On Tuesday, 23rd and Wednesday 24th March, 2010, following Turkish Victory Day on 18th March and as part of a Pilgrimage to the Dardanelles to commemorate the 95th Anniversary of the Gallipoli Campaign (Çanakkale Savaşlari), the Somme Association held two unique Services of Remembrance for the 10th (Irish) Division in the First World War. On August 9th this year, with senior colleagues from the Somme Association and the Chairman of Dalaradia, Robert Williamson, I attended A Service of Commemoration to mark the centenary of the Campaign in Christchirch Cathedral, Lisburn.

Είστε το άλας της γης. Αλλά αν το αλάτι χάσει hath γεύση του, με το οποίο δεν μπορεί να είναι αλατισμένο; Είναι πλέον καλό για το τίποτα, αλλά για να πεταχτεί έξω και να πατήσει καταγής. Είστε το Φως του Κόσμου. Μια πόλη που σε ένα λόφο, δεν μπορεί να έκρυψε. Ούτε ένα κερί έκρυψε και να θέσει κάτω από ένα μπούσελ, αλλά σε ένα κηροπήγιο, και δίνει φως σε όλους στο σπίτι. Αφήστε το φως σας, ώστε λάμψει ότι τα καλά έργα σας μπορεί να δει κανείς και έτσι να δοξάσουν τον Πατέρα σας που είναι στους ουρανούς.

Eíste to álas ti̱s gi̱s . Allá an to aláti chásei hath géf̱si̱ tou , me to opoío den boreí na eínai alatisméno ? Eínai pléon kaló gia to típota , allá gia na petachteí éxo̱ kai na patí̱sei katagí̱s . Eíste to Fo̱s tou Kósmou . Mia póli̱ pou se éna lófo, den boreí na ékrypse . Oúte éna kerí ékrypse kai na thései káto̱ apó éna boúsel , allá se éna ki̱ropí̱gio , kai dínei fo̱s se ólous sto spíti . Afí̱ste to fo̱s sas, ó̱ste lámpsei óti ta kalá érga sas boreí na dei kaneís kai étsi na doxásoun ton Patéra sas pou eínai stous ouranoús .

You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt hath lost its savour, wherewith shall it be salted? It is henceforth good for nothing but to be cast out and to be trodden underfoot. You are the Light of the World. A city set on a hill cannot be hid. Neither is a candle hid and put under a bushel, but on a candlestick, and it gives light to everyone in the house. Let your light so shine that your good works may be seen and so glorify your Father who is in heaven.

During one of my many sojourns in the USA, I was looked after by members of the Russian Orthodox Church of America and stayed with them . Like the last Czar and his martyred family, my favourite saint Comgall is venerated by the Orthodox Church. For them he is the “Father of Monks”. And, of course he is also venerated here by the Roman Catholic Church and the Church of Ireland.  Comgall, founder and abbot of the great monastery at Bangor, County Down, was born sometime between 510 and 520, according to the Irish Annals, in Dál nAraidi (Dalaradia) in Ulster, near the place now known as Magheramorne in present-day County Antrim, Comgall’s father was Setna, a Pictish warrior; his mother’s name was Briga. Unusually he was not of noble blood and after serving as a soldier in his early life, he was educated under St. Fintan at Clonenagh, and also studied under Finnian at Clonard and Mobi Clairenach at Glasnevin, and at Clonmacnoice with Saint Ciaran. He was ordained deacon and priest by Bishop Lugidius, either at Clonmacnoise or Connor. He lived for a while in Ulster on an island on Lough Erne, accompanied by a few friends who followed a severe form of monastic life. The regime was so austere that seven companions died of cold and hunger.

Initially intending to go to Great Britain, Comgall was dissuaded by Lugidius, the bishop who ordained him, at whose advice he remained in Ireland to spread the monastic life throughout the country. He founded the Bangor monastery no later than 552, though Ussher and most of the later writers on the subject assign the foundation to the year 555. Webb places it at 559. He is said to have governed in Bangor and other houses over four thousand monks, all of whom were employed in tillage or other manual labour. Life in the monasteries was very severe. Food was scant and plain. Herbs, water, and bread was customary. Even milk was considered an indulgence. At Bangor only one meal was allowed, and that not until evening. Confession was in public before the community. Severe acts of penance were frequent. Silence was observed at meals and at other times also, conversation being restricted to the minimum. Fasting was frequent and prolonged. According to Adomnán’s Life of Columba, there was a close connection between Comgall and Columba, though there does not appear to be sufficient authority for stating that Comgall was the disciple of Columba in any strict sense. Comgall was a friend to Saint Brendan, Saint Cormac, Saint Ciannech and Finnian or Uinnian of Moville. Among the monks trained by St Comgall at Bangor, were St Columbanus of Luxeuil ( 21 or 23 November) and St Moluag or Molua (25 June).

