COENISH DEDICATIONS. 21 



Then lie departed to undertake tlie work of organising 

 ecclesiastical institutions for Ossory, but would not venture to 

 plant his monastery within the confines of the new kingdom of 

 the intrusive Cucraidh. He selected a spot near the centre of 

 Ireland, on the boundary between the northern and southern 

 divisions of Ireland, but on the Munster side. This is now a 

 small village in the barony of Ballybritt, in King's county, not 

 far from the north western extremity of the Slieve Bloom 

 Mountains. 



In the legend, as afterwards elaborated, it was a spot to 

 which Patrick had bidden him repair, when they were together 

 on the Continent, and where was the well of Uaran, probably 

 one to which sanctity attached in Pagan times. 



According to the story, Kieran began by occupying a cell in 

 the midst of a wood, living as a hermit, and his first disciples 

 were a boar, a fox, a badger, a wolf, and a doe. Happily we 

 are able to unravel this fable. One of his pupils was S. Sinnach, 

 of the clan of the Hy Sinnach or the Foxes, in Tefiia, near 

 Saighir. Another may have been a member of the Broc tribe in 

 Munster. Os (doe) was unquestionably an Ossorian disciple. 

 S. Kieran' s wolf was none other than his uncle Laighniadh 

 Paeladh, but faeladh has a double meaning, it is "hospitable," 

 as well as "wolfish." There is a Kiltorcan which must have 

 been founded by a Tore (boar), another pupil. By this we can 

 see how marvels were developed out of simple facts. 



S. Kieran induced his mother, Liadhain, to found a religious 

 house for women at Killeen, not far from Saighir. Into it was 

 received her namesake, the granddaughter of Cucraidh, who 

 afterwards became abbess. Kieran had inflicted upon him 

 Carthagh, a son, or, more probably, a grandson of Aengus Mac 

 Nadfraich, and this Carthagh eventually succeeded to the abbacy 

 of Saighir. It is difficult to resist the conclusion that this was 

 due to arrangement with the King of Munster and the usurper 

 of the throne of Ossory. Aengus agreed to allow Kieran to 

 organise the religious communities on the Ossorian frontiers, on 

 condition that his own son or grandson should be made coarb, 

 with succession to the ecclesiastical headship, and in like manner 

 Cucraidh sent his granddaughter to Liadhain on the stipulation 

 that she was to succeed there. B}' this arrangement it was 



