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There is no question
that Dunchad (Duncan) is one of the earliest of names in Northern
Britain and what historical records there are of pre medieval Scotland
are scarce. Those fragments that we do have in our possession today are,
for the most part, those writings in Gaelic of the Celtic Scots monks
starting with their arrival on Iona from Ireland. |
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The Abbey of St
Orans, Iona |
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Iona is most anciently known as
Ioua, its ancient Gaelic or Pictish name. This is the name
invariably used by Adamnán, the ninth abbot, writing at the end of the
seventh century. In modern Gaelic it is called “I” (pronounced
ee), which simple form
means island. In the
fifth century the Druids are supposed to have come here to escape the
persecution of imperial Rome, and to have founded a library on the
island. In 410, when Fergus II became an ally of Alaric the Goth, he
added to that library by bringing back books from the plunder of
Rome.
So it was an established place of learning well before Columba arrived!
Another name for the island is
Innis nam Druineach, meaning the Island of the Cunning
Workmen, |
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or sculptors; and
still another is
Innis-nam-Druidneach, the Isle of Druids.
More than
twenty years before Columba came to Iona, a Christian cemetery was
founded on the island by St Oran of Letteragh, who died in 548. This
Reilig
Odhrain (St Orans Shrine) was the burial place of the kings of Dalriada up to
560, three years before Columba's arrival with his twelve followers.
There is |
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also a
tradition that
there was a college of seven bishops on the island at one time; and
that two of them met Columba when he arrived from Ireland and did
their best to persuade him not to land. Bishops in the ancient
church had no territorial or diocesan powers and were subject to the
authority of the ab (the old term for abbot) of the community where
they were living at the time. They were simply required to provide
episcopal functions such as ordination. Many of the community would
not be ordained and they did not dedicate their churches in the
modern sense, so the bishops were much limited in their functions.
It is here on
Iona that we find one of the earliest mention of Dunchad (Duncan)
the 11th Abbot of Iona 707 – 717AD
'St. Dunchadh (Dumhade, Dumhaid,
Dunchad), Abbot of Iona. Died March 24, 717. Dunchadh was born into
the line of Conall Gulban. He became a monk at Killochuir in
southeast Ulster and, from 710 until his death, ruled the abbey of
Iona, Scotland. During Dunchadh's abbacy, Saint Egbert (f.d. April
24) finally convinced the Celtic monks of Iona to adopt the Roman
customs - tonsure, date of Easter, Benedictine Rule. For Saint Bede
this was the final sign of unity from diversity, which was the main
theme of his "Ecclesiastical History." Dunchadh is the titular saint
of Killclocair, in the diocese of Armagh. His feast is still
celebrated in Donegal on May 25; elsewhere it is March 24. He is the
patron of sailors in Ireland'
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A lord of the
Isle |
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and again with Dunchad
(Duncan) the 39th Abbot in 989AD.
Iona is also the burial Place of the ‘Kings of Scotland’ and
the ‘The lords of The Isles’ and it is here that
Dunchad mac Conaing (650 - 654AD), Duncan I (1034 – 1040AD) and
Duncan II (1093- 1094AD) are interned.
By John A. Duncan of Sketraw,
KCN, FSA
Scot.
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