# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Cairnech

​CAIRNECH, Saint (d. 539?), whose name does not appear in the 'Felire' of Angus the Culdee, was, according to the account preserved in the book of Ballimote (compiled cir. 1390), the son of Sarran, so-called king of Britain, by Babona, daughter of Loarn, king of Alban. This Loarn was the son of Erc, and one of the four leaders of the first Scots colony to Argyll (cir. 495) (Chronicles of Picts and Scots, p. 18). Babona's sister Erc seems to have married Muredach, grandson of Neil of the nine hostages (d. 405?), and so became the mother of the great Irish king, Mucertach MacErca (504-527), who was thus cousin to St. Cairnech. This genealogy exactly corresponds with the other Irish traditions as to Mucertach's ancestry (Annals of Four Masters, i. I75), and, if we accept it as genuine, it gives us the materials for fixing the era of St. Cairnech, whom we may infer to have been a little younger than his cousin, who was certainly a grown man at the battle of Ocha (478 A.D.) Mucertach's grandfather and great-uncle were both alive in 464, and we shall probably not be far wrong if we place the birth of this Irish king at somewhere about 455, and that of his cousin Cairnech about 460. As, however, Loarn seems to have reigned between 495 and 565, we must suppose that the book of Ballimote calls him king of Alban proleptically.
According to the legend alluded to above, Cairnech was harassed in his monastery by his brother, King Luirig, who, however, is at last slain through the instrumentality of Mucertach. Cairnech then attends a great synod at Tours, where he is given the 'chieftainship of the martyrs of the world.' From Gaul Cairnech passes over first to Cornwall ​and then to Ireland, to which country he goes to prepare the way for Mucertach. Here we read that he became first bishop of Ternbar (Tara) and the Clan O'Neil, his former designation having been 'Bishop of Tours and Cornwall' (Britain-Cornn). These events may have taken place about 504, when Mucertach MacErca became king of Ireland (Annals of Four Masters, i. 165, with which, however, cf. Tighernac, A.D. 509, and Ann. Ult, 512). Lastly we read that Cairnech became 'first monk of Erin and the first Brehon of the men of Erin also.' Here, as in the former quotation, where St. Cairnech is styled bishop of Cornwall, it is impossible not at least to suspect a confusion with his namesake, the friend of St. Patrick. But, whether strictly historical or no, there can be little doubt that an extremely ancient tradition has coupled together the names Cairnech and Mucertach (see Reeves's quotation from manuscript account of Mucertach's death, Adamnan, xciv. &c.) Even so early as the eleventh century there was a set of Irish verses current purporting to contain Cairnech's prophecy or narrative of his cousin's fate (Tighernac, 133; Annals of Four Masters, i.173). In an early Irish poem we have a somewhat detailed account of St. Cairnech's friendship with his aunt Erc, who gave him Druim-Tighean (Drumleene, W. of Lough Foyle) in full possession. From this document Dr. Todd has attempted to fix the year of Cairnech's death (539).
[Chronicle of Picts and Scots, ed. Skene, 52, 56; Irish Nennius, ed. Todd, 178-92, ci-cx; Annals of the Four Masters, ed. O'Donovan; Tighernac's Annals and the Annales Ultonienses are quoted from O'Conor's Rerum Hibernicarum Scriptores, of which collection they form part of vol. iii.; Adamnan's Vita Columbæ, ed. Reeves; Colgan's Acta Sanctorum, 781-3; Dictionary of Christian Biography, i. 383; Hardy's Catalogue, i. 46-7.]
T. A. A.