Lean neath

• neath: (dialect) beneath

• lean neath stone pine the pastor lies: Shakespeare, Hamlet: “Full fathom five thy father lies”

Commentary

Lean neath stone pine the pastor lies with his crook;

This phrase identifies the first of Ireland's "five fifths" or provinces, Ulster, which includes Downpatrick, the resting place of Ireland's original pastor St Patrick.

Ireland has only four provinces today – Ulster, Munster, Leinster and Connacht – but in the early Christian centuries there were five provinces or fifths, the Middle Irish word coiced (Modern Irish: cúigiú) meaning both fifth and province. The fifth province was the royal province that included Tara, the seat of the High Kings of Ireland. It corresponds roughly to the modern counties of Meath and Westmeath, both of which are now considered to be part of Leinster.