Mochuda’s Expulsion
Archived: 4 November 2026
Abstract
In 636 CE, the clearest Irish event is an expulsion rather than a battle or royal accession: Carthach, better known as Mochuda or Mo Chutu, was driven from the monastery of Raithen, modern Rahan in County Offaly, at Eastertide. The terse record in the annals gives neither a speech, a march nor a legal judgement. Yet this removal of a prominent abbot from a major midland community was politically meaningful, religiously charged and consequential for the history of southern Ireland. Modern reference scholarship places the expulsion in 636, while also warning that the early annals preserve difficult and sometimes displaced