The following lecture was delivered by the Most Rev. Dr. Joseph Duffy, Bishop of Clogher and President of the Clogher Historical Society, to a gathering of the McManus Clan at Beleisle near Enniskillen on 15^th. August 1998. The occasion was the Quincentennial Commemoration of Cathal Og Mc Manus (1438-1498) principal compiler of the Annals of Ulster:

 

My first duty today is to congratulate warmly the MacManus clan for the fitting way in which they have organised this celebration. They have rescued Cathal Og from the dust of the centuries and spoken his name again. They have made us sit up and recognise, possibly for the first time, something of the highly developed and very distinctive culture to which he belonged and which is part of the inheritance of all of us. That culture had its strengths and weaknesses of course, many of them to be found in the person of Cathal Og himself. It is also a culture which is still being explored by students of language and history and, on their own admission, is far from being adequately understood. There can be no doubt that a better understanding would put us more in touch with our past and would enrich our lives accordingly.

 

Over the five centuries that divide us, what we have in common with Cathal Og is our attachment to Fermanagh and a network of family links and relationships which have survived the long years. If we are to reach him as an historical person, we have a lot of work to do to meet him on his own ground rather than simply admire his work at a distance. That's what I mean by the need for a serious study of his culture. In any case we have made a good beginning by coming here to this spot where Cathal lived and laboured. I am also aware that most of you were present at Dr. O'Mura'ile's lecture this morning and that you are now briefed on what the scholars have to say about Cathal Og and his Annals. In order to do further justice to this splendid occasion, I thought I would read for you again the famous obituary from the Annals and add a few words by way of commentary. I debated with myself what language I should use and came to the  following conclusion. Because it was written in Gaelic and because the Gaelic language is understood by a number of you here present, I decided to read it for you in that language as it is spoken today. If you have difficulty in following the text, just say another prayer for Cathal.  That's in fact what the text asks us all to do.

Sceal mor in Eirinn uile ins an bhiiain seo: Mac Maghnusa Mhic Uidhir d'eag an bhliain seo, se~ sin, Cathal Og mac Chathail, mhic Chathail mhic Ghiolla Phadraig mhic Mhatha agus eile; duine bhina bhiatach ar Seanadh agus ma chan6nach coruil in Ard Mhacha agus in easpag6ideach Chiochair; agus ma dheaganach ar Loch Eirne agus ina phearsun in Inis Chaoin Locha Eirne; agus a bhi i ndeagantacht Locha Eirne ina fhear ionaid easpaig le cuig bhliain deag roimh a bhas.

 

An leac luachnthar afach agus an geam glaine agus an realt solais agus ciste taisce na heagna agus craobh cnuasaigh na canoine agus tobar na desheirce agus na ceannsa agus na hailghine agus an colm ar glaine croagus an turtar ar neamhchiontacht (eannachas) agus an duine a raibh damha agus deoraithe agus deibhleain bhochta Eireann buioch do agus an duine bhilan de rath agus d'eagna i ngach uile ealalon go aimsir a bhais idir dli agus diagacht, fisigeacht agus fealsu~nacht agus ealalon Gaeilge; agus duine a chumhdaigh agus a theaglaim agus a thionoil an leabhar seo as an iomad leabhrai eile, agus a d'e'ag don ghalar bric Dia hAoine, an deiciu calainn do mhi~ Aibrea'n, agus e seasca bijain d'aois. Agus tabhradh gach duine a leifidh an leabhar seo agus a bhainfidh fonamh as, a bheannacht ar an anam sin Mhic Mhaghnusa.

 

This obituary is an unashamed eulogy, a panegyric in the conventional style that we are used to at funerals, all beauty and no blemish. It is important, however, if we are to get Cathal into some kind of perspective, that we identify the assumptions of the composer of this obituary, presumably, Cathal's son Tomas. It's clear, for example, that Cathal's family status was of much more consequence to him than his ecclesiastical titles. He was chief of his clan. An entry in the Annals for 1488 notes his inauguration by Maguire and the nobles of Fermanagh. These inauguration rituals were apparently taken very seriously and were a regular feature of the Gaelic way of life going back to pagan times. At the centre of the ritual was a kind of symbolic marriage between the chief and his land. Then as you know, the chief was not necessarily the first-born son, as in the Anglo-Saxon culture, but the male relative judged to be the right man for the job, provided he belonged to the derbhfhine group, that is to say, that he was one of the descendants of a common ancestor going back four generations. That explains why the four ancestors of Cathal in the direct line are given in the obituary. We are being told who the great-grandfather is because anybody whose great-grandfather had been chief was technically eligible for election as the next chief. In practice, of course, very few of those so qualified would have had the necessary clout to aspire to the post. In the same year (1484) as Cathal Og was inaugurated, for example, his kinsman the Giolla Dubh, was proclaimed the head of his clan, the McBriens, even though he had actually wielded the power of a chief for eight and a half years before this. Then again, where there was case of a chief like MacManus who was subject to an overlord, in his case, the Maguire, then the chief had to be chosen, not by his own clan but by a small group composed of Maguire, Maguire's tanaiste, and the nobles of the country, both cleric and lay. And thirdly, Mac Manus's description as “biatach” would seem to be not so much an occupation or profession, as a rank in the hierarchy of Maguire's overlordship. The term “biatach” means literally “provider of food” and survives in the surname "Beatty".

