did actually sanctify the Domhnach Airgid with his own hands; and one
reads on:-

'As St. Patrick, says an ancient life of St. Mac Carthainn preserved
by Colgan in his Acta Sanctorum Hiberniae, was on his way from the
north, and coming to the place now called Clogher, he was carried
over a stream by his strong man, Bishop Mac Carthainn, who, while
bearing the Saint, groaned aloud, exclaiming: "Ugh! Ugh!"

'"Upon my good word," said the Saint, "it was not usual with you to
make that noise."

'"I am now old and infirm," said Bishop Mac Carthainn, "and all my
early companions in mission-work you have settled down in their
respective churches, while I am still on my travels."

'"Found a church then," said the Saint, "that shall not be too near
us" (that is to his own Church of Armagh) "for familiarity, nor too
far from us for intercourse."

'And the Saint then left Bishop Mac Carthainn there, at Clogher, and
bestowed the Domhnach Airgid upon him, which had been given to
Patrick from heaven, when he was on the sea, coming to Erin.'

The legend is full of poetry, full of humour; and one can quite
appreciate, after reading it, the tact which gave St. Patrick such a
prodigious success in organising the primitive church in Ireland; the
new bishop, 'not too near us for familiarity, nor too far from us for
intercourse,' is a masterpiece. But how can Eugene O'Curry have
imagined that it takes no more than a legend like that, to prove that