The Bangor Church, however, was hampered by contemporary politics in Ireland. Subject to continuing aggression by the Ui Neill, their alleged descendants and internal dissension, the Cruthin further declined in Ireland. In an entry in the Annals of Ulster it is recorded that in 563 AD the Cruthin were defeated at the Battle of Moneymore by the “Ui Neill of the North”. The opposing armies were led on the one side by “Seven Kings of the Cruthin including Hugh” and on the other side by one Baetan with two kings of the Cruthin in alliance with the “Northern Ui Neill”. The latter, Clan Connall, who were actually Gaelicised Cruthin, and Clan Owen were rewarded with the territory of Lei and Arda Eolairg, which is today north Antrim (Ballymoney) and east Londonderry.

The influence of St. Columba in these events cannot be overestimated. As an important member of the “Ui Neill” and a great ecclesiastic, his position was unique. Though he was not above using their temporal power for his own ends, as shown by the Battle of Cuildrevne in 561, Columba exercised a restraining influence on the “Ui Neill”. Comgall was, therefore, at this time able to maintain his friendship with Columba, the two having been fellow students at Glasnevin and Columba having been ordained deacon at nearby Movilla (Newtownards). About 565 Comgall, with St. Canice of Kilkenny, accompanied Columba on his great mission to the Pictish King Bridei. Following this, Iona, Columba’s foundation, “held for a long time pre-eminence over the monasteries of all the Picts and was their superior in ruling their communities.” Thus Iona became the centre of the Scottish-Irish cultural province.

At this time the Dalriada dynasty had extended from Ireland into the country of the Epidian Cruthin in western Scotland and in 574 AD Columba crowned his kinsman Aedan King of the Dalriads on Iona. Columba’s friendship with Aedan was of paramount importance for both Church and State in Dalriada. He advised Aedan at the Convention of Druimcett in 575 when Aedan refused to pay tribute to Hugh, King of the “Ui Neill”. In his relations with the Cruthin of Dalaradia, with whom he was not apparently related, Columba however showed the prejudices of a scion of the “Ui Neill”. About 579 there appears to have been a dispute between Columba and Comgall regarding the Church of Ros-Torathair, a Bangor foundation, which resulted in a battle at Coleraine between the Cruthin and the “Ui Neill”.

Political dissension in Ireland had secondary effects in Scotland. As well as Pictland,the natural extension of the Bangor mission was to Galloway, where the population had been greatly leavened by Irish immigration, and the “Irish Picts” or Cruthin crossing there naturally insisted on having Cruthinic clerics as their instructors in the faith. That was undoubtedly the reason why Galloway came to be considered Pictish. About the year 580 AD St. Donnan, a Cruthin of Bangor, laboured in Galloway and in 590 he was followed by St. Dagan who eventually succeeded the Columban cleric, St Euchadius, as Abbot of Candida Casa. It was through such disciples as well as Columbanus and Gall that Comgall became known as, “One of the greatest teachers of missionaries the world has ever seen.”

Only one sample of his writings has come down to us and it is found among the literature of his greatest disciple, Columbanus:

“If the cultivator of the land and husbandman, when preparing the soil to commit to it the seed, does not consider his work all done when he has broken up the earth with a strong shear, and by the action of the plough has reduced the stubborn soil, but further endeavours to cleanse the ground of unfruitful weeds, to clear it of injurious rubbish and to pluck up by the root the spreading shoots of thorns and brambles, fully persuaded that his land will never produce a good crop unless it be reclaimed from mischevious plants, applying to himself the words of the prophet, ‘Break up your fallow ground and sow not upon thorns,’ how much more does it behove us, who believe the hope of our fruits to be laid up, not on earth but in heaven, to cleanse from vicious passions the field of our heart, and not suppose that we have done enough when we subdue the ground of our bodies by the labour of fasting and of watching, unless we primarily study to correct our vices and reform our morals.”

The Rule of Comgall is lost but we may be sure that it was little different from the still extant Rule of Columbanus.

To be continued

© Pretani Associates 2014