Ulidia (or Down); the third time the monarch had sworn
to expel them utterly from the kingdom. In Columbkill,
however, they were destined to find a most powerful
mediator, both from his general sympathy with the Order,
being himself no mean poet, and from the fact that the
then Arch-Poet, or chief of the order, Dallan Forgaill,
was one of his own pupils.

To settle this vexed question of the Bards, as well as
to obtain the sanction of the estates to the taxation of
Argyle, King Hugh called a General Assembly in the year
590. The place of meeting was no longer the interdicted
Tara, but for the monarch's convenience a site farther
north was chosen--the hill of Drom-Keth, in the present
county of Deny. Here came in rival state and splendour
the Princes of the four Provinces, and other principal
chieftains. The dignitaries of the Church also attended,
and an occasional Druid was perhaps to be seen in the
train of some unconverted Prince. The pretensions of the
mother-country to impose a tax upon her Colony, were
sustained by the profound learning and venerable name of
St. Colman, Bishop of Dromore, one of the first men of
his Order.

When Columbkill "heard of the calling together of that
General Assembly," and of the questions to be there
decided, he resolved to attend, notwithstanding the stern
vow of his earlier life, never to look on Irish soil
again. Under a scruple of this kind, he is said to have
remained blindfold, from Ms arrival in Ms fatherland,