Cormac Mác Shamhradháin

Cormac Mác Shamhradháin O.S.A., (Anglicised as Cormack Magauran or McGovern) b. c.1410-d.1476, was the Roman Catholic Bishop of Ardagh diocese in Ireland from 1444 to 1476.

Cormac Mác Shamhradháin was a member of the McGovern clan, rulers in the Middle Ages of the tuath of Teallach n-Eachach in Breifne (now Tullyhaw, County Cavan, Ireland). He was born c. 1410, probably in or near Drumlane Abbey, County Cavan, where his father, Piaras Mág Shamhradháin O.S.A., was the Prior until his death in 1431. As the son of a priest, Cormac was definitionally illegitimate at birth. Cormac was descended from the chief who ruled Tullyhaw from 1258–1272, Donnchadh ‘Cime’ Mág Samhradháin. His pedigree is Cormac mac Piaras mac Aindriu mac Cleiminnt mac Tomás Amhlaoibh mac Mac Craithe mac Donnchadh ‘Cime’ Mág Samhradháin.

Cormac was presumably educated at Drumlane Abbey which was founded about the 6th century AD by Saint Columba. The abbey was a chapter house of the Augustinian Abbey of Kells, County Meath that was dedicated to Saint Mary. Cormac was ordained a priest and joined the Augustinian Order. On the death of his father Piaras in 1431, Cormac succeeded to the post of Prior of Drumlane due to hereditary succession rights. He would have been in his early twenties at the time.

The McGovern clan, through the ages, were associated with Drumlane and, in the 15th century alone, at least five of its members were appointed Prior. The ecclesiastical offices in Drumlane (Abbott, Prior, Parish Priest) were generally split between the McGoverns who were the hereditary erenachs, and the O'Farrellys who were the hereditary coarbs of Drumlane. In Canon Law, the right to appoint the Prior was reserved to the Pope and so in 1436, the matter of succession was submitted to Pope Eugene IV. He appointed the Archdeacon of Hainault in Liege to settle the matter by examining Cormac and other witnesses. As a result, Cormac was deprived of the office and Patrick O'Farrelly was appointed. O'Farrelly died c.1439 and Cormac then reclaimed possession of the Priory on the plea dispositionis ordinarie (collation by the ordinary). On Cormac's 1444 elevation to the See of Ardagh, the Pope appointed Thady Magauran as Prior of Drumlane.

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