The book Arran; - Cook Clan

CHURCHES BEFORE THE REFORMATION 77
male trinity presiding over art and letters. Thus of this
Michael-Brian in the west it can be said, as of Brian in The
Lady of the Lake, ' Not his the mien of Christian priest.'
Bridget is the ' Mary of the Gael ' {ir ise Brigit Maire na
n' Goidel) invoked in so many western Gaelic hymns and
prayers ;
it is her older divinity that is clearly reflected in her
honorific position among Celtic saints. She is spoken of as
a mother of Christ {ha den mathair maic rig mair), who is
also called her son, and she is equated with the Christian
Virgin.^ Thus, essentially, between Kilbride and Kilmorie,
the two parishes of Arran, there is in significance little that
is different, at least to the ancient Gaelic mind. There was
a Kilbride chapel at Bennan also, the only southern offshoot
from the parent church at Lamlash. Kildonan, in that
quarter, commemorates the Doijnan who suffered ' red
martyrdom ' at Eigg in 617. These exhaust the existing
Celtic dedications. Less need be said of the scriptural or
other saints, such as Blaise,^ who mark the direction of Roman
rule. Michael ' of the white steed ' has been dealt with
above : either Sannox or Loch Ranza adopted James the
brother of Jesus. These are missions of the Romanised
ecclesiasticism. In Kilmorie, South End, and St. Mary's
at Slidderie we have dedications to the Mother, but Virgin
dedications seem to be late in the west. No church was so
named in Ireland till the twelfth century,^ though in Wales
the practice was centuries earlier. There is room for inference
that the Arran dedication is at least as late as any
in Ireland.
Kilmorie, from its position and from the fact that it gave
its name to one of the two parishes into which the island
was divided, the other taking its name from the Lamlash
' Cf. Irische Texte, pp. 20-7, 03.
^ The figure of the Abbot at Shiskeii is known to the people as that of ' St. Bolaise
or, in the genitive case, ' Volaise ' (Bholaise). This has been usually taken to be for
Molaise, but 'Blaise' may have something to say on the matter.
^ Petrie's Ecclesiastical Architecture of Ireland , p. 17-3.
'