MACALifsTicR — The Hhtory and Antiquities of Inis Cealtra. 107 



Inis Cealtra, with Killaloe and the steeple of Tomgraney, were " built," 

 it is said,' by Brian Borama. The latter was only a repair, for the Bound 

 Tower of Tomgraney was built in the previous century by Gormac ua Gillin. 

 This must therefore have been a shoddy piece of worlv, if it already needed 

 repair in Brian's time ; and it is not to be wondered at that not a stone of it 

 now remains, nor even a tradition as to the spot on which it stood. This is 

 luifortunate, for we are tlius deprived of a criterion of the nature of Brian's 

 masonry, and hence are unable to determine whether any of the structures 

 now to be seen on the island is to be assigned to that over-rated usurper. I 

 do not think that any of the Eomanesque work on the island is as old as the 

 reign of Brian. To assign to him the beautiful late Eomanesque archway in 

 Killaloe Cathedral is surely ridiculous. 



According to the Annals of Inisfalleu, Gormfhlaith, daughter of Ua 

 Fogartaigh, Queen of Munster, and wife of Toirdhelbhach ua Briain, died at 

 Killaloe, and was buried at Inis Cealtra in 1059 ; and the same document 

 records that in 1094 " Cathasaeh, chief of religion of Ireland" {cend crabuid 

 Erend), rested in Christ in Inis Cealtra. The monument of Cathasaeh still 

 remains on the island. 



The curtain now falls for over two hundred years ; at least I have failed 

 to find any document referring to the island belonging to this interval 

 of time. 



In 1302-6 we find it as a parish, St. Caimin's being chen the parish 

 church, valued for taxation at three marks.' 



In 1315 the place became the refuge of Brian Briain, the claimant to 

 the chieftainship of Thomond. To make clear the circumstances under which 

 this event took place, it would be necessary to give an abstract of the whole 

 complicated history of the internecine wars of the various branches of the 

 Ui Briain, which would lead us quite too far away from our subject. We may 

 content ourselves with a bare record of the fact, referring those who desire 

 to follow it out to the Caithreim Thoirdhecdbliaigh and other authorities on 

 the period. 



In the following century we hear echoes of a local. dispute, which, however, 

 does not relate to the church of Inis Cealtra itself, but to a chapel on the 

 mainland situate within the boundaries of the parish. Our information 

 regarding this trouble is derived from two papal mandates addressed to the 

 prior of Mona Incha.^ They refer to a certain Cornelius Omlampaylls [sic) 

 or Ymulaapayll {sic), who continued to hold the parish church of " Balein- 

 eayssleayn " and Ara for a year and more without having himself ordained 



' Idem, p. 140. 2 Eccl. Taxation of Ireland, Sweetman, 1302-7, p. 300. 



^ Calendar of Papal Letters, vol. vi, p. 33, 



