Kilchartaich14 St. Carthach was bishop of Killen, now called Kilchartaich, about the year 540; his festival is observed on the 5th of March. This church was situated in Tirboguine, a territory in Tyrconnell, and is supposed to be Kilcarr, which is now a parish church in the diocess of Raphoe.b

Act. SS., p. 474. Vard. vita Rumol. Lib. Visit.

14 Kilchartaich. This has been toned down into the more euphonious name Kilcar, a romantic village about eight miles from Killybegs. At the end of the town there is a mountain torrent brawling over its rocky bed; beyond it, a pleasant little valley, with a neat church in the centre, and then a hill dotted with numerous cottages. On one of the slopes of this hill are the remains of the old abbey. Its foundation and its name are derived from St. Carthac, as we are informed by Colgan in his Acta Sanctorum, p. 475, c. 8. The life of the saint is given very completely by him. It appears he was the elder Carthach, Bishop of Lismore, and brother or nephew of St. Natalis, whom we have mentioned in our notice of Inver. After having studied under St. Kieran, he established and governed many religious houses throughout the provinces. Not far from the ruined walls of the Abbey are three holy wells, two of which are attributed to St Carthach and the third, strangely enough, to St. Patrick! Pilgrims don't flock here now as of old; these wells are abandoned; they are in no esteem among the people, who seem to reserve all their fervour in this respect for their annual visit to the not far-distant SeanGlean, or Glen of St. Colum-Cille. This may also account for the absence of those crowds who, if tradition is to be relied on, toiled up the rugged sides of the giant Slieve Leagne, year after year, to the hermitage of the holy recluse Hugh MacBracken, and St. Asicus, the saintly Bishop of Elphin, to beg their intercession. Of these holy men, who retired from the world into this lofty mountain solitude, beneath which the waves rage and roar for ever, Colgan and the Martyrology of Donegal give us a most interesting account. St. Aodh Mac Briec, or Hugh Breaky, or MacBracken, is thus set down in the Calendar of Cashel under the roth November :-" Hugh, the son of Brecii, of the race of Fiachii, son of Neill, bishop of Kildare, in Meath, and of Slieve Liag in Tir-bochaine (Tyrconnell). The age of Christ when his spirit went to heaven, 588." Colgan adds that he is venerated in different churches as patron, for instance in " Enach Crinnin, in the country of Muscry (Muskerry), in Munster, and in Sliabh Liag, in Tirconnell, where a chapel is consecrated to him, and a solemn pilgrimage performed in his honour. He died in the year 588, according to the Chronicon Cluanense and other Annals." Of St. Asicus, who also had a hermitage on Slieve Leagne, we have ample information. The Rev. Mathew Kelly, in his notices of the "Patron Saints of Ireland," writes of him :— St. Asicus (Asaach), bishop, patron of Elphin. A disciple of St. Patrick, who obtained from a Druid the land on which the church of Elphin was founded. Asicus was its first bishop. Among the different members of St. Patrick's household, to whom provision for all the ecclesiastical wants of the infant church was committed, St. Asicus is described as an artificer in brass-faber acris Patricii. In a penitential spirit St. Asicus renounced the government of his diocess, and retired to the mountains of Sliebh Liag, in the present county of Donegal, from which he could not be persuaded to return. He died in his retreat, and was buried in the church of Rathcunga, in Tirhugh, Donegal. His name is in the Martyrology of Tallaght on the 26th of April. His festival is observed on the following day in the diocess of Elphin." This notice is not so full as the one given by Colgan, who writes:-"The most holy and chaste bishop, Asicus, when on a certain occasion it was necessary to state a certain fact, uttered a falsehood, having spoken without sufficient reflection. In consequence of this fault he became so great a penitent that he determined never to be seen in the place where he had given so great a scandal. Wherefore, having resigned his see, and the government of the monastery in which he lived, he retired to the northern parts of Ireland, and on a certain mountain, in the country of Tir Boghaine, called Sliabh Liag, he led a solitary life for seven long years. Meanwhile his monks, by their untiring exertions, discovered him in that desert, and

