24 COKNISH DEDICATIONS. 



for lier host. This put Cucraidh in difficulties. He had no 

 desire to embroil himself with his over-king ; and in his 

 dilemma he sent for Kieran, who arrived bringing with him a 

 basket of blackberries as a present for the queen. 



The legend writer, so as to distort a very ordinary fact into 

 a marvel, pretends that the season was Easter. It is far more 

 probable that it was Samhain, the great feast and visiting time 

 of November. Partaking of the fruit served the purpose of 

 cooling the queen's irregular desires. This incident occurred 

 after Saighir was well established, and probably not before 480. 

 Eithne Uatach and her husband Aengus fell soon after in battle, 

 489, and according to the "Life" of S. Kieran, Aengus was 

 succeeded by his son Ailill. 



A gloss in the Lebar Brecc on the Eelire of Oengus, thus 

 describes the monastic establishment of Kieran, at Saighir. 

 "Numerous were his cattle. There were ten doors for his kine, 

 and ten stalls at every door, and ten calves at each stall, and ten 

 cows to every calf. . . . Moreover there were fifty docile horses 

 for the tilling and j)loughing the ground. And this was his meal 

 every night- — a little bit of barley bread, and two roots of 

 Ilurathach, and water from the spring. Skins of fawns were his 

 raiment, and a wet hair-cloth over these. He ever slept on a 

 pillow of stone." The gloss is late, but it represents the tradition 

 that Saighir was a large place, and that the head of it lived 

 abstemiously. 



Cairnech (Carantog), the Bald, was Kieran's scribe; but it is 

 most doubtful if this can be the same as the Carantog who was 

 engaged in the compilation of the Seanchus Mor in 438. Indeed 

 we can hardly suppose it possible that he should be associated 

 with Kieran at the close of the century. Cairnech wrote books 

 for Kieran that were long preserved at Saighir, and among them 

 a record of Kieran's travels. 



Situated as Saighir was on the confines of Munster, it was 

 liable to be ravaged in times of war. We hear of the king of 

 Ireland,- probably Lugaidh, son of Laogaire (483-506), marching 

 against Ailill, king of Munster, and camping on the north side 

 of the river Brosnach, by Saighir, and Ailill was camped on the 

 Munster side, on Kieran's land. 



