302 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. 



Adamnan does not tell us, and there is nothing recorded by him which can 

 with probability be regarded as causing it. O'Donnell connects it with the 

 battle of Cul Drenihne.' And the conduct of Columba in fomentiug the strife 

 which culminated there, as recorded by O'Donnell, however it might " after- 

 wards appear in the end," would accoimt for the action of the Synod. 1'hat 

 the departure of Columba from Ireland followed shortly after the Synod is, 

 perhaps, implied by Adamnan.^ 



And in one matter of detail O'Donnell's account of the battle itself appears 

 to have been founded upon an early legend which bears on its face the 

 mark of truth. We are told in the Annals of Ulster and elsewhere^ that 

 Diavmaid caused a druid's airhc to be made between the armies. The airhc 

 was overthrown, and one of Columba's men leaped over it and was immediately 

 slain. He was the only man of the northern host who lost his life that day. 

 The meaning of this is not clear, but the important fact is that it represents 

 Diarmaid as under the influence of pagan druids.^ This was very probably 

 the case : it is most unlikely to have been the invention of a later age, when 

 Ireland was entii'ely Christian.* And it is to be noted that a serious disagree- 

 ment between Columba and Diarmaid, supposing the latter to have been a 

 semi-pagan, together with a violation of Christian sanctuary by him, would 

 be a very natural prelude to his open apostasy. O'Donnell alters the story 

 in one point. He substitutes a stream for the airhe, no doubt because that 

 word was as unintelligible to him as it is to us,' and consequentlj omits the 

 statement that it was overturned. 



We have reasonable ground, therefore, for the suspicion that the battle of 

 Cul Dremhne, like the battle of Clontarf four centuries and a half later, was 

 a struggle between the old faith and the new, between Paganism and 

 Christianity. Thus we may account for the deep impression which it made 

 on the imagination of the Irish people. But it is right to add that this 



' III Peregr. 5 11 the excommunication is consequent on an escapade of the saint 

 elsewhere, I believe, unrecorded. But in § 5 it is connected with the battle of Cul 

 Dremhne. 



- See Adamnan, iii. 3, 4, with Reeves, p. 196, note e. 



^ E.g., in the Book of Lismore, f. 94b : see Stokes, p. xxviii f. Compare Annals of 

 Tigemagh. 



*That Diarmaid had a Druid in his retinue is more than once stated by O'Donnell. 

 His name was Beg mac De. See §§ 98, 129 (ZCP, iv. 321 ; v. 51). 



5 Compare on this J. H. Todd, " St. Patrick," p. 107 fl'. 



° In the Lismore Lives, Stokes. translates it "fence," but elsewhere "host" (ZCP, 

 vi. 240). O'Donnell also omits the recitation by St. Columba of " three stanzas," on the 

 meaning of which see Lawlor, "Chapters on the Book of Mulling," p. 166. A poem 

 quoted by O'Donnell (§ 159 : ZCP, ix. 253) calls the three stanzas a scialhlniicch. This is 

 in harmony with the view expressed in the context of the passage cited as to the 

 significance of the last three stanzas of a Icrrica. 



