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The Beginnings of Farming and Christianity

We think of farming as having always been in existence. By farming we mean the cultivation of crops and the rearing of livestock for food. Originally farming was of a subsistence nature, in that only enough produce to feed a single family was produced, there was nothing left over too sell to anyone else. When did farming begin?

Some 15,000 years ago a change in climate caused a rise in temperature, causing the glaciers to melt, the ending of the Ice Age. Climates beneficial to the growing of crops and pasture developed. Almost total reliance on hunting and gathering gradually came to an end. In Europe and most of the world, the land suitable for agriculture was under cultivation by 2000 years ago, except for Australia and parts of America. Farming began in Saharan Africa began at a time of increased rainfall 6,000 years ago, resulting in a Mediterranean kind of vegetation, and spread southwards during drier periods that started 5,000 years ago. It is, therefore, no coincidence that the Stone Age Period in Ireland and Britain, coincides with this date. It is then that the first farmers arrived. One significant mark on the landscape which they left behind them, was the building of funerary monuments, known as portal tombs or dolmens.

Taming of Cattle.

Cattle were domesticated, after goats, sheep and pigs had been previous to them. People formed rural village type communities, rural settlements and social structures were set-up. Previously people had been mobile hunter-gathers, wandering from place to place in search of food. Agriculture eventually led to the development of cities as surplus produce was sold at markets in urban areas. The flowering of agriculture led to a deeper exploration as to the meaning of things, example what made grass grow, the sun shine, the rain to fall etc. And this in turn led to the world's greatest religious traditions to come into being. People with no scientific knowledge were unable to explain the mysteries of nature and being, so they concluded some supernatural power above that of mere mortal human beings was at work, behind the scenes. All the world's great religions came into being and evolved in farming cultures. For instance the Sun became sacred, there are Sun gods, water is sacred, there is a water, there are water gods, certain water springs are sacred.

#Jersey Cattle

Key technological advances were made by early farming communities. For instance polished stone axes appeared at the same time as the earliest archaeological evidence of agriculture. Regular shaped, smooth axes are necessary for felling trees. The island of Ireland was covered in a dense deciduous forest for many centuries; when the Stone Age peoples came, our first farmers, most of the country was covered in dense forests. Clearings had to be made to establish farming communities. Stone Age or Neolithic people made blades from flint.

The mining of copper and gold was developed ad later its smelting. Pottery was invented in India or China before the advent of farming, but pottery became a large part of early farming, with the cultivation of yeast for brewing and wine making, bowls were needed for storage.

Wheat and other grains had to be ground. Grinding stones or querns were used. At first the grain was ground by to and fro motion against a curved stone using a pestle, or a saddle quern. This laborous method was soon replaced by the rotary quern, which is much more efficient. A saddle quern stood in the grounds of Templeorum National School until stolen in August 2001.

Fire dates back to way before the advent of farming, but its use is essential for smelting, pottery making and baking of bread.

As farming developed and spread more, the problem of soil erosion due to overuse came about. Terracing and irrigation were methods used to control the problem. In many areas, soil erosion from sloping land led to the decline of early civilizations. The problems or erosion and water pollution is very present in modern day intensive farming. Farming had and continues to have a major impact on the environment and landscape.

Farming Reaches Europe.

Farming allows the expansion of population, but once a given population in a given place reaches a certain size, there is not enough food and maybe space for everyone. The response is for some groups of peoples to move elsewhere in search of new land to make their own. Early farming people migrated into and across Europe in considerable numbers 10,000 years ago. In numbers large enough to displace existing communities, bringing with them not only new techniques of farming, but the Indo-European language spoken today throughout Europe with the execption of the Basque-Finnish and Hungarian parts of Europe. The languages which derived from the Indo-European tongue are the Germanic languages, Gaelic, Breton, Walsh, Manix and Latin.

