The Story of Gallen Priory

Most of us can form a fairly accurate mental picture of Ireland as it was at the end of the 5th century, when for the first time Gallen Priory took its place in history. We think of forests, boars, deer, feiseanna, round timber houses and protecting raths; queens with long plaits and head bands. Yet that is only the material side. We rarely think of the tremendous impact the new religion had had on this cultured people. For example, think of the peace and light heartedness that prevailed in our land when the Satan inspired and carefully cultivated fears of paganism gave place to the hope and trust of Christianity.
However, at the time of which we speak (492), paganism was not at all dead, especially in high places. There was a pagan high King in his pagan capital, Tara, surrounded by a strong of body of druids and fili or learned men. In fact we hear of the first Christian King, in Cashel only about this time, and the last pagan high King, Diarmait, died as late as 565, though since he is said to have helped Saint Ciaran to plant his first stake at Clonmacnois, he can hardly have been very bigoted and possibly was a "late" convert.

Connection with Wales

At this period there was a close connection between Ireland and Wales. The many raids which that magnificent hero, Niall of the Nine Hostages, "kind in hall and fierce in fray," and others like him, made on the Welsh coast placed that land in a position of temporary subjection to Irish Kings. As one old Irish book put it: "Great was the power of the Gaels over the Britons. They divided the island of Britain between them, and the Gaels at home were not more numerous than those in Wales."
Meanwhile, in that land a good man named Brecan and his wife Din, both of royal birth, were engaged in rearing a large family -12 sons and 12 daughters. Canoc or Mocanoc, the founder of Gallen, was the eldest of the sons, and one of the daughters, Gladufa, became the mother of Saint David of Wales. So says Colgan in his Acta Sanctorum. David's mother is referred to elsewhere as St. Nun, who ruled over many virgins, which seems to imply that Gladufa afterwards forsook the world. That means there are at least three saints in Canoc's family, which is more than most of us can boast of.

Saint Canoc

The sons are described as holy, and certainly Canoc was. He chose the priesthood for a career and Ireland as the field labours. He is said to have been a companion of St. Patrick and to be the preist "Conon," which St. Patrick left behind in 'Maghfoimscan' to minister to the spiritual needs of the people. This Maghfoimscan is elsewhere rendered Magfoim-sen and is as far as we know, identical with Fuirshinaugh in the parish of Cong. Canoc also founded or at least governed a monastery at Kilmucrois. There are two places of this name, one in Wales near Brechinia (we are back to the father's name again) and one an island in Lough Swilly.
We are certain about Saint Canoc's later life. He arrived in the vicinity of Ferbane, Co. Offaly, in 492, the territory being known as Delbhna Eathra. If he had been acquainted with Saint Patrick and laboured with him even for a short time, he must have been at least in his late fifties when he established himself among the pleasant fields of Gailinne. An important thing to remember is that the Gailinne monastery was not just another of the well-known list: Clonmacnois, Clonard, Clonfert, etc. It was part of the foreign missio-nary effort, an "import," and, incidentally, from St, Patrick's native land. It took another 40 or 50 years to get the native clergy standing on their own feet. In the meantime, Canoc and his companions gave them the example of a well-established monastic system.
We have no direct information about the early days of Gailinne monastery, but it was connected by ties of friendship with other houses, and it is easy to reconstruct the picture. Saint Canoc, though older, was a contemporary of Saint Finian, who in 530 founded a monastic school at Clonard in Meath. The latter's sister Reynacia, was the foundress of a Church and Convent in Reynagh (Banagher, only eight miles from Ferbane. Finian was educated in Britain and was an intimate friend of St. David, Canoc's nephem. Can you imagine Finian not knowing of Canoc's existence and not coming to Gailinne to see how things were done before starting his own foundation? And can you imagine the good old man Canoc not sending over a few fresh Brosna fish or a bit of venison to Reynacia now and again?

