Knockanore
in Cork or Waterford in Early Christian times
Niall
C.E.J. O’Brien
Introduction
In the decades,
possibly centuries, before the Norman invasion of 1169 the land of Knockanore
in west County Waterford was known as the land of Ofhearghusa. This land
comprised the later medieval parishes of Tallow, Kilwatermoy, Kilcockan and
Templemichael/Rincrew. The area is triangular in shaped being bounded on the
north by the River Bride and on the east by the River Blackwater. The western
side of this triangular area is undefined by a continuous natural feature but
the Glenaboy River and the Tourig River partially define the border.
Ofhearghusa
in Cork or Waterford
Since the establishment
of the county boundary between the Counties of Cork and Waterford in the
mid-sixteenth century the land of Ofhearghusa has been part of County
Waterford. But in medieval times the district was part of County Cork.
References from the mid-thirteenth century testify to this arrangement. Yet
since 1111 the four parishes in the district have been part of the County
Waterford based Diocese of Lismore.
In the period before
the Norman invasion of 1169 was Ofhearghusa part of the Waterford kingdom known
as Déisi Muman or was it part of one of the Cork kingdoms of Uí Liatháin or Uí
Meic Caille? This article aims to put forward information relating to this
question. There is much work still to do to establish a definite sequence to
the events yet the distance in time from the events may leave some blurred
parts to the story.
The
nation of Ofhearghusa
The person or family of
Ofhearghusa is unknown but they must have been of sufficient standing for a
large area to be named after them. It is unknown when the name was first
applied to the Knockanore area. It was so named in the early years of the
Norman Conquest but was clearly of pre-Norman origin.
The community of
Ofhearghusa was not a single nation kingdom. There were at least four main
subgroups within the land of Ofhearghusa. We see this in the number of parishes
within the area. The formation of parishes in Ireland began to happen in the
early years of the twelfth century and continued into the thirteenth century.
The suggestion in other places is that parishes were based upon existing land
ownership territories. The four parishes of Tallow, Kilwatermoy, Kilcockan and
Templemichael/Rincrew would therefore possibly define four ancient divisions of
the Ofhearghusa nation with each main family grouping getting their own parish.
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The medieval parishes of West Waterford
Molana
Abbey
The chief religious
foundation in the Ofhearghusa district was Molana Abbey. The foundation of a
Christian community on Dairinish (the oak island) was made by St. Molanfide in
the sixth century.[1]
St. Molanfide, also written as Mealanfaith (the Little {or dear} Tonsured
Prophet) was said to be of the race of Ugaine Mor, monarch of Ireland.[2]
Ugaine Mor was a pre-historic king who reign sometime between 634 BC and 246 BC
depending on which source you prefer to read.[3]
St. Fachnan Mongach was
abbot of Molana in the second half of the sixth century. He is said to have founded
another Irish monastery at Rosscarbery in west Cork.[4] Rev.
Canon Patrick Power disputes this foundation at Rosscarbery as a misreading of
the texts.[5]
In the eight century a
number of notable people are associated with Molana Abbey. In 725 the ‘Scribe
of Munster’ Rubin Mac Connadh of Molana, died. He was one of the authors of the
Collectio Hibernensis, one of the
most widely read church documents in Western Europe between the eight and
twelfth centuries. In 742 one most famous abbots of Molana, Fer Dá Crích, died.[6]
The
lives of St. Declan and St. Carthage
Despite the existence
of these important people and an old monastic site there is no mention of
Molana Abbey in the Lives of St. Declan and St. Carthage, the two chief saints
of the Déisi kingdom. The Life of St. Declan was possibly first written in the
eight century.[7]
The Life of St. Declan is not just a biography of the saint but has strong
political undertones. The writer places St. Declan in the fifth century before
St. Patrick to show the ancient lineage of the Déisi kingdom. Their meeting in
south Tipperary also showed the Déisi control of that place. St. Declan is then
shown meeting St. David in the sixth century so as to emphasise the close
connection between the Déisi kingdom of Munster and the Déisi kingdom of
south-west Wales. Later in the Life, St. Declan visits the Déisi of Brega to
illustrate the connection between the two Déisi kingdoms.[8]
The popular story
called ‘The Expulsion of the Déisi’ says that the Déisi people once lived in
the Kingdom of Brega but were expelled following a marriage dispute and some
bloodletting. The wandering Déisi travelled around the land of south Leinster
before settling in south Tipperary. The expulsion story was written in the
eight century, around the same time as the Life of St. Declan.[9]
If we take it that
Molana Abbey was founded in the sixth century and had well known personalities
in the early eight century then surely it should have got a mention in the Life
of St. Declan. The writer of the Life emphasised the political control and
association the Déisi kingdom had with many far flung places but no talk of a
place on an island near the mouth of the River Blackwater. If Molana and the
land of Ofhearghusa had any connection with the Deisi kingdom of Waterford and
South Tipperary before the eight century then it should have got a mention in
the Life of St. Declan.
