Luguaedon of Inchagoill (also ''Lugnad'', ''Lugnaedon'', ) was an Irish

hermit A hermit, also known as an eremite (adjectival form: hermitic or eremitic) or solitary, is a person who lives in seclusion. Eremitism plays a role in a variety of religions. Description In Christianity, the term was originally applied to a Chr ...

. Luguaedon is known from a remarkable upright, decorated cross-slab stone on the island of

Inchagoill Inchagoill is an island in Lough Corrib, Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Its Christian ruins constitute an Irish National Monument. The island name means "Island of the devout foreigner." Location Inchagoill is an island of located in the north ...

Lough Corrib Lough Corrib ( ; ) is a lake in the west of Ireland. The River Corrib or Galway River connects the lake to the sea at Galway. It is the largest lake within the Republic of Ireland and the second largest on the island of Ireland (after Lough Nea ...

County Galway County Galway ( ; ) is a Counties of Ireland, county in Republic of Ireland, Ireland. It is in the Northern and Western Region, taking up the south of the Provinces of Ireland, province of Connacht. The county population was 276,451 at the 20 ...

. It reads "LIE LUGUAEDON MACCI MENUEH" ('the stone of Luguaedon son of Menueh'), which may be a transliteration of an older

Ogham Ogham (also ogam and ogom, , Modern Irish: ; , later ) is an Early Medieval alphabet used primarily to write the early Irish language (in the "orthodox" inscriptions, 4th to 6th centuries AD), and later the Old Irish language ( scholastic ...

inscription. Luguaedon's origins are obscure, and may have been quite early in the early Irish Christian era. Traditions recorded in the late 19th and early 20th centuries states that Luguaedon had been British (

Britons (historical) The Britons (Linguistic reconstruction, *''Pritanī'', , ), also known as Celtic Britons or Ancient Britons, were the Celts, Celtic people who inhabited Great Britain from at least the British Iron Age until the High Middle Ages, at which point ...

) – the name of the island means "the stranger's island." He is also said in local folklore to have been

Saint Patrick Saint Patrick (; or ; ) was a fifth-century Romano-British culture, Romano-British Christian missionary and Archbishop of Armagh, bishop in Gaelic Ireland, Ireland. Known as the "Apostle of Ireland", he is the primary patron saint of Irelan ...

’s nephew and navigator. Though the usual reading of the name is "Luguaedon Macci Menueh", Damian McManus posits that it may be an earlier form, "moccu", which denoted a relationship or kinship to a

tribe The term tribe is used in many different contexts to refer to a category of human social group. The predominant worldwide use of the term in English is in the discipline of anthropology. The definition is contested, in part due to conflict ...

, rather than a

dynastic A dynasty is a sequence of rulers from the same family, usually in the context of a monarchical system, but sometimes also appearing in republics. A dynasty may also be referred to as a "house", "family" or "clan", among others. Historians ...

blood relationship (see

Irish name A formal Irish name consists of a given name and a surname. In the Irish language, most surnames are patronymic surnames (distinct from patronyms, which are seen in Icelandic names for example). The form of a surname varies according to whethe ...

). The stone is 1 metre tall and stands among the other stones surrounding the church.

External links

* http://www.megalithicireland.com/Inchagoill%20Island.htm * https://web.archive.org/web/20110607123531/http://www.letsgo.com/17377-ireland-travel-guides-western_ireland-lough_corrib-oughterard_uachtar_%C3%81rd-c * http://gray.ischool.berkeley.edu:1935/0314/raw_text/00400_00010_mon_00023.txt * http://publish.ucc.ie/doi/locus/I

References

* ''The Stone of Luguaedon on Inchagoill'', the Editor, Vol. 3, part ii, Journal of the

Galway Archaeological and Historical Society The Galway Archaeological and Historical Society was founded on 21 March 1900. It promotes historical preservation, as well as the study of the archaeology and history of the west of Ireland. As of January 2002, the Society had published 53 cons ...

, 1903–1904 * ''A Guide to Ogham'', Damian McManus,

Maynooth Maynooth (; ) is a university town in north County Kildare, Ireland. It is home to Maynooth University (part of the National University of Ireland and also known as the National University of Ireland, Maynooth) and St Patrick's College, Maynoo ...

, 1991. {{DEFAULTSORT:Luguaedon Of Inchagoill People from County Galway Sub-Roman Britons 6th-century Irish people Maritime navigators