Who's Who in Naas

Often the story of an Irish town can be traced through the ‘saints’ associated with it but in Naas (Kildare) just too many historic figures seem to have lived there.

Nearly everything written about the town’s Christian origins associates them with ‘either St Patrick or St Corban’. But which came first and who was Corban?

The 9th century  ‘Tripartiate Life of Patrick’, which liked to claim important places for Patrick, states he visited Naas in 448 and raised a tent (‘pupal’) on the Green beside the fort of King Dubhlang whose two sons and two daughters he baptised. (The well where he baptised them can be found in Oldtown suburbs, in a closed-off demesne.)

Corban is more difficult to pin down though his name is on streets in the town centre. He is associated with pioneers such as Ciaran of Saigir (d. 504), Ibar of Beggerin (d 500) and Mochta of outh (d. 535) so he too must have been a trailblazer.   

That is not all.  The famous St Fechin of Termonfeckin, Fore and Omey Island visited Naas in 600 and founded the monastery of Tulach-Fobhair (Hill of Fore) on land given by the King of Naas. During his time there he obtained the release of certain captives, in memory of which a Market Cross was erected that stood until the mid-18th century. The fact that the cross survived so long is a tribute to the local people who held on to their saint after the Normans came and introduced an outsider, St David, the patron of their Welsh homeland.

The Normans took over the dun (fort) of the Irish kings and raised their distinctive motte and bailey castle on its mound. Today the site, called the ‘Moat‘, is easy to identity. They built a Norman-style church nearby on the spot where St Patrick is said to have raised his ‘pupal’ (tent). That church still stands though it has been renovated over the years and is known as the COI’s ‘St Davids’.

David made an impact too. Up to the 1800s the people of Naas wore a leek on 1 March in his honour, an early step in the cultural take-over that has continued since Norman times.

So, with whom does Naas identify today?  While the patron of the old COI remains ‘St David’, the Catholic Church is named after ‘Mary and David’-- no mention of Patrick, Corban or Fechin! However somewhere deep in popular memory Corban seems to hold a special place.