king: "Ledban…obstinate in…infidelity…and jealousy" (39)—qualities reminiscent of Medb in TBC!  Declán acts because he knows that Patrick has targeted Ledban for cursing or damning, a fact that can be read as Eóganachta disapproval of Ledban's regime  Declán replaces Ledban with his (Declán's) kinsman Feargal MacCormac (41)  Bottom line: Declán ensures the continuation of Déisi self-determination by appointing a leader acceptable to the dominant regional power, the Eóganachta  Interestingly, this portion of the tale concludes by claiming that the Déisi helped the Eóganachta without becoming subservient to them  They "gave a large area of land" around the plain of Cashel (Magh Feimhin) to St. Patrick  The multi-territorial (or microstates) nature of medieval is highlighted in the deer episode that concludes near the start of p. 57  Declán supports a minor clan associated with an individual called Dormanach by rewarding "Dormanach…and his posterity" with "a piece of land on the north of the Decies close by the Eoghanacht" (57)  Here, Declán may be establishing an ally as a buffer between the Déisi and the Eóganachta X  St. Declán’s feast or pattern day is 24 July, and even now his cult remains stronger than St. Patrick’s in Co. Waterford  It’s probable that the Déisi Muman had ancient roots in eastern Munster (some scholars even regard them as the region's aboriginal people)  This settled reality notwithstanding, the Déisi Muman deemed it politically and culturally efficacious to develop a foundational myth of exodus into a new homeland (in the province of Muman or Munster)  Such pseudohistorical narratives are relatively common  Consider, for example, the Roman Empire’s core saga, the Aeneid (written in Latin by Virgil)  The defeated Trojan Aeneas ventures westward from his sacked city (in present-day Turkey) to Italy, where he becomes the ancestor of the Roman dynasty whose highpoint is Caesar Augustus  Betha Decclain claims that the Déisi originated as a vassal people (the Irish word déisi may be translated as "vassal") in a zone called Bregia in the province of Meath (whose capital, as you know, was Tara)  Ceallach, son of the King of Meath, abducted one of the Déisi women (shades of Paris's abduction of Helen in Greek mythology?)  In response, that woman's paternal uncle killed both Ceallach and Meath's royal steward and, in addition, knocked out one of the king's eyes  The king then "ordered their [the Déisi's] expulsion from their tribal territory" (7)  Under their three leaders—Ross, Oengus, Eoghan—the Déisi undertook an exodus to Munster, where they obtained land in the eastern reaches of that province, becoming the Déisi Muman  Betha Decclain emphasizes that "the holy bishop Declán," "son of Eirc," was descended from Eoghan; and as proof it offers a multigenerational list of his line (just before p. 9 begins)  A possible interpretation of the above: our text wants to posit the Déisi as morally superior to—i.e. more Christian than—their Meath overlords, especially in matters sexual  Despite the above scenario, Betha Decclain does associate the Déisi early in their development—"before the introduction of Christianity"—with an incestuous act  One of their honored progenitors, Lugaidh Sriabhdearg ("Lugaidh of the three red lines"), was the product of sexual intercourse between "three youths [brothers]" and "their own sister [Clothra]" (1)  Declán can claim Lugaidh Sriabhdearg as a very distant forebear, an association with what we might call the Pagan Supernatural  Invoking the exodus from Meath to eastern Munster allows the Betha Decclain to underscore that the Déisi (and, by extension, their Declán) are exceptional : a people matured by—and who won’t repeat— the experience of disenfranchisement and exile  However, the fullest treatment of that topic is in another Irish text: Indarba na nDéissi or "The Expulsion of the Déisi," which survives in two recensions (versions)  Once Declán has established himself as powerful among the Déisi Muman, he visits his people's ancestral homeland of Bregia in Meath: "the original territory which belonged to his race" (53)  Perhaps in a gesture of reconciliation (or one of gentle reconquest), he founds a monastery there and leaves a miracle-working gospel manuscript X  Betha Decclain points out that Declán is one of Ireland's four pre-Patrician saints (i.e. individuals who Christianized parts of the island before St. Patrick)  Declán (of Ardmore) and Ailbe (of ) "loved one another as if they were brothers" (21), and the other two are Ibar and Ciaran  Implicit here is a feature of traditional

