CHAPTER XI.
Pestilence of the _Blefed_--The Cursing of Tara by St.Rodanus--Extent and Importance of Ancient Tara--The First Mill in Ireland--The _Lia Fail_--Cormac's House--The Rath of the Synods--The Banqueting Hall--Chariots and Swords--St.Columba--St.Brendan and his Voyages--Pre-Columbian Discovery of America--The Plague again--St.
Columba and St.Columbanus--Irish Saints and Irish Schools--Aengus the Culdee.
[A.D.

543-693.] From time to time, in the world's history, terrible and mysterious pestilences appear, which defy all calculation as to their cause or probable reappearance.

Such was the _Blefed_,[169] or _Crom Chonaill_, which desolated Ireland in the year 543.
The plague, whatever its nature may have been, appears to have been general throughout Europe.

It originated in the East; and in Ireland was preceded by famine, and followed by leprosy.

St.Berchan of Glasnevin and St.Finnen of Clonard were amongst its first victims.
Diarmaid, son of Fergus Keval, of the southern Hy-Nial race, was Ard-Righ during this period.