308 COHKISH DEDICATIONS. 



Thev all beloiiged to the small ti-ibe of Clin Catlu-aiglie, 

 wliich occupied the northern slopes of Mount Leinster. This 

 little clan was converted, about 430. bv 8. Isserninus, and this 

 excited the suspicion and auger of Enna Cinnselach, king of the 

 district. He di'ove them fi-om their possessions into exile, and 

 Isserninus accompanied the tiibe into banishment. The perse- 

 cution lasted till after the death of Enna. who died in 444. The 

 accession of his son, Crimthan, did not bring peace and restoration 

 to the converts, as he, like his father, was a pagan. However, 

 in 458 S. Patrick succeeded in converting and baptising him, and 

 the apostle used the occasion to ui'ge him to restore the exiles. 

 This he consented to do, after they had been in banishment near 

 on twenty years. AYhere they had tarried we are not told 

 precisely, only that it was somewhere in the south. As Cuacha 

 was the nui-se or fostermother of S. Kieran, she must have been 

 among the Corca Laidhe in Southern Munster. 



"V^'e cannot set down Kieran as born later than 439 or before 

 436, and we may suppose that when the members of the Clan 

 Clin came among the Corca Laidhe. an intimacy sprang up 

 between them and those of the Hy Duach. who were there, as 

 well, in banishment fi-om Ossory. In token of this amity, may 

 be, the newly born Elerau was put into the arms of the exiled 

 girl to nurse and to love. 



Certainly Kieran was with her for longer than the period of 

 unremembering infancy, for he ever held Cuacha in the deepest 

 and tenderest affection. 



He, himself, was not baptised till he was thii-ty. but she was 

 an exile for the faith, one of the tiii-st confessors for Christ that 

 the island produced, and she must have impressed the rehgious 

 character on Kieran' s mind. 



The summons to retiu'n home came in 458 or perhaps a little 

 later, and then Kieran parted with his nurse. He was then not 

 over seventeen, and was destined not to see Cuacha again for many 

 years. 



On her return to the land of her fathers, her two brothers 

 embraced the religious profession, as did also her sister. It is 

 probable that this had been part of the agreement ; on these 

 terms only had Crimthan, king of the Hy Cinnselach. permitted 

 them to come back. 