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Irish Christianity: the lack of a central, coercive authority (such as the Vatican, headed by the Pope)  Declán and his contemporaries (like Ailbe) freely choose to "[make] a bond of friendship and a league amongst themselves" (21)  However, each man exhibits his own charisma, functioning as a kind of missionary entrepreneur from a HQ or campus (magnet center of learning): Ardmore in Declán's case; Emly in Ailbe's  Betha Decclain must grapple with the figure of St. Patrick, favored by the Eóganachta, whose capital Cashel is close to Déisi territory  The text privileges Declán over Patrick, but it can't ignore the latter  One strategy is to have the two men meet NOT in Ireland (where territorial tensions might surface) but offshore—specifically, "[o]n the road through Italy" (17), with Declán coming from Rome (already a bishop) and Patrick heading there (not yet one)  This circumstance is comparable to President Jimmy Carter's act of bringing the leaders of Israel and Egypt to Camp David (on the road to Washington, DC) in September 1978, where they negotiated framework agreements so their countries, which are next-door neighbors, could coexist  While Betha Decclain admits that "Patrick was truly chief bishop of the Irish island" (19), it's also at pains to point out that Patrick was an alien—"of British [English] race" (23)—by contrast with Declán's native status, which goes back many generations

 A massive hurdle for Ireland's early Christian proselytizers was grafting the challenging precepts of their foreign-sourced faith onto traditional society  You've witnessed aspects of that traditional dispensation in Táin Bó Cúailnge  The epic begins with Medb and Ailill's materialist showdown, but what does Jesus say about wealth? In Matthew 6: "Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal | But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven"  TBC highlights a violent revenge ethic; however, the Jesus of the Sermon on the Mount insists, "whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also.... Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you" (Matthew 5)  Many TBC characters (including married ones) readily act on sexual desire, but Jesus maintains that "[w]hosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart" (Matthew 5)  Nazareth is a long way from Ireland, and Jesus (especially as the eschatological or end-times Gospel of Matthew portrays him) offers a dispensational model often at odds with the episteme (worldview or paradigm) espoused by the likes of Medb and Fergus  Christianity asserts that Jesus is the model of perfected human existence: the apogee or extreme version of what a human can be  The word "apogee" is useful here: it refers to being as distant from the earth—Greek gē—as possible (in a planetary orbit)  Pre-Christian Irish religion was profoundly earth-based, with druids endorsing holy oak groves, wells, uplands, and the like  The spiritual was seen as inhabiting local landmarks; and Ériu or Éire—the matron goddess after whom Ireland is named—means "land"  Authors of Irish strove to present their focal saints as being Christ-like, but also as being close to the land  In the case of Betha Decclain, one could say that if Jesus is the Christian apogee then Declán is the Christian perigee (not fully of the earth, but as close to it as possible)  Note occasions in Betha Decclain that more or less conflate Declán with distinctive places  Here are three examples  (a) Declán's Rock at Ardmore: a stone bearing a hollow made by contact with the "very soft apex" of the newborn Declán's head (9)  (b) Three sweet-water wells at Ardmore, converted by Declán's crozier or staff (called the Feartach Declain) from drops of a child's nosebleed (33)  (c) "[W]hite, dry salt" that Declán makes from "a fistful of earth" by the River Suir for the purpose of baptizing an infant destined for monastic greatness (59)  It's possible that the rock, wells, and salt deposit were sacred to local, earth-worshipping pagans prior to Christianity's arrival in Ireland  In the US, our identity is very much predicated on the next frontier or bigger horizon: the western prairies, then California, then Hawaii, then the moon, then Mars  By contrast, the Irish sensibility (reflected in Betha Decclain) privileges the local  At the conclusion of his visit with St. David in , Declán is guided by God's black bell to an island that's no more than a modest hill  Declán exalts the place: "Do not call it little hill…but 'great height' [Ardmore]" (29)

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 While in reality Declán may have been Ireland's first Christian proselytizer, Betha Decclain situates him vis-à- vis (fictional) preexisting Christians on the island  For example, the text claims that he was educated in part by a "Christian scholar" called Dobhran at a place beside Magh Sgiath, all but synonymous with Lismore (in present-day Co. Waterford), famous as one of medieval Europe's greatest monastery-universities (until sacked by Viking raiders) X  Each of the Declán miracles that the text relates probably had a specific didactic (teaching ) purpose with political overtones  What do you make of the narrator's assertion that reader might "tire…to hear so much said of one particular person [Declán]" (69)?  Declán's death occurs "a short mile" from his "city" or monastic settlement of Ardmore in a secluded, bucolic littoral (coastal strip) "called Disert Declain" (69), which we visit each summer during our five-week study-in- Ireland program  This toponym means "Declán's desert," and it gestures to the ascetic (self-denying) hermit tradition of the Desert Fathers and Mothers—such as St. Anthony of Egypt and St. Syncletica of Alexandria (in Egypt)—that emerged around the third century and heavily influenced the development or  It's interesting the text ends with these materially reduced circumstances: a decision in favor of lack X END

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