After a period of intense suffering, Comgall received the Eucharist from Saint Fiacre and died in the monastery at Bangor. The year of his death was either 602, according to Annals of Tigernach and Chronicum Scotorum, or 597, according to Annals of Innisfallen. His relics, which were kept at Bangor, were scattered during Viking raids in 822.

Comgall belonged to what is known as the Second Order of Irish Saints. These flourished in the Irish Church during the sixth century. They were for the most part educated in Britain, or received their training from those who had grown up under the influence of the British Schools. They were the founders of the great Irish monastic schools, and contributed much to the spread of monasticism in the Irish Church. In other words, did St. Comgall give his monks at Bangor a strict monastic rule resembling the Rule of St Benedict? The Antiphonary of Bangor of the 7th century stated that Comgall was ‘strict, holy and constant’; and there has come down to us a Rule of St. Comgall , but the evidence would not warrant us in saying that as it stands at present it could be attributed to him. The fact, however, that Columbanus, a disciple of Comgall and himself a monk of Bangor, drew up for his Continental monasteries a “Regula Monachorum” would lead us to believe that there had been a similar organisation in Bangor in his time. Columbanus might also have derived inspiration from the Benedictine Rule then widely spread over South-Western Europe. St. Comgall is mentioned in the “Life of Columbanus” by Jonas as the superior of Bangor, under whom St. Columbanus had studied. He is also mentioned under 10 May, his feast-day in the “Felire” of Óengus the Culdee published by Whitley Stokes for the Henry Bradshaw Society (2nd ed.), and his name is commemorated in the Stowe Missal (MacCarthy), and in the Martyrology of Tallaght.

Ви — сіль землі, але коли сіль стає прісною і втрачає свій смак, як її знову солоною зробити? Вона стає ні на що непридатною. Хіба що викинути її геть, щоб топтали люди.

The exemplary missionary priest Tom O Connor has written recently: “Faechno was succeeded at Tara by yet another Dal nAraidi (Dalaradia) Overking of the Cruthin of Ulster and Scotland, namely his own grandson Congal Caech (Claen), a historic fact fossilised in “Bech Bretha”. He fell at the great watershed Battle of Moira, Co Down, in 637. The law-tract on bees, “Bech Bretha”, preserves the true “untampered version”. It has profound historical implications corroborating Cruthin claims that their kings, and theirs alone, ruled at Tara up to the Battle of Moira in 637. The Battle of Moira ended the Cruthin tenure of the overkingship of Northern Ireland and Scotland from Tara. This fact and its attendant ramifications are vital to the rediscovery of the suppressed and silenced history of Iron Age and early Christian Ireland. The rising roar of the Ui Neill warlords smothered the humble, truthful, voice of the Cruthin. Thereafter all Ireland rode on the back of a fiendish fraud reverberating with profuse repercussions, civil, social, religious, cultural and historical, affecting all Ireland, past, present and future. Ireland is still being taken for a ride”.

A native of Kiltullagh, Athenry, Tom O Connor has spent almost 50 years researching the history and geopolitics of Iron Age Ireland, notably early Connacht. He spent over thirty years as a missionary priest in Malaysia and his credentials are impeccable. His books, Turoe & Athenry: Ancient Capitals of Celtic Ireland and Hand of History, Burden of Pseudo-History, present a Celtic royal complex, unprecedented in Ireland for its size and layout, but similar to Belgic centres of power, called oppida by Julius Caesar, in SE England and on the Continent, centered on Turoe in County Galway, site of the famous Turoe Stone. Among the finest example of La Tene Celtic stone art in Europe, the stone was set on Turoe hill (Cnoc Temhro). According to Tom, it is part of a hitherto unrecognised royal sanctuary at the core of a Belgic-like oppidum defensive system of linear embankments, connected with the supposed Celtic invasion of Ireland. His work has received local and national interest – especially since the construction of the M6 Motorway (Ireland) through many of the sites, another Southern attempt to destroy archaeological evidence – yet received little endorsement from so-called professional historians and archaeologists. Support for my work has been a non licet for these charlatans.

