296 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. 



banishment of Columba, and proves that the story came into existence long 

 before 1100. 



But O'Donnell is responsible for misstatements more serious than this. 

 The exile, according to him (§179), was the penalty enjoined npon St. Colnmba 

 for three battles of which he had been the cans© — the battles of Cnl Dremhne, 

 Cnl Fedha, and Cnl Eathain. Jfow the battle of C"ul Fedha was fought 

 in 587,' twenty-foiu- years after the settlement of the saint at Hi : and Beeves 

 has shown that the battle of Cnl Eathain cannot have occurred before he left 

 Ireland.' Clearly OTDonnell has ante-dated them both. Keating has done 

 the same, doubtless foUowiug some older authority; but unfortunately he 

 does not tell us what his authority was.' The fact is that these conftiets were 

 closely associated with each other in early tradition, as the three battles which 

 Columba had stirred up in Ireland. The Preface to the Altus Prosator 

 informs us that that hymn was composed by him as a plea for foi-gireness for 

 his share in them.' A gloss on the Amra Coluimcille mentions them as 

 the " Three Cuils."^ And they are commemorated in verses of Dalian ForgaiU 

 quoted by O'DonneU.' "We may suspeet that this legendary association has 

 caused the later battles to be dragged into a tale which originally was 

 concerned only with the battle of Cul Dremhne. They, as well as it. thus 

 came to be r^arded as a cause of Columba's banishment. 



Now when we turn to O'Donnell's Life, we find complete justification 

 of this suspicion. The battles of Cul Fedha and Cul Eathain are not really 

 worked into his narrative. They are referred to only once, and that in the 

 most awkward way, in the speech which Columba is represented as having 

 made to his followers after Cul Dremhne. And the saint, in addressing the 

 verv men who had been \-ictoi'S on both occasions, is made to give them a fuU 

 account of the cause of the battles, together with the names of the foes over 

 whom they had triumphed. O'DonneU is plainly embellishing his story with 

 a tradition drawn from another source. The very form of his naiTation warns 

 us that we need not place much reliance on what he says about the battles 

 of Cul Fedha and Cul Eathain. And in earlier notices of the cause of 

 Columba's departure fi-om Ireland they are not so much as mentioned.' 



If we carry our investigation further, we shall discover other cases in 

 which O'DonneU betrays the fact that he is combining difterent, and 

 sometimes inconsistent, traditions. For example, we ask, who imposed on 



» Annalg of Tigemach. Cp. Annals of Ulster, s. a. 586 ; Four ilasters, s. a. 572. 



* Beeves, p. 253 f . ^ Keacing, iii. 87. 



* lib. Hymn. (ecL Bernard and Atkinson), ii. 23. ^ /W<f., p. 68. 'Life, 5 179. 



* Vita S. I^ariani, 31 (Plnmmer, ii. 139) ; Peregr, 6, 11. 