Killibeggs,15 A sea-port and borough town, sending burgesses to parliament, in the barony of Boylagh and Bannagh

A small house was built here for friars of the third order of St. Francis by M'Swiny-bannig.d

implored him to return to his deserted see and monastery, but he refused sternly, because he considered himself guilty of a great scandal in telling a falsehood, and that he therefore ought not be seen where he had given the scandal. They prevailed however on him to remove to another solitary place, where he shortly after slept in the Lord, and was buried by his disciples in the country of Serthe, at a place called Rathcunga." Not far from this hermitage on the mountain, there is, in the townland of Rinnakill, another holy well, which is called the "Well of the Female Saints." Local tradition says that a convent of nuns stood here at an early period, but not a trace of it can now be seen.

15 Killibeggs.-The Four Masters make the following entry of Killybegs under the year 1513" Owen O'Malley came by night with the crews of three ships into the harbour of Killybegs, and the chieftains of the country being all at that time in O'Donnell's army, they plundered and burned the town, and took many prisoners in it. They were overtaken by a storm. so that they were compelled to remain on the coast of the country, and they lighted fires and torches close to their ships. A youthful stripling of the MacSweeny's, i.e., Brian, and the sons of Brien, and a party of shepherds overtook them and attacked them courageously, and slew Owen O'Malley and five or six score along with him, and also captured two of their ships, and rescued from them the prisoners they had taken, through the miracles of God and St. Catherine whose town they had profaned." Here we have recorded the fact that Killybegs was at all times under the special patronage of St. Catherine. Hence we find MacSwiney of Banagh placing under her protection a Franciscan friary which he built near the town, on the western shore of the bay; and when, in darker days, this monastery had been wrecked and its inmates banished, the people raised upon its ruins a beautiful parochial church, and called it St. Catherine's, which, tradition says, stood there down to a comparatively late date. The old friary and church are now a heap of grass-grown remains. The green fields belonging to the monastery are converted into a glebe; a neat parsonage has succeeded to the abbey, and St. Catherine, banished from her old abode, at present presides over Killybegs from an abrupt and craggy height above the town. Here the faithful have raised a splendid church, with a handsome tower, which casts its shadow on the placid waters of the loveliest little harbour to be found on the coast of Ireland. The parish priest of Killybegs, or Killaghtee, in the last half of the sixteenth century, was the illustrious Donatus MacCongail or Macmonigle, who was also Bishop of Raphoe, and in that capacity assisted at the closing sessions of the Council of Trent. While pastor of Killaghtee he seems to have been regarded as one of the most learned and zealous of the Irish clergy, for Father David Wolf, S. J., who was sent in those difficult times as Delegate Apostolic into Ireland, selected him as his companion and adviser in the discharge of his onerous duties, and in the year 1561 deputed him on a special mission to Rome, with important letters on the work in which they were engaged. These letters are given by Dr. Moran in his Introduction to the Lives of the Archbishops of Dublin, and furnish a truthful picture of the state of the Irish Church at that time. I will give a few extracts from them to show how high Dr. MacConghail stood in the opinion of the Apostolic Delegate. The letters are addressed to the Cardinal Protector of Ireland, and in one of them Wolf thus speaks of MacConghail:-"I addressed a letter a few days ago, through Sir William Neon to your excellency, on the state of the church in this district of Munster; but now I deem it better to send in person the bearer of this letter, Donald MacConghail, to give full details to you, as he was the companion of my journey through Ireland, and as he is a man of judgment, well acquainted with the circumstances of this country, having also, as I will just now mention, some other particular business there. The bearer of this letter, Donald MacCon. ghail, was my companion in the district of Connaught, and there is no one in Ireland

