Cenn Fáelad mac Ailella

Cenn Fáelad mac Ailella ( German " master of [who - ] wolves? "; † 679 ), also Cennʄáelad, was an Irish scholar who became known by the only surviving brain surgery to Irish Prehistory. He was a descendant of the famous King Niall Noigiallach from which the Uí Néill derive their pedigree. After John F. Healy (1926-2012) his sister Sabina said to have been the mother of St Cuthbert of Lindisfarne.

Cenn Fáelad fights in the battle of Mag Rath ( Cath Maige Rátha; 636 or 637) with. He will then issue a serious head wound and is in the Abbey of Tomregan (now in County Cavan ) brought to there by the Abbot St. Bricrin ( 590-650 ) to be healed. That Cenns father Ailill mac Báetán had been 16 years earlier murdered at nearby Mag Slecht, as in the Annals of Ulster ( Annala Uladh ) is listed, there is probably a coincidence. A year long Cenn is maintained in the monastery, he is healthy again. But as a result of an operation in which the shattered pieces of the skull and a part of the brain had to be removed - allegedly responsible for the forgetting part - be his mental faculties, especially the Wish assets, almost infallible.

As a scholar Cenn Fáelad is the first book of the Auraicept na nÉces ( "Guide to the learned poet " ) have been drafted and is one of the most famous poets of Ireland. He should have worked as a teacher of Latin, Irish law and poetry in the Irish language in a convent school, without being himself a monk. Many of the works attributed to him are, however, emerged only long after his death. He is the first poet who is mentioned by name in the Annals of Ulster.