Uses of the Round Towers of Ireland, fyc. 353 



Britonis, vel filij Fergussii de Cruthenis." Marian Gorman. " Constantinus 

 Brito :" and the Scholiast of Marian adds : " Constantinus filius Fergussij de 

 Cruthenis oriendus ; vel iuxta alios, Brito; Abbas de Rathenia S. Mocliudce." 

 So also the Martyrology of Donegal has the same words ; and Cathal Maguire 

 has the following notice of him : " Constantinus Rex Britonum regnum abdi- 

 cauit : et peregrinationis causa, venit Ratheniam tempore S. Mocliuddce. 

 Fuit enim Comorbanus (successor) S. Mochuddce Rathenioe, et ante Rex Al- 

 bania: vel est Constantinus filius Fergussij de Cruthenis oriundus." See Col- 

 gan's Ada Sanctorum, pp. 574, 575. 



It would be foreign to my purpose to inquire more minutely into the history 

 of this distinguished person, who, whatever may have been his country, there 

 can be little doubt, was really located at Rahen or its vicinity, though not, as 

 stated, at so late a period as to have been the successor of St. Mochuda, who was 

 driven from Rahen in the year 630, at least if he be, as Dr. O'Conor supposes, 

 the Constantine noticed in the Annals of Ulster at the year 587, and in those 

 of Tighernach at the year 588, in these words, " Conversio Constantini ad 

 Dominum" and to whom Hector Boethius seems to allude in his History of 

 Scotland, L. 9, where he says : " Ptenitentem, abdicato regno, secessisse in 

 Hiberniam, ibique, tonso capite, Christi militia se preestitisse." 



The passage is moreover curious for its reference to the seven streets inha- 

 bited by the Galls, in the town of Cell Belaigh, as well as for the allusion to the 

 pinginns, or pennies, at this early period ; and I may mention, as a curious 

 fact, that in my own time there has been found, in the immediate vicinity of 

 Rahen, not only an extensive hoard of pennies of the Saxon chief monarchs of 

 the ninth century, but also, subsequently, a considerable number of the pen- 

 nies of Egbert, 801-837, circumstances which would seem to indicate that 

 Saxons were established in this locality at an early period. 



To return, however, from this digression. It is from a consideration of 

 the greater size of some of the Duirtheachs than of others that I am inclined 

 to refer to this class not only such curious buildings as Declan's Dormitory 

 at Ardmore, in the County of Waterford, and Molaisi's House on Devenish 

 Island, in Fermanagh buildings of very contracted dimensions but also those 

 similar buildings, though of larger size, at Kells and Glendalough, the first 

 called St. Columb's House, and the second St. Kevin's, which have habitable 



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