There was an abbey here of which St. Ernan, the son of Colman, was abbot about the year 650.8

Tully [in the map], Tullyaughnish [in the Visitation Book]; near Loughswilley, in the barony of Kilmacrenan. St Columb Act. SS., p. 17. Tr. Th., p. 490.

arrived on the top of a high mountain, from which the island was seen out in the ocean, a discussion arose between himself and his companions as to who should purify the island and become its patron. At last it was decided that each should throw his staff in the direction of Torry, and that he whose staff came closest to the island should bless and possess it. The staff of St. Columba distanced the others by miles, it reached even the island itself, and the Saint having obtained the permission of the chieftain. Ailild, entered and erected a magnificent church and monastery there. Being obliged soon after to be elsewhere, he committed the government of the monastery to St. Eunan, one of his disciples, and left him strict injunctions to allow no dog into the island. This monastery continued to flourish through a long lapse of ages down, till Queen Elizabeth's governor of Connaught, the cruel Bingham, made a descent upon the place and destroyed everything that he could not carry away with him. A round tower, called the Clog-teach-the BellHouse"-still stands here, wanting a portion of the roof, and the foundations of a series of seven little churches or cells can still be traced with the aid of the traditions of the place. In a lonely corner of the island there is a little mound from which a quantity of the earth has been excavated, called the "Nun's Grave," about which the poor islanders have a beautiful tradition. Long, long ago, after a great storm, it appears, the body of a lady was found high up upon the beach, near the spot where the grave now is. The wild waves, in carrying it thither, must have dragged it over the pointed rocks, which form a barrier round the shore, and still it lay there undisfigured and untouched by the rude elements, which crush the strongest timbers, and wear the hardest rock. The face was pale, but without a scratch; the eyes were closed as if in calm sleep; the hands were clasped in the attitude of prayer; and the dress retained the same graceful folds that it had when the person lived. To the simple people the dress was new-it was the habit of a nun, with the leathern girdle round the waist, from which the beads were suspended-the air was laden with the sweetest perfume, and gleams of light shot out at intervals and illumined the pale face. Intelligence of the strange occurrence soon reached the inhabitants, and the whole population rushed to the spot. Awe and astonishment seized the spectators, but not one of them ventured to touch the body, for though they had never seen the habit with which it was clothed, they had a notion that there was something sacred about it. A discussion arose as to how they should act, but all was doubt and uncertainty, until one of them, venerable for his years and virtues, and of high repute in the island, invited them to fall on their knees and to pray to God to direct them in their difficulty. The crowd obeyed on the instant, and they bent low in prayer. Presently a supernatural voice was heard announcing to them the fact that the body lying there was that of a holy nun, and telling them to bury it just as it was, with great respect and veneration, under the green turf close to where it lay. Accordingly, they opened a grave, laid the body gently in it, then closed it, and having spent a short time in prayer, they returned to their homes with great joy and deep gratitude to God for so great a favour. From that time forward the grave became a great resort of the poor islanders, who are still to be seen in large numbers praying at it, and begging the intercession of the holy nun who sleeps there. The efficacy of her intercession has been and is being always felt in every cottage in the island; many a father of a family and poor widow's son has it rescued from a watery grave. Of this, instances almost innumerable are related in Torry, and at the present moment hardly a boat in the island is ever known to put out into the "treacherous deep" without having a handful of earth from the "Nun's Grave" carefully deposited in the stern. The earth of the mound raised over the grave has been so much drawn upon, that it has become law with the people now that no one should take more than a small pinch of it at a time.

founded an abbey at Tulachdubglaisse. This is now a parish church in the diocess of Raphoe."

Antiquarians have also a good deal of Pagan interest in Torry. In remote Pagan times it was one of the main strongholds of the Fomorians, one of whose chiefs erected a tower on a cliff at the eastern extremity of the island, called TorConnaing, celebrated in our pre-Christian annals as

"The tower of the island, the island of the tower,

The citadel of Codnaing, the son of Toelar."