As farming moved into Europe from south-west Asia, it was concentrated at forest on the fertile soils which had developed on the muds and silts that accumulated in valleys and lakes after the Ice Age. A farming way of life was practised on the plain west of the River Danube in Germany some 7,000 years ago. The climate in northern Europe is colder and wetter than in the Mediterranean and Middle East, so farming is different. So it required new strains of cereals, sheep and goats became less important than cattle and pigs, domesticated from the wild animals of the forest.

The first farmers sowed barley and wheat, reared pigs and wove clothes from linen. Yet people still fished and hunted, and collected fruits and nuts. The new way of life was very successful, so much so that it reached the furtherest flung corners of north-west Europe - the western seaboard of Ireland, and the islands of the Hebrides and Orkneys off Scotland.

Early Christianity in Templeorum.

Map of Catholic Parish of Templeorum 1831, situated in south county Kilkenny. Adapted from Diocese of Ossory website www.ossory.ie

The early Christian era is well represented in the district of Templeorum and its two neighbouring districts of Owning and Piltown. In the district of Owning, the ancient monastic site of Kilkieran in the townland of Castletown, contains St. Ciaran's holy well and pre-Patrician monastery. Its 9th century High Crosses are spectacular in themselves. Ciaran is the co-patron of the diocese of Ossory along with St. Canice. Ciaran's main foundation was at Seir-Kieran in Clareen, county Offaly on the borders of counties Kilkenny and Tipperary. He was the first Bishop of Ossory. The other important monastic site is that of Tibberaghny or commonly Tybroughney, named after St. Fachtna. We have a unique and fine example of early Christian art of c. 9th century in the decorated Tibberaghny Stone. Fiddown like  Tybroughney located in the Piltown district, was a large early Christian monastery whose patron was St. Momhaeodhóg who belonged to a tribe from the county of Laois. The civil parish of Fiddown, the geographical area to which the monastery ministered and from which it derived its income, comprised all of Fiddown/Piltown except Tibberaghny, some of Owning and most of Templeorum district.

The smaller monastery at Templeorum, was attached to Fiddown, being served by the same order of monks as at Fiddown. No documentation is in existence to give us a complete story of the first Christian foundation at Templeorum. We may begin by looking at the origin of the townland name, Templeorum. There are many and varied interpretations (See Canon William Carrigan, History and Antiquities of the Diocese of Ossory, Vol 4 (Dublin 1905) and on CD version issued in October 2005), for a fuller discussion. Here I give the more plausible explanation, that of the Church of St. Odran or Otteran - Teampaill Odhráin. Odran was a 6th century monk who ministered on the Scottish Island of Iona with the great Columba or Columkille. A graveyard on the island is named after Odran - Relig Odhráin. At Latteragh, in North county Tipperary, a large early Christian monastery dedicated to St. Odran flourished until the coming of the Anglo-Normans in 1200 A.D. There is a townland in county Tipperary named Kiloran, reputedly named after Odran.

Old medieval stone wall, Templeorum

Other early Christian churches and foundations in the district were:  a small church at Mullinbeg, the graveyard of which was uprooted in 1847 to grow cabbages, Kilmogue and Muckalee. The name of the early Christian saint attached to Mullinbeg lies buried in obscurity except for the oral tradition of the name of the church - Theample-Illan, St. Illan or Illadum. Another suggestion is Rhowmple a willin, - church near the mill. St. Luke's well was located in the field opposite the church.

The origins of the small early Christian monastery and church at Kilmogue are less obscure. St. Mogue, the patron of the church was a 7th century saint whose main foundation was at Ferns, in county Wexford. In 1780 the church and  enclosed graveyard were dug up and levelled. Madóg is another name for Mogue, which is the Breton form of the name Madoc, which means generous and forgiving. Aidan is another version of the name popular in Wexford. Legend says that it was Mogue's wish to be buried in Kilmogue, however, he took ill and died at Ferns before his wish could be granted. He was not brought back to Kilmogue to be buried, and therefore bad luck fell on Kilmogue.

