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| KILMACRENAN, CO. DONEGAL. -The small hamlet of Kilmacrenan, shown in the accompanying sketch, is celebarated in Irish annals as the place in which Ireland's greatest native Saint Columbkille, received his first scholastic training. Almost every vestige of its ancient ecclesiastical splendor has vanished, although it was once the seat of the Alma Mater of the princely O'Donnells, chiefs of the Clan-Conal. Some historians say that the Princes of Tyrconnell used to be crowned in Kilmacrenan, but others hold that this ceremony took place on the adjacent Rock of Doune, near which the gallant and impulsive young Irish chieftain, Sir Cahir O'Dogherty, fell in his attempt to free Ulster from King Jamie's "transplanters" in 1608. The O'Donnell, when elected by the clan, received the white wand of chieftainship from the hands of the prior of Kilmacrenan. Davis describes a similar investiture thus: The chronicler read him the laws of the clan, And pledged him to bide by their blessing and ban; His skian and his sword are unbuckled to show That they only were meant for a foreigner foe; A white willow want has been put in his hand- A type of pure, upright and gentle command- While hierarchs are blessing, the slipper the fling And the abbot proclaims him a true Irish king! |
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