444 Mr. PETRIE'S Inquiry into the Origin and 



to defence, however the ecclesiastics might have trusted to the religious feelings 

 of the people for protection, is proved from the greater height and strength of 

 some of the circumvallations remaining ; and, indeed, in very many instances, the 

 religious houses were built within the pagan fortresses given up to the clergy 

 by the Irish princes, on their conversion to Christianity, or shortly afterwards. 

 Thus, we learn from the Tripartite Life of St. Patrick, that one of the very 

 earliest churches erected by that saint inMeath, the church of Donaghpatrick, at 

 Tailtenn, was built where the house of Conall, the king's brother, was situated, 

 and which was given up to him for the purpose : I have already given the pas- 

 sages relating to it at pp. 160, 161. So, in an extract from the Life of St. Benen, 

 or Benignus, published by Colgan in his Trias Thaum., p. 204, it is stated that 

 the church of Cill Benen was erected within the arx, or fortress called Dun 

 Lughaidh, from a lord of the country, who, with his father and four brothers, 

 having been baptized by the Saints, Patrick and Benen, gave up their dun, or 

 fortress, for the purpose. See the passage quoted in the notice of the church 

 and Round Tower of Kilbannan, in Part III. 



A similarly striking example of the resignation of a pagan fort for the use 

 of a Christian community, occurs in the Life of St. Caillin, in the Book of 

 Fenagh, of which there is a copy on parchment in the Collection of Irish MSS. 

 in the Library of the Royal Irish Academy, made from a copy of the original 

 still preserved at Fenagh, and which was transcribed for the abbot O'Rody, in 

 the year 1517, from the original book now preserved in the British Museum. 



It is there stated, in an ancient poem attributed to Flann, the son of Flann, 

 concerning the history of Fenagh, that the chief of the country of Breifny, Aodh 

 Finn, the son of Feargna, on his conversion to Christianity by St. Caillin, gave 

 up to him his Cathair, or stone fortress, in order that he might erect his 

 monastic buildings within it ; and of this Cathair, which was one of great ex- 

 tent, there are vestiges still remaining. 



It further appears, from the same poem, that this cathair had been of a very 

 great antiquity, as well as importance, as its erection is attributed to Conaing 

 Begeglach, or the Fearless, the sixty-fifth monarch of Ireland in the Irish regal 

 list, and who nourished, according to the corrected chronology of O'Flaherty, 

 nearly four hundred years before the Christian era. This fact is stated in the 

 following stanzas : 



