St. Seachnall's Church

Designations
National Monument of Ireland
Official name	St. Seachnail's Church
Reference no.	400

St. Seachnall's Church
St. Seachnall's Church
	Domnach Sechnaill
	St. Seachnall's Church
	53°30′51″N6°32′21″W / 53.514242°N 6.539295°W Coordinates: 53°30′51″N6°32′21″W / 53.514242°N 6.539295°W
Location	Seachnall Place, Dunshaughlin, County Meath
Country	Ireland
Denomination	Church of Ireland
Previous denomination	Pre-Reformation Catholic
History
Dedication	Secundinus
Architecture
Style	Celtic Christianity
Years built	10th/11th century
Closed	18th century
Specifications
Materials	limestone
Administration
Diocese	Meath
Designations
National Monument of Ireland
Official name	St. Seachnail's Church
Reference no.	400

Last updated November 14, 2019

St. Seachnall's Church is a medieval church and National Monument in County Meath, Ireland.

County Meath is a county in Ireland. It is in the province of Leinster and is part of the Mid-East Region. It is named after the historic Kingdom of Meath. Meath County Council is the local authority for the county. At the 2016 census, the population of the county was 195,044. The county town of Meath is Navan. Other towns in the county include Trim, Kells, Laytown, Ashbourne, Dunboyne, and Slane.

Location

St. Seachnall's Church is in the centre of Dunshaughlin, slightly east of the R147 (formerly the N3 main road).

Dunshaughlin (Irish: Dún Seachlainn or locally Irish: Domhnach Seachnaill is a town in County Meath, Ireland.

The R147 is a regional road in Ireland. Its first section runs from St Peters Church in Phibsborough, Dublin to its junction with the M50. It then follows the route of a former section of the N3 between Clonee and Kells. It serves as an alternative route for non-motorway traffic and traffic wishing to avoid tolls on the M3.

The N3 road is a national primary road in Ireland, running between Dublin, Cavan and the border with County Fermanagh. The A509 and A46 roads in Northern Ireland form part of an overall route connecting to Enniskillen, and northwest to the border again where the N3 reappears to serve Ballyshannon in County Donegal.

History

The R147 road curves around the church, suggesting that an ancient ecclesiastical enclosure has become fossilised in the street layout.

Secundinus (d. 447; variously Sechnall, Seachnall, Seachnail, Secundus) was son of was a son of Restitutus, a Lombard, and Lubaid, traditionally said to be a sister of Saint Patrick and founder of a church on the site between AD 439 and 447. The name Dunshaughlin is ultimately from Domhnach Seachnall – the church of Seachnall. The name Máel Sechnaill – servant of Seachnall – was common among Kings of Tara.

Saint Secundinus, or Sechnall as he was known in Irish, was founder and patron saint of Domhnach Sechnaill, Co. Meath, who went down in medieval tradition as a disciple of St Patrick and one of the first bishops of Armagh. Historians have suggested, however, that the connection with St Patrick was a later tradition invented by Armagh historians in favour of their patron saint and that Secundinus is more likely to have been a separate missionary, possibly a companion of Palladius.

The Lombards or Longobards were a Germanic people who ruled most of the Italian Peninsula from 568 to 774.

Saint Patrick was a fifth-century Romano-British Christian missionary and bishop in Ireland. Known as the "Apostle of Ireland", he is the primary patron saint of Ireland, the other patron saints being Brigit of Kildare and Columba. He is venerated in the Catholic Church, the Anglican Communion, the Lutheran Churches, and the Old Catholic Church, and in the Eastern Orthodox Church as equal-to-the-apostles and Enlightener of Ireland.

According to a legend recorded in An Leabhar Breac, the 7th-century Eucharistic hymn Sancti venite was first sung by angels at Dunshaughlin, after Secundinus had reconciled with his uncle Saint Patrick.^[1]

An Leabhar Breac, now less commonly Leabhar Mór Dúna Doighre or possibly erroneously, Leabhar Breac Mic Aodhagáin, is a medieval Irish vellum manuscript containing Middle Irish and Hiberno-Latin writings. The manuscript is held in the library of the Royal Irish Academy in Dublin, where it is catalogued as RIA MS 23 P 16 or 1230.

Sancti venite is a Latin Eucharistic hymn recorded in the Antiphonary of Bangor.

In Christianity, angels are agents of God, based on angels in Judaism. The most influential Christian angelic hierarchy was that put forward by Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite in the 4th or 5th century in his book De Coelesti Hierarchia.

The abbots of Dunshaughlin are recorded in the 9th century, beginning with Ruamnus (d. 801), and continuing to Scannal mac Fergil (murdered 886). Erenachs and coarbs (lay guardians of a parish church and headman of the family in hereditary occupation of church lands) of Dunshaughlin are recorded in AD 952, 1027 and 1040. The monastery at Dunshaughlin was burned down in raids in AD 1026, 1142 and 1143. It was also plundered by the Uí Briúin in 1152.^[2]

A coarb, from the Old Irish comarbae, meaning "heir" or "successor", was a distinctive office of the medieval church among the Gaels of Ireland and Scotland. In this period coarb appears interchangeable with "erenach", denoting the episcopally nominated lay guardian of a parish church and headman of the family in hereditary occupation of church lands. The coarb, however, often had charge of a church which had held comparatively high rank in pre‐Norman Ireland, or one still possessed of relatively extensive termon lands.

The Uí Briúin were a royal dynasty of Connacht. Their eponymous apical ancestor was Brión, son of Eochaid Mugmedon and Mongfind, and an elder half brother of Niall of the Nine Hostages. They formed part of the Connachta, along with the Uí Fiachrach and Uí Ailello, putative descendants of Eochaid Mugmedon's sons Fiachra and Ailill. The Uí Ailello were later replaced as the third of the Three Connachta, by genealogical sleight of hand, by the Uí Maine.

Dunshaughlin was also probably the church site of the Síl nÁedo Sláine kings of the 6th–8th century.

After the Norman invasion of Ireland Dunshaughlin became a seigniorial manor of Hugh de Lacy, Lord of Meath. The earthwork c. 700 m to the south of the church could be a motte built by him. Thereafter, the church became parochial.

A church at "Denclynschael" is listed in the ecclesiastical taxation (1302–06) of Pope Nicholas IV. James Ussher, Church of Ireland Archbishop of Armagh described the church and chancel of "Donshahlen" as ruined in 1622. Isaac Butler, writing in 1749, describes the church and tower as in good repair, but the chancel was ruined.

The present Church of Ireland church was built in 1813 north of the older structure.^[3]

Church

The remains of the parish church, consisting of one pointed arch and two piers of an arcade, suggest that its nave had aisles.

An octagonal limestone font has been moved to the modern church;it contained carvings in relief.

Also present is a crucifixion scene carved in false relief over the lintel of a doorway.^[4]

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References

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[1] "Celtic and Old English Saints - 10 May".

[2] "Part 25 of Annals of the Four Masters".

[3] "Who Was St. Seachnall".

[4] "ME01842 - DUNSHAUGHLIN - Church - MeathHeritage.com". 6 December 2012.