Ecclesiastical site

The National Monuments Service's description

Early Christian monastery on Inis Phádraig associated with the 7th-century St. Mochonna (Dochonna, Mochonóg, Conna/Conan), venerated on the 13th of January. According to Ó Riain (2011, 463) the name was one of many 'pet forms of Colum, the name Mochonna is based on Conna (Coinne), which was otherwise represented among the saints by Conna, Dochonna, and Mochonóg or, with palatalization of the medial consonants, Coinne, Dochoinne, Mochoinne. As one would expect of a form derived from Colum - by far the most important holy name in early Christian Ireland - Mochonna was a popular appellation, with twenty-eight examples in the list of homonymous saints'. It has been suggested that the British saint 'Colmán Briot [of Gallen monastery, Co. Offaly] and Dochonna of St Patrick's Island were one and the same' (ibid. 464).
Ó Riain (2011, 441) recorded the following details about Maol Finniain, possible 9th/10th century abbot of St Patrick's Island; 'The martyrologist, Maol Muire Ua Gormáin, brought his list of names for 6 February to an end with a couplet commemorating Finnian', whose name is glossed 'Maol Finniain, abbot of Inis Phádraig' There appears to be no other direct reference to this man, but the obit of Maol Finniain son of Flannagán, king of Breagha (now Meath with parts of Dublin and Louth), who died in 903, extols its subject as a 'religious layman'. This has led to the suggestion that the king and abbot may have been one and the same. The island is otherwise known for a raid on it in 798 by Vikings, who broke the shrine of Dochonna'. The Annals of Ulster recorded the 'Burning of Inis Patraice by Gentiles, and they carried off the preys of the district, and the Shrine of Dochonna was broken by them, and other great devastations (were committed) by them both in Ireland and Alba' (AU 797 AD). Recent aerial photography of St Patrick's Island (Inis Pádraig) shows traces of a roughly circular enclosure (DU005-019003-) around the church (DU005-019002-).

Compiled by: Caimin O'Brien

Date of upload: 13 March 2023

References

D'Alton, J. 1838 (Reprint 1976) The history of the county of Dublin. Cork. Tower Books.

AU (1983) - The Annals of Ulster to 1311, ed. S. Mac Airt and G. Mac Niocaill (Dublin 1983)

Ó Riain, P. 2011 A dictionary of Irish Saints. Dublin. Four Courts Press.