page_title: Ciarán of Clonmacnoise
section_title: Legacy
hierarchical_section_title: Ciarán of Clonmacnoise / Legacy
caption_attribution_description: Clonmacnois viewed from the river
context_page_description: Saint Ciarán of Clonmacnoise, supposedly born Ciarán mac an tSaeir, was one of the Twelve Apostles of Ireland and the first abbot of Clonmacnoise. He is sometimes called Ciarán the Younger to distinguish him from the 5th-century Saint Ciarán the Elder who was bishop of Osraige. His name produced many variant spellings, including Ceran, Kieran, Queran and Queranus.
context_section_description: The monastery at Clonmacnoise became one of the most important centres of learning and religious life in Ireland. Unusually, the title of abbot – which included the title "Comarba of Saint Ciarán" – at the community was not hereditary, which reflected the humble origins of its founder. It managed to survive the plunderings of the Viking raids and the Anglo-Norman wars, and was only destroyed during the Dissolution of the Monasteries, in 1552. The ruins still exist, and remain a centre of civic and religious activity to this day.
  The treasures of Ciarán's shrine were dispersed throughout the Medieval era; although the Clonmacnoise Crozier still exists and is stored in the National Museum of Ireland.
  The Celtic scholar Charles Plummer suggested that Ciaran of Clonmacnoise was the patron saint of Cornwall Saint Piran challenging the broadly accepted belief that he was Ciaran of Saigir. The difference in spelling is for dialect or linguistical reasons between the two Insular Celtic languages. Brytonic was categorized as P-Celtic, as it replaced the harder ‘c’ or k sound in the Goidelic languages with the softer letter ‘p’. On the other hand, Goidelic was seen by scholars as being Q-Celtic, as the earliest Ogham inscriptions used a 'Q' transcribed by Queirt, which represented the Apple Tree to phonetically pronounce the k sound, although Q was later replaced by the letter 'C' in the Old Irish alphabet.
  Saint Ciarán of Clonmacnoise has a strong connection with Campbeltown, Argyll and Bute in Scotland. Pilgrims frequently take place were tourists visit a cave associated with the Saint on Island Davaar. The Saint is believed to have lived for a time in an area that would later become known as Campbeltown at the same time as the legendary king Fergus Mór was establishing the kingdom of the Scottish Dál Riata, after invading Argyll from Ireland.
  A primary school in Hartstown, Dublin 15 is named after Saint Ciarán.
caption: Clonmacnoise viewed from river
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