Cellach

Cellach (d. mid 6th cent.), monastic founder and supposed bishop of Killala (Cell Alaid), appears among the saints of the Uí Fhiachrach of Connacht in ‘Genealogiae Regum et Sanctorum Hiberniae’, where Walsh suggests that this may be ‘Cellán Ua Fiachrach’, who appears in martyrologies at 1 May. It is indeed not certain that Cellach ever existed, almost the only source of biographical detail being ‘Betha Chellaig’, a late, pseudo-historical and rather fabulous account in the Leabhar Breac, according to which he belonged to the Uí Fhiachrach, and was the eldest son of Éogan Bél (qv), king of Connacht. The account places him at an early age under the monastic tutelage of Ciarán (qv) of Clonmacnoise, with whom he was professed as a monk and remained till his father fell at the battle of Slicech (Sligo town) in 543 (Ann. Tig.) or 547 (AU 546, recte 547), fighting against the Northern Uí Néill. Having been chosen by his father to succeed him as king, he was persuaded to abandon the monastic life, but not before having a malediction put on him by Ciarán, who foretold that a dire fate awaited him.

After a revolt by Guaire Aidni (qv), king of Connacht (who is reputed to have lived almost a century later), Cellach was ousted and returned to his saintly mentor Ciarán, with whom he resumed the monastic life till his elevation to the position of bishop of Killala in the reign of Tuathal Máelgarb (qv), described as ‘king of Ireland’ c.534–44. He later fled to a hermitage on an island in Lough Conn, Co. Mayo, where the fame of his sanctity attracted some followers. Guaire subsequently discovered his whereabouts and hatched a plot to induce his four students to murder him, which they duly did, dumping his body in a hollow tree. His brother Muiredach is said to have avenged Cellach's death.