmacan, the bishop of Raphoe, died in the habit of a Franciscan on the 9th of May, 1515, and was buried in this monastery. Roderic O'Donnell, bishop of Derry, died in the same habit, on the 8th October, 1550 or 1551, and was interred here. There was in this house a well-chosen library.

At a small distance monastery may be seen.

from the town, the remains of this The cloister consists of small arches,

• War. Ms., vol. P War. Bps., p. 274. Id., p. 291. 34.

War. Mon.

gained. But he was suddenly stopped in his career of triumph. English gold and not English valour paralyzed the smashing might of this gallant young chieftain. Dowcra, the English general, was established with a powerful force in Derry, and Red Hugh had arrived before the city to dislodge him, when he was suddenly summoned away to crush the English armies in Connaught. He left his brother-in-law, the active Nial Gary, to watch Dowcra, and taking with him a division of the army, marched into Connaught, purposing to return as soon as he accomplished his mission there. But he was sadly disappointed. He had not been long absent when his base-souled kinsman, Nial, betrayed him for a bribe, which he accepted from Dowcra. To consummate his traitorous defection, Nial actually put himself at the head of the English troops, marched to Lifford, where, having occupied O'Donnell's castle, he proceeded to Donegall, seized the monastery and threw up fortfications around it. The friars fled. The sad intelligence reached Red Hugh in Connaught. Swearing vengeance against the false Nial he hastened to Donegall and laid siege to the monastery. Nial was brave, and resisted with stubborn courage. On the night of the 19th September a fire broke out in the building. Hugh Roe seized the occasion for an assault. The men on both sides fought like lions. All through that night did the fierce struggle last, the conflagration adding a ghastly horror to the wild work of death, till at length, in the early morning, Nial, with the survivors of the garrison, retreated, keeping along the strand, under cover of an English ship in the harbour, and took refuge in the neighbourhood abbey at Magherabeg. Donegall Abbey never recovered from the ruin of that night. After some years, when the terrible war between Hugh Roe and the English had come to an end, the friars began to creep out from their hiding places, and by degrees establish themselves in some cottages which they built among the ruins of their late home. In these cottages was written the Annals of the Four Masters. O'Donovan, at page 29 of the Introduction to his edition of the Annals, gives a curious account of the flight of the friars from the abbey on the approach of the treacherous Nial Garv. He tells us that it is taken from a manuscript history of the Franciscans, written by a Father Purcell, and in the possession of the Franciscans at Louvain. It runs thus: "In the year 1600 we were in the convent of Donegall, forty brothers in community, and the Divine offices for the night and the day were chanted with great solemnity. I myself had charge of the sacristy, in which I had forty suits of vestments with all their appurtenances, and many of them were of cloth of gold and of silver, some were interwoven and ornamented with gold, all the rest were silk. There were eighteen silver chalices of large size, all gilt except two; there were two ciboriums for the most holy Sacrament." Father Purcell then proceeds to tell that at the approach of the English the brothers fled away, and that he himself carried with him this altar furniture in a boat, all which, not long after, fell into the hands of Oliver Lambert, the English Governor of Connaught, who converted the chalices into profane uses, and destroyed the vest

ments.

After the peace made between Roderick O'Donnell and the King of England, the former set about rebuilding the monastery, but, notwithstanding that his life was in danger, he fled with O'Neill to Flanders, and thus the work was not proceeded with. Ware says this convent was famous for a well-stored library, which

supported by couplets of pillars on a basement; in one part are two narrow passages, one over the other, about four feet wide, ten long, and seven high; they seem to have been places for depositing of valuable effects in times of danger; the upper one is covered with stones laid along on the beams of stone that cross it, and the lower one with stones laid across on the walls; each of them are exactly after the Egyptian manner of building; and in a building over it are plain marks of a regular Roman pediment, although some other building had been erected against it.

