52 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. 



soul ; and his quondam friends, the demons, were doomed to perpetual 

 banishment. 



The demons having been routed, Crom became thereafter the friend, the 

 associate, and the helper of those saints who had rescued his soul from its 

 appointed doom. In the beautiful figure which thus accounts for the origin 

 of the name Domnach Crom Dubh, we see exhibited the raison d'etre of the 

 same Domnach institution, and obtain a graphic illustration of the mode in 

 which Ireland's ecclesiastical mind reacted on its clamnosa haercditas of 

 paganism during the era of its endeavour to organize our early church. 



In Tirmany and in Corcomroe, as has been shown, Crom was placed under 

 the protection of St. Bridget. In Corcaguiney his guardian was St. Brendan 

 the Mariner. In Tirawley he enjoyed the friendship of St. Cuimin. At 

 Magh Sleacht he was joined in devoted companionship with St. Patrick. The 

 common term of all these combinations being the ubiquitous Crom Dubh, the 

 conclusion is fully warranted that to him the annual festival had been sacred 

 before saints ever came on the scene to share its distinctions under the 

 reformed dispensation. The commemorations having resisted suppression, 

 the church compounded with popular sentiment by placing them under 

 religious patronage. Both as a name and an institution Domnach Crom 

 Dubh luminously exemplifies the treatment applied by Irish ecclesiasticism 

 to such pagan survivals as, holding out against anathematisation, maintained 

 their place in popular regard. 



The conclusion here reached can be set on an absolutely impregnable 

 basis. While Crom Dubh, or Crom Cruaich, was associated throughout 

 Ireland with saints, and honoured as their conciliated subordinate, he ceased 

 not in many quarters to reign as the sole hero of the Lugnasad celebrations. 

 His independent anniversaries, no doubt, became more and more isolated ; 

 and very few of them survived down to recent generations. In one region, 

 however, the process of effacement has been arrested by counter agencies ; 

 and, most remarkably, that region is the continuous barrier of mountains 

 that shields Magh Sleacht on the western side.' In Magh Sleacht itself the 

 last Sunday of July still attracts a large gathering every year to St. Patrick's 

 Well at Bellaleenan.= North of Cuilcagh, the bold steep of Beuaughlin 

 (Beneachlabhra) guards the pass leading from Fermanagh into Tullyhaw; 



' In this branch of my inquiry I have received valuable help from Mr. R. Vincent 

 Walker, of Clones, who has made a special study of the place-names, customs, and 

 traditions of every district of Co. Cavan. 



- I owe this information to Mr. Walker ; and I learn from him also that Kinawley 

 was, a generation or two since, the scene of another big "Domhnach Sunday " assembly. 



