[6] The Four Masters term him "ardeasbog", which Dr. John O'Donovan translated archbishop, but James Henthorn Todd pointed out that the correct rendering of the word is "chief or eminent bishop", and that it includes no idea of jurisdiction.
For it appears, from an inquisition held in the reign of Richard II, that a church had been "founded and endowed there by divers Irishmen whose names were unknown, time out of mind, and long before the conquest of Ireland".
This ancient site was bestowed on Dunan by Sitric, king of the Danes of Dublin, and with it "sufficient gold and silver" for the erection of the new church, and as an endowment, he granted him "the lands Bealduleek, Rechen, and Portrahern, with their villains, corn, and cattle".
[6] Sitric, according to the annalist Tigernach, had gone over the sea in 1035, probably for the sake of religious retirement, leaving his nephew as king of Dublin in his place.
This was three years before Dunan's appointment, and as the king died in 1042, it must have been when he became a monk, if Tigernach is right, that he made the grant referred to, and therefore the new foundation of Christ Church must have taken place between 1038 and 1042.
This story, as it stands, cannot be accepted as authentic history, for St. Patrick died according to the usual belief in 490, whereas the earliest mention of Danes in Ireland is in 795.
In the recent discovery made at Christ Church of a crypt hitherto unknown, some very ancient work was found, which is probably part of the buildings.