Shortly after his arrival with seven companions - at the
point where the major east-west land route through the bogs of
central Ireland along the EiscirRiada, an esker left by the
receding glaciers of the last ice age crossed the River Shannon -
Saint Ciarán met DiarmaitUíCerbaill who helped him build the first
church at the site. This was a small wooden structure and the first of many
small churches to be clustered on the
