School: Slane (B.) (roll number 4851)

Location:
Slane, Co. Meath
Teacher:
Séamus Ó Cuánaigh
Browse
The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0713, Page 053

Archival Reference

The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0713, Page 053

Image and data © National Folklore Collection, UCD.

See copyright details.

Download

Open data

Available under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

  1. XML School: Slane (B.)
  2. XML Page 053
  3. XML “The Local Patron Saint”

Note: We will soon deprecate our XML Application Programming Interface and a new, comprehensive JSON API will be made available. Keep an eye on our website for further details.

On this page

  1. Every district has its own particular Saint who everyone believes in and elects in some way to honour each year. St Erc is Patron St of Slane although our chapel is not built by or dedicated to him. Nevertheless he was a person of much importance during his life as he was a very kind hearted man although of violent temper. In his early days he was a servant to King Laoghaire in Tara and after the coming of St Patrick and his preaching he became converted and lived a very holy life. Becoming Bishop of Slane but after a time owing to a quarrel with one of his superiors he left public life and retired to a lonely spot the place being known as the Hermitage. This is a stone building about 20'x50' with a watch tower about 25' feet high the tower being used as a look out for raiders coming up the Boyne.
    Of course he built the Hermitage himself and there is a local superstition that it was connected with the caves of former days. There is a sepulchre in it also and the Earl of Drogheda is buried there.
    The building is situated about a quarter of a mile outside the village to the South West. On the estate of the Marquis Conyngham and is the centre of much interest on "Lady Day" here August 15th. The large
    (continues on next page)
    Transcribed by a member of our volunteer transcription project.
    Topics
    1. events
      1. events (by time of year) (~11,476)
    Language
    English
    Collector
    Robert Tallon
    Gender
    Male
    Address
    Slane, Co. Meath