Macai.istkr — Tcmair Breg : Remains and Traditions of Vara. .'341 



her name, as the kings of Temair hove the name of Eoelm. P.nt one of the 

 succession came under Christian influence, and, embracing the Faitli of the 

 Cross, she accomplished the tremendous feat of converting the pagan sanctuary 

 into a Christian religious house — a work in its way far more wonderful than 

 the miracles with which her biographers credit her. It is no detraction from 

 the honour due to her for this achievement, that she could not quite rid the 

 establishment over which she presided of all its pagan vestiges; " the brighl 

 lamp that lay in Kildare's holy fane" still "burnt through long ages," not, 

 as Moore foolishly says, of "darkness and storm," but of Christian Faith and 

 Works. And though it is most probable that she herself changed the official 

 name " Brigid " which hitherto she had borne (for no Christian lady would 

 willingly continue to bear a name so heathenish while paganism was still a 

 force), it was too deeply rooted in the folk-memory, and continued to be used 

 locally to designate her. 



To return to St. Ibar, we are told that he resented the coming of St. Patrick, 1 

 which would hardly be to his credit if he were a Christian, but would be 

 intelligible if the story were first told of a pagan. His mother's name Lassar 

 ("flame") is suggestive in this connexion, 2 as well as her origin from theDesi 

 of Breg. He is one of the saints to whom a life of portentous length is 

 assigned by the Annalists (the Four Masters, for example, tell us that he 

 died A.D. 500 at the age of 304 years ; the Martyrology of Donegal adds 

 another century). And a "very ancient old book " cited by the Martyrology 

 of Donegal states that in habits and in life lie resembled St. John the Baptist 

 — a remark of great significance, as we shall see. 



Beg Eire is situated in the estuary of the river Slaney. We have already 

 seen that the god of the Slaney, under his two names, Slainge and 

 (Mo-)Donn(os), appears as the leader of both the Fir Bolg and the Milesian 

 invasion ; and we have suggested that the latter is the original form of the story, 

 the former a contaminated version. In Ptolemy's time the south-east corner 

 of the island seems to have been endowed with peculiar sanctity. We see 

 in his map the Sacred Promontory, and names like Birgos (the river Barrow), 

 and the tribe of the Brigantes, containing the same linguistic element as the 

 name of the fire-goddess Brigid. It is suggestive in this connexion that the 

 traditional Ibar is in his life brought into close association with Kildare. The 

 same element enters into Bregna, a name for the Boyne preserved in ( lormac's 

 Glossary. The enormous earthen ring-fort, called Ballytront, cue of the 

 largest and finest earthworks in Ireland, a short distance north of Carnsore 



1 Feilire Oengusso, Glosses, Bradshaw ed., p. 118 ; Life of St. Declan [Irish Texts 

 Society), p. 36. 



- But see Kuno Meyer's note, Todd Lect., xvii, 109, note on p. (i, line LO, 



