COBNISn DEDICATIONS. 300 



For some reason, unknown, 8. Patrick did not veil Cuach, 

 but handfjfl }ier over to Mac Tail, whom he oonBecrated Bishop 

 andjJaced at Kilcullen. liishop Mac Tail was to instruct Cuach 

 in relig-ion ; hut ugly reports circulated relative to his undue 

 intimacy wnth her, and his clergy denounced him for it — apj)ar- 

 ently to Patrick ; what was done is not recorded. 



Cuach had a defect in one hand ; the nail of one finger grew 

 like a wolf's claw, and this originated the fable that she had been 

 suckled by a she-wolf, and obtained for her the nick-name of 

 Coiningen, or the daugher of a wolf. 



Nothing further is known of Cuach till Kieran arrived at 

 Saigliir, which was about 480, when she unreservedly jjlaced 

 herself in his hands. It was probably he who placed her at the 

 head of two establishments for women, and the education of 

 young girls, one at Poss-Benchuir in Clare, and the other at 

 Kilcoagh (Cill-Cuach) near Donard, whence the order sj)read into 

 other parts of Ireland. 



It was told that when ploughing time arrived, Kieran was 

 wont to lead forth a team, bless it, and send the oxen across 

 country to the settlement at Poss-Benchuir. They an-ived 

 without a driver, and remained lowing outside Cuach' s walls till 

 she received them. Then as soon as her ploughing was accom- 

 plished, she said to the oxen : — " Depart to my foster-son again." 

 Whereupon the beasts started of their own accord, and went 

 across country to Kieran. This they did every year. If we 

 translate this out of its fictional adornments into plam fact, it 

 resolves itself into a simple and natural transaction. Kieran 

 attended to Cuach' s farming arrangements and managed the 

 annual ploughing for her. 



At Kilcoagh by Donard is her Holy Well, Tubbar-no- 

 chocha, at which stations were formerly made. The Cill is 

 mentioned in a grant of 1173 to the Abbey of Grlendalough as 

 " Cell Chuachi." S. Kevin (Coemgen) of Glendalough was 

 probably a nephew, though represented in a pedigree of the 

 saints as her half-brother, but this is chronologically impossible. 



On Chi-istmas Eve S. Kieran said Mass at midnight, and at 

 once departed from his monastery, and walked to that of Cuach, 

 and communicated her and her nuns, and then returned in the 



