Lawlor — The Cathach of St. Columba. 299 



we cannot blame him. He would naturally prefer the story of the surrep- 

 titious copying of Finnian's hook, both because it was the story generally 

 believed by his own tribesmen, and because, as we shall see, he was familiar 

 with a relic of St. Columba, which he would regard as guaranteeing its truth. 

 But that story, making all allowance for the ease with which feuds could be 

 stirred up between Irish tribes, could scarcely by itself be taken as a 

 sufficient account of the origin of the battle of Cul Dremhne. O'Donnell 

 tells us — and his statement is supported by almost all the notices of the battle 

 that have come down to us — that on the side of Columba fought not only 

 tlie chiefs of Cinel Conaill and Cinel Eogain, but also Aedh son of Echaid 

 Tirmcharna, King of Connaught, the father of the murdered hostage, 

 together with the Ui Maine.' Why should the Connaughtmen take sides in 

 a battle which did not concern them ? On the other hand, the murder of 

 Curnan when he was under the protection of Columba would have been a 

 sufficient casus helli for both Ulster and Connaught. But the feud thus 

 caused would certainly have been much aggravated if about the same time 

 Diarmaid had taken Finnian's side against Columba in the quarrel about the 

 book. 



We have pruned O'Donnell's narrative very considerably. What remains, 

 omitting details," is this. The double grievance of St. Columba, on the 

 one hand the judgement about St. Finnian's book, on the other the murder 

 of (j'urnan, led to the battle of Cul Dremhne. The part which St. Columba 

 played in it brought liim into disfavour with the ecclesiastics of Ireland. In 

 consequence, whether of his own choice, as a counsel of prudence, or by the 

 advice or command of someone whose authority he respected, he left Ireland 

 and began his missionary labours in Scotland. Can this be accepted as true? 



The malediction of chaste Colum Cille, 



and the curse of Ruadan, 

 The judgement concerning the book of Colum Cille and of affable Finden, 

 When with deceptive intent I said the saying, "To every book its booklet " {Re 

 gach lebar a lebhrdn). 

 ' So the Annals. Cp. Lib. Hymn., ii. 68. Keating, at iii. 57, does not mention the 

 men of Connaught ; and at iii. 89 they are allied with Diarmaid. 



2 It may be remarked that some of the details of the story, as commonly told, do not 

 form part of it in O'Donnell's Life. Even Skene (p 81) writes : " A synod of the saints 

 of Ireland was held, before whom Columba was arraigned . . . and they decided that 

 he must win from paganism as many souls as had been slain in this battle. " The saints 

 who "murmured" may have been assembled in synod, but it is Colgan, not O'Donnell 

 who says so. Neither does O'Donnell say that Columba was "arraigned" before 

 them. The sentence was not passed upon him by a synod, but by the Archangel Michael 

 and by Molaise ; and the terms of it as reported by Skene differ considerably from thosn 

 given by O'Donnell, and approach more nearly to the account given in the Life of 

 Molaise (§ 31, Plummer, ii. 139) and Peregr. 6. That Columba landed at Colonsay 

 (Skene, I.e.) is not told in the sections of O'Donnell with which we are concerned. 



[43*] 