Ardmore, Co. Waterford, the centre of St. Declan's monastery
The other chief saint
of the Deisi kingdom was the Kerry native, St. Carthage. He first founded a
monastery in Offaly at Rahan which grew to become a large and well known
monastery. Rahan was famous for its treatment for lepers. But St. Carthage had
a dispute with the monastery of Durrow over a number of issues including the
date of Easter which was a hot subject in the seventh century. St. Carthage was
expelled from Offaly and wandered the centre of Ireland with his followers.
They visited the area
around Cork Harbour where they founded some churches and cured the daughter of
the King of Fermoy at Ballyhooly or Clondulane, just south of the River
Blackwater. The later Diocese of Lismore took control of the land south of the
River Blackwater and east of Cork Harbour when it was formed in 1111. The Life
of St. Carthage was used to show that this area was religiously joined to the Déisi
kingdom before the formation of the dioceses and thus should be part of the
Lismore diocese.
As the oldest copy of
the Life of St. Carthage that we have comes from the twelfth century. It is
therefore difficult to tell if the story of Cork Harbour was in the original
biography or if it was included in the twelfth century copy to boost the claim
of Lismore to control much of east Cork. It was not unusual for Irish
historians of the pre-Norman period to change a story or family genealogy to
fit into the latest change in the political climate.
We are told that St.
Carthage had a follower called Mochua or Cronin who founded an abbey at
Clashmore on the east side of the River Blackwater.[10] This
shows us that St. Carthage and his followers kept to the Déisi side of the
Blackwater and thus putting Ofhearghusa on the Cork side.
When Rev. Canon Patrick
Power edited the two lives of St. Declan and St. Carthage in 1914 he remarked
that the Life of St. Carthage (also called St. Mochuda) was “in all essentials
a very sober historical narrative – accurate whenever we can test it, credible
and harmonious on the whole”.[11]
St. Carthage died in about 638.[12]
Molana Abbey was in existence before St. Carthage came to the Déisi kingdom yet
fails to get a mention.
The
Cork kingdoms of Uí Liatháin and Uí Meic Caille
In the Early Christian
period the land between Cork city and Youghal and north to the River Blackwater
formed part of two kingdoms. The largest kingdom was Uí Liatháin with the
smaller, and sometimes junior, kingdom of Uí Meic Caille.
The regional kingdom of
Uí Liatháin has records of its existence from 646 onwards. The area of Uí Liatháin
comprised four cantreds of the later Anglo-Norman administration, namely,
Imokilly, Barrymore, Uí Glassin (Youghal and the surrounding land of Inchiquin)
and Ocurbletan.[13]
The kingdom of Uí Meic
Caille (Imokilly) began to emerge from the darkness in 906 when kings of that
kingdom are first recorded. The area of Uí Meic Caille extended from the Great
Island of Cork Harbour eastwards to Kilcredan Head.[14]
Map of the Cork and Waterford kingdoms
Records
of the Déisi in east Cork
The kingdoms of Déisi
Muman and Uí Liatháin both had colonies in Wales or south-west England in the
decades after the end of the Roman Empire. It is difficult to say if this
possession of colonies overseas caused some rivalries and confrontation at home
in Ireland. References are few to battles between the Déisi and the Uí
Liatháin. Yet some interesting notations exist. In the martyrology of Donegal
it is recorded under 28th November the death of the “three sons of
Bochra” and that they were “of Archadh Raithin in Uí Meic Caille in Déisi
Muman”.[15]
The three sons were Laidhgenn, Cainneach, and Accobhran and Bochra was their
mother.[16]
No time period is given for when Bochra and her three sons were alive.
The
Diocese of Lismore
The synod of
Raithbreasail in 1111 established the diocesan boundaries. The diocese of
Lismore comprised the present County of Waterford less Waterford city and the
Barony of Gaultier which was the area of the Diocese of Waterford. On the north
side the Diocese of Lismore took in those places in present-day south Tipperary
which were part of the Déisi kingdom. This area included the land between the
Knockmealdown Mountains and the Galtee Mountains, along with the towns of
Cahir, Clonmel and Carrick-on-Suir and all the land around these places.
