County Louth Archaeological and History Society

A Tribute to Father Diarmuid Mac ÍomhairSource: Journal of the County Louth Archaeological and Historical Society, Vol. 20, No. 3(1983), pp. 173-174Published by: County Louth Archaeological and History SocietyStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/27729562 .

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Father

Diarmuid

Mac

Iomhair

The late Very Rev. Diarmuid Canon Mac ?omhair. Hon. Secretary, 1940-1965

Editor, 1965-1976

President, 1968-1976.

Father Diarmuid Mac ?omhair was unique among the priests of Armagh of the last

generation. We had some others who like him had splendid libraries or who edited scholarly journals or who became fluent speakers of Irish in middle age. We even had a handful who spent their weekly free day at historical research in a library like the R.I. A. or who cleaned up their

parish graveyards and published the inscriptions or who erected a monument to honour local

notabilities. But Father Mac Iomhair was the only one who fitted all these things into his full life and much more besides.

When I first met him he was already secretary of the County Louth Archaeological Society and was meticulous in making arrangements for lectures, committee meetings and outings. He had not yet begun to write in any serious way

? in fact the only contribution to the C.L.A.J. which had appeared from his pen was the index to the Society's Journal from the beginning up to

1936 which was published in the latter year. Yet the care which he took with that contribution was a foretaste of all that was best in Father Mac ?omhair's approach to historical writing.

In subsequent years he confined himself at first to townland surveys, as if he still lacked

confidence in his own ability to be original. Nevertheless the townland surveys which he

produced during the 1940s and 1950s brought this genre of local history, for which the C.L.AJ. was rightly famous, to a new and higher level.

What really launched him on the breakers of historical writing was his decision to clean up the 'jumping church' at Millockstown in the early fifties. This set him off on the track of earlier

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references to the building and Kildemock naturally put him searching for traces of Saint

Diomoc. It was his first long article apart from the townland surveys and it propelled him into the

field of early Irish ecclesiastical history which he never afterwards abandoned. All the material

which he collected on the little medieval parish of Kildemock was finally published in a fine

article in Seanchas Ard Mhacha 1957.

By this time Father Mac ?omhair was moving across the frontiers of the C.L.A.J. into fresh

pastures. The Seanchas became indebted to him for articles on church lands and Knights

Templars, on medieval primates like Mac Maoliosa, and on clerical succession in his two beloved

parishes, Ardee and Faughart. Other journals benefitted from his growing productivity : The

Irish Genealogist on several occasions, the Irish Sword, the Clogher Record and the Journal of

Mullaghbawn Historical and Folklore Society. He began to publish booklets for sale to visitors

like Kildemock and its Jumping Church in 1956 and Fochart in 1966.

While Father Mac ?omhair never completely abandoned the field of modern history he

tended in later years to go back more and more to pre-Norman and medieval areas. It was in

these fields that he made his most original contributions. Here I have space only to call attention

to his masterly survey of Fir Rois in 1962 and 1964 which transferred this early Irish kingdom from County Monaghan to County Louth. His studies of the Battle of Fochart and of Edward

Bruce in 1968 and 1969 complemented by his overview in 1972, provide the fullest and best account of the Bruce expedition to Ireland.

With his outstanding learning Father Mac ?omhair combined a life of solid piety and

unselfish dedication. He left a memory of devotion to duty in every parish in which he served :

Togher (1931-36), Dunleer (1936-40), Ardee (1940-60) and Faughart (1960-81). He was a

pioneer in many movements which brought him fame outside the diocese of Armagh. He was

one of the earliest workers in the liturgical movement and was attending the Glenstal Liturgical

Congress annually before it was even known at national level. In the ecumenical movement he was a pioneer in promoting better relations between Protestants and Catholics and soon became a familiar figure at the Greenhills Ecumenical Conference. His interest in the Irish language

brought him on many visits to Ranafast and other Gaeltacht"areas and made him the ideal

chairman for ?igse Oirialla when it was set up in 1969 to commemorate the South Ulster Gaelic

poets. His work for the language and for local history was inspired by an ardent patriotism which

kept him going even when his eyesight was beginning to fail and his health was indifferent.

Father Mac ?omhair sometimes seemed remote and even formal until you got to know him.

Then you appreciated his kindness and courtesy, his unfailing patience, his generosity with time and labour, his ordered mind and careful planning of each day, his untiring pursuit of informa

tion, his deep personal devotion to early Irish saints, especially his own Saint Brighid and his own

common brand of spirituality. May God reward him for a life so full of service to Armagh

Archdiocese, present and past. Suaimhneas s?ora? d? anam uasal.

+ Tom?s ? Fiaich,

Cardinal Archbishop of Armagh.

15 September 1984

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