Here was fought a famous battle, in which the fierce tribes of those early days maintained the conflict on the strand at Port Doon till the returning tide buried nearly all the combatants in the waves. Here the formidable "Balor of the mighty blows " had his head-quarters. This Balor is still vividly remembered in the traditions of Torry Island, where a very curious story is told of him, which Dr. O'Donovan, in his learned edition of the Annals of the Four Masters, deemed worthy of a special notice, The story runs thus :-In the days of yore there lived three brothers, Gavida, MacSamthaim, and Mac Kineely, the first of whom was a distinguished smith, who kept his forge at Drunnatinne, a place in the parish of Rath-Finan. MacKineely was lord of that district, comprising the parishes of Rath-Finan and Tullaghobegly, and owned a cow called Glas Gaivlen, so lactiferous as to be greatly coveted by the neighbours. At this period Torry Island was governed by a famous captain called Balor, who had one eye in the middle of his forehead, and another directly opposite it in the back of his skull. This latter eye, like that of the basilisk, had a mortiferous power, and was kept constantly closed by Balor, except when he wished to destroy an adversary with it. A druid had prophesied that Balor should be murdered by his own grandson. To nullify this prediction he shut up his only child, a daughter, in an impregnable tower built on the summit of Tormore, a cliff on the north-east of the island, under the keeping of twelve matrons, whom he strictly charged to keep her not only from intercourse with, but even from the knowledge of the existence of the male sex. Time passed, and Ethnea grew into a beautiful woman. Balor, now apparently secure against the prediction of the Druid, at the head of an adventurous band of sea-rovers, swept the neighbouring coast from the sea, but his ambition could not be satisfied unless with the possession of the Glas Gaivlen. One day the Mac Kineely above-mentioned having had occasion to go to his brother's forge to get some swords made, took with him the Glas Gaivlen on a halter. Arrived at the forge, he entrusted the cow to his brother, MacSamthain, who was there too on a similar errand. While MacKineely was within, Balor, in the form of a little red-haired boy, came to MacSamthain and told him that he had just heard his two brothers saying, inside the forge, that they would use all his (MacSamthain's) steel in making MacKineely's swords. MacSamthain, deceived by the boy, gave the cow in charge to his little red-raired friend, and rushed into the forge. Balor, taking advantage of his opportunity, carried off the Glas Gaivlen to Torry Island, and the place on which he dragged her up on the island is to this day called Port-na-Glaise, or the harbour of the green cow. MacKineely, suspecting that a fraud had been practised on his brother by Balor, ran out of the forge, when lo! he saw the Fomorian chief with the cow in the middle of the sound of Torry. Grieved to distraction at the loss of his Glas Gaivlen, he made known his case to a friendly Druid living not far from the place. The Druid told him that the cow was irrevocable as long as Balor lived, as he could keep his basilisk eye always open to destroy any one who dared approach her. Accordingly, MacKineely set about compassing the destruction of this fatal eye, and for this purpose called to his aid his familiar sprite, "Biroge of the mountain." She dressed him in the robes of a young girl, and wafting him across the sound to the tower of Ethnea, where, by representing her ward as a noble lady just rescued from a tyrant who attempted to carry her off, she succeeded in introducing MacKineely to Ethnea, who immediately became enamoured of him. The result of this intercourse was, that in due time Ethnea gave birth to three sons, whom Balor secured

Uskechaoin; in Inisoen; an abbey was founded here by St. Columb, which is now a chapel in the diocess of Derry, according to Colgan."

COUNTY OF DOWN.

Achadhcaoil near the bay of Dundrum, in the barony of Lecale. St. Killen, who was abbot of this church, lived in the fifth century; and St. Senan was also abbot of it about the year 560.

* Tr. Th., p. 495. * Act. SS., p. 73 and 541. Id., p. 742.

at once, and rolling them up in a sheet, fastened with a delg, or pin, sent them in a boat to be consigned to the deep. The delg, or pin, gave way as the boat crossed the harbour, when one of the children fell into the water and disappeared; the other two were drowned at a spot which is, from this circumstance, called Port-a-delg. The child that had fallen out and disappeared was invisibly carried away by the banshee, "Biroge of the mountain," to his father on the mainland, who sent him to his brother Gavida, to be brought up to his trade, which, in those days, ranked among the most respectable professions.