 

Next we come to Cathal's numerous ecclesiastical titles; he sported no fewer than five. First, he was a canon choral in Armagh and in the diocese of Clogher. The editors of AU rightly question whether the same person was canon in both places, as this would not have been tolerated even in those lax times. It clears the air, I think, to remember that there were two kinds of canons in Armagh at this time, the canons of the Cathedral chapter and the canons regular of St Augustine who survived in Armagh until at least 1562. We also know that this monastery of Armagh, claimed jurisdiction over its counterpart on Saints Island, Lough Derg where Cathal Og got embroiled some few years before his death. The specific reference to the espagoideacht (diocese or bishopric) of Clogher refers to a different kind of canonry, the Cathedral chapter of the Diocese. Next we are told that Cathal was dean of Lough Erne and parson in Iniskeen Loch Eirne (as distinct from Iniskeen Dea in Co Monaghan at the other end of the Diocese). If you are familiar with Professor Paddy Duffy's atlas of the Diocese, you will read there in the introduction that Lough Erne was one of the four divisions of the Diocese of Clogher since at least 1307 and that it (that is, Lough Erne) was the name of a kingdom before the rise of the Maguires. This deaney included the following parishes: Inniskeen, Cleenish, Derryvullen, Derrybrusk, Inis Muighe Samh (Inismacsaint), Devenish, Lisgoole, Aghalurcher, Aghavea, Botha, Cul Maine, Termon Davog, in other words the most of the present county of Fermanagh and the two parishes of Donegal in the diocese of Clogher. This area is by far the most extensive of the deaneries in the Diocese and centres on the cluster of ancient monastic sites which sprang up around the shores and islands of Lough Erne. One of these was of course Iniskeen, a place well known to the Mac Manus clan into the present generation. Finally, we are told that Cathal was the vicar of the Bishop in this deanery of Lough Erne for 15 years before his death. It seems very likely, as has been suggested by Aubrey Gwynn and others, that Cathal succeeded in keeping out all non-Fermanagh contenders to the episcopal succession. In time we may get more information on this. In any event, Cathal had quite an ecclesiastical portfolio, for a part-time cleric. From a Church point of view, his non-residence in Iniskeen would have been his major irregularity and it reflects the mentality of the time that it is totally disregarded in the obituary.

 

The other controversial issue was the more notorious one of his non-celibacy. It is sometimes wrongly assumed that celibacy did not exist in any of the Christian Churches before the 16th century. It was in fact legislated for in the reforming General Councils of the 12th century and vigorously promoted over the following centuries, especially by the new religious orders which grew up as an expression of these reforms. The other major reform introduced in the 12th c. was the clear separation of the temporal domain of the Church from that of the local lord or chief.  Well before Cathal's time both these reforms had broken down in Fermanagh under the weight of Maguire's power and control. One point, admittedly a minor one, perhaps, is worth making. Commentators, as far as I know without exception, follow McCarthy in translating "endca" as "chastity". According to the RIA Dictionary, the word in question means more precisely "innocence" or "free from fault, usually legal fault". You may say: what's the difference? I think that in the view of the Annalist, Cathal as the head of his family and clan is fully entitled to marry, and that, having married, he was faithful to his marriage obligations. He (the Annalist) would not have considered his comment fulsome, not to say untrue.

 

The same nuanced approach is necessary when we discuss Cathal's reputation for hospitality. We are dealing here with one of the universally-recognised hallmarks of the medieval Gaelic society. The mention of poets, strangers and mendicants sums up the kind of people who would be the most likely recipients of hospitality at Seanadh. It is interesting to note that the poets are in the first place. In trying to study contrast, I compared this obituary of Cathal with that of an earlier bishop of Clogher, Art MacCawell who died in 1432. The Annalist commends this man for his piety. He goes on to say that he departed this world with victory from the world and from the demons. Cathal is not praised for either of these; in fact we are asked to pray for his soul. On the other hand, he is praised for his knowledge of Scripture, a rare enough compliment in the annals.

 

I hope that you are beginning to see what is outstanding about Cathal MacManus. He was a fear leinn, a man of learning. We are now told of the wide range and scope of his learning, that it ran to law, theology, medical science, philosophy and Gaelic letters. The law in question was probably canon law which was of immediate practical value in the Church of the day; but civil law was also widely studied at this time. Theology was generally taught by the friars who, by Cathal's time, had their own schools up and down the country for the purpose. There was, it seems, a popular school in Armagh. The close connection between the study of medicine and philosophy is taken for granted in all the literature of the period. Finally, we come to the climax of the obituary, the reason we are here today, the explicit mention of the Annals themselves. At this point I can only refer you again to Dr. 0' Muraile who has both spoken and written on this subject and who has so graciously given us the full benefit of his researches.

