The Church of the Cows

Teampall Na B( The Church of the Cows) No 30

Like any good story in Irish Folk lore there is a good bit of skulduggery and sure it has to be true as it was written down in the Book of Leinster”Lebor Laignech” in 1160 AD by the Monks and they wouldn’t make it up Would they? The Book of Leinster is now kept in Trinity College in Dublin. Teampall Na Bo is a small church just outside the village of St Mullins and it was built in thanks giving to St Moling who managed get the lads of Ossary (Kilkenny, St Mullins) out of a long-standing Tax or payback for misdeeds. The Story goes that the king of Leinster a fellow called Eochaid married one of the daughters of the High King (Tuathal Techtmar) her name was Fithir, but when he got home his wise men told him that he had got the second best of the two sisters. So, what did he do but lock up Fithir his wife in the dungeon and go back and tell the King that she died and didn’t he take her sister home with him? Now that’s a right bit of stuff for you not into the love bit at all. Well when the two sisters saw one another didn’t the two of them die with shame. Now when the High King got the news of his daughter’s death, he lost it, was apoplectic and he assembled his army from the provinces of Munster, Ulster and Connacht and marched on Ossory, beheading Eochaid in revenge. Under Brehon law a blood price had to be paid for the lives of the two princes so he put a tax on Ossary until the end of time, such was his rage. Every year they had to cough up 5,000 Cows, sheep, hogs, 5000 pieces of silver, cloaks and so on in what was known as the Borumean tribute. Sure the kingdom after many years was impoverished, they were close to starvation having to give all their produce away. This is where St Moling stepped in, didn’t he cod the High King into letting them off the tax and handed out a few miracles or curses so the Kings army couldn’t follow him back home, no flies on this fellow. I did say Saint; well Irish saints were different to what you might call saintly types. The Local built a church on one of the hills out of St Mullins in thanks giving to the St Moling for getting them off the hookit was called Teampall Na Bo (the church of the cows”) Later on, when the church became less Christian baby’s that weren’t baptised were not allowed into the proper burial ground or graveyard beside the Abbeys in St Mullins. The good priests with their little rules banished the dead children to Teampeall Na Bo because their souls were black with original sin, that’s a sin that you didn’t commit but it’s there anyway, can you believe it?

Not a Happy place but well worth a visit to remind ourselves how good we have it today and say a prayer for all the Baby’s buried beneath.

Author Martin O’Brien