According to "Devenish, it's History and Antiquities", put out by the Clogher Historical Society, though perhaps now out of print, the Meehan family were originally "herenachs" of Devenish Island, Lough Erne, Fermanagh, in Northern Ireland. I've been there, there is a ruined St. Mary's Abbey and a very fine High Tower...perhaps the best of it's kind.
"Herenach" is a term meaning a family with hereditary title to a Church property. In other words, they are descendants of the family of the founder of the monastery, and hold his relics, in this case a manuscript, probably a copy of the gospels, belonging to St. Laserian, better known as St. Molaise of Devenish. The Meehans therefore originated as the hereditary kinsfolk of Molaise, who is mentioned as related to St. Columcille, and was instrumental in the latter's choosing Iona as the place to go to. Molaise's relationship to a royal house is also recorded somewhere, but I cannot lay my hands on it now. I have the impression it was the house of Dalraida. This would be good to know, as a Meehan, as the Dalriada are mentioned quite a bit in old sources. I would welcome any further information along these lines, if anyone would be so good as to help me along here.
The St. Molaise in question is the Patron of Devenish Island. The Meehan family originated as the custodians of a box made for his manuscript, called a Cumdach, (pr. Cum-dak, with emphasis on first syllable). This Cumdach, or Bookshrine of St. Molaise (pro. Muh-lay-she, emphasis on 2nd syllable), is "one of the greatest treasures of Ireland", and preserved in the National Museum of Ireland, quite a famous piece of late Celtic art, actually. The Meehan family were its custodians down to the nineteenth century when the last Meehan of the hereditary line, a Protestant minister called Thomas, I think, donated it to the Royal Academy, which then became the National Museum of Dublin.
You can see a good photograph of it in "Treasures of Early Ireland", 1978, Metropolitan Museum of New York, published by Knopf.
Being herenachs, the family had hereditary right in perpetuity to land on the Island, and the monastery supported the family in return for having access to the relics of the patron, on special feast days such as Devenish Patron Day, 12th September. This was a local holiday until late in the nineteenth century, when it was shut down by a puritanical official guardian of morality as an occasion for rowdy drunkenness and debauchery lasting a weekend or longer, thus putting an end to what sounds like must once have been a fine institution.
The Meehans moved off the island to a domain of their own in Co. Clare, a little south west of Upper Lough Erne, called Ballymeehan. At some point a lot of them moved to the Sligo area, to this day. I recall the surprise I had walking through a nearby town and seeing Meehan on practically every other shop front. There are a few legends associated with the Cumdach and various Meehans down the centuries. One relates how the shrine was lost, and found by a humble parish priest, who was given a vision in a dream of angels descending and opening the Well of Molaise on the Island, in the wall of which was hidden the box. He brought it to church before the assembled members of two feuding factions, and made each swear peace on it under pain of insanity. It is reported that not a few left the premises raving lunatics. Such was the hold of this tale on the imagination of succeeding generations that a magistrate in that part of the country related that in his experience, in the nineteenth century yet, the Cumdach was often hired by the court to swear in a Roman Catholic miscreant who otherwise would have no trouble of conscience perjuring himself on the English, King James version of the Bible.
At a later point in time, the thirteenth century I think, there was a dispute between three Meehans, one an Abbot of Devenish, one a Bishop of the Diocese of Devenish, which encompassed several adjacent townlands, and the local parish priest of Devenish, who actually had the little box in his possession. The other two were claiming prior claim to the precious object on account of their status. The story points up the difference between the traditional rule of the Abbey versus the Diocesan authority in the Irish church. The priest, abhorring the scandal of two princes of the church fighting in public over a material status object, burnt the contents of the box in order to protect the tender consciences of his flock. Pity that, his scruples cost the nation the loss of a precious manuscript that I would love to have been able to examine today. However, the tale is probably apocryphal, to provide an explanation for the fact the manuscript is lost. I would like to imagine that the Book of Molaise may yet surface from some back shelf. The prospect may encourage other Meehans to haunt second-hand bookstalls, driven by an otherwise inexplicable urge to pore through bins full of old books.
The box of the bookshine is a classical house-shaped box, of which several others are extant, including one from Lough Erne. Made of yew, the original of which was covered by silver and gold, with a Celtic cross on the front, inscribed with the names of the evangelist symbols and a request for a prayer for the Abbot who caused the ornamentation to be applied to it in the eleventh or twelfth century. The design of the cross is very beautiful. The background panels are filled with gold foil panels of the four evangelist symbols, and a side panel contains a small figure of an ecclesiastic with forked beard and holding a holy water sprinkler and a book, undoubtedly a representation of the founder. His figure is surrounded by four animals, dogs or lions, of late, medieval design, circa 1100. The style disappeared in 1125, with the coming of Normans, who brought their own craftsmen and the continental Romanesque style. That is the value of the bookshrine to art historians, as it is the last of its kind. Its lid is missing, but would have been roof-shaped, like a little model of a house, or more accurately, a representation of the temple, such as in the book of Kells, or as carved on the top of some Irish High Crosses. Some of panels on the side and back are missing. One is reported as having been prized off by the current custodian and sold to a Sligo watchmaker. I suspect the watchmaker was a Meehan, too, although there is no record of this.
There is a coat of arms for the Meehans, too, a shield divided by a chevron and three bucks, but I am uncertain of the design. It was granted to a Meehan by king James, for his part in the Battle of the Boyne, after which the newly ennobled fled to France, the longer to enjoy his new status. Consequently, there are probably French Meehans out there somewhere.
The name is spelt, O/'Mi/adhacha/in, in Gaelic, assuming an acute accent over the preceding vowel in place of the forward slash I have used here.
Well, that's all I can recall at the moment. Except to add that on Devenish Island there is a tower with four windows and four carved heads from the 12th century carved on it. Noone knows for sure who they are supposed to represent, but one of them, a fine face with shaven chin and braided sideburns, is supposed to represent the founder also. An illustration of it may be found on page 116 of Thames & Hudson's 1995 publication, "The Dragon and the Griffin, the Viking Impact", in their Celtic Design series.
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