18 Mr. W. R. Wixve’s Description of the Mias Tighearnain. 
other portion of the altar, which it was customary, even at that time (the date 
of St. Tiernan), to decorate with precious stones, gold, silver, brass, copper, &c. 
It has been conjectured to be part of an ancient pix, but this opinion has not been 
supported by either argument or analogy. 
The local traditions are chiefly confined to its miraculous virtues, it having 
been for a great many years used by the country people to swear upon; they 
believing that it possessed the miraculous power of causing the face of any one 
who forswore upon it to turn round to the back,—in the same manner as the 
ancient crozier called the Gearr Bearaigh [Garr Barry] of the O’ Hanleys, of 
Slieve Baune, in the east of the County of Roscommon, and other shrines and 
relics throughout the country, are supposed to do. 
St. Tiernan, or St. Tighearnan, of Oireadh Locha Con, flourished about the 
end of the fifth century. His pedigree, as given in the Book of Lecan (fol. 46), 
runs thus: ‘‘Tighernan, son of Muinidh, son of Cairpri, son of Amhalgaidh, 
son of Fiachra, son of Eochaidh, monarch of Ireland;’’ so that he was of royal 
descent. He is also mentioned in the genealogy of the Hy-Fiachrach, by Duald 
Mac Firbis (see O’ Donovan’s Genealogies, Tribes, and Customs of Hy-Fiachrach, 
published by the Irish Archeological Society, pp. 12, 103, 239). His church 
was at Oireadh, or Errew, as it is now called, a promontory that runs into 
Lough Con, in the barony of Tirawley, a locality crowded with monastic remains, 
and hallowed by the personal mission of St. Patrick. St. Tighearnain’s festival 
day was annually celebrated here on the 8th of April, according to the Irish 
Calendar of Michael O’Clery. The original church has long since been de- 
stroyed, but the ruins of an abbey, of considerable extent, said to have been 
erected on its site by the Barretts, still remain. It is mentioned in the Annals 
of the Four Masters at the year 1404, when Thomas Barrett, Bishop of Elphin, 
a most distinguished scholar and divine, was interred at Arradh (Errew) of 
Lough Con; and again in 1413, where it is stated that Henry Barrett was 
taken prisoner in the church of Airech Locha Con by Robert, the chief of the 
Barretts, who bore the Irish name of Mac Wattin, who led him captive from the 
sanctuary; that the patron saint of the church appeared in a vision at night to 
Robert, requesting him to discharge the prisoner ; that this was finally done, and 
that Mac Wattin bestowed a quarter of land on St. Tiernan for ever, as an atone- 
ment for having violated his sanctuary. 
