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Editions

• Myles Dillon (ed. & tr.), ‘The Story of the Finding of Cashel’, Ériu 16 (1952) 61-73.
  

Manuscripts

• T.C.D. H.3.17
  

Date

• Dillon dates the first part of the text (§§1-3) to the eighth century and the second part of the text (§§4-8) to perhaps the tenth century (Dillon 63-4).  When the two texts were joined together to form what is known as Senchas Fagbála Caisil is not clear, but according to Dillon, the composite text ‘was . . . copied in later spelling by a fifteenth-century scribe’ (Dillon 64).
  

Characters

• Conall Corc mac Luigdech (d. in fifth century): founder of the kingship of Cashel and the ancestor of the Éoganacht dynasties.

• Duirdriu: the swineherd of the king of Éile

• Cuirirán: the swineherd of the king of the Múscraige

• Conall mac Nenta Con: king of the Éile Deiscirt

• Cormac ua Máenaig (d. 713): king of Cashel from the Éoganacht Chaisil.  He was probably known as ‘Cormac the grandson of Máenach’, because Máenach (d. 662) was king of Cashel but his father Ailill mac Máenaig was not.

• Áengus mac Nad Fróech (d. 490 or 492): king of Cashel from the Éoganacht Chaisil

Notes

• This story is referred to in the beginning of the Book of Rights.  It is the origin legend of the kingship of Cashel and, therefore, one of the most important political myths of medieval Munster.
• As it survives in H.3.17, the text can be divided into two parts, which likely derive from different sources.  Paragraphs 1-3 in Dillon’s edition tell of the vision that Duirdriu and Cuirirán receive about Cashel and how Corc purchases the site from Duirdriu.  This section of the text contains two difficult rhetorics and other problematic passages.  Paragraphs 4-8, which derive from a later source, tell essentially the same story but in more detail and in less problematic Irish.
  

Summary

[§§1-3] One day, Duirdriu, the swineherd to the king of Éile, and Cuirirán, the swineherd to the king of the Múscraige, put their pigs to mast in the woods of Cashel.  While they were there, the two men fell into a deep sleep that lasted for three days and three nights.  In a dream, the swineherds saw an angel bless Corc mac Luigdech, and then they were shown the kings who would rule Munster together with the lengths of their reigns.  Duirdriu later reported this vision to his king, Conall mac Nenta Con of the Éile, so that he, the swineherd, might obtain the land.  Then Corc came to Duirdriu and purchased the land (i.e. Cashel) from him, and so it is for this reason that the Uí Duirdrenn are entitled to seven cumala from the king of Cashel.  Next comes a list of the kings of Cashel from Corc to Dub Lachtna (d. 895) and a difficult rhetoric known as the Dicta Cuirirán Muiceda (The Sayings of Cuirirán the Swineherd).

[§§4-8]  One day, Duirdriu and Cuirirán were staying at Clais Duirdrenn, which is north of Cashel.  On the first night they were there, they saw a vision which betokened the coming of St. Patrick.  On the second night, they saw a vision of a great feast in which food and drink were given to them and their animals.  Then, an angel told them that the first person to light a fire on that land (i.e. Cashel) would be made the king of Munster.  Soon thereafter, Cuirirán went to Corc, who at the time was the son of the king of Munster, and told him of his vision.  Cuirirán was rewarded for this information, and Corc went straight to Cashel to a place called Dún Cuirc and lit a fire there.  Corc then gave a magnificent feast at Dún Cuirc, the first feast ever to be held at Cashel.

At Corc’s behest, Cuirirán invited the king of the Múscraige to the feast, while Druidriu went north to Fíad Duma in Muiceda, where Conall, the king of the Éile, was.  The swineherd told Conall what he saw in his vision, specifically that Corc was destined to be king of Munster and to rule from Cashel.  The veracity of this vision was then confirmed by Conall’s druids.  Conall, however, was not pleased by this, for the land of Cashel belonged to him as king of the Éile, so he and his men marched south and arrived at Cashel while Corc’s feast was still in progress.  The newcomers were welcomed.  On the advice of his king, Druidriu gave Corc the blessing he had received from the angel in his vision and proclaimed him king.  Then Corc gave Druidriu as substantial reward.  Both actions set a precedent.  From then on, it was the duty of the Uí Druidrenn to proclaim the new king of Cashel, a duty for which they were entitled to a payment of seven cumala.  Furthermore, the text says, the king upon whom this blessing is pronounced will not die a violent death (bás gona), provided that he maintain truth and mercy.  (However, there was one king upon whom the blessing was not pronounced, a king named Cormac ua Máenaig, and he died a violent death in fulfillment of a prophecy made by St. Patrick to Áengus mac Nad Fróech at his baptism.)

According to scholars, there were sixty years between the establishment of the kingship of Cashel by Corc and the baptism of Áengus mac Nad Fróech by St. Patrick.  At that time, Áengus imposed ‘the Tribute of Patrick’s Baptism’ (sgreaball bathais Pátraig) upon the Munsterman.  It was to be paid every third year and was levied from the time of Áengus until that of Cormac (presumably Cormac mac Cuilennáin (d. 908), but the text does not specify).