Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 8.djvu/721

 EILLALOE

641

KILLALOE

Feeney, who had formerly been professor and president of St. Jarlath's College, Tuam, was chosen for the task of repairing the injury that ecclesiastical discipline had suffered during his reign. Feeney is said to have been a most happy selection under the circumstances. Thirty-five years of his firm and reso- lute rule obliterated practically all traces of the wretched controversies that distracted the diocese under his predecessor.

The town of Killala is remarkable in Irish history as the place where the French under General Humbert landed in 179S. The exact spot is by the rocky ledge in the outer estuary of the Moy known as ''St. Pat- rick's Rocks", from which it is said that the saint set sail when making his escape as a poor young slave from Ireland. The French officers occupied the pal- ace of the Protestant bishop where they lived for a short time with his lordship and family. The bishop (Stock) has written a most interesting and authentic account of the "Invasion", and of the sayings and doings of these gentlemen which he himself saw and heard. Along the left bank of the river are the rums of several monasteries. Rosserk, a Franciscan house of strict observance, was founded in 1460. The beautiful Abbey of Jloyne still stands nearly perfect on a most picturesque site just over the river, and further on, north of Killala, was the Dominican Abbey of Rathfran, also delightfully situated. On the promontory of Errew running into Lough Conn there was another monastery which existed as such till comparatively recent times. A fine round tower in Killala itself, still in perfect preservation, indicated the ancient celebrity of the place as an ecclesiastical centre. Indeed it may be safely stated that in no other portion of Ireland of equal extent were the labours of St. Patrick and the holy founders of re- ligious institutions who came after him so ariliKHis^ind full of interest as in this beautiful district nl Tirjw Ii'\-.

Tireragh and Tirawley need not rely nitiri'ly lor their fame on the traditions of the past, near or re- mote. Untler the present occupant of the See of Killala religion has made quiet but very gratifying progress. One may judge of the learning and al)ility of Dr. Conmy from the fact that in Maynooth lie held a distinguished place in the class that prochiced such men as the Carilinal Primate of Iieland and Arch- bishop Carr of Melbourne. After several years of fruitful labours as professor and missionary priest he was called in 1892 from the parish of Crossmolina to wield the crosier of Muredach. His rule has been characterized by prudence, and justice that is well tempered with mercy. Amongst his most conspicu- ous services to the twin cause of religion and educa- tion must be reckoned the building and equipping, from funfls raised almost exclusively from his own faithful priests and people, of the splendid seminary that now graces the town of Ballina, and bids fair to revive the oUlen name of the School of Killala founded by St. Patrick. The bishop lives in a plain but com- modious dwelling in Ballina, hard by the diocesan seminary, which since its opening has been the dearest object of his episcopal zeal.

Ware. Anliquities of Ireland, ed. Harris (Dublin, 1739); Annalaof the Four Masters, ed. O'Donovan; Lewis. Topograph- ical Dictionari/ of Ireland (London. 18.37); Tripartite Life of St. Patrick (Rolls series), ed. Stokes (London, 1887); Knox, Notes on the Diocese of Tuam. etc. (Dublin, 1904) ; Healt, Life and Wntings of St. Patrick (Dublin, 1905).

John Healy.

Eillaloe (Laoni.\), Dioce.se of, a suffragan of Cashel; it comprises the greater part of County Clare, a large portion of Tipperary, and parts of King's and Queen's Counties, Limerick, and Galway. Its Irish name is Cill-da-Lua, so named from St. Lua, an abbot who lived about the end of the sixth century, and whose oratory can still be seen in Friar's Island, near the town of Killaloe. Though St. Lua gave his name VIII.— II

to the diocese, St. Flannan is its patron saint. He was of royal lineage, his father being the saintly Theodoric, King of Thomond, who towards the close of his life received the monastic habit from St. Colman at Lismore. St. Flannan was the first Bishop of Killa- loe, and is said to have been consecrated at Rome by John IV about 640. In the time of St. Flannan, the Diocese of Kllaloe was not so extensive as it is at present. It did not then include the old dioceses of of Roscrea and Inniscathy. It was only when these were suppressed at the Synod of Rathbresail in the first quarter of the twelfth century, that Killaloe as- sumed its present shape, which is almost coterminous with the boundaries of the ancient Kingdom of Tho- mond. The parish of Seir Kieran in King's County, though in Thomond, was allowed to remain subject to the Diocese of Ossory, out of respect to the memory of St. Keran.

The old See of Roscrea grew around a monastery founded there by St. Cronan about the middle of the sixth century. Tlois monastery became a famous school, and it was within its walls that the scribe Dimma wrote for St. Cronan the copy of the Four Gospels now in the Library of Trinity College, Dublin, for which Tatheus O'Carroll, chieftain of Ely, made a costh- slirine in the twelfth century. The Diocese of Roscrea was coextensive with the territory of the O'Carrolls, added to that of the O'Kennedys. Ware holds that St. Cronan was Bishop of Roscrea, but Lanigan thinks that Ware has been misled by the fact that Roscrea became an episcopal see. Like the Dio- cese of Roscrea, the Diocese of Inniscathy grew around the monastery of Inniscathy, founded by St. Senan in the early portion of the sixth century. There is no question about St. Senan being the first bishop of the Diocese of Inniscathy, which comprised the Baronies of Moyarta, Clonderlaw, and Ibricken, in Clare; the Barony of Connello, in Limerick; and in Kerry, the ancient region of the Hy-Fidgente. The last Bishop of Inniscathy was Hugh O'Beachain, who died in 1188. Nevertheless, there were titular bish- ops of the see up to the close of the fourteenth century. The remains of the cathedral church of Inniscathy and a round tower now mark the ancient see of St. Senan. The Clog-oir, too, still in existence in County Clare, is a highly-prized relic of Inniscathy. St. Brecan's churches of Carntemple, Doora, and Clooney, St. Tola's church at Dysert O'Dea, St. Senan's hermit- age at Bishop's Island, near Kilkee, St. Caimin's church and school at Iniscaltra, St. Brendan's and St. Cronan's abbeys at Birr and Roscrea may be named amongst hundreds of churches, schools, and hermit- ages, which covered Killaloe like a network and which in their decay attest to the devotion to the Catholic Faith of the far-famed Dalgais.

Some of these foundations deserve mention. Inis- caltra, a green little island in Lough Derg, was a cele- brated nursery of sanctity and learning in Thomond. It is associated principally with St. Caimin, who made Iniscaltra the seat of a very famous school, which attracted pupils even from foreign countries. A frag- ment of the commentary on the Psalms collated with the Hebrew text, written by St. Caimin (OiO), is pre- served in the Franciscan convent. Merchant's Quay, Dublin. Birr also was a celebrated seat of learning in Thomond, founded by St. Brendan (550). The Gos- pels of McRegol, now in the Bodleian Library, were written by McRegol, Abbot of Birr, in 820. "Terry- glass also was a school of great repute founded by St. Columba (552). It was here that St. Patrick is said to have baptized the Dalgais from Northern Thomond, who crossed Lough Derg in their coracles to meet him. The monastery of Lorrha, founded by St. Iluadhan (550), can claim that it was within its walls that the famous vStowe Missal, now in the library of Lord Ash- burnham, was written; but the desertion of Tara owing to the alleged cursing of St. Ruadhan, is without