Le Cheile 2020 September

Community Magazine September 2020 No. 386 EDITORIAL open up the possibility of its establishment prior to the coming of St. Patrick in 432. Oth- “The pandemic has been a revelation ers date it much later in 520. (That would to everyone in the way it has affected our make this the 1500th centenary of the coming daily lives and that of the community at of Christianity to Clane.) As 432 was 88 large. Le Chéile has been running ten years before 520 that would push the 1500 months a year for 385 issues, that is every centenary back to 1932 or earlier. month except the summer break of July and August each year. [The community maga- There has been a longstanding prob- zine actually goes back 46 years to January lem associated with the historical chronology 1974 if we count in its predecessor applying to Palladius and his successor Pat- “Newsletter”]. Last month, May, was the rick. This same problem about chronology first time the ten monthly run was disrupt- has raised questions around the dates apply- ed. It was not feasible as the groups which ing to the activities of contemporary bishops normally submit monthly reports to us were ministering “to the Irish believing in Christ.” in “lock down”. The expectation was that The issue of when did Saint Ailbe establish we would all be back on action by now but the abbey in Clane is a case in point. The not so.” date of Palladius’s appointment to his Irish mission is well established and documented We cant do better than repeat the in Rome. The same year (431) happens also first paragraph of the June editorial while to be the year of Pope Celestine’s demise. keeping our fingers crossed that, virus per- The chronological uncertainty seems to have mitting, we might be able to get back on begun with the fact that the history of Saint track in October. Patrick was not written down until about SAINT AILBE & CLANE ABBEY three hundred years after his death. This history was compiled by monks in Down who September 12th is the Feast Day of had a particular interest in establishing the Saint Ailbe The early Christian Abbey in primacy of Armagh. One of the problems Clane was founded by Saint Ailbe who was which arises is the fact that two separate Bishop of Emily in the modern county of dates are suggested for the death of Saint Tipperary. It is said that he and a number of Patrick: 461 and 492. If Palladius gave up on fellow bishops, including Declan of his mission after a year, as claimed in the Ardmore, Ciarán of Saighir and Ibar of Book of Armagh, it means that Saint Patrick Begerin, were among those already preach- ing Christianity in Ireland when Pope Cel- EDITOR’S DEADLINE estine ordained Palladius, a deacon from The deadline for receipt of material for the Gaul, as bishop and sent, him to Ireland in October issue of Le Chéile is 431 “to minister to the Irish believing in Monday 21st September Christ”. It has been said that Celistine’s To 142 Loughbollard please. concern was more to prevent the spread of the Pelagian heresy to practicing Christians Tel. 045-868474. in Ireland than to Christianise them in the E-mail: [email protected] first place. Ailbe is said to have appointed Senchell as first abbot in Clane. This would Get Le Chéile on www.clanecommunity.ie 2 served as bishop for up to sixty years. This title is “The Two Patricks”, A Lecture on the would have left no doubt about his primacy, History of Christianity in Fifth-Century Ire- especially if the earlier bishops ministering land by Thomas F. O’Rahilly. “to the Irish believers in Christ” could be Whether Ailbe preceded or succeeded written off as well. Saint Patrick is a matter for debate and evi- A credible, though understandably dence can be pointed to in the making of controversial, explanation was put forward either case. Ailbe, it would appear, was a in 1942 by Thomas O’Rahilly, a member of very active missionary and he is credited the Irish Institute for Advanced Studies, with bringing Christianity to many parts of when he put forward the “Theory of the the country, particularly in Munster but also Two Patricks” in a lecture which he deliv- to a number of far-reaching locations such as ered in Trinity College. He established the Clane. It is suggested that he came from fact that Palladius’s full name was in fact Wales, where he is also known. It is even Palladius Patricius and he pointed to a num- suggested that it was he who baptised St. ber of references to him as such in the an- David. Such early Christian monasteries as nals of the 5th Century. He suggested