The early Christian church of Muckalee was not a monastery but a proprietary church. A church set up through the patronage of some tribal lord of the area and the appointed priest served the surrounding flock. Muckalee or Muclaige  meaning pig-lair is the name of the area enclosing the graveyard and church remains. Its patron saint is St. Canice, after whom the city of Kilkenny is named. Canice founded his abbey at Aghaboe in county Laois. He was born in c. 515 or 516 A.D. in Glengiven in Londonderry. St. Canice and St. Colummba were pupils together at Clonard monastic school under St. Finian. The early Christian site of Muckalee stands on the border of two townlands, that of Miltown and Garrygaug. The enclosure enclosing graveyard and fallen stones of church is circular as are most early Christian sites and monasteries. They were surrounded by a circular earthen bank, stone walls and ditches were erected around them in the 19th century. Of what remains in the site apart from ruined church and 18th century headstones, there is a baptismal font made of granite from c. 1400s and effigy from the church, which depicts a lion, Christ as lion of Christendom, a common symbol down the ages. When the church fell into disuse in c. 16th or 17th century, the bell was erected on the Church of Ireland church at Kells.

St. Canice's holy well is located away from the site, a hundred yards or so. It had a cure for ailments of the throat. Pilgrimages were made to it until c. 1730 when a clever Templeorum publican named Keeravan removed it to the field under Templeorum church, near his pub. The flagstones on which pilgrimages walked around the well, originally, are still to be seen today.

At Miltown, a half mile from Muckalee, is the "well of the little bell," beside an early Christian mound or ring fort. This may have been the dwelling place of a hermit monk. This well is said to have  a cure for eye ailments.

Bullaun Seir-Kieran, Offaly

 

Other Remains of the Early Christian Period.

Standing stones date from Bronze Age to early Christian era. We have no surviving Ogham stones in the district. Unmarked standing stone do survive. In general standing stones, as to their exact function, remain a mystery. Did they commemorate a dead person of some distinction? Are they ritual sites or remains of a larger stone circle? Do they mark territorial boundaries. In some cases the latter seems to be plausible. In the Owning district is the tallest single standing stone, at Garryduff crossroads, known as Cluck Fáda. It stands 10 feet and 18 inches in height. In the Templeorum district there is a standing stone to the south west of Harristown Dolmen. A double row of standing stones stood until 2000 in upper Raheen. The uprooted stones lie on a ditch in the field where they had stood. On Fitzgerald's land at Raheen bordering the townland of Templeorum stood a thick rotund standing stone which was removed to the nearby ditch in 1976. It is 7 feet high an 3 feet wide. A double ditch runs by this stone, running on for c. a mile to the beginning of the  Mountain Grove wood, separating the townlands of Raheen, Templeorum and Oldcourt. In the Danny O'Brien's bog, adjoining the wood  is another standing stone, standing inside this double-ditch bank. Their location and presence suggest the function of ancient boundary mark. In the townland of Jamestown  in a field near Jamestown crossroads, stands a medium height standing stone.  A fulacht fia or ancient cooking place was found in this field.