Kilmacrenan,16 on the river Gannon, though now a poor depopulated village, yet it gives name to the barony.

who is better able to give you accurate information about everything, wherefore I send him to Rome for a two-fold purpose-1. To give you intelligence about myself, as well as about the bishops and archbishops, &c.; and 2. That as the Bishop of Raphoe has lately been taken away from us, I know of no better suited to be his successor; he is very learned according to the style of literature of this country, and he is beloved by every one; he moreover spent some time in Rome last year." With Dr. MacConghail the Apostolic Delegate sent Dr. Crean and Dr. O'Hart, the former to be raised to the see of Elphin, and the latter to the see of Achonry. In the letter of introduction which he gave them the following passage occurs: -"The name of the secular priest is Donald Macgongaill; he is a man well versed in the affairs of this nation, and I wish your Excellency would command him, in virtue of holy obedience, to make known to you how Donatus, Archbishop of Armagh, and the other prelates of this country deport themselves. I will add no more,

In

as I leave everything in the hands of Donald.” Shortly after his arrival in the Eternal City, Dr. MacConghail was consecrated Bishop of Raphoe, and at once he proceeded to Trent where he threw himself into the deliberations of the Fathers of the Council with great zeal, and rendered efficient aid in framing their decrees. His name is set down in the catalogue of the Fathers with the epithet just attached, and he is described as young in years but old in the practice of every virtue. the record of the voting he is always on the side of strict discipline. On his return to Ireland he worked energetically for the immediate promulgation of the decrees of the great Council in which he had taken such a distinguished part, and was one of the leading spirits in a provincial synod convened in 1587 for that object. There was no prelate in Ireland in those trying times that so much impressed the public mind. This is set forth very distinctly in a manuscript in the British Museum, where he is mentioned in these eulogistic terms:-"He was the third great bishop that was in the Council of Trent; he was an active and a well-qualified man; he could write well, and speak both the Latin, English, and Irish tongues; commonly he accompanied O'Donnell when he came to Dublin before the State; he dealt much for the business of the church, and at length he obtained letters under my Lord Deputy Sir Henry Sydney's and the Council's hands for the immunity of his church, that neither English or Irish should have cess or press upon the church lands, and if any number of persons should offend contrary to the Lord Deputy and Council's order established in that behalf, that such delinquent shall pay into the church tenfold as much as should be thus wrongfully exacted." The Four Masters tell us that Dr. MacConghail surrendered his distinguished and useful life at Killybegs on the 29th of September, 1589. There is no stone to mark where he sleeps, no monument in marble or brass to record his great deeds-a disgrace which, it is to be hoped, will not continue long. There is an old ruin, with a decayed and disused cemetery attached, not far from Killybegs, which are pointed out as the restingplace of the great bishop; but local tradition is the only means we have of identi fying it. Sad result indeed!!

16 Kilmacrenan.-This name is a modification of the old Irish Kill-mic-Nenain, by which it is known in our ecclesiastical records. Nenain was brother-inlaw of St. Columkille, and father of four sons, all of whom died in the odour of sanctity. He was lord or chieftain of this territory, resided at Kilmacrenan, and largely endowed the abbey and church built there by his saintly relative. Around this ecclesiastical establishment grew up rapidly, as was usual in those times, a considerable town, which was called Kill-mic-Nenain in recognition of the pious munificence of Nenain. Nowhere perhaps in Ireland is the lesson of fallen greatness taught more thoroughly than at Kilmacrenan. It was the fosterplace of the great St. Collumkille, and, to mark his affection for it, he founded there a large and important monastery. Of this the only thing left now is a slender tower, pierced with one or two pointed windows and some few pieces of crumbling walls. The O'Donnell's, to whose family Saint Columkille belonged, always cherished a special regard for Kilmacrenan, and built there a Franciscan Friary: it is now a Protestant church, with a fragment of sculpture inserted in the wall over the principal door, representing the head of an abbot or