This is the original of an article for you on the Battle of Moira, which I commemorate every 24th June. I have anglicised some of the names for the Ulster Scot. . I append a painting on the Battle by my friend Jim Fitzpatrick, whom I commissioned to do the cover of my book on Sir Samuel Ferguson’s Congal, which I entitled The Battle of Moira.

The Battle of Moira

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The Battle of Moira in County Down was, according to the great Belfast poet and scholar Sir Samuel Ferguson, “the greatest battle, whether we regard the numbers engaged, the duration of combat, or the stake at issue, ever fought within the bounds of Ireland…….there appears reason to believe that the fight lasted a week….. (near) the Woods of Killultagh, to which, we are told the routed army fled, great quantities of bones of men and horses were turned up in excavating the line of the Ulster Railway”.

The Battle is mentioned prominently in the ancient Irish Annals, but that such a significant event remains so little known at the present time is as a result of the fact that it occurred long before the arrival in Ireland of the Anglo-Normans, and thus has received little attention from the English and Irish historians. The story of Suibhne Geilt, king of Dalaradia, who took part in the Battle, was, however, to have a lingering effect on Irish literature, most notably in Sweeney’s Frenzy by J G O’Keeffe, At-Swim-Two-Birds by Flann O’Brien and Sweeney Astray by Seamus Heaney.

Set as Ulster is at the North Eastern corner of Ireland, facing Britain across a narrow sea and separated from the rest of Ireland by a zone of little hills known as Drumlins, by marshlands and by mountains, the characteristics of her language and people have been moulded by movements large and small between the two islands since the dawn of human history. The difference between Ulster and rest of Ireland is therefore one of the most constant facts of early Irish history and Ulster’s bond with Scotland counterbalances her lax tie with the rest of Ireland. Just as the mould was fixed in olden times, modern developments have continued ancient associations.

Thus there were the old ancient British, Pretani or Cruthin Kingdoms in both areas, Dalaradia in Antrim and Down and Pictavia in Northern Britain. There was the Ulster Scottish Kingdom of Dalriada from the last quarter of the fifth till the close of the eighth century and the Scottish Kingdom founded under Gaelic leadership in 842. There were continuing Irish relations with the Kingdom of the Hebrides in Argyle from the 12th Century, particularly with the immigration of Hebridean soldiers or galllowglasses from the 13th to the 16th century. The Glens of Antrim were in the hands of the Scottish MacDonalds by 1400 and for the next 200 years Gaelic speaking Scots came in large numbers. The 17th century immigration of a numerous Scots element need not therefore be considered outside the proceeding series, since it has brought for example Presbyterian Scots with names as familiar as Kennedy, who must be considered rather as people who have returned home.

In 563 AD the power of the ancient British Cruthin in the West of Ulster had been crushed at the Battle of Moneymore and they suffered a further defeat in 579 near Coleraine. Yet they still clung firmly to the territory which they retained east of the Bann river, and as long as their resistance remained, the Gaelicised “Uí Néill” could never call themselves Kings of Ulster.

In 627 Congal Cláen of the Cruthin became over-King of all Ulster. He had received his name of Cláen or half blind since he had been stung in the eye by a bee. In 628 he killed the “Uí Néill” high King Suibne Menn of the Clan Owen, who was replaced as High King by Domnall, of the Clan Connall (Gaelicised Cruthin) . In 629 Domnall defeated Congal and his autonomous Cruthin at the Battle of Dun Ceithirnn in Londonderry, but internal dissention among the “Uí Néill” allowed Congal a respite and he fled to Scotland or Alba, where he began constructing a formidable coalition of forces.

In 637 therefore, he returned with a large army containing contingents of Scots, Picts, Anglo-Saxons (English) and Britons (Welsh). The outcome was that on Tuesday 24th June in that year of 637 was fought the Great Battle of Moira, when Domnall of the “Uí Néill” and his forces were confronted by the British Ulstermen and their allies. With Domnall’s victory , however, and the death of Congal in the Battle, any pretentions the Ulstermen had of undoing the Uí Néill gains were dashed and from that point on the “Uí Néill” were to become the dominant power in the North.

