CORKER
372
CORKER
finally established himself near the marsh of Lough
^c (Eu-ce), which appears to have been the original
nfme of the place. There he fomided a monastic
sod about 620, which in a short time attracted a
multitude of students and produced many great
scholars. The Irish " Life
of Finbarr" gives the
names of a dozen of these
holy and learned men, who
in turn became founders
of churches and schools
in the South of Ireland.
The most distinguished of
them was St. Colman Mac
Ua Cluasaigh, Ferlegind or
professor in the School of
Cork about the year 664.
At that time all Ireland
was devastated by a terri-
ble yellow plague which
carried off two-thirds of
the population. There
was a prevalent idea that
the pestilence could not,
or at least did not, extend
beyond nine waves from
the shore. So Colman and .
his pupils wisely resolved to migratefrom their monas- tery in the marshes of Cork to one of the islands in the high sea. Being a poet and a holy man he composed a poem, mostly fn Irish, committing himself and h^ pupils to the protection of God and His saints espe- cially the patron saints of Erin. As they sought their isla/d refuge the students chanted the P°em verseJjy verse, each one reciting his o^v^l stanza until it was finished, and then they began agam. Fortunately
lines themselves do. The School of Cork cx)ntmued
to flourish for many centuries, even after^the Danes
had established themselves there; m 8/4 we tmd
recorded the death of a "Scribe of Cork", and m 891
we are told of the death of a certam son of Connudh,
" a scribe, wise man, bishop
and abbot of Cork". In
1134 the ancient monas-
tery and School of Cork,
which had fallen into de-
cay, were ref ounded by the
celebrated Cormac Mac-
Carthy, King of Mimster.
(See FlNB-\RR, S-UNT.) Tom., Bv.^k ,>i Hijmn.-i (Dub-
Dul-1
-of
Eccl.HM. of Inland lUubUn.
1S29), II. 314 sqq.
John Healy.
Corker, M.'^rRDS, an
, K\L, Cork English Benedictine, b. in
1636 in Yorkshire; d. 22 December, 1715 at Padding- ton near London. His baptismal name James, he ex- changed for Maurus when he entered the order. On 2 Apr , 1656, he took vows at the English Benedic- tine Abbey of Lamspringe near Hildeshcim, in Ger- many and returned to England as missionarj' m lb6o Being accused by Titus Gates of implicanon m th^ Popish Plot" he was imprisoned '? ^evx gate but ^^ acquitted of treason by a London jury, 18 July, 1679.
civj:
QUEENSTOWN HaRBOUH, CORK
most of this poem stUl survives and is pnnted in the
"Leabhar Imuin" or "Book of Hymns (edited by
J II. Todd, Dublin, 1855-69). The language is of
the most archaic tvpe of Gaelic, and is interspersed
here and there willi'phrases mostly taken from Scrip-
ture but made to rhvme with each other as the Gaelic
Hereupon he was arraigned for being a priest and sei
tenced to death. 17 January, 1680. Through infli
In ialfriends he was granted a reprieve and detame
in Newgate. While thus confined he is said to hav
recoi^iled more than a thousand ^^^-?}^^}^^.
Faith. One of his fellow-prisoners at Newgate «.