Irish Moastic Rule

At any rate, David's monastery near Menevia is typical of the period, and we can certainly apply the description of it to his uncle's establishment on the banks of the Brosna.
In them farming and study succeeded each other in turn. "Knowing," says Capgrave, "that secure rest is the nourishment of all vices, he (David) subjected the shoulders of his monks to hard wearisomeness." The used no cattle to till the ground but each monk made himself an ox for his brethren. Returning to the cloister, they spent the rest of the day till evening reading and writing. At the sound of the bell, leaving even a letter unfinished they went to the Church and stayed in prayer till dusk, when they ate enough bread, roots and herbs (in other words common -vegetables), with salt, to keep body and soul togeth-er, but not enough to satisfy. They drank milk mixed with water. After supper they had three more hours of prayer, then sleep (if one cannot say bed!) till cockcrow. They wore skins of beasts (leather garments). No talking was allowed except in case of absolute necessity, and all prayed, at least mentally, during labour. Postulants had to wait ten days at the door and were tried during that time by harsh words, repeated refusals, and odd jobs. They left all property when entering, and the monastery had none of it.
The Rule of Saint Fintan in nearby Leix was similar. As well as the foregoing list of austerities which we might be pardoned for considering exhausitive as well as exhausting, the more fervent added to it whatever they felt inspired to do. One British Saint said the entire Psalter every night standing up to his neck in cold water. Learning the 150 Psalms by heart was the least of his troubles. Present-day Cistercians find it staggering to get through the Psalms without a break, as they do once a year, on Good Friday, using a book and no cold water! Sleeping on the bare ground or in a stone coffin using a stone for a pillow, going barefoot, and eating only once in several days were other examples of the penances these mighty men could do. Lent must have created a problem. There seem to be no further extremes to which austerity could go. But there were. The custom was to cut down the meals to one a day, to be taken in the evening, except on Sunday. The repast consisted of an egg, some bread, and some milk and water. In observing this Len-ten practice the monks followed the example of Saint Columba, one of the stream of scholar-saints who, as Usher says, issued from Finian's school at Clonard like the Greek warriors from the wooden horse. The permission to eat an egg normally forbidden in Lent by Church Law, was granted to the northern countries on account of the difficulty of procuring vegetables at that time of the year.
That was the kind of life envisaged by Canoc when he chose his site in Gailinne and set to work erecting his Church and cells. They may have been built of wood, as was commonly done at the time, for no trace of this earliest foundation has been discovered. Then started the daily routine of prayer, penance, manual labour, the copying of books and teaching.

Celtic Schools

Boys were sent to study at almost as early an age as they are now, but there was no age limit and many youths who had already studied under pagan or at least non-clerical learned men eagerly joined up.
Beginners conquered the difficulties of reading by the use of the Bible, and learned the whole 150 Psalms by heart. One youngster named Lananus learned off the whole of them in 15 days (that is 10 a day, and Ps.118 was just as long then as it is now!). The first task of the more advanced was to learn to read and write the latin alphabet, so different from the native one. Latin rules were then committed to memory, probably in the same rimes and jingles that we ourselves know, and Virgil was enthusiastically studied. Cadoc, who was possibly another of Canoc's nephews, loved the old Mantuan so much that he usually carried the Aeneid around under his arm, and his pupils, of course, knew it by rote. Greek and Hebrew were also in the curriculum.
Contemporary Arithmetic, dealing with measurements, time, lunar cycle, and so on , was not neglected, but such things as stocks and shares and compound interest were headaches reserved for a later genration. It is rather hard to imagine the arithmetic syllabus the Irish Schools taught, or at least how they wrote their calculations, since it seemingly was not until the 10th century that the French monk, Gerbert, introduced the system of representing all numbers by nine figures, written in the units', tens' and hundreds' places.
Then there was music and poetry. Ecclesiastical Chant was, of course, most important, and the harp was the principal instrument. The fact that a harp key was amongst the relics of the past unearthed in the grounds of Gallen Priory remind us of the days when surely the brethren forgot for a moment the austerity of their life and asked one of their number or some wandering minstrel to "strike up a tune."
Students who just hadn't much capacity for the classics or other studies were sent to the Scriptorium to try their hand at illuminating and ornamental writing. The boys of St. Gall's in Switzerland used practise on the line: "Adnexique globum Zephyrique Kanna secabant," which can be literally rendered (after the manner of lard!) as "The quick brown fox jumped over the slow lazy dog," since both sentences are valuable only as containing each letter of the alphabet.
Incidentally, only well-trained adults were employed on the copying of Gospels or books for the service of the Church. The work was divided among them. Some prepared the parchment; some drew lines: some wrote the text: others, more skilled, put in the initial letters and gold ornaments. The copy was then compared with the original, this work naturally being done when the night had come, as daylight was precious and had to be kept for the actual transcription. Finally, the work was bound, often in wood ornamented with gold, ivory and precious stones. Let us not be so innocent as to think the monks did not find copying wearisome. Of course they did, as can be seen from the jottings on some of the books of those early days. One has: "As a sick man desires health, so does the transcriber desire the end of his volume." Another: "Written with great trouble." Maybe he made many mistakes! A more light-hearted scribe ended off with a verse:

"Libro completo
Saltat scriptor pede lacto."

During the 6th century, owing to the barbaric invasions of the Roman Empire, Irish monasteries found themselves cut off for a time from the centre of Christendom. This was the period during which they developed peculiarities and customs differing from those of Rome, and, though these never amounted to schism, they were very stubborn about giving them up-especially their well-known custom of celebrating Easter on the day of the Pascal full moon instead of the Sunday after. Even the tonsure was different, the front of the head being shaved and the hair allowed to grow long behind. The independence of monasteries was increased by the fact that the abbots were far more important than the 300 or so bishops in the country, and also because the populous monastic settlements were the nearest approach to cities that the land possessed.

