St. Comman, of Tigh-mic-Fionnchain, May 8

On May 8 the earliest of the Irish calendars, the Martyrology of Tallaght, at least in one of its surviving manuscripts, records the name of Saint Comman and associates him with a locality called 'Tigh mic Fionnchain'. No further information about either is known, as Canon O'Hanlon explains:

St. Comman, of Tigh-mic-Fionnchain.

In the published Martyrology of Tallagh, we find no entry of the present saint, or of his feast. The copy of the Tallagh Martyrology, belonging to the Dublin Franciscan Convent, has a notice, however, at the eighth of the May Ides about Comman, while his place is denominated—probably as given in the later Martyrology of Donegal. The locality, denominated Tig-mac-Fionnchain, does not appear to be known; nor do we find any corresponding nomenclature for it, among the parochial or townland etymons, on the Ordnance Survey Maps for Ireland. The Bollandists  have a feast for Communus de Teghune Fendchain, sive de domo filii Fianthaim, but, it seems pretty certain, they have mispelled some of the letters in the original entry, drawn from the Tallagh Martyrology. The Martyrology of Donegal registers a festival, on this day, in honour of Comman, of Tigh mic Fionnchain.

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