259 



Bishop of Cashel, who was slain at Beallaghmoon, in Moyailbi, in the 

 year 908. Keating,* in his account of this engagement, states that 

 Cormac, having a presentiment of his fate, desired to be buried in Disert 

 Diarmid (Castlederinot), in case his body could not be conveyed to 

 Cloyne, as Disert Diarmid was the church of his friend and preceptor, 

 the Abbot Snegdus. 



There was, however, in this same fatal field of Ballaghmoon ano- 

 ther Cormac — Cormac Mac Mothla, Prince of the Desies of Mimster — 

 who fell while in command of the left wing of the army of Munster. 

 He may have been the Cormac of the legend in question. The tradition 

 of the locality did not then come to the rescue. The writer, however, 

 met some time after this a gentleman lately returned from rTew Orleans, 

 who formerly lived in the neighbourhood of Killeen Cormac, whose father 

 was a repertory of local tradition. He told his son, the informant, that 

 the king who gave his name to Killeen was Cormac Mac Melia, King 

 of Munster. In another interview the writer asked him if he could tell 

 what part of Munster he came from, suggesting at the same time De- 

 sies, which his informant recognised as the name told him by his father. 

 He had thus no small satisfaction in being able to unravel a tradition 

 corroborating a fact of very great historical interest, if the tradition may 

 at all be relied on. 



It has been suggested that the story of the bullocks is not recorded 

 of any except those whom public estimation has placed in the category 

 of sanctity. While admitting the force of this suggestion, the legend 

 in this instance appears to be very coherent, and free from vagueness. 



Though it appears that Cormac Mac Cullinan had obvious reasons for 

 selecting Disert Diarmid (Castledermot) as the place of his sepulture, 

 that church may not have had the same attractions for Cormac Mac 

 Mothla, and he likely selected the more ancient, and perhaps more ho- 

 noured, cemetery of Killeen for the place of his burial, to which 

 in the course of time his name may have been affixed, perhaps to dis- 

 tinguish Killeen from another old and curious cemetery, about two miles 

 to the west of Killeen Cormac, and now known by the name of Kyle ; 

 or perhaps there may have been a contention between the rival churches 

 for the honour and emolument of giving sepulture to the remains of a 

 veteran warrior; or it may be that Cormac's friends, following an an- 

 cient precedent, may have allowed animal instinct to settle a dispute 

 which the obstinacy or cupidity of rival interests could not have other- 

 wise settled. 



In the Life of St. Abbanf there is a legend concerning his sepulture, 

 in which bullocks are made to play a very prominent part, and the fate 

 of these bullocks was one nearly similar to that detailed of the bullocks 

 in the Killeen legend. It is also a curious coincidence that St. Abban 



* See Dr. John Lynch' s Latin translation of Keating, in a note to the "Annals of 

 the Four Masters," vol. ii., p. 564, Dr. O'Donovan's Edition, 

 f Colgan, " Acta SS. Hib." xvi. ; Martii, cap. xlvii. 



