O'Haxlon — On St. Malachy's " Monasterium Ibracense." 107 



XVI. — Ox the Idextieicatiox of St. aTalachy O'IEoegatr's " Moxas- 

 TEEIUil Ibbacexse." By E,ey. Johx O'Haxlox, II. R. I. A. 



[Read February 26, 1872.] 



Oxe of the most remarkable incidents in the career of St. Malachy 

 O'Morgair occurred, about the year 1127, while he ruled over the See 

 of Connor, and when tbe King of Ulster took possession of that city, 

 plundering and destroying it in great part, having dispersed its inha- 

 bitants. St. Malachy, and a considerable number of religious men 

 subject to his ecclesiastical rule, were obliged to fly for protection to 

 Cormac Mac Carthy, King of Desmond, or South Minister.* This latter 

 prince, who had been temporarily expelled from his principality, now 

 joyfully received them ; for in Lismore he had formerly been under 

 the spiritual direction of St. Malachy.t Ibh Rathach, or Iveragh, lay 

 remotely within Desmond, \ and there a place was set apart by the 

 king for building a monastery, which might serve to accommodate the 

 bishop and his exiled companions. The learned Dr. Petrie, with a 

 great deal of research, discusses the question about Cormac Mac Carthy 

 having been archbishop as well as King of Cashel ; and he fairly con- 

 siders those evidences adduced in his work favour an affirmative 

 conclusion on this point. § The reputed bishop-king was a munificent 

 founder of churches and a benefactor to the clergy. || 



* In Harris' "Ware, Kierrigia-Luachra, from which. Kerry has been denominated, 

 is stated to have comprehended a great part of what was afterwards called the Ter- 

 ritory of Desmond. See vol. ii. " Antiquities of Ireland," chap. vii. p. 51. Accord- 

 ing to Smith, in his Histories of Kerry and of Cork, the whole of this latter county, 

 and the greater part of the former, with other districts adjoining, formerly belonged 

 to Desmond, by the Irish called Deas Mumham. At a later period, under the 

 Fitzgeralds, this territory was more restricted. See a very interesting and learned 

 article on the topography and history of Desmond, in " The Annals of Ireland," 

 translated from the original Irish of the Four Masters, by Owen Connellan, with 

 Annotations by Philip Mac Dermott, M. D., and the Translator, pp. 170 to 183. 



t See St. Bernard's "Vita S. Malachise," cap. iv., §§ 8, 9, 10, cap. ix ; " Opera 

 S. Bernardi," tomus ii., Benedictine Edition ; also what are called "The Annals of 

 Innisfallen," by Dr. Lanigan, and Dr. O'Donovan's " Annals of the Four Masters," 

 vol. ii., at a. d. 1127. 



X The very turbulent and ambitious Turlough O'Connor, who aimed at the uni- 

 versal sovereignty of Ireland, made various attempts upon Desmond, and had 

 undertaken the regulation of this principality in a manner to subserve his own pro- 

 jects. In 1121 he wasted its territory from the plain of Femhins, near Cashel, to 

 Tralee. See Dr. O'Donovan's "Annals of the Four Masters," vol. ii., pp. 1012, 

 1013, and n. (n.) Ibid. 



§ See " The Ecclesiastical Architecture of Ireland, anterior to the Anglo-Xorman 

 Invasion." Part II., sect, iii., subsec. i., pp. 307 to 312. 



|| He built two churches at Lismore, and erected the celebrated Cormac's Chapel 

 on the Rock of Cashel. See ibid, -pp. 252,291,292. This King Cormac, ancestor of all 

 the Mac Carthy septs, and King of Desmond, was treacherously killed by Toirdeal- 



E. I. A. PRCC — VOL. I., SER. II., POL. LIT. AND ANTIQ. R 