On the western side the
Diocese of Lismore took in much of present-day east Cork. The boundary was
between Cork Harbour and Mallow. Thus places like Youghal, Cloyne, Midleton,
Fermoy and Killavullen were part of the Diocese of Lismore in the first half of
the twelfth century. This situation would suggest that the Déisi kingdom held
east Cork by some form of military or political overlordship.
The
Déisi conquest of Ofhearghusa
At some as yet
undetermined time between the eight century and the synod of Raithbreasail the
Déisi kingdom expanded its borders for the first time since about 500 AD when
it conquered the area of south Tipperary now part of the Diocese of Lismore.
The Déisi occupied Ofhearghusa and annexed the district into the Déisi kingdom.
Why the Déisi annexed Ofhearghusa and did not proceed with further military
conquests into the Cork kingdoms with more annexation is unclear. Perhaps the
surrender of Ofhearghusa by the Cork kingdoms was a buy off to prevent further
conquest.
It is not known if
Ofhearghusa was an independent kingdom before its occupation by the Déisi or a
subdivision of the Uí Liatháin or Uí Meic Caille kingdoms. The emergence of Uí Meic
Caille kingdom around 906 may be a response to the weakness of the Uí Liatháin
kingdom and a reaction to the conquest of Ofhearghusa.
Another cause or
response to the conquest of Ofhearghusa stems from the Viking raids. In one of
the Viking raids up the River Blackwater we are told how they attacked
Clashmore and Lismore and carried away goods and people. Rev. Patrick Power
remarked on this raid how curious it was that the Vikings did not plunder
Molana Abbey as they went upriver. Molana would be far wealthier than Clashmore
and would be the first religious house the Vikings would meet on the river.[17]
A possible reason for
not attacking Molana could be that the Cork kingdom of Uí Liatháin or that of
Ofhearghusa were allies of the Vikings and gave help to the Viking raids on the
Déisi monasteries. In reply to such collusion the Déisi could have conquered
and annexed Ofhearghusa to prevent further raids by controlling both sides of
the Blackwater.
Another possible source
of Ofhearghusa conquest could have come from lost national pride among the Déisi.
Before the Viking raids on Ireland the Déisi kingdom extended from the Suir
Estuary in the east to the Blackwater in the west. In the ninth century the
Vikings occupied and settled the area of Waterford city and the barony of
Gaultier. The Vikings established the separate kingdom of Waterford in this
previous Déisi area. This loss of Déisi territory was accepted with mixed emotions.
At about the same time
the Vikings began to similarly occupy and settle the mouth of the River
Blackwater. In 853 they occupied the area around present-day Youghal where they
built a fortress and laid the foundations for a sea port.[18] If
this occupation was left unchecked the Vikings could expand their area of
control and establish a Viking kingdom at the mouth of the River Blackwater.
This would cut off the Déisi heartland and chief centres, such as Lismore, from
free access to the sea as they previously enjoyed.
Therefore in the year
866 Rechtabrat, King of the Déisi, led a combined army and naval fleet against
the Vikings of Youghal. The Viking fleet was defeated in battle while the land
army destroyed the fortress.[19] With
this victory the Déisi would again control the mouth of the Blackwater and have
free access to the sea. The occupation of Ofhearghusa may have been part of
this military campaign.
The
Déisi and the O’Brien’s
In the first half of
the twelfth century the O’Brien family of Dal Cais in modern day County Clare
were the dominant political family in Munster. Most of the Munster kingdoms
followed the O’Brien flag. In 1103 a Déisi force travelled with the great
Munster army led by Muirchertach O’Brien into Ulster. Two royal heirs of the Ua
Bric family of Déisi died along with countless others.[20]
In 1118 Diarmait
O’Brien, King if Munster died and overnight the political landscape of Munster
was changed. An army led by Turlough O’Connor, King of Connacht invaded the
province and divided it into North Munster (Thomond) and South Munster
(Desmond). The O’Brien nation was left to control Thomond while a new power,
the MacCarthy nation, was to control Desmond. This division was to lessen the
power of the Munster king and weaken the military capacity of the province with
internal wars.
In 1121 Turlough
O’Connor returned to Munster and plundered the province from Cashel to Tralee.
Later that year he invaded the Déisi kingdom. He plundered the Déisi lands of
south Tipperary before moving on to attack Lismore and west Waterford. On the
Drum Hills, just north of Ardmore, the Déisi made a last stand and won.[21]
The
rise of MacCarthy and decline of the Déisi
Yet the victory was at
terrible cost. The power of the Déisi kingdom was destroyed. The two royal
families within the kingdom, Ua Bric and Ua Faoláin, competed against each
other for the rest of the century for control of the kingdom. Their fighting
further weakened the kingdom. At the same time the Cork kingdoms of Uí Liatháin
and Uí Meic Caille became to grow in strength under the guidance of the
MacCarthy kings of Desmond and Munster.
