Chai Brady
Killian day celebrated in Cavan In a record-breaking feat, hundreds of people named Cillian have travelled to a small town in Cavan where St Kilian is from.
Mullagh was swarmed by 327 Cillians in honour of the saint, who is the patron of those suffering with rheumatism.
The Cillians marched through Mullagh Fair led by the Corduff Pipe Band before the record was announced.
“We have the Mullagh Fair every single year and there’s always a massive amount of people there, but it was absolutely fantastic. We never expected the amount of people to come that came it was brilliant,” said Cavan Cllr Shane O’Reilly.
St Kilian was known as a missionary determined to extend the Christian frontiers and was directed to Germany by the then Pope in 686AD.
He was martyred in 689AD, after denouncing a duke who was having an affair with his brother’s wife.
St Kilian’s Heritage Centre in Mullagh was erected in his honour by the local community in association with the Diocese of Würzburg in Southern Germany.