O'Donovan conjectures was destroyed in the conflagration which has been described. When, and by whom this venerable abbey was first founded is recorded in the Annals under A.D. 1474, where the following entry is made: "The Monastery of Donegal was commenced by the O'Donnell. i.e., by Hugh Roe, son of Nial Garve O'Donnell, and his wife, Finola, the daughter of O'Brien (Conor-na-Srona), and was granted by them to God and the friars of St. Francis, for the prosperity of their own souls, and that the monastery might be a burial place for themselves and their descendants, and they not only granted this, but also conferred many other gifts upon them." Its foundation, therefore. belongs to Nuala O'Connor, the pious wife of Hugh Roe O'Donnell. She died, however, before it was finished, but Fingalla, O'Donnell's second wife, caused the works to be continued until the building was completed. It was richly endowed by O'Donnell-indeed it seems to have been from the first specially favoured by that princely family, some of whom took the habit of St. Francis, and many of whom lie buried there. Among the illustrious persons who sleep within the abbey precincts a few are mentioned by the Four Masters :-A. D. 1481; Hugh Maguire, a general, and perfect gentleman for hospitality, knowledge and nobleness. A.D. 1487; Maurice O'Mulconry, teacher of poetry. A.D. 1494; Gillpatrick Maguire. A.D. 1503; Maguire, i.e., John, son of Philip, son of Thomas More, ¿.e., GillaDuv, the choice of the chieftains of Ireland in his time, the most merciful and humane of the Irish, the best protector of his country and lands, the most warlike opponent of inimical tribes and neighbours, the best in jurisdiction, authority, and regulation, both in church and state, died in his fortress of Enniskillen, on Sunday, the 7th of the calends of April, after having heard mass, and after the victory of Unction and Penance, and was buried in the monastery of the friars of Donegal, which he had selected."

Other remarkable men also lie buried here; but not to be tedious, I will select only one name-a remarkable bishop who governed the diocese of Raphoe in the beginning of the sixteenth century. He was Menelaus MacCormac, and was educated at Oxford, where, as Anthony Wood tells us, he went by the name of Carmgan Hibernicus. After having been Dean of Raphoe for some years, he was consecrated Bishop of that See, on the 16th of July, 1484, and when he had fulfilled that high trust with distinguished zeal and ability for thirty-one years, he died on the 9th of May, 1515. Before his death he begged to be clothed with the habit of the order of St. Francis, and by his direction he was buried in the Abbey of Donegal.

What remains at the present time of this famous Abbey is lamentably scanty. Little though it be, it is, however, sufficient to enable us to determine that it was a large cruciform building, with a central tower and graceful windows. Of the cloisters, too, there is left a memorial of thirteen arches, which, with their supporting couplets of pillars, yet retain evidences of great beauty and variety of design, and admirable execution. They are of the small size common in examples of Irish monastic architecture. But though the material lineaments of this building are so sadly effaced, it has left an impress on Irish history indelible as that history itself.

Drumhome, on the bay of Donegall, in the barony of Tyrehugh.

St. Ernan, who was named also St. Ernoc, or Mernoc, as we are informed, was abbot of Druimthuoma. He died a very old man on the first of January about the year 640. This house had been a celebrated monastery. Flahertach O'Maldory, King of Tyrconnel, was buried here in 1197." Drumholm is now a parish in the diocess of Raphoe."

t Tr. Th., p. 938 and 940. " War. Annal. w Liber Visit.

8 Drumhome; in the Irish language it is Druim-Thuama, and in the Latin Dorsum Thoma, the name by which it is designated by Adamnan in his Life of St. Columba, at the 23rd chap., Book iii., where he narrates the circumstances of the happy death of St. Columba. He tells us that directly the saint breathed his last, angels swept down from heaven filling the air with heavenly music, received the pure soul after it had left its earthly tenement, and brought it with them back through the clouds into the realm of light from which they had just descended. While this was being enacted in Iona, a holy old monk, Ernan or Ernanus, formerly a disciple of St. Columbas, had a vision in his monastery of Dorsum Thomæ, away in a remote corner of Ireland, in which he distinctly saw the angelic procession bearing the soul of St. Columba up through the clouds into heaven. Manus O'Donnell, in his Life of his kinsman, St. Columba, gives an account of this vision with the same attendant circumstances of its having occurred to St. Ernan of Dorsum Thomæ. To the name is annexed an explanatory note by Colgan, in which he identifies the monastery. He says:- "Dorsum Thoma was formerly a celebrated monastery, now called Drumholme in Tyrhugh, a territory of Tirconnell, and now only a parish church of the diocese of Raphoe." In another place he gives a short biographical sketch of St. Ernan, and states that it was in the monastery of Dorsum Thomæ he laboured, died, and was buried. In the Acta Sanctorum, p. 7, he has the following :-"St. Ernan, also called Ferreolus, of an illustrious family, but more illustrious for his sanctity of life. He,