Balor, hearing how MacKineely had deceived and injured him, crossed the sound with a band of his fierce associates, and, landing at a place called Ballyconnell, succeeded in taking him; and, laying his head on a large white stone, cut it clean off with one blow of his ponderous sword. This stone, with its red veins, still tells of this deed of blood, and gives its name to the present district of Cloganeely. It may be seen now in the grounds of W. Olpherts, Esq., who has carefully placed it on a pillar six feet high. The heir of MacKineely had, in the meantime, grown up to be an able man and an excellent smith. Fully aware of the circumstances of his birth and escape, and his father's cruel death, he meditated revenge. This he at length realized; for Balor one day came to the forge when the young MacKineely was alone working, and happened, in the course of conversation, to allude with pride to his victory over MacKineely, never suspecting that he spoke to his son. The young smith, fired with rage, watched his opportunity, and taking a glowing rod from the furnace, thrust it through the basilisk eye of Balor, thus amply avenging his father's death, and fulfilling the prediction of the Druid.

1 Achadhcaoil.—Among the possessions of the see of Down at the end of the twelfth century, which are recited in a patent roll of the Tower of London. as quoted by Dr. Reeves, are "Rathmurvul along with Rathscillan." The former is Maghera, but there is a difficulty in identifying Rathsci lan, as there is no place in that neighbourhood known by the name; and yet, as is evident by the grouping of the names, it must have been in the neighbourhood of Maghera, and, like Maghera, it must have been in early times the scene of the piety and labours of some eminent ecclesiastic. Rathscillan signifies "the Rath of Cillan." St. Donard had a brother named Cillen, whose church was somewhere in the neighbourhood. Engus the Culdee, in his tract on the "Mothers of the Saints of Ireland." refers to Cillen (Killen) in a passage which I translate from Colgan's Latin translation of the original Irish :-" Derinilla, called Cethuir-Chicheach (ie., of the four provinces), was the mother of SS. Domangart (Donard), son of Eachach and Aillean, and Aidan, and Muran of Fathen (now Fahan in Inishowen), and Mochumma of Drumbo, and Cillen of Achadhcail, in the territory of Lecale, at the bank of the estuary of Dundrum." In a field in Wateresk belonging to Mr. Savage, and immediately adjoining his house, are the remains of an ancient ceme

Ardicnise there was a friary of Franciscans here, but the time of its foundation is not known.

Bangor, or the White Choir; it was called anciently the Vale of Angels; it is a seaport, market, and borough town in the barony of the Ards.

Abbey of Canons Regular; A.D. 516. St. Comgall was born in Ulster of noble parentage, and was educated under St. Fintan, in Clonenagh.

555. About this time he founded here a celebrated abbey ; where in this year Cormac, King of South Leinster, took on him the cowl; and died A.D. 567.o

St Flann was abbot here, we cannot say at what time; but his feast is commemorated on the 15th of December.d

• Walsh's Prospect, p. 227.

d Butler,

War. Mon. Usher. Id., p. 451. b vol. 12, p. 246. tery which once was enclosed in a rath. The bodies were interred in graves lined with flag-stones, and a large granite stone stood in the cemetery, but it has been rolled into a stream which bounds the field; on this stone is inscribed a simple cross formed by the intersection of two pair of parallel lines. Mr. Savage, who is not accountable for the barbarous removal of the incised stone, has promised to have it rolled back to its original position. This site exactly corresponds with that of the Church of St. Cillen, as described by Angus, the Culdee. It is in the territory of Lecale, and it is close to the estuary of Dundrum, while it adjoins the lands attached to the Church of Maghera, which would account for the expression in the Patent Roll, "Rathmurvul (Maghera) along with Rathscillan."

The name Cillen assumes among our Irish saints the forms of Kelan and Caolan, the latter of which, as derived from Caol, narrow," is stated by Colgan to have been a common appellation, denoting "slenderness of figure;" and no doubt the diminutive form Caolan was used to express affection towards the saint. This change of the name accounts for the name given to the site of St. Cillen's Church, by Angus, the Culdee, who calls him "Čillen of Achadhcail (the field of the slender man.")

It seems probable that St. Senan belonged to some other place called Achadhcaoil.

Ardicnise, now called Holywood, which see.

