A Christian heritage lost in ivy

Last Easter Sunday, I was privileged to attend a dawn Mass, near Cong, on the Lough Corrib shore. About 300 people stood close to a blazing fire, as daybreak slowly lifted the darkness revealing the wide expanse of water, its wooded islands, and in the distance, the mountains of the Maam valley. It was perfectly silent and peaceful. Fr Ray Flaherty welcomed us with these opening words: ‘It was here many saints like Meldon, Fursey, Brendan and Feichin made their homes of peace and prayer. There are many sanctuaries scattered today in ruins along the shores of this lake, silent ruins where the soft tones of bells and the church’s solemn chant floated over the waves...’

The Mass was celebrated within sight of Inchagoill, the largest of the 145 islands on our lake. Inchagoill has been inhabited for approximately 1,400 years. The last resident was Tom Nevin, the caretaker for the Guinness family, who maintained the pathways and graveyard. Large boats were being built on the island as recently as 1956. But the Nevin family house is an overgrown ruin now, and its remains lie close to two of the most beautifully preserved early Christian churches, that even today radiate a presence of peace and spirituality.

A missed opportunity

There is often more drama in the board room of the Abbey Theatre, Dublin, than what is presented on its stage. Following a famous conversation in Doorus House, Kinvara, one rainy afternoon in 1897, Lady Augusta Gregory of Coole Park, Edward Martyn of Ardrahan, and the young poet WB Yeats agreed to set up the Irish Literary Theatre. Theatre at the time was mainly influenced by the popular British music hall variety; and melodrama. It was agreed that day in Co Galway that the new Irish theatre would ‘embody and perpetuate Irish feeling, genius, and modes of thought’.

A literary revolution was part of a feverish revival and growing pride in all things Irish, from sport, to music and culture, to language and politics. It was innovative and experimental. Lady Gregory and Yeats’ play Cathleen ní Houlihan (1902) was, for its time, a brilliant allegory on the injustice of British rule in Ireland. It played to packed houses. Two years later with the help of a professional company of actors (the Fay brothers), and money from a wealthy benefactress, the company gelled into the National Theatre of Ireland. It opened its doors at 26 Lower Abbey Street, Dublin, and became known as the Abbey Theatre. Over the years it attracted an extraordinary range of talent including that of Yeats and Gregory, George Moore, Edward Martyn, Padraic Column, GB Shaw, Oliver St John Gogarty, FR Higgins, Thomas McDonagh, Lord Dunsany, T C Murray, James Cousins, and Lennox Robinson.

The last free Chieftains of Ireland

Some weeks ago I wrote that probably the greatest muster of the Irish Gaelic lords that ever gathered on a battlefield took their place on either side at Knockdoe, Co Galway, on August 19 1504. The O’Donnells and the O’Neills, from their great northern fiefdoms, fought for law and order on the side of the Earl of Kildare who successfully imposed the king’s rule on his rebellious and quarrelsome son-in-law the Earl of Clanricard, Ulick de Burgh (Burke) of Claregalway castle. Ulick’s marriage to Kildare’s daughter, and his disregard for her, gave the Earl a personal reason for the battle; but his allies were equally anxious to display their loyalty to King Henry VII, the undisputed king of England after the protracted and bloody Wars of the Roses.

Yet within 30 years, the house of Kildare was in revolt against the crown. The result was that the Earl of Kildare’s grandson, Tomás an tSíoda, was hanged and beheaded in the Tower of London. While at Tyburn his five uncles were partly hanged, cut down, had their intestines drawn from their bodies, thrown into a fire, before finally, and mercifully, hacked into four pieces with an axe. Rebellion against the English crown, much of it calamitous for the people involved, continued sporadically until the Flight of the Earls on September 14 1607, a significant moment in Ireland’s history.

More Galway Diary

• A Christian heritage lost in ivy
• The last free Chieftains of Ireland
• Life is absurd - but let’s get involved
• Ireland’s greatest Gaelic lords gathered at Knockdoe
• Remembered love stories still ring true
• A landscape treasure on our doorstep
• A child remembers Easter in Russia
• Running barefoot to their dreams...
• A charming American who hid his battle secrets
• Maamtrasna - beginning the search for truth
• The Maamtrasna Murders, August 17 1882
• Saving old buildings with new ideas
• Paying roads repair money by kilometre is fairest
• The Tulip of Tuam and other flowers
• The man who ran the ‘Corofin mile’
• Chasing the girls, and hunting the wren
• Animals at war, virgins in Loughrea, poitín, and peace at the ‘Augi’...
• A Taste of Galway
• When it comes to Christmas, the best is always worth it
• Opening a door on the Clarinbridge community
• Gallows humour, and the late Ms Barbara Cartland
• The priests were on the ball...
• The crucial match that Loughrea lost
• The Strange case of Warden Bodkin’s hand...
• The strange case of Warden Bodkin’s hand...
• Portrait of the writer as a young man
• A risen people achieve their own miracle
• In the summer of 1879, the role of the Church in the Land Movement was centre stage...
• Miracle at Knock, and a disturbed County Mayo...
• 200 years ago the Belles of Galway spent their time ‘buying, laughing and chatting’