The criminal activities of Conaire's foster-brothers were of a kind which was repeatedly condemned in the strongest terms by the church. Yet these activities were a way of life for the Fenian heroes whose adventures are related in the Ossianic Cycle. The relationship of Christ to the Israelites is set by Blathmac in the institutional and conceptual framework of early Ireland. Brigit On of the most prominent of the Irish Saints, Brigit has some of the characteristics of the goddess whose name she shares. The Threefold Death Confrontations between kings and saints occur frequently in Irish literature, and they can be interpreted as expressions of conflict between church and state.
Christian propaganda informs Irish tales of threefold death.
In this lecture the evidence of Celtic sacrifice, of Irish political literature and of the laws is considered and the non-ecclesiastical dimension of the threefold death is explored. The 'cultural epoch' which is explored is that in which the native culture of Ireland was confronted with Christianity and literacy. Ireland was never part of the Roman empire, and the church in Ireland accommodated itself to the native culture and political system. The monasteries were centres of ecclesiastical learning, but they also produced an astonishing array of vernacular texts. Many of the tales written and transmitted in the monasteries have to do with crucial moments in the lives of heroes.