 

These, then, are the main details from the obituary of the man we are celebrating today. They reveal an able, colourful and versatile character who has left us a uniquely valuable record of a civilisation which at the time of his death was a thousand years old. Little did he realise that within another century that civilisation would be well on the way to an unhappy end. On the surface, the Tudor conquest of Fermanagh, as in Gaelic Ireland generally, was social and political; it was about the spoils of war and a new division of land. But underneath, it was profoundly cultural; it systematically dismantled a whole way of life from the top down. In these, perhaps, inevitable circumstances, the language and culture of Cathal Og Mac Maghnusa and his Annals were moved permanently from their place of honour and privilege. But because of his foresight in keeping the records, all was not lost. The Annals survived in the manuscript form in which they were first written down; and eventually at the turn of the present century were edited and translated into English with notes by William Hennessy, a Celtic scholar, and Dr. Bartholomew McCarthy, a parish priest from Co. Cork.

 

In the very different world of today the question arises: what possible use can we make of the Annals of Ulster, apart from having them bound on a bookshelf? If I am allowed a reply from personal experience, I would say at once: local history. The annals are an indispensable source for the local history of Fermanagh. Cathal makes no secret of his special interest in his kinsmen the Maguires. His annals are also easy to use. In the edition of Hennessy and MacCarthy you have the original text on the left-hand page and facing it the parallel English translation. There are also indices of personal and place names for easy reference. You need to be warned that the information is strictly factual and disconnected, a bit like a series of newspaper headings. You are told, for example, of a battle, or of the death of a famous man, or of the burning of a church, but without any attempt to give causes, results, moral judgements or to weave the facts into a single narrative. The work of the local historian only begins when the isolated facts are collected. The task is to link them with genealogies and place names and the poetry of the bardic schools. Later records from the Plantation period will often fill out the picture. It is in this area that the work of the Clogher Historical Society and its journal, the "Clogher Record" over nearly fifty years deserves acknowledgement and some little credit.

 

This occasion today also opens up again the debate about the Irish language in the late 1990s. Many of you will have your own ideas about the language, about its value and how it should be approached. I imagine we would all agree today that it was unfortunate that the great enthusiasm for the language at the beginning of the present century was absorbed into much less idealistic political energies and tensions. After 1920, as we know, both parts of Ireland went their separate political ways. In the south the high expectations of language enthusiasts were gradually scaled down over the years by educational and economic realities; but many people in the Republic still declare themselves bi-lingual and the language has recently received its own television service. In the north there has been a pronounced renewal of interest over the past 20 years and a desire to promote the language in the context of cultural pluralism. This is in sympathy with a worldwide trend today to see cultural differences as an asset to be carefully fostered rather than a social nuisance or liability. One could read this development as a healthy reaction to the current globalisation of market forces but that's a subject for another time and place.

 

My last point is directed to the great MacManus clan who have organised this wonderful event. If you are interested in local history, you may actually get the courage to consult the annals for information. If you are a language enthusiast, you will be keen to try following the original, possibly with the help of the translation. You may, however, be neither of these. You may have come here simply to pay homage. You may regard the Annals as you would this stone we are unveiling today, as a contemporary monument to a thousand years of civilisation, a monument created by a kinsman of your own. I put it to you that Cathal Og has a message for you if you are willing to stretch your loyalty a little. He is telling you that genealogical descent does not by itself guarantee cultural identity or continuity. What he has left us is not so much a matter of genes as a matter of genius. In general, we observe the past with curiosity and respect. We are impressed by heritage centres and theme parks and by new editions of classic literature. We are more conscious these days that we are all shaped by heritage, habitat and history and that the interplay of these forces over the centuries has made us what we are. The challenge now is to take the next step, to see the past not simply as a dead inheritance to be honoured, but as a source of stimulation for cultural renewal and regeneration. I appreciate that there is nothing precise, tidy or totally verifiable about this process, that we have to struggle even to make the case for it, as we have to struggle against naively and narrowly imitating the past, or against exploiting the past to prop up a preconception or prejudice. Cathal Og at first sight comes across as a man of his own time with a natural flair for his native lore and language. But to undertake a project as ambitious as the Annals of Ulster required more than the instinct to pursue a personal interest in historical records. It seems fair to assume that it was undertaken with a deliberate and calculating eye on posterity.

As I said to you initially, I have no doubt that Cathal Og and his Annals have not yet got their rightful place in the educational life of our country, north or south. Yesterday I consulted, out of curiosity, the massive three-volume anthology of Irish literature in both languages edited by Seamus Deane some years ago. The Four Masters are mentioned, as is Dualtach MacFirbhisigh, as is that fine Fermanagh Franciscan priest who wrote the first book ever to be printed in the Irish language, Bonaventure 0 hEosa. But not a word about Cathal Og. Honestly, I think the Mac Manuses should do something about it, just as you did such a marvellous job here today. You might think of setting up a small committee to locate and sponsor a group of professional scholars to initiate a systematic study, leading in time to a new edition of the Annals, so that they may claim their rightful place in the wider story of our country.

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