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Irish Christianity
in Wales
Ireland as Ciaran, or Kieran of Saigir it is curious that
the Irish "k" or hard "c" always becomes "p" m Cymric
founded a church at Perran Zabuloe on the north coast
of Cornwall; while St. Ives, the picturesque port opposite
Falmouth, receives its name from St. la, one of Piran's
missionary companions, who founded both the church and
the town. Similarly from Petroc, another missionary
Irishman, who labored in Cornwall, is said to be derived
the name of Petrockstow, or Radstow. The close simi-
larity of the stone crosses of Cornwall to those of Ireland
is a further interesting illustration of the intercourse
between the two and an evidence of the Irish settlement. 1
So large was the number of Irish missionaries in Brittany
from Ireland or Cornwall that Berger calls Brittany
"une colonie spirituelle d'Irlande." 2
But here we are in a
region of doubt and will pass on.
5. IRELAND'S IMPERIAL STATUS AND THE COUNCIL OF
CONSTANCE
When we realize that the Gaels of Ireland, holding
with a strong hand the west of Britain from the Solway
Firth to the Channel, were still to conquer Scotland, that
Irish navigators were traversing the seas as far north as
Iceland and as far south as the tropic of Cancer, that
while Cormac the Navigator was exploring the islands
of the north, Brendan the Navigator may have reached
part of the American continent, that Irish colonists and
monks and explorers actually took possession of the Heb-
rides, the Faroe Islands, the Orkney Islands, and Iceland,
as well as the Azores and all the islands between; we
seem to be envisaging the spectacle of a great sea-divided
1 Rimner, "Ancient Stone Crosses of England," pp. 10, 11.
2 Histoire de la Vulgate.
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