1. St. Finbarre, the Man, the Myth, the Legend:
The foundation of the city has been attributed to an Early Christian monk named FinBarre, now the patron saint of Cork. Local folklore has it that St. FinBarre was born around the year AD560 in a place near Garranes, County Cork. FinBarre’s own beginning is shrouded in folklore and legend, and very little historical fact remains to us. The story of his birth and later devotion is a mix of Christian and pagan ideas and images.
His father, Amergin, was a Galwayman who travelled to the south of Ireland, to the Kingdom of Tighernach, in the mid-sixth century in search of work and a wife. He quickly found work as a blacksmith but had more difficulty fulfilling his second wish as the noble lady that won his heart, and whose name history does not record, was also desired by the local chieftain. Amergin and the lady eloped. The enraged chieftain pursued them, caught them and issued their punishment: death by burning at the stake. The fire was lit, but immediately, a voice was heard to issue forth from the lady’s womb – it was that of blessed FinBarre. He persuaded the chieftain to free his parents, and God let his will be known by quenching the flames.
Amergin and the young lady were freed. They moved to Leinster and settled there, where their child was born and named Lachlan. Several years later, three monks returning south to Munster from a pilgrimage encountered Amergin and his family and discussed with him the importance of his son becoming a disciple of Christ. He granted their request and entered Lachlan into a monastic school in Kilkenny. His head was tonsured and his name was changed to Fionn-barra (or in English FinBarre) meaning fair-headed one.
Folklore has it that FinBarre was educated as a monk and established several churches in the Munster area. One of these monastic sites was located on a rocky island in the centre of a lake overlooked by the Shehy Mountains, where the River Lee rises. The name of this lake today is ‘Gougane Barra’ or ‘FinBarre’s rocky place’. As a result of his piety and good works, FinBarre’s reputation spread and his once quiet island hermitage became a place of pilgrimage. With a need for solitude, FinBarre left to find a location to establish a new hermitage. Hindered by the Shehy Mountains, FinBarre followed the easiest route out of the area: the River Lee. His search led him to walk the full length of the river from its source to its mouth, a distance of approximately seventy kilometres. It was at this point, the mouth of the river, that he chose to set up a small hermitage on the southern valleyside, overlooking the tidal estuary of the River Lee. FinBarre was granted land by a local chieftain named Hugh Uí Meic Iar. The name of the area was Corcach Mór na Mumhan, or the Great Marsh of Munster. Today, it is occupied by the commercial heart of Cork City centre.
FinBarre’s hermitage was located around the area of present-day Gillabbey Street. It grew to be an important religious centre in southern Munster, providing ecclesiastical services in the form of a church and graveyard, and secular services in the form of a school, hospital and hostel. The annal evidence for the school relates that languages such as Latin were taught and that it was one of the five primary sites in Ireland in terms of size and influence. Word quickly spread of the monastery’s valuable contribution to society, and it became necessary to expand the site. Between 600 AD and 800 AD, a larger hermitage was constructed east of the original site on open ground now marked by St. FinBarre’s Cathedral. It is believed that over the subsequent centuries this hermitage grew to a point where it extended along the northern district of the Lough, and extended on both sides of Gillabbey Street and College Road about as far as the locality now occupied by University College Cork (UCC).
Around the year 623 AD St. FinBarre died at the monastery of his friend, St Colman, at Cloyne in East Cork. His body was returned to his hermitage and his remains were encased in a silver shrine. Here they remained until 1089 when they were stolen by Dermod O’Brien. The shrine and the remains have never been recovered. Legend has it that the location of his tomb is just to the southeast of the present cathedral, overlooked by the famous Golden Angel. St FinBarre’s feast day is celebrated on 25 September. As the city’s patron saint he is still greatly revered.
Links:
Gougane Barra Hotel:
http://www.gougane.cork2020.com/
St. Finbarre’s Cathedral:
http://cathedral.cork.anglican.org/visitinfor.html
