Cenn Fáelad mac Ailella (alias Cennfaeladh; died 679) was an early medieval Irish scholar renowned for his powerful

memory Memory is the faculty of the mind by which data or information is encoded, stored, and retrieved when needed. It is the retention of information over time for the purpose of influencing future action. If past events could not be remembe ...

and potential

eidetic memory Eidetic memory ( ), also known as photographic memory and total recall, is the ability to recall an image from memory with high precision—at least for a brief period of time—after seeing it only onceThe terms ''eidetic memory'' and ''photogr ...

, an unintended consequence of a head wound in battle.

Ancestry

He was a member of the

Cenél nEógain Cenél is a surname. Notable people with the surname include: *Cenél Conaill, the name of the "kindred" or descendants of Conall Gulban, son of Niall Noígiallach defined by oral and recorded history * Cenél nEógain (in English, Cenel Eogan) is ...

, being a grandson of King Báetán mac Muirchertaig (King of Cenél nEógain), a great-great-great-great grandson of Niall Noígiallach, and a first cousin once removed of

Aldfrith of Northumbria Aldfrith (Early Modern Irish: ''Flann Fína mac Ossu''; Latin: ''Aldfrid'', ''Aldfridus''; died 14 December 704 or 705) was king of Northumbria from 685 until his death. He is described by early writers such as Bede, Alcuin and Stephen of Ripon ...

via his first cousin, Fina. His father Ailill mac Báetán was murdered in

Templeport Templeport () is a civil parish in the barony of Tullyhaw, County Cavan, Ireland. The chief towns in the parish are Bawnboy and Ballymagauran. The large Roman Catholic parish of Templeport containing 42,172 statute acres was split up in the ...

in modern-day

County Cavan County Cavan ( ; ) is a Counties of Ireland, county in Republic of Ireland, Ireland. It is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Ulster and is part of the Northern and Western Region. It is named after the town of Cavan and is based on the hi ...

Republic of Ireland Ireland ( ), also known as the Republic of Ireland (), is a country in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe consisting of 26 of the 32 Counties of Ireland, counties of the island of Ireland, with a population of about 5.4 million. ...

, according to the Annals of Ulster: "U620.1. The slaying in

Magh Slécht Magh Slécht (sometimes Anglicised as Moyslaught; A variant of Magh Lecht meaning ''a grave-strewn plain'', because of all the ancient stone tombs therein) is the name of a historic plain in Ireland. It comprises an area of about three square ...

in the territory of Connacht of the kindred of Báetán, i.e. of Ailill son of Báetán and of Mael Dúin son of Fergus son of Báetán; and the death of Fiachra son of Ciarán son of Ainmire son of Sétna." According to John Healy, Cenn Fáelad's sister Sabina was the mother of Saint

Cuthbert of Lindisfarne Cuthbert of Lindisfarne () ( – 20 March 687) was a saint of the early Northumbrian church in the Hiberno-Scottish mission, Celtic tradition. He was a monk, bishop and hermit, associated with the monastery, monasteries of Melrose Abbey#Histo ...

Cath Magh Rath

Cenn Fáelad fought at the crucial

Battle of Moira The Battle of Moira, also known as the Battle of Magh Rath, was fought in the summer of 637 by the High King of Ireland, Domnall II, against his foster son Congal Cáech, King of Ulaid, supported by his ally Domnall Brecc, King of Dál Riata. ...

or Magh Rath (

Moira, County Down Moira () is a village and Civil parishes in Ireland, civil parish in County Down, Northern Ireland. It is in the northwest of the county, near the border with counties County Antrim, Antrim and County Armagh, Armagh. The M1 motorway (Northern I ...

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ; ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, part of the United Kingdom in the north-east of the island of Ireland. It has been #Descriptions, variously described as a country, province or region. Northern Ireland shares Repub ...

) in 636. During the battle he received a life-threatening head wound, and was afterwards carried to the abbey of Tomregan, County Cavan to be healed in the house of its abbot, Saint

Bricín Saint Bricín (c. 590–650; also known as Bricin, Briccine, DaBreccoc, Da-Breccocus) was an Early Christian Ireland, Irish abbot of Tuaim Dreccon in Breifne (modern Tomregan, County Cavan), a monastery that flourished in the 7th century in Irel ...

