242 Mr. PETEIE'S Inquiry into the Origin and 



six inches in the external diameter of the circle, and is placed at the height of 

 about twenty-two feet from the ground. I should add, that the masonry 

 throughout this interesting building is of a very superior character, the stones, 

 which are polygonal, being fitted to each other with the greatest neatness and 

 art, and that the material is the celebrated limestone of the district. 



I have now to inquire into the probable age of this structure. The monas- 

 tery of Rathain, which Archdall and Lanigan erroneously place at Eathyne, 

 in the barony of Fertullagh, and county of Westmeath, was originally founded, 

 about the close of the sixth century, by the celebrated St. Carthach, or Mochuda, 

 afterwards the first bishop of Lismore. In this monastery, which became one of 

 the most celebrated in Ireland, Carthach ruled, for a period of forty years, a com- 

 munity of monks, said to have nocked to him from various parts, both of Ire- 

 land and Great Britain, and which finally increased to the number of 867, all of 

 whom provided for themselves and the poor by the labour of their hands. But, 

 notwithstanding the sanctity of his character, the envy and jealousy of the 

 monks or clergy of a neighbouring establishment effected the expulsion of him- 

 self and his monks from Eathain in the year 630, by the prince of the country, 

 Blathmac, the son of the monarch Aedh Slaine ; and, after having wandered 

 for some time from place to place, he ultimately formed a second religious 

 establishment, not less celebrated in our histories, at Lismore, which from his 

 time became the seat of a bishop. St. Carthach died on the 14th of May, in 

 the year 637, and was buried at Lismore. 



It is not, however, to this distinguished man that I am disposed to attribute 

 the erection of the present church at Eathain, but to one who flourished nearly 

 two centuries later, and whose name has been also venerated as that of the patron 

 of the place, an honour never paid to any but founders of churches. From 

 the expressive silence of our annals, it would appear, that, after the expulsion 

 of St. Carthach and his monks, there was no religious community settled at 

 Eathain till towards the middle of the eighth century. Colgan, indeed, labours, 

 on the doubtful and contradictory authority of some of the Irish Calendars, to 

 fix here, as St. Carthach's successor, a Saint Constantine, who, according to 

 some, had been originally a king of the Britons, and to others, a king of the 

 Picts. But the evidences adduced in support of this statement are wholly in- 

 sufficient to establish its truth ; and the first abbot of Eathain after St. Carthach, 