St. Columb founded an abbey here, which was richly endowed.e And O'Donnell founded a small house here,

•Tr. Th., p. 494.

bishop. Here, too, at a short distance from the town, on the rock of Doon, the O'Donnell's were inaugurated chieftains of Tircounell, but all this importance, all this ancient splendour, is now reduced to a dilapidated village, contrasting miserably with its pretty situation in a highland valley through which courses a broad and deep river. Doon, the place where the ceremony of inauguration was held, is a rocky eminence, rising sharply from the ground. The inauguration stone was here, with the foot-prints of the first chieftain cut into it, in which the new chieftain stood while he took the oath to maintain the laws of Tirconnell, and defend her rights and privileges-a ceremony described by Spenser in his "View of the State of Ireland." By some it is stoutly denied that the ceremony was performed on the hill of Doon; they say the inauguration stone was always kept in the old abbey church of Kilmacrenan, and in this they seem to be sustained by the Four Masters, who speak of the stone being actually kept in the church. How far this may be true or false is now matter of speculation. The stone has disappeared, and how or where is also simple conjecture. There are persons of grave and deliberate judgment who assert that it was stolen, and is still preserved in safe keeping. Others, on the contrary, say that a pervert of the name of MacSwiney, in a fit of fury against the relics of the old faith, smashed it into a thousand small pieces, which he scattered abroad so as to prevent them from being recognised or collected ever after. The sculptured head over the principal door of the present Protestant church is also battered and broken by the same hatred which prompted the destruction of the inauguration stone. That the ceremony of inauguration took place either at the rock of Doon or in the old church is admitted on all hands, and is graphically described by a well informed author called Lynch. He says "that when the investiture of the O'Donnell took place at Cil-mhac Crenain, he was attended by O'Ferghail, successor to Columb. kille, and O'Gallachius, his marshal, and surrounded by all the estates of the country. The Abbot O'Ferghail put a pure white, straight, unknotted rod into his hand, and said, Receive, sire, the auspicious ensign of your dignity, and remember to imitate in your government the whiteness, straightness, and unknottiness of this rod, to the end that no evil tongue may find cause to asperse the candour of your actions with blackness, nor any kind of corruption or tie of friendship be able to pervert your justice; therefore, in a lucky hour, take the government of this people, to exercise the power given you with freedom and security.' Close to the rock of Doon is a holy well to which pilgrims come in considerable numbers at all seasons of the year, and from the remotest corners of the country. Proofs are advanced with day, date, and name of miraculous cures effected at this well, and there is hardly in the whole county of Donegal a Catholic family that does not always keep at home, in some safe place, a bottle of water from Doon well. It was blessed by a holy priest, Lector O'Friel, whose memory is still in benediction among the people of Kilmacrenan. It was under this rock of Doon that Sir Cahir O'Doherty fell while fighting bravely for his rights against the English. This dauntless young chieftain still lives in the memory of the men of Inishowen. He was their hero, and because of the early period put to his career,

they speak of him in a tone of deep sorrow and regret. His sad and premature end is thus recorded in an inquisition of James I.. c. 6:-"The said Cahire O'Doherty, knight, afterwards, to wit, on the 5th of July in the year aforesaid, being in rebellion at and near Kilmacrenan, in the county of Donegal, together with the said other traitors, fought and contended with the army or soldiers of the said king then and there remaining. The aforesaid Cahire O'Doherty, knight, so contending, was slain, and the jurors saw the body and members of the said Cahire then and there slain." The fact of his being slain in red-handed rebellion at and near Kilmacrenan, is here stated in a manner that precludes all doubt. The details of the engagement in which he fell are graphically described by O'Sullivan Beare in his "History of Irish Catholics," fol. 210, tome iv., lib. i.“ O'Doherty," he writes, "considering his own unequal to the forces of the enemy, concealed him.

