And, as we have noted, legend makes this territory the seat of the greatest heathen sanctuary of the whole island.

It is not without interest, Dalton wrote, that we note that the only wooden phallic objects unearthed in Ireland come from the counties of Cavan and Meath.

Breifne may have remained one of the last strongholds of paganism in Ireland.  It certainly was among the last of the Gaelic to pass under British control.

In the time of the confederate wars, the Cavan-Leitrim area was an important base of the Catholic forces operating in the north. Dalton says the explanation for this may be found in the difficulty of the Breifne country.  All along the northwestern area stretches the chain of great waters comprising Upper and Lower Lochs (lakes) Erne, Upper and Lower Lochs Macnean and Loch Melvin.

Behind this network of lake and river,' high mountains raise their ramparts to stay the invader. The whole western end of Breifne is a wilderness of barren heights and deep narrow glens, of rugged defiles and treacherous marsh, of countless lakes and myriad streams.'

Joseph Henry McGovern tells us that while the Barony of Tullyhaw was forfeited to the British crown in 1608, the MacGaurans or McGoverns clung tenaciously to their clan customs and after the period of inaugurating a chief had ceased, they still kept up their royal origin by electing a King and Queen of Glan (or Glangevlin) which was termed the refuge of the race). He termed the Glan area a 'wild, romantic district and townland in the parish of Templeport…. encircled with alpine hills, celebrated for their picturesque grandeur...the only entry being through the historic Gap of Beal.

The last nominated were Peter and Elizabeth Magauran or McGovern whose brother, James, was the Bishop of Ardagh and Clonmacnoise...and died in 1820.  The election was by a general consensus of the people. It is in this same treatise that the 'strange, semi-oriental language and cast of thought still linger among the inhabitants,' is noted.

THE ROYAL CEMETERY OF THE MCGOVERN CHIEFS

This writer also tells of the tradition that the last royal chieftain of the Clan Magauran or McGovern is buried in Inch or St. Mogue's (or St. Aidan's) island (now in Templeport Lake) near to Bawnboy and close to the ruins of the Lissanover Castle, one if the ancient seats of the Magauran chiefs.

Lewis, in his Topographical Dictionary of Ireland, 1837, states, 'In the lake of Templeport is an island called Inch,on which are the picturesque ruins of an abbey founded by St. Mogue in the 6th century.  At Kilnavart are the remains of an ancient monastery of which no particulars are

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