Sometime in the 1130s a
new diocese was formed in east Cork, the Diocese of Cloyne. The Déisi had an
uneasy relationship with the MacCarthy kings of Munster. In 1123 the Déisi and
others overthrew Tadgh MacCarthy as King of Munster. His successor Cormac
MacCarthy assumed power but was later deposed. Cormac spent his short
retirement within the monastery of Lismore. Within months he was back as King
of Munster. In the 1120s Cormac MacCarthy sponsored the construction of new
churches at Lismore. But in the 1130s relations turned violent and Cormac had
the heir to the Déisi throne ‘treacherously’ killed.[22] The
MacCarthy fortress at Oileán Mail Anfaid in the heart of Ofhearghusa may have
been constructed at that time.[23]
Romanesque doorway into the north transept of Lismore cathedral which Cormac may have seen
It was possibly during
this hostile period that MacCarthy moved to form the new Diocese of Cloyne. This
new diocese took the land of present-day east Cork which was formerly part of
the Diocese of Lismore. Cloyne also got the land north of the River Blackwater
and south of the Ballyhoura Mountains which was formerly part of the Diocese of
Emly. Much of the land west of Mallow, in the present-day Barony of Duhallow,
also became part of the new Diocese of Cloyne.[24]
The Déisi sphere of
influence was therefore much reduced in east Cork yet not totally. It would
seem natural that the River Blackwater should have formed the eastern boundary of
the Diocese of Cloyne but it did not. This suggests that the Déisi kingdom had
at some previous time established military control over the land of Ofhearghusa
while it only held overlordship control over the County Cork kingdoms of Uí
Liatháin and Uí Meic Caille (Imokilly) which two kingdoms became a central part
of the Cloyne Diocese.
When the synod of
Kells-Mellifont confirmed the existence of the new Diocese of Cloyne the land
of Ofhearghusa was still under Déisi control and thus remained part of the
Diocese of Lismore which it does to this day.
Déisi
retired from Ofhearghusa
At some time over the
following twenty years the political area of Uí Glassin (Youghal and its
hinterland) broke away from the Uí Liatháin kingdom and allied itself with the
Uí Meic Caille. Together they worked to build their power and extend their
territories. The weakened Déisi kingdom provided an obvious target area for
expansion.
At the start of the
Norman invasion of Ireland in 1169/1170 the Déisi kingdom was one of the first
Irish kingdoms to come under Norman control. When the Normans sacked Lismore in
1173 no Déisi army came to its rescue. The MacCarthy king of Desmond and the
Ostmen of Cork made an unsuccessful effort to save the old monastic city.
In 1177 the Normans
established their administration framework over much of County Waterford. The
new County Waterford extended from Waterford city west to the Blackwater and
then north of the Blackwater to west of Lismore at or near Mocollop.[25] The
land belonging to the Bishop of Lismore around the town and between the Rivers
Blackwater and Bride seem to have been excluded from the new district but was
later included.
Evidence from the south
Tipperary area of the former Déisi kingdom, in the last years of King John’s
reign (1211-1212), shows that part of the kingdom as part of the new County
Waterford.[26]
Thus when the Normans were establishing the new County Waterford in 1177
Ofhearghusa was not judged to be part of the Déisi kingdom. Thus by 1177
Ofhearghusa was part of Uí Meic Caille or Uí Glassin. Therefore at some time
between 1152 and 1177 the Déisi were driven out of Ofhearghusa and possibly for
some years before 1169.
For many years after
the Norman invasion the kingdoms of present day County Cork kept independent of
the new comers. In 1182 the Uí Mac Caille still had the ability to put an armed
force in the battle field. Mac Tire, chief of the Uí Mac Caille and the king of
Uí Glassin killed Miles de Cogan and Ralph Fitzstephen near Lismore.[27]
During the 1180s the
Normans made advances into Cork. Prince John granted the land of Ofhearghusa to
Gerald Fitz Maurice along with that of Uí Glassin.[28] This
would suggest that Ofhearghusa became part of the Uí Glassin kingdom when the
Déisi were expelled. About 1200 the medieval County of Cork was established and
Ofhearghusa was part of the new county. In 1301 Ofhearghusa was counted as part
of the cantred of Imokilly.[29]
By this story it would appear that the land of
Ofhearghusa, which covered the four parishes of Tallow, Kilwatermoy, Kilcockan
and Templemichael/Rincrew, was for much of the time between the fifth century
and the mid-sixteenth century part of the kingdoms of Cork and of the medieval
County of Cork. Between the eight century and the eleventh century it became
part of the Déisi kingdom but was lost before the Norman invasion. Since the
sixteenth century Ofhearghusa is very much part of the modern County Waterford.
