Saint Dallan was born in Maigen (now Ballyconnell), at the eastern edge of the territory of the Masraige of Magh Slécht in the north-west of modern County Cavan. He was not a member of the Masraige but belonged to a branch of the Airgíalla called the Fir Lurg, who were in the process of spreading southwards into modern-day County Fermanagh and County Cavan.
The Amhra Coluim Cille, a panegyric on Columba, written shortly after Columba’s death in 597, is his best known work and considered “one of the most important poems we have from the early medieval Gaelic world”. It is reported that after completing the work, Dallan regained his sight. It was claimed that those who recited the praises of Columba from memory would receive the gift of a happy death, a custom that was widely abused by those who attempted to rely on their memory rather than a virtuous life. The “Amhra Coluim Cille” became a popular text for students in Irish monasteries.
In 640, Dallan was visiting his friend Saint Conall Cael at his monastery on Inishkeel when pirates raided the island monastery. Dallan was reportedly beheaded, and it is said that God reattached his head to his body after he was martyred. He was buried on Iniskeel; his friend Canall Cael was later laid to rest in the same grave.
Sources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dall%C3%A1n_Forgaill
According to the Life of St Dallán in the Acta Sanctorum Hiberniae
Dictionary of the Irish Language, compact edition, Royal Irish Academy p. 178
T. M. Charles-Edwards, 'Dallán Forgaill (fl. 597)', Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004,
"Dallàn's death and burial" on page 37 of 'The Bodleian Amra Choluimb Chille' in Revue Celtique. Vol. 21 (Paris 1900), pp. 133-136.
www.vanhamel.nl.
