Lawlok — The Oathach of St. Columha. 295 



are told that Columba, in consequence of his participation in the battle of 

 Cul Dremhne, was condemned to exile from Ireland — an exile of the most 

 uncompromising kind : he was never to return to Ireland, never to partake of 

 Ireland's food or drink, or to behold her men and women. Yet he certainly 

 visited Ireland on the occasion of the gathering at Drumceatt in 575, and 

 perhaps at other times.' It must be admitted, at the least, that his banish- 

 ment was not as absolute as O'Donnell leads us to siippose. But this is only- 

 such embroidery as might be expected in a story substantially true, but told 

 many centuries after the event. We have three accounts of the sentence, 

 written in the fourteenth century, and probably copied or translated from 

 older documents, in which its terms are less severe.- It is important, how- 

 ever, to note that the earliest known reference to it, which dates at the 

 latest from the eleventh century, implies a banishment as rigorous as that 

 which O'Donnell records. In the Farewell to Ireland, attributed to 

 St. Columba, we read : — 



There is a grey eye 



That shall not look upon Erin [fading] behind it. 



It shall not see henceforth 



The men nor the women of Erin.' 



It must be added further that in the Preface to the Amra Coluim Cille, 

 as it appears both in the Leabhar na hUidre (c. 1100),^ and in the somewhat 

 later manuscript, Eawlinson B. 502,' it is related that Columba went to 

 Drumceatt blindfold, so that, in fulfilment of his promise, he should not see 

 Ireland. This is obviously a later development of the story of the absolute 



1 Adamnan,-i. 3, 10, 11, 38, 40, 42, 49, 50 ; ii. 6, 19, 36, 41, 43. According to Skene 

 (p. 83), "ten different visits to Ireland are recorded " ; but there is apparently an error 

 in his references, which I have failed to verify. It is, of course, not to be assumed that 

 every incident the scene of which is laid in Ireland implies a special visit to that 

 country. 



^ In Peregr. 6, he is directed to undertake missionary work, and in § 11 to follow 

 the "theorie" life in a remote place. According to the Vita Lasriani (§ 31, Plummer, 

 ii. 139), he was to remain for ever in exile, but nothing is said about not seeing the men 

 and women of Ireland. 



^ Reeves prints the whole poem in his Adamnan, p. 285 ff. This stanza is found in tlie 

 Introduction to the Amra Coluim Cille in the Leabhar na hUidhre, this portion of which 

 was written at Clonmacnoise about the year 1100 (see below, p. 300, note ^). It was in 

 the possession of the O'Donnells before 1340, when it was carried off by Cathal og O'Conor. 

 It was recovei-ed in 1470, and was therefore probably known to Manus O'Donnell. 

 (Leabhar na hUidhre, Facsimile Edition, Int., p. xf.) 



^ J. O'Beirne Crowe, " The Amra Choluim Chilli of Dalian Forgaill ... in Labor na 

 Huidre," Dublin, 1871, p. 9. 



^ " Revue Celtique," xx. 39. For the date of this MS, see Kuno Meyer's Facsimile 

 Edition, Int., p. ivf., and an article by Mr, U. I. Best in " Ei'iu," vii. 11411', 



