Dalton — Cromm Cruaich of Magh Sleacht. 4 1 



The church erected inside Rath Sleacht would have served no practical 

 purpose if the Masraighe had not been converted in sufficient numbers to 

 supply a congregation. The six-inch Ordnance maps locate a Tober Patraic, 

 or St. Patrick's Well, in the townland of Brackley, at the north side of 

 Brackley Lake. They place another in the townland of Ballaleenan, near a 

 bend of the Blackwater Eiver, not far south of Lake Bunerky. A third, not 

 marked on the Ordnance maps, I have seen myself near the roadside in 

 Crimlin' townland, Co. Leitrim, about two miles south of the Cavan border. 

 Taking these wells to be extant vestiges of the Saint's route, the information 

 they convey is, I think, highly important. It tells that, after founding his 

 church at Eath Sleacht, St. Patrick made a full circuit of the Magh of 

 Adorations, preaching to its inhabitants as he advanced, and administering 

 baptism at suitable stations. 



The wells, moreover, reconcile the Magh Sleacht passages of Tirechan and 

 the Tripartite Life, clearing up a difficulty that has withstood the best essays 

 in exegesis.- The note of Tirechan reads : 



" Mittens autem Patricius Methbraiir ad fossam Slecht . . . " ; and in 

 connexion with it three topographical entities have to be kept distinct in 

 idea, viz., Darraugh Port, where Crom Cruaich was worshipped ; Eath 

 Sleacht, a mile away, where St. Patrick built his church; Magh Sleacht, the 

 considerable district of country which the saint perambulated in a missionary 

 tour before departing for Magh Ai. The church in Eath Sleacht was to 

 have Methbrain for minister, and it was intended to serve the needs of the 

 Magh Sleacht population. Surely Methbrain accompanied his bishop and 

 master during the days, or weeks, that were spent in Christianising the 

 people who were to be committed to his charge. St. Patrick first entered 

 Magh Sleacht from Magh Eein, when he sailed thither from Tuam 

 Seanchaidh over the water named Guthard- At a subsequent date he 

 entered Magh Eein from Magh Sleacht as he passed south from Bellaleenan 

 to Crimlin, crossing the frontier, most probably, somewhere near Derrada 

 townland, over a ford of the Blackwater. It was from there the sending of 

 Methbrain back to his church at Eath Sleacht was performed, the sending 

 chronicled by the veracious Tirechan. The sentence which tells of it 

 evidently ended up Tirechan's account of St. Patrick's doings at Magh 

 Sleacht ; and by some happy accident it remained behind when all the rest 

 of the narrative bearing on Magh Sleacht was expunged. 



iCrimZm is the local pronunciation, but in the Ordnance maps the name is prinred 

 Cromlin. It was there O'Donovan searched for the site of Crom Cruaich. 

 - See, e.g., Bury's "Itinerary of Patrick m Connaught," p. 155. 



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