Gallinne Under Fire

Unfortunately, Ireland's golden age was to be brought to a close and much of its culture destroyed by the Danish incursions which commenced shortly after the year 800. Yet, the first attack on Gailinne, recorded in the annals of the Four Masters, was not by Danes but by a Munster King, Felim Mac Crimthann, who ruled from 820-847 and who in 820 or 822 "thoroughly devastated Gailinne na mBrettan, houses, churches, and sanctuary." This was the opening of a campaign by which he intended to secure the high kingship, and the fact that the first place he attacked was Gailinne shows its importance. Moreover, Delbna, which owed allegiance to the Southern O'Neills, rulers of Central Ireland and High Kings, was in the direct line of march northward from Cashel. We know that this attempt failed and that Felim was utterly defeated.
Strange to say, the monastery was restored, not by the native Irish, but by a party of Welsh monks, and it was after this time it became most celebrated as a school. It was on account of this association with Wales that we always find it referred to as Gailinne of the Britons. From this time -the 10th century -the district in which the Priory lay, formerly called Delbna Eathra, was called Delbna Mac Coughlan, after the ruling family who were in power till the 18th century.
The antipathy or greed of the Munster kings was not, however, at an end, and according to the Four Masters, Ceallacan, King of Munster and a brave opponent of the Danes attacked the territory of Delbna Eathra in 949, burned the Gallen Daimhliag or stone church, and nearly demolished the establishment. He must have been a thorough worker, for no trace of this or earlier churches remains, the two still to be seen dating from the 11th and 15th centuries.
When things quietened down the good monks returned from their hiding-places and set to work again to rebuild, but scarcely 50 years had passed when there was more trouble. At that time Ireland was full of unruly lords, each with a small army. The monasteries became their abbacies were usually hereditary and the abbots were lords who had more aptitude for a military than a monastic life. In 1003 the roll of battle was heard once more in Gallen. The climax was reached when a certain Iarnan Mac Finn Mac Duibhgilla -seemngly a leader on the Gallen side- was treacherously slain by Corc Mac Aedh in the doorway of Gallen Oratory, Corc, who probably was also a Gallen vassal, must have been bribed. "Two of his own people slew this Corc immediately," the chronicler continued and piously adds, "by which the name of God and Canoc was magnified,"as if St. Canoc had inspired and assisted this prompt piece of avenging justice. At this period a penitentiary, Deartagh, is mentioned as existing in Gallen.

The Mac Coughlan Family

A long period of peace ensues. The Irish Church was reformed. Uniformity of Liturgy and a proper episcopate were established and the Church was freed from lay domination. Yet, it is at this time that the Mac Coughlan family came into prominence in the history of Gallen. Members of the family usually combined the offices of ruler of the clan and Prior of the monastery. Yet they were good strong men, if not saints, and left creditable records behind them.
In 1519 a "Great war" broke out between various descendants of Donnell Mac Coug-hlan. The Prior, James (who was also the heir-apparent), took to the field but was killed by a ball shot from Clondowney Castle. Later, perhaps in 1531, when trouble broke out again, another Mac Coughlan, Murtagh, who was Prior of Gallen and Vicar of Lemanaghan, was treacherously slain by Turlough Og and Rory O Melaghlin (descen-dants of Malachy of 1014 fame).
Rory's enmity was not satisfied. In 1548 he and his brother Cormac, having first secured the aid of the forces of Leinster under Edmund Faye and a gentleman called Thady the Red, attacked Gallen Priory by night as part of a general incursion on the Mac Coughlan territories. They plundered the church and got away safely. But this time the tables were to be turned. The Mac Coughlans hurriedly collected their forces and under Art (who could possibly have been the Prior), together with some of the Madden clan, they pursued the enemy, killed many, and drowned Cormac and 13 of his followers, pre- sumably in the Brosna. Let us hope that was the end of the Melaghlin trouble. They seem to have had scant respect for religion, for Clonmacnois also suffered at their hands.
The Mac Coughlans continued their patronage of the Priory and their good works for many years to come. Probably the least of their benefits was recorded in Sir John's will, dated 1590, granting the churches of Gallen, Fuire, Techsarayn and Raonagh two cows. Presumably they were all under the same administration. Otherwise the division of the legacy might have caused some difficulty! The chief family seat was Kilcolgan Castle, built in 1641, but they had other mansions, which the Four Masters assure us beat at least Banagher for beauty and comfort. Kilcolgan Castle itself sheltered Rinnucini, who held a synod there, Eoin Roe O Neill, Boetius Mac Egan, the famous martyr bishop, and many a hunted priest. The last of the Mac Coughlan line, Thomas, M.P. for Banagher, died in 1790, and Kilcolgan Castle has unfortunately been demolished.

