adapted them to their existing Gaelic
culture (see the discussion of the Christian Celtic church in the preceding chapter).
The differences between the two spheres of Christian influence, the one
Celtic (monastic) and the other Roman (episcopalian), is perhaps best summed up by the old
Gaelic proverb which simply states: "The Roman Church gave law, the Celtic Church
gave love." A good example of these differences can also be found in the nature of
the Gaelic conversion to Christianity. The Gaels saw Christianity as the natural outgrowth
of their previously existing dawn religion. It was a new magic for the pagan, a sort of
next stage toward a truer, fuller religious consciousness. It is significant in this
connection that the land for St. Patrick’s church at Elphin in County Roscommon was
originally donated for that purpose by the Archdruid Ona. The descendants of Ona, the
Corca Achlan or Corca Seachlann, of the same stock as the Ciarraighe (see Chapter VIII),
branched into several families. The main family here was that of MacBrannan (Mac Branain)
or O’Brannan (0 Branain), a branch of whom, known as the Ui Branain, later the
Maclnerneys or Nerneys (Mac an Airchinnigh, literally "son of the Erenagh"),
were, interestingly enough, erenaghs (hereditary abbots) of St. Patrick’s church at
Elphin. A family of O’Brannans served as Erenaghs of Derryvullan in County Fermanagh.
Another branch of the Corca Seachlann, the Cineal Mac Erca or O’Monahans (0
Manachain) faked a descent from the Ui Briuin, and were called the Ui Briuin na Sionna.
Clerics took over many of the functions of the Druid order, although
the lower druidic orders continued as the scholarly class (the bards and ollavs that
maintained literature and learning), and both cooperated in running the schools. Outside
the Gaelic sphere, Europeans had simply dumped their former religious convictions, at
least officially, in favor of the new Roman Christianity. This expressed a severe lack of
confidence in their own societal identity and lndo-European cultural roots, perpetuating
centuries of withdrawal symptoms, leading ultimately to the Inquisition and the European
witch craze at the end of the medieval period.
The differences between the two spheres of influence, the one European
and the other Gaelic, were to be very important in determining the types of nationalism
that would develop within their respective areas. While the Papacy was attempting to unite
the realms of the fallen empire, and with good success, the Gaels were themselves
consolidating that western fringe which had never been Roman. They largely assimilated the
matrilineal P—Celts of Scotland, the Picts or Albans, and made inroads into Wales and
Cornwall as well. All this was accomplished between the fifth and ninth centuries, and in
Scotland the first Gaelic-speaking invaders, the Scots from Dal Riada in northeastern
Ireland, firmly placed their Gaelic stamp, and eventually their name, on the new
territory. The resultant Picto-Scottish Gaelic kingdom came in time to be known as the
Kingdom of Scots rather than as the Kingdom of