with his brother Cabtachus, became a monk in Ireland under the direction of his relative, St. Columba, and both were soon among the most distinguished of the Saint's disciples. Hence, when St. Columba resolved to go to convert the Picts and Scots, he took with him twelve disciples, and among them the two brothers, Ernan and Cabtachus. But after the holy man Ernan had laboured many years in spreading the Gospel, and had reaped a rich harvest, he returned, with the permission and blessing of St. Columba, to Ireland, and fixed himself at a place called Druim Thuoma, in his own country of Tyrhugh, where he performed many labours, until worn out by fasting and old age, he died and was buried in the church of Druim Thuoma. It was, therefore, a monastery of mark in those days, which is also evident from the mention of it made in the "Annals" under the following dates:—“A. D. 919, Cuiædh, son of Domhnall, abbot of Doire-Chalgaigh, and of Drumi Thuama, head of the Council of Cinel-Conaill, died; A. D. 1197, Flaherty O'Muldory, Lord of Kinel-Connell, Kinel-Owen, and Oriel, defender of Tara, heir-presumptive to the sovereignty of all Ireland, a Connell in heroism, a Cuchullin in valour, a Guaire in hospitality, and a MacLughach in feats of arms, died on Inis Saimer on the 2nd day of February, after long and patient suffering, in the thirtieth year of his reign and fifty-ninth of his age, and was interred at Drumhome with due honour." Not a trace of this monastery is now to be found in the parish; not a particle of local tradition exists regarding it; even the memory of St. Ernan is forgotten, for all that remains of him now is his name given to a neat residence, belonging to a Mr. Hamilton, built on an island at the mouth of Donegal harbour, which is connected with the mainland by a causeway. How creditable to Mr. Hamilton, a Protestant himself, is this practical expression of respect for the memory of the old Irish Catholic Saints!

.9

Fahan six miles North West of Derry, on Loughswilly, in Inisoen.

St. Columb founded the church of Fathenmura, called also Fothenmor.*

St. Colman Imromha was abbot of Fathenmura, as was St. Murus, or Muran, the son of Feradach; who was also esteemed the patron of the place."

A.D. 637. The abbot St. Kellach, the son of Saran, died on the 7th of October."

716. Tradition says, that this year a shower of hail, like silver, fell upon Fathen major, as did honey in like abundance upon Fathan minor, and that in Leinster it rained blood.a

* Act. SS., p. 334. y Tr. Th., p. 495 and 510. Id., p. 510. Id. Fahan-The following entries of this old and venerable monastery are made by the Four Masters :-" A.D. 657, Ceallach, son of Saran, abbot of Othan-Mor, died; A.D. 716, a shower of silver fell here; A. D. 757, Robhartach, son of Cuana, abbot of Athain-Mor died." From this, it appears, the abbey of Fahan was known by the names Athain-Mor and Othain-Mor. It was called Fathain-Mura from St. Murus or Muranus, an illustrious abbot, who once governed this monastery with great success, and left a distinguished name behind him. The life and character of St. Muranus, the ancient glories of Fahan, and the utter obliteration of its interesting remains, as well the destruction of its relics by the fury of the Reformers, are described at length, and eloquently, by Colgan in his Acta Sanctorum. "In the northern parts of Ulster, in the peninsula commonly called Inis-Eogan, in the beginning of the 7th century, flourished a holy man named Murus, or Muranus, who was descended from most noble ancestors, but he far surpassed the nobleness of his family by the splendour of his virtues. Though this holy man is ranked among the chief saints of his own province, so that even at this day in the fresh observances among our people his memory and veneration flourish, and his festival is celebrated; we have not as yet seen his acts, which certainly were formerly in existence. I have, however, resolved to produce the very few notices which I have collected about him in the following points. He derived his descent from the most illustrious family of the O'Neills, i.e., Kinel-Owen, being the son of Fredacius. Eugenius was Roman's father; but this is not the Eugenius who was the great progenitor of this famous family, but his grandson, by his son Muredacius, who, for distiction sake, was surnamed Merchrom. The mother of St. Muranus was called Derimilla, famous for her descent from the first rank of nobility, but now renowned for the happy and blessed fruit of her womb. This happy woman was the mother of six children, who were all engaged in the service of God, and honoured by posterity with the veneration and respect of saints, though all were not the fruit of one marriage. Their names were St. Mura, abbot of Fahan; St. Mochumna, abbot of Drumbo; St. Cillenus, of Achadh-Cail; St. Domangard, son of Eochadius; St. Ailanus, or Ailevius, and St. Aidanus. Though the want of ancient monuments and the injury of time have withdrawn from us the know. ledge of the masters and disciples, and acts of this saint, enough, however, remains to show that he was an abbot, and ruled a convent of monks in the monastery of Fathen, in the diocese of Derry, at the distance of five miles towards the west from the see and city of Derry. That monastery, which was endowed with much lands, was, for several centuries, held in great veneration both on account of the reverence for the most holy Muranus, to whom, as patron of the place, the great church or cathedral was dedicated, on account of the noble monuments of antiquity which were preserved there until the time the heretics got possession of the place, when they, with abhorrence and rabid fury, carried off and destroyed all its sacred things. But by the ravages of time and the neglect of the rulers that monastery, formerly celebrated, but afterwards dilapidated and demolished, at length became a parish church. There existed one little book in which St. Muranus

