HISTORY. 
a transparent gem, a brilliant star, a treasury of wisdom, and conservator of the canons of the 
church, after having bestowed food and raiment upon the poor and the needy ; after having ordained 
priests and deacons, and men of every ecclesiastical degree ; after having repaired many churches, 
consecrated many temples and burial places, and performed every ecclesiastical duty ; after having 
gained the palm of piety, pilgrimages and penances, resigned his spirit to heaven, in the Duv- 
Regles, of Columbkille, in Derry, on the 10th day of February. A great miracle was performed 
on the nioht of his death : from twilight to day-break the firmament was illuminated, and all the 
neighbours beheld the light; and a large globe of fire arose over the town, and moved in a south¬ 
easterly direction ; all arose from their beds, imagining it to be day. This light was in motion, and 
was perceived as far as the sea, at the east of Ireland.” 
In the preceding passage, this distinguished ecclesiastic is called bishop of Derry and Raphoe. 
Harris, however, shews from satisfactory evidences, that Muireadbach could not have been bishop 
of Raphoe, and there is equal reason to doubt of his having been bishop of Derry. For in the first 
place, as O’Brolehain survived him two years, he could only have succeeded by the abdication of 
the former, for which supposition there is not the slightest evidence. Next it is to be observed, 
that O’Coffey is called bishop of Derry by the Four Masters only; in all the earlier annals he is 
either called bishop of Ardstraw, or Rathlury, or more generally—as in the very original, in the An¬ 
nals of Connaught, of the passage given by the Four Masters—bishop of Kinel Owen, or Tirone, 
which was but another name of the same see. O’Coffey held this bishopric at the council convened 
by cardinal Paparo, in 1152, six years before Derry is supposed to have been raised to the rank of an 
episcopal see, and his name is signed as a witness to the foundation charier of Newry about 1160, as 
“ bishop of Tir-Eogain,” Tirowen, or Tirone. Against such evidences the unsupported authority of 
the Four Masters must be considered as of no weight, or, if not, a mistake of the transcriber must, 
at most, be understood as applying in a loose way to the bishopric of Rathlury, which originally, as 
already shewn, comprised the greater part of the present county of Derry. It must, indeed, be 
confessed, that the early history of this bishopric is, as already stated, involved in much obscurity ; 
and it is extremely difficult to fix with any precision the time when the ancient bishopric of 
Rathlury, or Tirone, was thoroughly incorporated with the new see of Derry. Our ancient 
authorities appear to be wholly opposed to the conclusions of Ware, and others, who suppose a 
succession of bishops to have been preserved at Derry from the death of Flahertach O’Brolchain, 
whereas there is no record to be found in our annals of a bishop of Derry, that of Murry 
O’Coffey, now noticed, expected till Fogartach, or Florence O’Carellain, who died in 1293. The four 
bishops who are placed by Ware and Harris in succession between O’Brolchain and him, are always 
called bishops of Kinel Owen, or Tirone, the seat of which was at that time Rathlury, 
the present Maghera. The fact appears to be that O’Brolchain had only episcopal jurisdiction over 
the monasteries of the Columbian order, and that, on his death, Derry reverted to the bishopric 
of Raphoe, or Tirconnel, in which it was situated, and remained annexed to it for nearly a century, 
till the increasing power of the O’Cairellans, chiefs of the clan Dermot, aided by the Kinel 
Owen, or Tironians, enabled Gervase or Gilla an Coimhdhe O’Cairellan, the bishop of Tirone, 
to annex it to his own bishopric, and constitute it the seat of his see. Harris states, from the Re¬ 
gistry of Clogher, that this bishop took many things by a high hand from David O’Brogan, bishop 
of Clogher, and annexed them to his own see, particularly the church of Ardstraw, and many other 
churches of O’Fiachra. He is said also to have taken away from Carbry O’Scopa, bishop of 
Raphoe, some parts of the diocese of Raphoe, and to have united them to his own bishopric. 
This union took place about the year 1274, as we find that the bishop of Raphoe, who took a jour¬ 
ney to Rome to solicit the interference of the church in this matter, died there in the year 1275, 
exactly a century after O’Brolchain’s death. This augmentation of the diocese remains unchanged 
to this day; yet it is worthy of remark that, so late as the close of the last century, Doctor Coyle, 
titular bishop of Raphoe, protested against the right of the titular bishop of Derry, in the barony 
of Inishowen. After this period the bishops of Kinel Owen cease to be so called by the annalists, 
and a regular succession of bishops of Derry follows. The other supposed successors of O Brol- 
chain, prior to this period, as given by Ware, are— 
2d. Amlave, or Awley O’Coffey, died 1185. This bishop, who is usually called by the annalists 
bishop of Kinel Owen, or Tirone, but never bishop of Derry, died at Dun-cruithne, now Dun- 
Crun, in Magilligan, whence his body was conveyed to Derry, where it was buried in the Duv- 
Regles, or Saint Columb’s abbey church, at the feet of his predecessor, Murry O Coffey, near 
the wall. The notices of this prelate in the annals fully corroborate the remarks already made 
on the early history of this bishopric. In the Annals of the Four Masters his death is thus 
recorded:— 
A. D. 1185.—“Amlave O’Murry, bishop of Armagh, and of Kinel-Feradaigh, a brilliant 
lamp that had enlightened clergy and laity, died, and Fogartach O’Caireallain was consecrated his 
sucpessor.” 
That the person here called Amlave O’Murry was the same as the Amlave O’Coffey of the 