Adoption of New Rule

As had been said, the Irish Church was reformed, in spite of much resistence, in the 12th century and Papal authority began to be more fully exercised in the country. One of the matters in which this was most noticeable was that of religious orders. The Latern Council of 1159 has exhorted the clergy of Cathedrals and Collegiate Churches to adopt some form of regular life, in particular the Rule of St. Augustine. So it seems that the Irish monks, faced with the many appeals of the Holy See for uniformity in their usages, and for more conformity to Continental customs, did decide to make some adjustments and to keep up with the times. The adopted the Augustine Rule and name; their tailors got to work on the long black cassock, white rochet and outside cloak and hood which was to be their "new look," and gradually the old Celtic traditions became a thing of the past.

Confiscation

The Canons Regular of Saint Augustine, as they were called, were in Gallen Priory in the 16th century chiefly engaged, it would seem, in pastoral work. They had escaped the confiscations of Henry VIII. As we know, the Plantations of Leix and Offaly were proclaimed in 1556, but a fierce guerilla warfare broke out and hampered the execution of the project for 50 years. We do not know what exactly was decided regarding the monastery's large property at this time, but in 1571a certain George Boubhyer was given a grant of the "sites of the monastery of Canoc of Gallen, the lands of Gallen and Rennagh "(the modern parishes of Ferbane, Cloghan and Banagher)". Possibly the monks had to leave at this time, yet, if they did it is difficult to see how the same land was granted to another man. Sir Gerard Moore, in 1612, a year, incidentally in which there was a particularly severe outbursts of persecution. The chances are that Bouchyer was never able to take possession at all. The warlike Mac Coughlans were not the sort to let go easily. At all events Sir Gerard Moore got the Abbey lands, "the church, cemetery, 5 cottages and 2 gardens in the town of Gallen, 40 acres of arable land, 30 of pasture, wood, and underwood in Gallen, with tithes and alterages of the rectories and vicarages, etc., on the condition that he paid an annual rent of £3-12-2, and maintained a horseman forever on the same." This "Lone Ranger's" functions were not specified. He further got hundreds of fertile acres at Castlebarnagh, Agbenlost, Loghtyane, Kildairie, Derenrath, Dromyne, Kiladerry, Kilconfert, and a mill and watercourse at Philipstown, all at the yearly rent of £11-15-9.
The first chapter of a great story was closed. The second had begun, but God's arm is not shortened, and in His own good time there was to be a third, possibly as glorious as the first. Time will tell.

The Armstrongs

The last Protestants to reside in Gallen Priory were the Armstrongs - a family of Scottish origin. Fairbairn was their name until one of them, while hunting with King William III of England, saved the latter's life by uprooting a tree and with it killing a wounded boar which was attacking the King. Another legend says he saved the wounded King by catching him by the leg with one hand and thus hoisting him onto his horse. Both these legends are recalled in the crests which are to be seen over the hall door of the present Priory which they built.
The family came to Gallen before 1745. In 1841 Andrew was created a baronet, and it was from his grandson, Sir Andrew Harvey Armstrong, that the Sisters of Saint Joseph of Cluny purchased the property in 1923. Members of the family have occasionally return-ed to see their old home. During the couple of hundred years that they lived in Ferbane, owning over 4,000 acres of land, they took an active part in the political life of the coun-try, the first baronet being an M.P. for Birr district. They were kindly landlords.

The Shears Brothers

John Warneford Armstrong, a cousin of the first baronet, who lived in Ballycumber, was the betrayer of the Shears Brothers during the '98 Rebellion and received a handsome sum of money for his treachery. We are glad to say that the Gallen branch of the family did not approve of his action. The story is told that on his last visit he complained to his host that the overhanging branches of the trees along the avenue scraped his carraige. Sir Andrew replied: "I will have them all sheared off by the next time you come." The unpl-easant pun on his victims' name gave him to understand that his company was not want-ed, and he never came again.

Melba

One of the first baronet's sons. Charles Nesbitt (1858-1948), married Helen Porter Mitchell, who was later to achieve fame as Madame Melba. The rather primitive life they had to lead in the Australian bush did not suit the future prima donna, so they were divor-ced in 1900. They had one son, George. Melba visited the Priory on at least one occasion and sang for the retainers, remarking to them afterwards with scant humility that she had just given them £100 worth of song. The community of St. Joseph's, Main Street, Ferbane, can boast of relics in the shape of a gramaphone and records belonging to her.

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