720. The abbot St. Killen, or Killian O'Colla, died

January the 3rd.b

769. Died the abbot St. Ultan Hua Beroderg.c

788. Died the blessed abbot Aurothulius.d

850. Died the abbot Fergal, or Vergil, Hua Laignein.

1070. Died the abbot Cucarrgius Hua Kellaich.'

1098. Died the abbot Malcmartin, or Martinian Hua Kellaich.g

1119. Died Roderic, the archidnach of Fathen.h

1136. Died the archidnach Robarthach Hua Kellaich.i This noble monastery was richly endowed, and for many ages was held in the highest veneration, as well for the reverence paid to St. Muran, to whom the great church is dedicated, as for the many monuments of antiquity which remained here, till they were destroyed after the reformation; among the b Act. SS., p. 331. • Tr. Th., p. 510. Id. Id. Id. Id. Id. i Id. had written, in the metre of his country's language, the Acta of St. Columbkille, and fragments of it are extant at this day, and are often quoted in other acts of the same saint. There was also another large and very old manuscript of chronicles and other histories of the whole country which was always held by antiquarians in great esteem, and often highly praised by them. Besides there were extant until lately various relics of St. Muranus and of other saints, who inhabited the same place, but how many of them were saved from the fury of the heretics, and preserved to the present time, is altogether unknown to me, who am now living in Belgium, at a great distance from my native land, though I was formerly intimately acquainted with this very place. There remains at this day, and is preserved as a most valuable treasure, the crozier or pastoral staff of the holy prelate, which is commonly called Bachall Mura, the staff of Murus, which is studded over and adorned with gems, and laid in a case which is gilt with gold. By this several miracles were wrought, and by it were accustomed to swear the pious people and the nobles, particularly those descended from the family of the O'Neill's; in short, all those who wished to vindicate virtue and revenge falsehood, or to remove all ambiguity from their assertions, and terminate angry dissensions by the solmnity of an oath. There existed also, before the troubles of these times, the office belonging to this saint, of which we formerly saw fragments, and in which many of his miracles and virtues are recorded, but now not even this nor any other monastery are to be found in which his miracles or acts are to be seen. It is well to remark that St. Muranus is the great patron of the family of the O'Neill's, from whom he is descended, and that in the church of Fathen, in the county of Inis-Eoghan, his festival is celebrated as the patron of the place, on this day the 12th of March." Not a trace exists at the present day of this celebrated crozier, which Colgan says he saw. It is idle to speculate about its fate, but in all human probability it was brought to the Continent by some pious Catholic, or destroyed in the Revolution of 1688. Even St. Muranus himself has dropped out of the memory of the people of Fahan. The only knowledge they have retained of him is a silly tradition that he began to build his church on the top of the hill, but was warned off by some blessed birds, who instructed him to erect it in the valley below. Fahan is now a lovely valley teeming with the richest vegetation. It was a howling wilderness when the monks entered and established themselves in its great solitude. Soon, however, a noble monastery was raised in it, and what was barren waste became green with waving meadow or yellow with golden corn. This rich vegetation is all that now remains of the famous home of St. Muranus and his monks. The noble monastery, once its pride, has crumbled into dust.