BONAVEN TABERNIAE WAS WELL KNOWN TO THE IRISH SCOTS.

THIS will appear evident from a close study of the "Confession": "Ego
Patritius, peccator, rustissimus et minimus omnium fidelium, et
contemptabilissimus apud plurimos, patrem habui Calphurnium diaconum,
filium quondam Potiti, presbyteri, qui fuit vico Bonaven Taberniae,
villulam enim prope habuit ubi ego in capturam dedi. Annorum tune eram
fere XVI."

"I, Patrick, a sinner, the most uncultured and humblest of all the
Faithful, and, in the eyes of many, the most contemptible, had for
father Calphurnius, a deacon, and the son of Potitus, a priest, who
hailed from the suburbs of Bonaven, where the encampment stood, for he
possessed a little country seat close by, from whence I was taken
captive when I had almost attained my sixteenth year."

The primary meaning of "vicus" is a district, or a quarter of a city,
and "villula" signifies "a little country seat" (Smith's "Latin and
English Dictionary"). The district of the city of Bonaven alluded to
was evidently suburban, because the house in which Calphurnius and his
family dwelt was a "little country seat," which was, nevertheless,
close to ("prope") the town.

The Saint must have had some special reason for writing the name of his
native town in Gaelic, while the rest of the "Confession" is written in
Latin. There was a very important town in Armorican Britain at the
time, which was called Bononia by the Romans, and Bonauen by the
Gaulish Celts (Hersart de la Villemarque Celtic Legend, pp. 3, 4). In
the days of Julius Caesar its harbour was called Portus Ictius
("Dictionnaire Archeologique et Historique du Pas de Calais").

O'Donovan, who translated the "Annals of the Kingdom of Ireland by the
Four Masters," assures us in a note, under the year 405, that Niall of
the Nine Hostages was assassinated by the banished Prince Eochaidh at
Muir N'Icht, which the translator identifies as Bononia, or Boulogne-
sur-Mer. Keating, on the other hand, narrates that King Niall received
his mortal wound on the banks of the Loire. It is easy to reconcile the
apparent difference between the two accounts, if we assume that the
wounded Monarch was carried in a dying state to join the fleet which
lay at anchor in the fine bay which then formed the outer harbour of
Boulogne, and that he had at least the consolation of dying on board
his own ship.

Muir N'Icht, or Portus Ictius, then possessed the finest harbour in
northern Gaul.