Cormac Mág Shamhradháin

Cormac Mág Shamhradháin O.S.A., (Anglicised as Cormack Magauran or McGovern) b. c.1442-d.1511, was the Roman Catholic Bishop of Kilmore diocese, Ireland from 1476 to 1480 and the anti-bishop of Kilmore from 1480 to 1511.

Cormac Mág Shamhradháin was a member of the McGovern clan who were the rulers in the Middle Ages of the tuath of Teallach n-Eachach in Breifne (now Tullyhaw, County Cavan, Ireland). He was born c.1442, probably in or near Drumlane Abbey, County Cavan, where his father Cormac Mác Shamhradháin O.S.A. was the Prior of Drumlane and who later in 1444 was appointed Bishop of Ardagh. As the son of a priest Cormac was therefore illegitimate at birth. Under Canon Law this was a bar to receiving Church appointments and caused him trouble in later life. Cormac was descended from the chief who ruled Tullyhaw from 1258-1272, Donnchadh ‘Cime’ Mág Samhradháin. His pedigree is Cormac mac 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, Co. Meath and it was dedicated to Saint Mary. Cormac was subsequently ordained a priest and on 13 October 1461 he was appointed vicar of Templeport parish, County Cavan, in succession to Rory McGovern who had been excommunicated. and On 26 August 1467, Cormac was transferred from Templeport to Drumlane where he succeeded John MacBrian to the post of Prior of Drumlane due to hereditary succession rights, as both his father and grandfather were previous Priors of Drumlane. He also became a member of the Augustinian Canons. 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 thereof. 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. Cormac retained the office of Prior until his death in 1511.

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