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[1] A.
Gwynn & R.N. Hadcock, Medieval
Religious House: Ireland (Irish Academic Press, Dublin, 1988), p. 187
[2]
Rev. Patrick Power, ‘The abbey of Molana, Co. Waterford’, in the Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries
of Ireland, Vol. LXII (1932), p. 142
[4] A.
Gwynn & R.N. Hadcock, Medieval
Religious House: Ireland (Irish Academic Press, Dublin, 1988), p. 187
[5] Rev.
Patrick Power, ‘The abbey of Molana, Co. Waterford’, in the Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries
of Ireland, Vol. LXII (1932), p. 143
[6]
Rev. Patrick Power, ‘The abbey of Molana, Co. Waterford’, in the Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of
Ireland, Vol. LXII (1932), p. 143
[7]
Rev. Patrick Power (ed.), Life of St.
Declan of Ardmore and Life of St. Mochuda of Lismore (Irish Text Society,
London, Vol. XVI, 1914), p. xxv
[8]
Rev. Patrick Power (ed.), Life of St.
Declan of Ardmore and Life of St. Mochuda of Lismore, p. xvii
[9]
Dáibhí O Cróinin, ‘Ireland, 400-800’, in A
new history of Ireland, part 1: Prehistoric and Early Ireland, edited by
Dáibhí O Cróinin (Oxford University Press, 2008)p. 194
[10]
Rev. Patrick Power (ed.), Life of St.
Declan of Ardmore and Life of St. Mochuda of Lismore, pp. 103, 184
[11]
Rev. Patrick Power (ed.), Life of St.
Declan of Ardmore and Life of St. Mochuda of Lismore, p. xxvi
[12]
Sarah Sanderlin, ‘The monastery of Lismore A.D. 638-1111’, in Waterford History and Society, edited by
William Nolan & Thomas P. Power (Geography Publications, Dublin, 1992), p.
31
[13]
Paul MacCotter, Medieval Ireland:
Territorial, Political and Economic Divisions (Four Courts Press, Dublin,
2008), p. 156
[14]
Paul MacCotter, Medieval Ireland: Territorial,
Political and Economic Divisions, p. 156
[15]
Rev. Patrick Power (ed.), Life of St.
Declan of Ardmore and Life of St. Mochuda of Lismore, p. xxix
[16]
Fr. Michael O’Clery, Martyrologium
Dongallense, edited by James Todd & William Reeves (Dublin, 1864), p.
321
[17] Rev.
Patrick Power, ‘The abbey of Molana, Co. Waterford’, in the Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries
of Ireland, Vol. LXII (1932), p. 143
[18]
Rev. Samuel Hayman, The hand-book of
Youghal (Field, Youghal, 1973), p. 2
[19] Annals of the Four Masters, 864 which
equates to 865 in the Annals of Ulster
and 866 in real time
[20] Annals of the Four Masters, 1103; Annals of Loch Cé, 1103
[21]
Séamus O hInnse (ed.), Miscellaneous
Irish Annals, A.D. 1114-1437 (Dublin Institute of Advanced Studies, 1947),
1121
[22] Annals of the Four Masters, 1136; Miscellaneous Irish Annals, A.D. 1114-1437,
1136
[23]
Paul MacCotter, Medieval Ireland:
Territorial, Political and Economic Divisions, p. 161
[24]
Paul MacCotter, Colman of Cloyne: A Study
(Four Courts Press, Dublin, 2004), pp. 109-110
[25]
Patrick C. Power, History of Waterford
City and County (de Paor Books, Dungarvan, 1998), p. 22
[26]
C.A. Empey, ‘County Waterford: 1200-1300’, in Waterford History and Society, edited by William Nolan & Thomas
P. Power (Geography Publications, Dublin, 1992), p. 133
[27]
Giraldus Cambrensis, Expugntio Hibernica:
the conquest of Ireland, edited by A.B. Scott & F.X. Martin (Royal
Irish Academy, Dublin, 1978), p. 325, note 250, 337, note 341
[28]
Paul MacCotter, ‘The Sub-infeudation and Descent of the Fitzstephen/Carew
Moiety of Desmond (part II)’, in the Journal
of the Cork Historical and Archaeological Society, volume 102, 1997, p. 95
[29] Paul
MacCotter, Medieval Ireland: Territorial,
Political and Economic Divisions, p. 156
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