
I went to Cashel, the lofty rock in the ‘Golden Vale’, in the hope of getting further insight into the thinking of Fedelmid Mac Cremthanin, the reformist ‘Ceili De’ monk and warrior-King of Munster who had no hesitation in destroying church buildings and slaughtered the inhabitant much in the manner of Viking raiders.
How could he be both saintly scholar and ruthless king?
I thought Cashel might provide some answers. Fedrlmid had ruled there as king from 820, after leaving his community on isolated Derrynaflan bog, until he died after a battle in 846. However the people in Cashel did not seem to want to remember him.
What they did enjoy recalling was how St Patrick on Cashel Rock stood on the foot of Aengus the first king of Munster to become a Christian. The guide even shows you the spot where it happened.
Legend has it that during the baptism, Patrick inadvertently stamped his sharp-pointed crosier on the king’s foot, causing it to bleed profusely. Aengus didn’t even blink an eye and when he was praised afterwards for his fortitude he replied that he had thought it was just part of the ceremony!
As we move on to the next viewing spot I quietly asked the guide whether St Patrick had actually ever come to Cashel. There were scholars who doubted it.
He replied, ‘Well, if he came to Munster why wouldn’t he come to Cashel? Anyhow the tourists love the story.’
When I pushed my luck and asked him had he ever heard of Fedelmid Mac Cremthanin, he thought he might have and quickly moved on.
If he did not know about Fedelmid, he knew a lot about Cormac MacCuilennain, a successor of Fedelmid. The early life of both men was remarkable similar. Cormac too was a highly regarded monk of distant royal descent who was unexpectedly made King of Munster as a compromise candidate. However unlike Fedelmid he is remembered for his scholarship and good governance. Yet he too had to go to battle. He lost in a struggle with High King Flann Sinna in 908 and on being captured his head was cut off and brought to the king. Flann however did not rejoice. He said, ‘It was an evil deed to cut off the holy bishop’s head’.
Cormac is remembered in the Annals as, ‘A scholar in Irish and in Latin, the wholly pious and pure chief bishop, miraculous in chastity and in prayer, a sage in government, in all wisdom, knowledge and science, a sage of poetry and learning, chief of charity and every virtue; a wise man in teaching, high king of the two provinces of all Munster in his time.’
His name will always be remembered in ‘Cormac’s Chapel’ which he had built on Cashel Rock. It is hailed as the only fully intact Hiberno-Romanesque structure to survive. It’s no wonder the guide had more to say about Cormac than about Fedelmid.
My visit to imposing Cashel did not help me understand Fedelmid better but it reassured me there had been more than just one type of cleric-king in Munster.
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