probably on the site of the ancient abbey, for friars of the order of St. Francis. The present church is supposed to be

' War. Mon.

self with all his riches in the wood of Gleann Beatha (Glenveagh). Leading to this valley there were three passes through which the enemy could advance to attack him: these were at once seized by the royal army formed into three divisions, commanded respectively by the English general, Niall Garve, and Mac Swiney Doe. Sir Cahir hearing this, formed his comparatively small army also into three divisions, and posted them at the three entrances into the wood to prevent the advance of the royal army. After the lapse of a few hours the enemy's musqueteers opened fire on one of O'Doherty's divisions, and the courageous, but rash young chieftain, advanced at the head of another division to drive back the enemy. In the mêlée he received the stab of a double-headed javelin, and died in the space of two hours without being expiated from his sins by sacramental absolution. This circumstantial account, along with the extract quoted from the Inquisition, shows the utter groundlessness of a story current in Inishowen, and which has found its way into print. According to it Sir Cahir did not fall in the engagement, but was foully and treacherously murdered by a Scotchman, named Ramsay, under the rock of Doon. The story goes that the young chieftain, attended only by his faithful friend and adviser, Sir Phelim Reagh MacDevitt, had come to the rock of Doon to reconnoitre the enemy's position, and, being worn with fatigue, they both lay down under the shelter of the rock for a short sleep. In this state they were discovered by the infamous Ramsay, who, recognising Sir Cahir, ran him through with his sword, and fled. Sir Phelim MacDevitt was roused from his sleep by the moans of his brave and gallant young friend. He started up; saw the pale face, and the red stream flowing from a wound in his side, on which the hand of the dying man was tightly pressed. He saw that life was ebbing fast, and that no time was to be lost, so he raised the dying form gently from the ground, placed it on his shoulders, and hurried to the camp. He did not get far when the poor young chieftain implored him, in faint whispers, to lay him down as he was dying, and, at the same time, gave him, as his last injunction, to take off his head, as soon as he breathed his last, bring it to Dublin, and there demand the large reward offered for it. Sir Phelim carried out this dying request, but on his way to Dublin with the head, he happened to stay a night at Swords, where one of the Chichesters, who had learned the object of Sir Phelim's mission, also put up, contrived to steal the head during the night, proceeded to Dublin, and got the reward. This story is exploded, as has been already observed, by the united testimony of the jurors of King James and of O'Sullivan Beare, which shows that Sir Cahir fell in the engagement at Kilmacrenan. We have also the authority of the Four Masters to the same effect. They state, under 1608, that Sir Cahir's body was quartered between Derry and Culmore, and his head sent to Dublin by the English commander, which proves the story about Sir Phelim MacDevitt to be utterly false. And lastly, it is not true that Chichester obtained the grant of Inishowen in reward for the head of Sir Cahir O'Doherty, for in an inquisition taken at Donegal on the 18th of August, 1625, it is affirmed by the jurors on oath that Inishowen was held by Chichester " the castle of Dublin in free and common socage, by feally only and not in capite, nor by socage in capite, nor by knight's service Therefore, Chichester obtained Inishowen, not by stealing O'Doherty's head from Sir Phelim MacDevitt, but by free and common socage. But slander and invention, in regard to the young and ill-fated chieftain of Inishowen, as well as his brave and faithful ally, Sir Phelim MacDevitt, don't stop here. Cox and other prejudiced writers, in their account of Sir Cahir O'Doherty's rebellion, say that his first act, namely the taking of Culmore, was one of "cool and base treachery.' Having." writes one of the most modern of these reckless historians, "collected together [he is talking of O'Doherty] his friend and a considerable number of his Irish followers, he invited Captain Hart, the governor of Culmore fort, with whom he lived on terms of intimacy, to come, with his wife, to dine with him, on the 3rd of May. O'Doherty received his guests with profuse hospitality, but in the middle of the feast armed

as of