Dalton — Cromm Cruaich of Magh Sleacht. 39 



sixty-three acres. That those two polls of endowment land should have 

 been attached to the obscure chapel of Kilfert is surely a fact of profoundest 

 significance. 



In the maps of the escheated counties of Ireland, published by Colonel 

 Sir Henry James, f.k.s., in 1861, the same church is named "Kilfart"; and 

 its complete structure is shown, with a cross overhead, denoting that it was 

 used for worship in 1609.' About a century and a half after St. Patrick's 

 time, St. Moaedhog founded on his native island, just one mile below 

 Kilnavart, a church which became the principal ecclesiastical centre of Magh 

 Sleacht. In the late fourteenth, or early fifteenth, century^ this church was 

 replaced by the " church of the bank " {Teampul-an-'p'hidrt,^ or Templeport), 

 huilt just opposite on the mainland. Templeport has ever since been, and 

 remains to-day, the parochial church for the greater part of Tullyhaw, as 

 recognized under State establishments. But the Kilfert, or Kilnavart, 

 church, there cannot be the slightest doubt, was the oldest religious founda- 

 tion of Magh Sleacht. Had it not existed before St. Moaedhog's church, why 

 should it ever have been built ? Is it likely that St. Moaedhog's successors, 

 who, like himself, guarded most jealously their abbatial dues and possessions,* 

 would have permitted a minor church to be set up beside their termon and 

 endowed with a considerable tract of land ? Is it likely, moreover, that 

 any chief of Teallach-Eachdhaich would have heen allowed to set apart a 

 goodly area of the tribe-land for the support of such a church, even if the 

 episcopal authority had sanctioned its erection? All that is known of 

 ecclesiastical government and procedure compels us to answer in the negative. 

 The Kilfert chapel must have been older than the island church of 

 St. Moaedhog ; and, that being so, it can have been none other than the 

 Domnach Maighe Sleacht which St. Patrick founded after his demolition of 

 the idol. That primitive church having been eclipsed by the adjacent 

 monastery of St. Moaedhog, its early history got enshrouded in darkness ; 

 but sufficient is known to make it fit, as a closing link, into the chain of 

 evidence that, with unfailing consistency, establishes the location of Crom 

 Cruaich's long-hidden shrine. 



about 330 acres. Only arable land was measured. Cloneaiy stretches close to Temple- 

 port Church. 



' Map No. 25 (Tullyhaw Barony). 



2 1 deduce this approximate date from the entry marked F. 118, at p. 231, of 

 "De Annatis Hiberniae." 



3 See O'Donovan's "Four Masters," a.d. 1496. 



* This is clearly demonstrated by the Irish "Life of Moaedhog," already cited 

 {supra, p. 23). 



R.I.A. PKOC, vol. XXXVI, SECT. C. Vp"] 