On the same day a naval engagement between the Dalriadans and Clan Owen on the one side and the Clan Connall forces of Domnall on the other off the Mull of Kintyre resulted in the splitting of Irish and Scottish Dalriada. Despite continuing aggression, the Ulstermen continued to put up a stubborn resistance and in 1004 another great battle was fought at Cráeb Tulcha or Crew Hill (Glenavy) in which the Cruthin King, the Ulidian King and many Princes of Ulster were killed. Indeed complete disaster was possibly only averted because the victorious “Uí Néill” King was himself one of the fatalities. In 1099 a battle was fought between the same parties at the same place where the invaders again gained the day. After the battle the victors cut down the Cráeb, the sacred tree of Ulster. Nevertheless the Ulstermen prevented the supposed descendents of the “Uí Néill”, the O’Neills, gaining unchallenged control of Ulster and it was not until 1364 that a member of that Clan could finally style himself King of Ulster in the eyes of the learned classes.

Subject to continuing pressure by the “Uí Néill”, the Cruthin were to migrate to the old British Kingdoms of Aeron (Ayr) and Rheged (Stranraer), where in the old Scotch or Ullans dialect they became known as Creenies. The impact of the 17th Century Hamilton/Montgomery settlement really lay in its success as a blueprint for plantation in general, and especially the later official Plantation of Ulster in 1610. But it was the 105 day siege of Londonderry which lasted from the 18th April 1689 until 28th July 1689, the Battle of the Boyne on 1st July 1690 and the Battle of Aughrim on 12th July 1691, which allowed the stabilisation of Scottish settlement in Ulster. Indeed only as a result of the Williamite victory was Scottish migration resumed and was able to reach its peak during the 1690’s, in part as a result of cheap land in Ireland after the British revolution and also as a result of severe famine in Scotland during the latter years of that decade. The level of migration in that period was somewhere between 50,000 to 70,000 Scots, more than three times as many settlers as during the reign of James IV of Scotland and I of England. Thus at last, the descendants of the Cruthin people, the ancient British, were allowed to return to their homeland and their right to be there was finally sealed by their sacrifice at the Battle of the Somme on 1st July 1916.

The Society of the Columban Fathers takes its name from St Columbanus, Bangor’s senior missionary to Europe in the 6th century. It was first known as the Maynooth Mission to China and was formally launched in 1918 as a missionary society of diocesan priests. This was something unique, as until then all such movements were religious congregations. They found others who embraced their vision and the first Columbans went to China in 1920, to meet the challenges of its language and culture and to share the suffering of its poor. Within a couple of years the Columban Society of priests had spread to England, USA, Australia and New Zealand. The intention was to follow the Irish diaspora to the new world to seek support for the new missionary movement.

At first the focus did not extend beyond China. But gradually the vision widened to the Philippines [1929], Korea [1933], Burma [1936], and Japan [1948]. When mainland China was closed to missionaries in the 1950’s, the Society responded to the urgent call of Latin America [1951] and Columbans went to the poor in the new urban settlements in Peru and Chile. The Society also responded to the missionary needs of the Church in Fiji. Still more recently they have gone to Pakistan, Taiwan, Brazil, Jamaica and Belize. Due to diminishing resources, the Society has since withdrawn its commitment to Belize, Jamaica and Brazil.

In 1933, nine Columban priests on their way to China received word to go to Korea instead. The previous year, Bishop Edward Galvin, writing of the chaos in China, strongly advised, “I think the Society ought to look for some other field in which to work.” Korea became the “some other field” with its own problems and its own rewards. Within five years of their arrival, the Columbans were entrusted with two missions-in Kwangju and Chunchon.

The early years were dominated by harassment from the Japanese who occupied Korea. This harassment culminated during World War II when all Columbans were either put in jail, placed under house arrest or deported. At the end of the war, Korea was divided into North and South, with the Communists taking control of the North. Four years of an uneasy peace were followed by the Korean War in 1950. Columbans saw 17 years of patient effort wiped out as the Communists spread terror, ruin and death over the land. Six Columbans were martyred by the Communists and one died in prison; two survived the infamous Death March to North Korea.

This has been admirably demonstrated in the recent Korean Exhibition at the Somme Museum, Conlig and I pointed out the Bangor Connection to Councillor Montgomery, Mayor of North Down. The Christian Church has now grown remarkably in South Korea, particularly the Presbyterians. The Mayor was surprised when I told him that there are now more Presbyterians in South Korea than the whole of the rest of the World put together. This has been primarily due to the efforts of American missionaries. And, of course it all started in the USA with Francis Mackemie, born of Scottish parents near Ramelton, County Donegal.