through greensward
on a morn of grey frost.
The bellowing of the stags
throughout the wood,
the climb to the deer-pass,
the voice of white seas.
[Translated by J.G. O’Keeffe]
St Moling told his cook, Muirgil, to give Suibhne* fresh milk to drink each day. She used to ‘thrust her heel up to her ankle in the cow dung … and leave the full of it of new milk for Suibhne’. Suibhne* would come cautiously into the yard to drink the milk. Muirgil’s husband was Moling’s swineherd Mongán, whose sister provoked him to jealousy, leading him to throw a spear at Suibhne as he was drinking the milk. The spear passed through the nipple of Suibhne’s left breast and broke his back in two. At this, Suibhne, Moling and Mongán utttered a lay between them, Suibhne speaking the following:
There was a time when I deemed more melodious
than the quiet converse of people,
the cooing of a turtle dove
flitting about a pool.
There was a time when I deemed more melodious
than the sound of a little bell beside me
the warbling of the blackbird to the mountain
and the belling of a stag in a storm.
There was a time when I deemed more melodious
than the voice of a beautiful woman beside me,
to hear at dawn,
the cry of the mountain grouse.
[Translated by J.G. O’Keeffe]
Suibhne died because of Mongán’s assault and was buried at tobar na ngealt, ‘the madman’s well’. There is a possibility that the well in question is St Mullins’ Well, about 100 yards north of the wheeled cross, which contains a rectangular stone with a circular basin. However, as this was a significant centre in the seventh century, it is possible that there were a number of other wells, any one of which could be his resting place. Tigh Moling is sited on a field known anciently as achadh cainida (‘the field of keening or wailing’); whether there is any connection with this and Suibhne’s* burial place is open to speculation. St Moling died in 697 AD.
Another impressive earthwork is at Mohullen or Mohullin (magh-chuilinn, ‘plain of holly’), an earthwork locally known as ‘the Rath’. This place is associated with numerous traditions and beliefs. Bones were found when the field was tilled. It does not have a record in the annals like Dind Ríg but is nonetheless full of local folklore. Mohullen is three miles south-east of Borris [68] on the R702; before you get to Ballymurphy, turn right onto the R703 and about a half-mile on your right is Mohullen.
Two miles west from Leighlinbridge is Oldleighlin [61] (Seanleithghlinn, ‘the old half glen’), named from the configuration of the Madlin riverbed. This place was celebrated as an ecclesiastical establishment with a cathedral, and prior to that in pre-Christian times it was celebrated as possessing one of the sacred trees of Ireland, namely the Eó Rossa. The Eó Rossa was a yew, one of the five famous trees of Ireland as mentioned in the Book of Leinster. The Eó Rossa has been in the Rennes Dindshenchas* as ‘noblest of trees, glory of Leinster, dearest of bushes’. In the Book of Leinster, it receives a thirty-three-line stanza in its praise, ascribed to Druim Suithe (‘ridge of science’ − so this poet has presumably taken a pseudonym), and his or her praise in the form of epithets for this sacred tree is as follows:
Eó Rosa
roth ruirech
recht flatha
fuaim tuinni
dech dúilib
diriuch dronchrand
dia dronbalc
dor nime
nert n-aicde
fó foirne
fer ferbglan
gart glanmár
tren trinoit
dam toimsi
maith máthar
mac Maire
muir mothach
miad maisse
mál menman
mind n-angel
nuall betha
blad Banba
brig búada
breth bunaid
brath brethach
brosna suad
saeriu crannaib
clu Gálion
caemiu dossaib
dín bethra
brig bethad
bricht n-eolais
Eó Rossa
Tree of Ross; a king’s wheel; a prince’s right; a wave’s noise; best of creatures; a straight firm tree; a firm strong god; the door to the sky; a powerful bond; possessing great strength; a generous tree; full of hospitality; the strength of the trinity; a silent hero, fully measured; good mother; son of Mary; beautiful sea of honour and glory; worthy prince; treasure of nobles; proclaimer of life; renowned Banba; of prevailing strength; of ancient bearing; fame in judgement-giving; inspiration of bards; noblest of trees; the pride and glory of Leinster; beloved to them; shelter of water; force of life; an incantation of wisdom; Tree of Ross.
[Translated by the author]
Assemblies were held under these sacred trees and there was a geis or taboo placed on anyone who damaged them in any way. The name for a sacred tree was bile, meaning ‘large tree’.
The Eó Rossa’s power and veneration may have led the local saint, Laserian of Leighlin, to covet its wood for church-building and to incorporate this strong pagan tree into the body of his church. It was not only Laserian who desired the tree but ‘all the saints of Ireland’ as well. The saints of Ireland assembled around the tree and prayed for its fall, and as they prayed the roots moved but when Laserian uttered his prayers the tree fell down. It is also possible that in the tree-chopping tradition of St Boniface, St German and St Ninian, the abbot of Cluain Conaire in Kildare, that it was chopped down as the idolatrous centre of an earlier spiritual tradition. However, according to O’Flaherty’s Ogygia, all the sacred trees were blown down in 665 AD at the same time as a plague desolated Ireland, a plague known as the Buide Conaill, or the Yellow Plague.
It is said that St Moling asked Laserian for
