vetustate dirutum fuerat, fidelis Regina reædificavit, datisque sumptibus idoneis ad opus Domini Monachis reparavit." It was only four years after her death when Magnus, King of Norway, "opened the smaller church of Kollum-Killa,” probably a chapel built over St. Columba's reputed tomb, on the occasion of his visiting the Holy Island. The seizure of the Western Isles by this warrior, in the following year, caused the annexation of the Isles to the bishopric of Man, and the subjection of the united dioceses to the metropolitan of Trondhjem, which in great measure severed the island of Hy from its old associations, so that, with the exception of an abbot's obit at 1099, it is unnoticed for above half a century in the Irish Annals. In the meantime, Somerlid, the Regulus de Herer-Gaedel, married a daughter of king Olave, the successor of Magnus, who brought him four sons, one of whom, Dubhgall, was thrust into the sovereignty of the Isles in 1154. Consequently, a war ensued, and in 1156 the strife was terminated by the cession to Somerlid and his sons of the southern isles, including Hy, a measure which naturally terminated the Norwegian ascendancy, and restored the supremacy of the Celtic influence around. As a result, the abbacy of Hy was offered, in 1164, at the instance of the king, and with the unanimous consent of the church officials, to Flaherty O'Brolchan, the energetic abbot of Derry, who, in addition to his dignity of Coarb of Columcille, had received, in 1158, the now important qualification of episcopal orders. Domestic influence prevented the offer from being accepted; but the Irish element, already indicated by the names of the ecclesiastical functionaries, in 1164, seems to have rapidly increased, and to the period of its development we may possibly refer the erection of the central portion of the Cathedral. Bishop O'Brolchain was busily employed, towards the close of the twelfth century, in re-edifying the ecclesiastical buildings of Derry; and to a kinsman of his is probably attributable the commencement of the most important structure now existing in Hy. The unusual record on the capital of the tower column, DONALDVS OBROLCHAN FECIT HOC OPVS, and the coincidence of that record with the obit of Domhnall Ua Brolchain in the Annals of Ulster at 1203, and of the Four Masters at 1202, the same name in its Irish form, are sufficient, if not to satisfy the mind, at least to afford material for reasonable conjecture, as to the builder. In 1203, Michael, bishop of the Isles, died at Fountain Abbey, and was succeeded, according to the Chronicle of Man, by Nicholus, whom Torfæus calls Kolus, observing that, for the forty years preceding, the Hæbuda were without an actual bishop; that is, that the office, as regarded the Isles, was nothing more than titular. But forty years, subtracted from 1203, bring us back precisely to the date at which Somerlid and the clergy of Hy solicited the services of St. Columba's coarb in Derry. This Nicholas or Kolus may have made an effort to establish his authority in Hy, and he may have been the Cellach of whom the Irish Annals make mention in a most interesting record of 1203, the year of Nicholas's accession to the see of the Isles; which Nicholas, whether identical with Cellach or not, certainly seems to have had some connexion with Ireland, for when he died he was buried at Bangor in Ulster. "A monastery was erected by Cellach, without any legal right, and in despite of the family of Hy, in the middle of Cro-Hy, and he did considerable damage to the town. The clergy of the North assembled together to pass over into Hy, namely, Florence O'Carolan, bishop of Tyrone; Maelisa O'Deery, bishop of Tirconnell, and abbot of the abbey-church of Paul and Peter at Armagh; Awley O'Ferghail, abbot of the abbey-church of Derry, with Ainmire O'Coffey, many of the family of Derry, and a great number of the northern clergy beside. They passed over into Hy, and, in accordance with the law of the Church, they subsequently pulled down the monastery and the aforesaid Awley was elected abbot of Hy by the suffrages of Foreigners and Gaeidhel." : The passage here cited is the parting mention of Hy in the Irish Annals, and as it closes a long list of notices, running through nearly seven centuries, it leaves the island as it found it, in the hands of Irish ecclesiastics, an important outpost of the Irish |