One of the great religious figures of Ireland was Columba (Columb-Cille) claimed to have been a prince of the “Northern Uí Néill”; his father, it is said, being the great-grandson of Niall of the Nine Hostages. It is more probable however that Columba’s clan, the Cenel Conaill, were actually Cruthin or Pretani (Ancient British) and not “Uí Néill” at all. Columba studied under St Finnian, the British Uinnian, at Movilla, where he was ordained deacon. According to the Annals of Ulster, he founded Derry in 545, although it is more probable that his relative Fiachra mac Ciaráin, who died in 620, was the actual founder, so that the term Derry Columb-Cille is a nonsense. It should actually be Derry Calgach, the Oakwood of the British Prince Calgacus, a chieftain of the Caledonian Confederacy. Columba became a close friend of Comgall’s, even though the political rivalries between their respective kinsmen must at times have sorely tested their shared Christianity.
Columba’s biographer, Adomnán (often translated as Adamson in English), the ninth abbot of Iona from 679-704, describes such an incident which highlights the communal conflicts of the period:
At another time [Columba] and the abbot Comgall sit down not far from the fortress [of Cethirn], on a bright summer’s day. Then water is brought to the Saints in a brazen vessel from a spring hard by, for them to wash their hands. Which when St Columba had received, he thus speaks to the abbot Comgall, who is sitting beside him: ‘The day will come, O Comgall, when that spring, from which has come the water now brought to us, will not be fit for any human purposes.’ ‘By what cause,’ says Comgall, ‘will its spring water be corrupted?’ Then says St Columba, ‘Because it will be filled with human blood, for my family friends and thy relations according to the flesh, that is, the Uí Néill and the Cruthin people, will wage war, fighting in this fortress of Cethirn close by. Whence in the above-named spring some poor fellow of my kindred will be slain, and the basin of the same spring will be filled with the blood of him that is slain with the rest.’ Which true prophecy of his was fulfilled in its season after many years.
The saint’s legend would have us believe that it was these political and ethnic distractions which finally persuaded Columba to leave Ireland and set up a new community out of sight of its shores. Yet although Columba had not stood aloof from political intrigue, or even inciting warfare, such involvement would not have been exceptional for the clergy at that time, some of whom carried weapons to the synods.
As J. T. Fowler wrote: “It is no marvel then if Columba, a leading spirit in the great clan of the northern Uí Néill, incited his kinsmen to fight about matters which would be felt most keenly as closely touching their tribal honour. But at the same time, such a man as he was may very well, upon calm reflection, have considered that his enthusiasm and energies would be more worthily bestowed on missionary work than in maintaining the dignity of his clan.”
Whatever the reasons for his departure, the history of the Church was to be so much the richer, for the community he founded, on the small island of Iona, close to the coast of Argyll, was destined to be the cultural apotheosis of Scotland, and the place where some scholars believe the magnificent Book of Kells was executed.
Our Ullans group of long time friends, of every opinion under the sun, meet at Bell’s Coffee Shop at the Knock intersection on the Upper Newtownards Road in Belfast every week. Knock, of course, is the English for Cnoc, a hill, this being Cnoc Columb-Cille , the Hill of the Church of Columba, so he is still with us in Saint Columba’s Parish Church there. And Adomnán first notes Conlig in history when Columba visits a rich peasant called Foirtgirn at mons Cainle, the hill of Conlig.
The northern Irish monastic settlements, whether their influence emanated from Bangor or Iona, were not only to be directly responsible for the spread of Christianity to Scotland and northern England, but were to carry their missionary zeal to the very heart of Europe itself. Of all the numerous personalities who sought “to renounce home and family like Abraham and seek a secluded spot where the ties of the world would not interfere with their pursuit of sanctity” none stands out more prominently among these peregrini than Columbanus.
To be continued