. That this abbey was situated beside

where his father had been slain 16 years earlier may not be a coincidence. His family possibly had land there. This house was situated "where the three streets meet between the houses of the three professors. And there were three schools in the place; a school of Latin learning, a school of Irish law and a school of Irish poetry. And everything that he would hear of the recitations of the three schools every day he would have by heart every night." This merging of Latin learning, native Irish law and vernacular poetry, ensured Cenn Fáelad's place in Irish legal tradition in his own time and beyond. He is quoted in the ''Bretha Nemed Toisech'' in the section dealing with the Church, thus demonstrating the compatibility of ecclesiastical learning with native learning.

The Scholar

Tradition states that as a result of a head wound, Cenn Fáelad's "brain of forgetting was knocked out of him." The effect of this trauma led him to create "a pattern of poetry to these matters and he wrote them on slates and tablets and set them in a

vellum Vellum is prepared animal skin or membrane, typically used as writing material. It is often distinguished from parchment, either by being made from calfskin (rather than the skin of other animals), or simply by being of a higher quality. Vellu ...

book." The ''Suidigud Tellaig Temra'' recounts that because of his vast store of lore, when

Diarmait mac Cerbaill Diarmait mac Cerbaill (died ) was King of Tara or High King of Ireland. According to traditions, he was the last High King to follow the pagan rituals of inauguration, the ''ban-feis'' or marriage to goddess of the land. The last High King to ...

wished to establish the original boundaries of Tara, he had recourse to Cenn Fáelad. But even his knowledge did not go back that far in time, and he gathers all the wisest men of Ireland. When they, in turn, cannot provide an answer, they then consult

Fintan mac Bóchra In Irish mythology Fintan mac Bóchra (modern spelling: Fionntán), known as "the Wise", was a seer who accompanied Noah's granddaughter Cessair to Ireland before the deluge. Bóchra may be his mother, or may be a poetic reference to the sea. ...

, one of the original settlers, miraculously still alive. His verses were all composed in

quatrains A quatrain is a type of stanza, or a complete poem, consisting of four lines. Existing in a variety of forms, the quatrain appears in poems from the poetic traditions of various ancient civilizations including Persia, Ancient India, Ancient Gree ...

of numbered syllables with regular rhyme, and moderate use of alliteration, in contrast to a more archaic form that was still practised in the south of Ireland at the time (i.e.,

Leinster Leinster ( ; or ) is one of the four provinces of Ireland, in the southeast of Ireland. The modern province comprises the ancient Kingdoms of Meath, Leinster and Osraige, which existed during Gaelic Ireland. Following the 12th-century ...

and

Munster Munster ( or ) is the largest of the four provinces of Ireland, located in the south west of the island. In early Ireland, the Kingdom of Munster was one of the kingdoms of Gaelic Ireland ruled by a "king of over-kings" (). Following the Nor ...

). Most or all of his historical verse relate to his own dynasty, the Cenél nEógain. He was the first poet quoted in the

Irish annals A number of Irish annals, of which the earliest was the Chronicle of Ireland, were compiled up to and shortly after the end of the 17th century. Annals were originally a means by which monks determined the yearly chronology of feast days. Over ti ...

, being referred to as ''

sapiens Sapiens, a Latin word meaning "one who knows", may refer to: People * Berengarius Sapiens, a designation for Berengar the Wise, count of Toulouse (814-835) and duke of Septimania (832-835) * Cato the Elder (234 BC–149 BC), known by the cognomen ...

,'' a technical term denoting a head teacher or professor in a monastic school (though not necessarily a monk himself). Later manuscripts of legal and grammatical texts were attributed to him, though the earliest of them seem to date from about fifty years after his death. Robin Flower stated "How far these are really his may be a matter of controversy, but there can be little real doubt that the writings by him existed in the period when the vernacular learning was being eagerly cultivated." A copy of one of the works attributed to him exists in Trinity College, Dublin Ms 1317, written by the grandfather of

Dubhaltach Mac Fhirbhisigh Dubhaltach Mac Fhirbhisigh (), also known as Dubhaltach Óg mac Giolla Íosa Mór mac Dubhaltach Mór Mac Fhirbhisigh, Duald Mac Firbis, Dudly Ferbisie, and Dualdus Firbissius ( fl. 1643 – January 1671) was an Irish scribe, translator, histo ...

. Edward O'Reilly gives a full account of his works in his 'Irish Writers', LXIV sq.; d. anno 678.

Ancestry

Cath Magh Rath

The Scholar

References

Further reading