that Clane are said to have been very different the mysterious year of 461, referred to from those established by the later medieval above, was in fact the year of the death of orders such, for example, as the Benedic- the first Patrick (Palladius), who had in fact tines or the Franciscans who came to Clane laboured for the spread of Christianity in in 1258. For example the early Christian Leinster and parts of Munster up to that monasteries were not cloistered or cut off year. It was also, he suggested, the year of from the general community. Hermitages, the appointment of the second Patrick. such as Scellig Michael off the coast of Ker- The latter toiled in Ulster and parts of Con- ry or Saint Kevin’s Bed in Glendalough, fall naught for the following thirty one years, up into a different category. Local chieftains until his death in 492. He of course was the and the local community generally are be- one we refer to as Saint Patrick , the author lieved to have been generally highly in- of the Confessio and the Letter against Co- volved in the first Christian monasteries. roticus. The consequences of this new Any study of the early years of Chris- thinking is that, for those who find they can tianity in Ireland and of the missionaries accept it, it clears up a number of contradic- involved, St. Patrick included, is dogged by tions which needed to be answered in rela- uncertainty and contradictions with regard to tion to both Palladius and Patrick and the dates and chronology and also by mytholo- due credit attributable to each. It also opens gy. St. Patrick, as already mentioned, has the way to acknowledging a number of had two separate dates suggested for his bishops who were their contemporaries, as death -461 and 492. Likewise, St Ailbe well as bishops said to have preceded them, could not possibly have been contemporane- such as Saint Ailbe of Emily and Declan of ous with, or even before St. Patrick, if we Ardmore. O’Rahilly’s lecture was after- accept 528 (Annals of Innisfallen) as the wards published in book form, including the year of his death. With regard to mythology, edition of 1981, which benefited from the it is authoritatively accepted that there were addition of copious scholarly notes. It was never any snakes in Ireland for St. Patrick to available for purchase on the Internet. The 3 banish. 1773, West chose a career as a clergyman. He was first appointed a curate in Rev. M. Comerford’s 1883 History of Donnybrook in 1772 and five years the Diocese of Kildare and Leighlin, states: later was appointed vicar of Carnalway “A monastery was founded in Clane at a very close to Kilcullen. In 1785 a further early period. Colgan refers to a church hav- move saw him appointed Vicar of ing been here before the middle of the sixth Clane in succession to Theobald Dis- century. It is recorded that St. Ailbe of Emly, ney. He took up residence inVicar Hall whose death is assigned in our Annals to now Abbeylands which is a disused have taken place in the year 527, resided here two-story over basement mansion on for some time, and, on leaving, presented his the Clane by-pass close to the West- cell to St. Senchell . ”(But 527-431=96 yrs.) grove Hotel. Before the new vicar had time to settle into his parish he sadly lost his wife Grace who died on 27 REV. MATTHEW WEST, VICAR OF June 1786. The couple had been mar- CLANE, 1785-1813. ried for 16 years, and she was buried in Seamus Cullen Donnybrook Churchyard. The following is an excerpt of his lament which is There are many well-known writers associat- carved onto her gravestone: Too soon ed with Clane, including James Joyce and- divorced, yet oh! Be calm my heart Charles Wolfe, the author of The burial of Sir And bless the dread award that bade John Moore. A third writer of distinction is part … Matthew West who was born in 1749 and is not noted locally as a literary figure but is The 1780s and 90s was a period better known as a clergyman who served as of unrest and revolution initially in vicar of Clane from 1785 to 1813. His pub- America, then France and finally Ire- lished works between 1765 and 1803 include land. West was profoundly concerned poems, plays and various sermons. and took an interest in the events, particularly in Ireland and France. In the The earliest published works attribut- early 1790s, he pinpointed the tithe ed to West are two poems Night an Ode and question as to the source of unrest and Ode on a View of Ruins by the Seaside da- the cause of religious animosity.

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