344 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. 



We now return to Cummascach. Fortunately we have his pedigree/ and 

 it proves conclusively that he was not a member of the Clann Sinaich. He 

 was a great-grandson of Eiodhan, a descendant of Conchobar Corrach ; and 

 Conchobar Corrach belonged to the Ui Bresail,"- a kindred but distinct sept. 

 His contention with Dub da Lethe was the only attempt for a century to 

 dispute the claim of the Clann Sinaich to provide abbots for Armagh. It 

 was clearly unsuccessful. St. Bernard may allude to the incident when he 

 writ«s : " They did not sutler any to be bishops [he should have said abbots] 

 who were not of their own tribe and family."' 



Having thus cleared the ground, we may call attention to a coincidence 

 wliich lends some support to our argument. It has been pointed out that 

 the title " Coarb of St. Patrick " is characteristic of the section of the List 

 with which we are now coucerned. The fiist person to whom it is given is 

 Cathassach II (no. 46). Thus its use begins at the very moment when, as 

 we contend, the succession became fixed in the Clann Sinaich. And it is 

 applied to every succeeding abbot, with tlie single exception of Cummascach, 

 who is the only person in this section after Q^JH whom we have reason to 

 believe not to have been descended from Sinaich. Is it possible that the 

 word comarba at this period connoted something more than mere succession 

 in spiritual olfice .' We may venture to suggest liiat it included the conception 

 which St. Bernanl expressed by the phrase hatreditaria successio — succession 

 confined to one " tribe and family." No doubt it lost that significance 

 when it was used of Mael Maedhoc and later archbishops. But Amblaimh 

 Ua Muircdaich (no. 60) is not called coarb of Patrick, and the title practically 

 disappears in the early years of the twelfth century. 



Now, if for two centuries the coarbs of Patrick were invariably selected, 

 as of right, from the Clann Sinaich, we may be confident that the right was 

 not generally acknowledged at the moment when it was first claimed. Those 

 centuries during which all the recognized coarbs belonged to the privileged 

 familj' must have been preceded by a period of struggle, in which the pre- 

 rogative of the sept was asserted, and, after contest, finally admitted. The 

 first member of the Clann Sinaich to sit in the chair of Patrick was Dub dA 

 Lethe I. the son of Sinach, the ancestor of the sept (no. 27).* We shall see 

 later that he became abbot in 775. From 775 to 936, when the hereditary 

 succession became a regular custom, may be supposed to have been the 



' RawlinsoD. B .t4>2, p. 14<;. f. 



' lb. The I'i Tuirtri, I'l Echach, Ui Bresail, Ui N'ialliin, Ui Sinaich, and Ui M^ith 

 were all aepta of the Airghialla. 

 ' Vilt S. Mainehiae. } U». 

 • See the genealogj-, p. 342, note 5. 



