Note 407 — Chapter IV

The narrative of this and the next section is illustrated by the Annals under the year 1134. A.F.M., after recording the obit of Murtough, proceed: "Niall, son of Aedh, was installed in the coarbate of Patrick. A change of abbots in Armagh, i.e. Mael Maedoc Ua Morgair in place of Niall." In A.T. we have the statement, "Mael Maedog o Mongair ascended Patrick's chair. The Cinel Eoghain of Tulach Óg conspired against Mael Maedoc, and a flash of lightning consumed twelve men of them on the spot where they conspired against him." Thus it seems that the conspirators came from the place now known as Tullaghoge, in the county of Tyrone, then, as now, in the diocese of Armagh. It was the district inhabited by the sept of the O'Hagans, and in it was the lía na rígh, the inauguration chair of the O'Neills, kings of Ulster. The confirmation which St. Bernard's story receives from A.T. is the more important, because the two narratives are so far different that they must have come from independent sources.