pro and con, and
taking the pro arguments first, we may (I.) discard as evidence for our
purpose the Life of St. Ibar which is very fragmentary and otherwise a
rather unsatisfactory document. The Lives of Ailbhe, Ciaran, and Declan
are however mutually corroborative and consistent. The Roman visit and
the alleged tutelage under Hilarius are probably embellishments; they
look like inventions to explain something and they may contain more than
a kernel of truth. At any rate they are matters requiring further
investigation and elucidation. In this connection it may be useful to
recall that the Life (Latin) of St. Ciaran has been attributed by Colgan
to Evinus the disciple and panegyrist of St. Patrick.

Patrick's apparent neglect of the Decies (II.) may have no special
significance. At best it is but negative evidence: taken, however, in
connection with (I.) and its consectaria it is suggestive. We can
hardly help speculating why the apostle--passing as it were by its front
door--should have given the go-bye to a region so important as the
Munster Decies. Perhaps he sent preachers into it; perhaps there was no
special necessity for a formal mission, as the faith had already found
entrance. It is a little noteworthy too that we do not find St.
Patrick's name surviving in any ecclesiastical connection with the
Decies, if we except Patrick's Well, near Clonmel, and this Well is
within a mile or so of the territorial frontier. Moreover the southern
portion of the present Tipperary County had been ceded by Aengus to the
Deisi, only just previous to Patrick's advent, and had hardly yet had
sufficient time to become absorbed. The whole story of Declan's alleged
relations with Patrick undoubtedly suggests some irregularity in Declan's
mission--an irregularity which was capable of rectification through
Patrick and which de facto was finally so rectified.

(III.) No one in Eastern Munster requires to be told how strong is the
cult of St. Declan throughout Decies and the adjacent territory. It is
hardly too much to say that the Declan tradition in Waterford and Cork is
a spiritual actuality, extraordinary and unique, even in a land which
till recently paid special popular honour to its local saints. In
traditional popular regard Declan in the Decies has ever stood first,
foremost, and pioneer. Carthage, founder of the tribal see, has held and
holds in the imagination of the people only a secondary place. Declan,
when