252 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. 



liecaine bishop of Connor. The latter incidents may, in fact, be connected 

 witli another event, to which St. Bernard gives a vagne date (§ 18) : " It 

 liappened some years after [Malachy's consecration as bishop] that the city 

 [Bangor?] was destroyed by the king of the Northern part of Ireland." In 

 consequence of this Malachy again went southwards and founded the 

 monastery of Ivei-agh, where lie remained until after the death of 

 Cellach in 1129. Tliere is no mention here of a visit to Lismore; but if 

 Malachy had any part in the restoration of Cormac to his kingdom, he must 

 have been tliere in 1 1 27. Moreover St. Bernard tells us that Cormac gave 

 liberal assistance to the community at Iveragh. I venture therefore to 

 reconstruct this jiart of the story thus. In 1127, some (more exactly, three) 

 yeiire after his consecration, Malachy's monastery at Bangor was destroyed 

 by the king of Xorthern Ireland (Conchobhar I.ochlainn), and he fled to 

 Lisniore. There he made, or renewetl, ae<niaintance with the deposed king 

 of Desmond, Coniiac MacCarlhaigh. When Cormac was restored, Malachy 

 moved on to Iveragh, in Desmond, and there founded a new monastery 

 under his jiationage. 



One diHic\ihy in the way of this reconstruction ought to be mentioned. 

 There is no i-ecord in the Annals of an invasion of the Bangor district in 

 11 27 ; but three years later all of them describe a raid, which has often been 

 idenlitied with the one referred to by St. Bernard. 



" 1130. A hosting by Lochlainn, i.e. Conchobhar son of Domhnall, and 

 by the Nortli "f Ireland into Uladh. The men of Uladh assembled to give 

 them Iwltle . . . The men of Uladh were finally defeated and slaughtered . . . 

 And they plundered the tnuntry as far a« the east of Ard [Bangor district] 

 both churches and lay property." 



If we take this to be the raid in the course of which tlie destruction of 

 Bangor refened to by St. Bernard took place, we are forced to regard the 

 section of the Vita which we are considering, as of very slight historical 

 value. We must suppose that Malachy was at Bangor from ir<^4 to 1130. 

 He cannot, then, have assisted in the restoration of Comiac MacCarthaigh, 

 which undoubtedly occurred in 1 1 27. Moreover, on the same hypothesis, he 

 cannot have gone to Iveragh till at least a year after Cellach's death (1st April, 

 1129), though St. Bernard expressly states that he was tliere when Cellach 

 fell sick (§ 19). I conclude, therefore, either that the annalists omitted to 

 mention the destnietion of Bangor alluded to by St. Bernard, which is certainly 

 not inconceivable, or that they misplaced the record of the raid of which it 

 was an incident, which is less likely, though not impossible. 



We have found, then, that St. Bernard has confused two distinct visits of 

 Malachy to Lismore, one of which was made before, and the other after, he 



