278 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. 



those warrior monks, the Priors of the Hospital of Kilmainham, into 

 whose hands the sovereigns of mediaeTal Ireland not infrequently 

 committed the sword by which they governed. 



I. 



The PeIOEY of KlLilAINHAM. 



The earliest associations of Kilmainham are those which are 

 connected with the seventh-century saint from whom it derives its 

 name. The place, as Ware states, "took its name from S. Maignan, 

 , . . who lived about the beginning of the seventh century." Of this 

 saint not much is known ; but Ware's statement as to his date is 

 confirmed by the record in the " Leabhar Breac," that St. Pursa, who 

 is known to have preached through Ireland from 627 to 637, " once 

 happened to visit Maignenn at Kilmaignend." His name occurs 

 in the Martyrology of Aengus at December 18; and the same 

 authority gives his mother's name as Sinell, daughter of Cennanan, 

 and sister of the old S. Sinchell." W^are calls him a bishop, but 

 Colgan, in his " Acta Sanctorum,*'^ describes his ecclesiastical rank as 

 that of Abbot of Kilmainham, near Dublin ; and gives his descent as 

 " Son of Aeth, son of Colgan^ of the race of Colla Dachriach." In 

 the Martyrology of Garman, the saint is, however, styled bishop and 

 abbot. ''A Life of St. Magnenn of Kilmainham," which has been 

 printed, from an Irish manuscript in the British Museum, in " Silva 

 Gadelica," prefixes to a graphic narrative of the miracles imputed to 

 the saint the following account of his parentage and character : 

 *'Magnenn, and Toa, and Libren, and Cobthach, were the four sons 

 of Aeth, son of Colga, son of Tuathal, son of Pelim, son of " Colla fo 

 chrich. Which bishop (Magnenn) was from Shannon to heiin Edair 

 [the Hill of Howth] a tower of piety, and in his own time a vessel 

 of selection and of sanctity : one that from his seven years completed 

 had never uttered a falsehood, and (for fear lest he should see 

 the guardian devil of her) had never looked a woman in the face."- 

 St. Maignenn, as appears from his pedigree, belonged to Uriel, and 



1 Louvain Edition, 1645, p. 584. 



- S. H. O'Grady's " Silva Gadelica," p. 35; and see the note at p. 509, 

 where the facts as to St. Maignenn' s origin are collected. 



