
I went to Derrynaflan to find out about Fedelmid, ‘scholar and saint’, King of Munster, also known as ‘the best of the Irish’, who had no hesitation in attacking some of the most important monastic centres in Ireland at a time when he could have being fighting the Vikings.
As mentioned earlier, he was a member of the strict monastic community at Derrynaflan at the time he was made King of Munster.
It is not an easy place to get at. Originally an island in a vast bog, in its early days it was only accessible by boat. Since then the bog has dried out and there is a narrow road with two closed gates at different points that do not suggest a welcome.
When we got there a family group had arrived before of us. The older members were locals and while they had never even heard of Fedelmid they could show us the actual spot where the ‘Derrynaflan Hoard’ had been discovered in 1980.
That treasure had been buried at the time of a Viking attack, not long after Fedelmid was there. He might have used the chalice himself. It is silver with gold decorations that experts say are more profuse than that on the earlier Ardagh Chalice. However they add that the level of artistic skill is lower, indicating that the summit of Irish artistic skill was already fading. The chalice is now in the National Museum.
One of the family we met wondered what had happened the person who buried the hoard and we agreed that they were probably killed in the attack as no one ever came back to claim it.
A number of famous people, besides Fedelmid, are associated with the island. The name ‘Derrynaflan’ means the ‘Oak Grove of the two Flans’ and refers to two holy men of the name Flan (not related) who lived there in the 8th century. However the original foundation was by Ruadhan of Lorrha in the 6th century. Fedelmid helped to raise the community’s profile as a centre of Ceili De reform but, maybe due to the Viking raid, after his time its name faded from history. A ruined church on the site shows it continued to be honoured from pre-Norman times.
On the ‘island’ is also the grave of the Goban Saor (Goban the Builder), a famous architect and stone mason of the 7th century of whom an early document says, ‘The fame of Goban as a builder in wood as well as stone would exist in Ireland to the end of time’. However when I visited there was nothing to indicate that his family grave was near to the church.
Despite learning about the hoard and other people associated with the ‘island’, I discovered nothing new about Fedelmid. No memory of him remains, not even on the fading notice board on the site.
My only hope for a clue into Fedelmid’s thinking is to visit Cashel from whose lofty Rock he ruled as King of Munster from 820 to 846.
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