3 Bangor.-Keating. in his History of Ireland-that wonderful repertory of bardic stories thus accounts for the origin of the name Bangor :-" Breasal Breac, King of Leinster, went with an army to plunder Scotland, and he brought many cows and herds of cattle with him into Ireland; and, after he and his forces landed, they formed an encampment in the place which is now called Bangor, and slaughtered a great number of the cattle there, until a considerable number of the Beanna, i.e., the horns of the cows, were scattered over the plain; so that the place ever since bore the name of Magh Beannchoir-the plain of the horns. A long time after that, when the holy abbot Comgall erected the monastery of Bangor in the same spot, he gave the name of the place in which it was erected to it, viz. -Beannchor, so that it has retained it ever since." Bangor is popularly supposed to mean White Choir, and is so explained by Ware, Harris, De Burgo, and I may even add Colgan; but the learned Dr. Reeves is inclined to believe that the true root of the name is to be found in the Celtic word Beanna-horns. A monk who had come to Ireland with the Anglo-Normans, named Jocelin-an industrious collector of all the strange traditions respecting St. Patrick, that had floated down the stream of time, tells the following story regarding him :- He turned, for the sake of rest for himself and his holy company, unto a certain hill situated in a valley, where afterwards was builded the monastery of Beannchor, and, sitting there, they beheld the valley filled with heavenly light, and with a multitude of the host of heaven, and they heard, as chanted forth

601. St. Comgall being worn out with extreme old age, and the cares of his monastery, which he had superintended fifty years and upwards, surrendered up his soul in his 90th year on the 10th of May, on which day his feast is observed. He was succeeded by St. Finnchuo, who died the 25th of November, on which day his feast is also celebrated; this abbot was remarkable for his austerities.f

605. Died the abbot St. Beogna; his feast is observed on the 22nd of August.

St. Sillan, the son of Comyn, principal master and rector of the schools of Bangor, succeeded him; and died on the 28th of February following.h

St. Cumian was abbot about the beginning of this century,i and his festival is observed on the 17th of September.

Usher, Act. SS., p. 424. Calendar. Fleming, p. 314. Act. SS. p., 424. h Id. and M'Geogh. Act. SS., p. 59. * Fleming, p. 314.

from the voice of angels, the psalmody of the celestial choir." This legend may have suggested the anciful origin of the name. To it is to be attributed the name, The Vale of Angels," which continued to be used as an alias for Bangor to its dissolution, and even occurs as such in the patent under which its present owner possesses it.

The illustrious founder, St. Comgall, was born at Magheramourne, a district on the coast of the county of Antrim, near Larne; his father's name was Sedna, and his mother's Briga. He was of a distinguished family of the Kingdom of DalAraidhe (Dalaray), which then comprehended the northern half of the county of Antrim, and which had received its name from its ancestor Fiacha Araidhe. It is said that his birth and future sanctity had been foretold both by St. Patrick and St. MacNessa, the patron saint of Connor. He was born, according to Tighernach, in the year 517; but other accounts place his birth somewhat earlier. Jocelin, and others after him, have translated his name into the words "Beautiful pledge, but his first great disciple, St. Columbanus, considered Faustus, prosperous, as the equivalent for his Celtic name. After having been instructed in the various branches of learning he set out from his own country for the purpose of improving himself in spiritual knowledge, and placed himself under St. Fintan, who then presided over the great religious establishment of Clonenagh, near Mountrath, in the Queen's County. After he remained several years under St. Fintan, he was advised by that saint to return to his own country, and to form there some religious establishment. On his return to Dalaradia, Comgall, it is said, went to Clonmacnoise, where he was ordained priest by a Bishop Lugidius. Dr. Lanigan suspects that Clonmacnoise is written by mistake for Connor, where there resided a personal friend of our saint, a bishop named Lugadius. St. Comgall intended to spend the remainder of his days in Britain, but he was induced by Lugadius, and other eminent men, to remain in his own country. He then, about the year 559, founded the monastery of Bangor. The number of his followers soon became so great, that it was necessary to establish various monasteries and cells, in which, taken altogether, it was computed there were 3,000 monks under his rule. Among them was Cormack, King of South Munster, who, in his old age, retired to Bangor, and there spent the remainder of his days.

St. Bernard, in his life of St. Malachy, speaking of Bangor, says :-"There had existed in this place, under the founder Comgellus, a most noble institution, inhabited by many thousands of monks, the head of many monasteries, a place truly sanctified, and so fruitful in saints, which brought forth fruit so abundantly to God, that one of the sons of that holy congregation, Luanus by name, had himself alone founded one hundred monasteries, which I mention for this reason, that the reader may, from this single instance, form a conception of the number to which the remainder of the community amounted. In short, so widely had its