104 Proceedhujs of the Royal Irish Academy. 



■while the former, in 1189, was known as Dui-inierekin. He was 

 buried in Aran, near tlie west end of his own chui'cli, in a spot now 

 marked by the fragments of a richly-carved cross, and by an early 

 cross-scribed slab with the words, " Sci t)pecani."^ 



The dawn of the sixth century saw Senan,'' a scion of a good 

 family which lived at Moylough, near Kilrush, engaged in an 

 extensive work of preaching and teaching in Corcovaskin, and the 

 other districts at the month of the Shannon, Men told how, seventy 

 years before his birth, his coming had been foretold by Patrick, who 

 had pointed out the " Green Island in the mouth of the sea," as the 

 abode of the coming saint. JN^atui'ally, a deeply thoughtful and 

 religious youth, Senan was forced to take part in a raid into Corcom- 

 roe, which seems to have disgusted him with the lay life, and awed 

 him by his own wonderful preservation. His churches on the islands 

 and coasts of the Fergus, the Shannon, and the Atlantic are, with the 

 exception of Scattery, of little note ; and the latter paid for its noble 

 position the penalty of cruel ravage and long occupation by the 

 Norsemen. 



About the year 550, the later contemporaries of Senan practically 

 completed the foundation of the early centres of religion throughout 

 the district, Maccreiche, Mainchin, Blathmac ; and Luchtighern 

 founded the important churches of Xilmacreehy and Kilmanaheen in 

 the Corcomroes ; Eath, in Kinel Fermaic ; Tomfinlough, in Magh 

 Adhair ; while Iniscaltra and Tomgraney sprang up on Lough Derg, 

 under Colan and Cronan, two otherwise obsciu'e saints. 



The next century was marked by the labours of St. Caimin, of 

 Iniscaltra, and by the austere and far-famed Colman MacDuach. At 

 this time (now that paganism was dead, and had nearly vanished) the 

 missionaries of Killaloe — Molua and Flannan^not only worked among 

 their Grod-fearing clansmen, but made long journeys among the pagans 

 of the Orkneys and Hebrides (640-680), where Flannan left material 

 traces of his visit in the rude boat-shaped oratory on the once nearly 

 inaccessible sea rock, rising above "the Seven Hunters," which are 

 called from him the Flannan Isles. ^ 



1 Petrie's " Ecclesiastical Architecture" (" Eound Towers,") 1845, p. 141. 



* There are several "Lives" of St. Senan, some of considerable age, one 

 attributed to his successor Odran : the principal was at least recast in the four- 

 teenth century, as it alludes to the death of Sir Richard De Clare in 1318. 



3 See Journal R.S.A.I., 1899, p. 328 ; also " Vita S. Flannani." I must here 

 thank the Right Rev. Dr. T. M'Redmond, Roman Catholic Bishop of Killaloe, 

 for lending me a copy of this " Life" and other material relating to St. Flannan. 