 Standing Stone, Templeorum

There is ample evidence of the kind of homes in which farmers lived in the early Christian period, throughout the country, no less so in the district of Templeorum. The names by which they are known are so familiar, rath, ringfort or cashel. On the island of Ireland, generally, the pattern of settlement was one of dispersed individual homesteads/farmsteads. In early Ireland there were no villages and towns as we have come to know them. It was a rural settlement whose economy and way of life centred on farming. Society was highly structured with distinct classes of people - the king of the local tuatha or territory, nobles, commoners and slaves. The learned class were known as the Aes Dána, and was composed of druids,  brehons or lawyers, poets, priests, bishops, and the blacksmith who was much revered for his craftsmanship and magical powers, as forge water was deemed to have curative properties. It was a feudal system of interdependence supported by a body of law built up by centuries of tradition, known as the Brehon law. There existed no prisons or courts of law. Disputes were settled by the brehon and or head of each family unit. In this society the basic family unit as defined by the brehon law was the Derbfine, comprising three generations descending from the paternal great-grand father. The fine was the extended family which included cousins, sometimes known as the tribe. Fosterage and divorce were practiced. The homestead and the fields around it were known as the Seanbhaile. Sometimes we come across this name in place names, or field names. In the townland of Mullinbeg, opposite the disused creamery is a field called in colloquial Irish the Seanabhaile. In the summer months from May to November, the cattle with their herdsman, women and children migrated to the hills where they lived in huts and the cattle  grazed. The corn was harvested in the lowlands, in the Seanbhaile. Many townland names have derived from the name of this practice, known as booleying, for instance in county KIlkenny, that of Booleyglass in Hugginstown, and the Walsh Mountain over Owning as known as the Booley Hills in ancient times. Though dispersed in nature, raths can occur in a kind of cluster. An example from Templeorum district are the nearby townlands of Raheen, Ballygown, Dowling and Tobernabrone, each of which contains more than one rath each. A rath is constructed of a mound with one enclosing ditch, two or three enclosing ditches. The more noble the occupant, the greater the number of enclosing ditches or banks. The slaves lived in huts outside the rath we assume. Another cluster of raths occur between the neighbouring townlands of Kilmogue, Miltown Harristown and Lismatigue. Two in Kilmogue, three in Miltown, two in Harristown and two in Lismatigue. We must emphasis that we are talking of the raths which have remained, in other words  they have avoided the might of the bulldozer. An ancient superstition has helped in their preservation. Should anyone damage a rath or even cut a sceach or hawthorn from one, bad luck befalls that person, in fact to destroy a rath of the mythical other world pecan incur death. They are believed to be the homesople known as the fairies in Irish folklore. Fairies or the Little People have been seen hurling in raths at night. Many raths were believed to have been haunted. Raths may have been the dwelling places of farm families down to the late 16th or early 17th century in some areas. The stone rath or Cashel was built later than the earthen one, in which the dwelling was constructed of timber. The Anglo-Normans took many of these over and built their castles on them, such as as Oldcourt or Seanacahir, once the home of the enigmatic Orum Walsh, Lord of the Mountain. It was a circular enclosure with a deep ditch surrounding.

More on Stone Wall

While renovating the former teacher's house in the village of Templeorum, a buttress wall of medieval type was discovered. The ancient roadway to the village, part of it ran along here by the houses in this laneway opposite the sacristy of the present church. This wall is either the remains of a medieval dwelling or a c. 10th/11th century church. All early Christian sites began as singular or a series of singular monk's cells, from which and around which the church and faith community grew up. Nothing definite can be said about this wall and its origin and purpose at this stage, as with so many centuries of change, we are looking at a remains out of its context. It is feasible that there were two more churches on the site after the initial 7th or 8th century church. The last medieval church was sited on the lower slope of the present graveyard facing southwards in c. 1400s. Carrigan refers to it as being a chapel of ease of that of Fiddown, in volume 4 of his History and Antiquities of Ossory published in 1905.

 

Explanation of 1831 Map.

The present Roman Catholic parishes date in their geographical extent and boundaries, from late 18th to early decades of the 19th century. The effect of the Protestant Reformation from 1540 meant that Catholics were left without churches as Protetsants took over former Catholic monasteries and churches. The Catholics in the 16th, 17th and part of 18th century used thatched chapels for their worship. As matters improved in the late 18th and into the 19th century, the Catholic Church drew up its own parishes and began buiding its own parish churches and attached churches. So the map represents the Parish of Templeorum as we know it today and as it has been since c. the second decade of the 1800s.

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• Genealogy Shea south Kilkenny by Mary O'Shea, stoneageTo read more on Early Christianity read The Marrying of Brigit ad Christ in the Parish of Templeorum (Granagh) 2000, author Mary O'Shea

 

Cattle early christian templeorum kilmogue muckalee

standing stones ringfort derbfine seanbhaile

 

Also to read further consult The Marrying of Brigit and Christ in the Parish of Templeorum (Granagh 1999) by Mary O'Shea

 

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Copyright Mary O'Shea, 2006