Little is known of Limerick previous to the arrival of the Northmen except its being the site of a cathedral in the seventh century and it is to Ivan not Sitric we owe the first foundation of the city. St Munchin of the Dalcassian tribe was the first bishop but the old cathedral bearing his name is now no more a parish church of no very particular beauty supplying its place with associations of the archaism of its builder not the most impressive. The original edifice was beautifully situated overhanging the Shannon and the churchyard in which still repose the crumbling memorials of a little world once as busy as our own was bounded by the city wall John's castle and the chief of the seventeen gates of the town immediately adjoining. An old legend connected with the erection of this remnant of antiquity has survived the destructive hand of the modern architect known as Saint Munchin's prayer and as shadowing a truth of no little significance perhaps our friends of this part of the Shannon will thank us for its preservation.
In those very primitive times we are informed and how refreshing the intelligence it was no uncommon thing for the predecessors of our mitred lords to lay aside occasionally the crozier and crook for those humbler but not less useful implements the hammer and trowel St Munchin laying the foundation of his church in propria persona happened to require the assistance of one of our predatory friends already spoken of to raise a large stone but was refused. A stranger happening to pass proffered his aid when the saint exceeding wroth knelt down and abjured after no measured terms the conduct of the former praying that the efforts of a stranger in the city should ever prosper rather than those of one born within its walls.
Without alluding to the consanguinity of the wish of the saint and the thought according to the familiar formula of Wordsworth or whether the curse still continues in all its stringency perhaps there may be some other more philosophic mode of accounting for the matter. Bubbling up with kindliness and good nature we shall not entertain the problem. There are those in the world it cannot be denied who are ever anxious to build the sepulchres of the ancient prophets while the great minds of the present hour delving and digging in the common places of the world around are neglected and forgotten. Whether the legend has any covert allusion to such we shall not wait to examine.
[St. Munchin is among the Saints of Limerick on the excellent 'Omnium Sanctorum Hiberniae' blog.]
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