St Mullins is a small village in south Carlow. In early Christian times the place was known as Ros Broic (the Wood of the Badger). In medieval times it was known by various forms of Tigh Moling (the House of Moling). The anglicised form was Simylin and in modern times is St Mullins. It takes its name from St Moling,, the seventh century monk who established a monastery there.
Moling was born in 614 in Sliabh Luachra in Kerry and was named Taircell. He came to Ros Broic and established a monastery there. During his time there he exercised some responsibility in the church of Glendalough and later in the church of Ferns, in which he was said to be archbishop. The digging of a mill-race, which can still be traced, has been attributed to him as his own work. Some sources credit him also with having succeeded in getting the Bóraimhe tribute – an annual tax of cattle which the men of Leinster had to pay to the King of Tara – abolished. He died in 696.
Moling’s reputation for sanctity spread and a cult to him developed. In due course Lives of Moling were produced. One of these was Leabhar Tighe Molling, an early medieval manuscript which is now lost but which was transcribed in 1628 by Brother Mícheál Ó Cléirigh, one of the compilers of the Annals of the Four Masters. This transcription, with the title Geinemain Molling ocus a Bhetae, survives. It is the subject of the present study by Máire B. de Paor.
This Life of Moling is hagiography. It is not biography or a strict historical record. It must therefore be interpreted in accordance with the purpose, genre and structure of medieval hagiography and not in terms of modern biography. Máire B. de Paor’s scholarly analysis of the text draws out a wealth of knowledge which would be missed by anyone who would read the work as if it were modern biography or who would dismiss it on the ground that it contains little or no historical data.
Máire B. de Paor, a Presentation Sister and former teacher, has diplomas from the universities of Perugia, Tours and Grenoble and has just completed a PhD thesis on the poetry of Tadhg Gaelach Ó Súilleabháin (1715-1796) in University College Cork. A native of Ardmore, Co Waterford, she is a member of the Presentation community at An Mhuine Bheag, Co Carlow. She is author of Banfhundúirí Átha Cliath (Columba Press 1988), Tadhg Gaelach Ó Súilleabháin 1795-1995 (Coiscéim 1995), and Patrick the Pilgrim Apostle of Ireland (Veritas 1998).
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