Part V : The Cursing of Tara

One would wish one could end the story of Tara with the coming of Saint Patrick or alternatively one would like to picture a straightforward battle between a pagan monarchy and the Christian Church. The chroniclers of Ireland, however, are nothing if not honest and they depict nothing of the sort. They show us rather in the 6th century a series of imperious churchmen arrogating to themselves temporal powers which inevitably brought them into conflict with the civil authorities. Having established the fear of God in the hearts of their countrymen they used the power thus gained to engage in an undignified cat and dog war with the monarchs, trading Heaven or threatening Hell freely to further their own ends. The monarchs with neither Heaven nor Hell at their disposal and with their almost divine rights swept away could only utter unseemly maledictions or impotent threats. One must regard the stories of this period as symbolic of an age of transition when the barbaric ideals of an insular pagan world were falling before the more spiritual concepts of a universal religion. The clash between the old and the new was inevitable and reached its culminating point in the reign of Diarmaid MacFergus Ceirbhuil (Dermot son of Fergus Wrymouth) who reigned from 539-558.
A suit came before him for judgment which involved a dispute between Saint Finnian and Saint Columbcille. Saint Columbcille had borrowed a copy of the Psalms from Saint Finnian, and, admiring it greatly, had copied it before returning it to his former master. Saint Finnian on hearing this was very much displeased and demanded the copy. This Columbcille refused and the matter came before the High King for judgment. King Diarmaid, on the analogy of ‘' With every cow her calf " awarded the copy to Saint Finnian which angered Columbcille exceedingly.

Unfortunately this business was followed by a much more serious dispute. At what was to be the last great Feis held at Tara, a certain Curnan, son of the King of Connacht, slew one of Diarmaid's men and thus, quite properly, merited the death penalty. However, he fled northwards and placed himself under the protection of Saint Columbcille. Diarmaid determined on maintaining the law of the land, and caring nothing for Saint Columbcille, had Curnan seized and executed. Columbcille, enraged at the king's temerity appealed to his kinsmen for vengeance. A great army was collected in the north and the High King marched to meet it. The Battle of Cul Dreimhne followed in which the Saint and his followers defeated the King and killed 3,000 of his men. It was a crushing defeat and besides the loss of men, must have inflicted an almost irrevocable loss of prestige on the monarchy.

The conflict between King Diarmaid and Saint Ruadhan was to have even more serious consequences. It arose thus;
It was the custom for the King's spear-bearer to make the circuit of the country periodically and to enter every important rath with the spear held lengthwise across him.

“From Tara, therefore, goes forth the spear-bearer . . . and he arrived in the province of Connacht, and made his way to the mansion of Aedh Guaire (Hugh Guaire) on Kinelfechin. And he at that time had round his rath a stockade of red oak, and had a new house too, that was just built with a view to his marriage feast.
The spear-bearer came accordingly and Aedh Guaire bade him welcome. The spear-bearer said that the house must be hewn before him (to make the entrance wide enough).
‘Give thine own orders as to how it may please thee to have it hewn.' said Aedh Guaire, but even as he spoke he gave a stroke of his sword to the spear-bearer, so that he took his head from off him.Now at this time the discipline of Ireland was such that whosoever killed a man void of offense, neither cattle nor other valuable consideration might be taken in payment for the slain, but the slayer must be killed, unless it were that the King should order or permit the acceptance of cattle-price."
Aedh Guaire fled to Saint Ruadhan for protection.

“And Diarmaid himself comes to Ruadhan to look for him, but he had been put into a hole in the ground by Ruadhan ... Diarmaid asked Ruadhan where he was, for he was sure he would tell him no lie. ‘I know not where he is,' said Ruadhan, ‘if he be not under yon thatch.’ After that Diarmaid departs to his house, but he remembered the cleric's word and returns to the recluse's cell, and he sees the candle being brought to the hole where Aedh Guaire was."

Diarmaid eventually seized Aedh Guaire and carried him off to Tara losing two servants to Ruadhan in this round of the contest. One was blinded when searching the Saint's kitchen, the other had his arm withered when trying to pull Aedh Guaire out of the hole. Both remained with Ruadhan.
Ruadhan then called upon his fellow saints to aid him:
Saint Ciaron of Clonmacnoise, Saint Brendan of Birr, Saint Columbcille and others; a brotherhood of saints who had studied at Clonard, rallied together and hastened with him to Tara where they proceeded to “ fast upon the King - a custom of the day by which a petitioner for justice took up a position near a man's house and attempted by fasting to shame his opponent. Diarmaid, however, relying on his kingly quality and on the justice of his cause, fasts upon them."
"In such a fashion, and to the end of a year they continued before Tara under Ruadhan's tent exposed to weather and to wet, and they were every other night without food, Diarmaid and the clergy, fasting on each other."
Meantime Brendan the Navigator had landed from one of his expeditions abroad and hearing what was afoot hastened to join his fellow saints. They had by this time established a household of their own on Tara and the bitter contest dragged on for years, while presumably the unfortunate Aedh Guaire remained chained in some miserable underground hole. Eventually "They besought the King again to enlarge unto them Aedh Guaire, which he did absolutely refuse as he did before; and then Ruadhan and a bishop that was with him took their bells that they had, which they rung hardly and cursed the king and the place, and prayed God that no king or queen ever after would or could dwell in Tara, and that it should be waste for ever, without court or palace, as it fell out accordingly."
One's sympathies, as those of the ancient chronicler, go out to the obstinate and bewildered King in the unequal contest that ended so unhappily. " Alas," he cried, " for him that to the clergy of the churches showed fight; woe to him that would contend, with giving cut for cut; through this-through my dissension and Ruadhan's-Tara shall be desolate and clean swept."

A hundred and thirty-six pagan and six Christian kings had ruled uninterruptedly at Tara. Diarmaid was the last of them. His successors deserted the royal hill and lived elsewhere.

It would seem, however, that the clergy, having settled themselves on the hill, continued to maintain an establishment there. Saint Adamnan's name is associated with several monuments on Tara. Adamnan was Abbot of Iona from 624-704 but he seems to have paid fairly frequent visits to Ireland. His connection with Tara is not very clear but it may possibly have been his headquarters whilst in Ireland.

In 799 The Annals of Ulster record “ an assembly of synods of the U’ Neil and the men of Leinster in the town of Tara" where are present " many anchorites and scribes. . .”

In 816 another ecclesiastical convention met at Tara; but by the tenth century even the clerics seem to have departed. The winds could blow freely across the " green-soiled grassy keep" interrupted only by grass-grown mounds and ditches. The temporal glory had gone and the legend had begun.

Temair though she be desolate to-day
Once on a time was a habitation of heroes.

wrote Cinaeth na h'Artacan in the tenth century, a sentiment re-echoed by each succeeding generation down to the present.

Brian Boru exploited the legend when he encamped upon Tara in 1002 to receive homage from Maoilseachlain (Malachy) King of Tara and descendant of the race of Niall.

Daniel O'Connell used it to draw the greatest concourse ever addressed in Ireland when he roused anew in the hearts of Irishmen pride in their race and hope in their future. Still, to-day, the legend attracts, the story rouses the imagination and draws Irishmen and tourists alike to this famous hill.

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From 'The Legend of Tara' Elizabeth Hickey / Dundalgan Press, Ltd. 1996