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Earthing the Myths. Daragh Smyth
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isbn 9781788551373
Автор произведения Daragh Smyth
Издательство Ingram
The most famous legend associated with Patrick was written in the twelfth century and tells how the saint brought all the snakes and demons of Ireland to the top of Cruachán Aigle and from there drove them into the sea. This highly popular tale of the snakes is a later addition to the observation by the third-century Roman writer Solinus that Ireland was free of all reptiles. To the south of the mountain is Loch na Corra, written as Lough Nacorra on the Discovery map; the name can be translated as ‘the lake of the heron’ but also as ‘the lake of the Serpent’ [37]. St Patrick is said to have driven a demon bird into a hollow which subsequently filled up with water to form the lake. This bird-demon is reminiscent of in tEllén Trechend (‘triple-headed Ellén’), a bird associated with the Otherworld cave at Cruachain in Roscommon. After a while, the bird flew out of Lough Nacorra and flew north to land in Lough Derg [17], where she continues to observe the pilgrims.
Another lake associated with Croagh Patrick is Lough Carra (Loch Ceara, with an older name being Finloch Ceara, ‘the white lake of Carra’) [38]. An eleventh-century verse by an unknown author where, unlike at Lough Nacorra, the birds are ‘angelic’ is as follows:
when St. Patrick, glorious in grace, was suffering on goodly Cruach – an anxious toilsome time for him, the protector of lay men and women –
God sent to comfort him a flock of spotless angelic birds; over the clear lake without fail they would sing in chorus their gentle proclamation.
And thus they called, auspiciously: ‘Patrick, arise and come! Shield of the Gael, in pure glory, illustrious golden spark of fire.’
The whole host struck the lake with their smooth and shadowy wings, so that its chilly waters became like a silver sheen.
Hence comes the bright name The White Lake of Carra of the contests; I tell you this triumphant meaning as I have heard in every church.
There is a hollow on the northern face of Croagh Patrick known as Lugnademon [30] or ‘the hollow of the demons’, lug meaning ‘hollow’. This is where the demons retreated prior to their banishment. A more solid edifice of Christian presence on Croagh Patrick is a dry-stone oratory that was discovered in an archaeological excavation. It has been compared to St Gallarus’s oratory in Co. Kerry and has a carbon dating from between 430 and 890 AD.
Cruachán Aigle is mentioned in a poem from the Dindshenchas, (a work of early Irish literature recounting the origins of place names)* the following being the first two verses:
Oighle mac Deirg, derg a dhrech,
romarb Cromderg mac Connrach:
don gnim-sin co ngairge ngus
as de atá Oighle ar Gharbrus.
Cruachán Garbrois gairmdís de
lucht eólais in tiri-si:
Cruachán Aighle ósin amach
a ainm co tí in bráth brethach.
Aigle son of Derg (red his face); him Cromderg son of Connra slew: from that deed of savage force the name Aigle is given to Garbros.
Cruachán Garbrois the learned of this land used to call it: thenceforth name Aigle is given to Garbros.
[Translated by Edward Gwynn]
The location of Garbros is problematic, but Edward Gwynn in his commentary to the Dindshenchas* says that it probably was a district extending from Mayo across to north Sligo. Garbros can mean a ‘rough tract of arable land’, and this may well have described a large section of the land in Mayo and Sligo during Patrick’s time and even up to the present day. As the Dindshenchas is often mentioned in these pages, perhaps it is time to define precisely what the word means. Essentially it means ‘hill lore’ or a topographical explanation of noted places both in verse and in prose. Most of these commentaries are in verse, and are to be seen in the Book of Leinster compiled in the late-eleventh century, although Cruachán Aigle is in other manuscripts.
Although the chapel on the summit of Croagh Patrick is the central attraction for most of the pilgrims, the landscape surrounding the mountain contains evidence of a Stone Age and Bronze Age ritual nature, as shown, for example, by the number of hillforts, which was revealed as the result of an archaeological dig in 1994. However, its pre-Christian role is seldom alluded to.
The pilgrim route to Croagh Patrick was known as Tóchar Phrádraig, and it is along this route that many of the monuments which testify to the importance of the ancient landscape can be seen. The Christian pilgrimage starts at Ballintubber Abbey (Baile an Tobair, ‘homestead of the well’) but the earlier or pagan pilgrimage started at Aghagower (Achadh Ghobair, ‘field of the horse’), which previously was called Achadh Fhobair (‘field of the spring well’). At both starting points the spring wells would have supplied the liquid essentials for a rocky journey.
At Aghagower [31] begins the ritual landscape connected to Croagh Patrick. One finds here the Leacht Tomaltaigh or the ‘stone of feasting’, but before one gets carried away with an image of gluttonous pilgrims, the meaning is far more likely to mean ‘the stone in memory of Tomaltach’. Tomaltach was a fifth-century King of Connacht, and this stone may have signified his standing before or during the early Christian period. The stone is just beyond Aghagower to the left of the pilgrim path. Pilgrimage to the Reek was customary among kings, and Hugh O’Rourke, King of Breffni, was captured while returning from Croagh Patrick in 1351, according to the Annals of Clonmacnoise.
As we walk about two miles west beyond Aghagower, we find a landscape strewn with monuments from the Stone Age to the Iron Age. And one may presume that among these monuments is the original route. A starting point may be at Cloghan Bridge [38], underneath which the River Carrowbeg flows from south to north. Less than a mile beyond Cloghan Bridge is a crossroads, and shortly after this is the Lankill stone, and about a third of a mile south of this is the Lanmore standing stone. These two stones can be seen as the grand gateway to the ancient landscape. A mile further on along the pilgrim’s walk is the Boheh standing stone, which is on a mild elevation on the right side of the road. From here, in order to immerse yourself in the landscape, walk due south for a little over a mile and climb to the top of Liscarney Hill, and from there you should see the Liscarney stone row and ring barrow. Walking from the barrow in a south-west direction, you cross the N59 and from here you can see, about 200 yards away, Lough Moher Lough (Loch Mothar, ‘the lake of the thicket’) [38]. The name presumably refers to the cluster of trees and bushes that were once around the lake; There is a crannóg on the lough, a word that comes from the Irish crann, ‘a tree’, and signifies a dwelling made of wood; crannógs were built on artificial islands on lakes as homesteads at roughly the same time as ring forts, from the fourth to the seventeenth century.
Back on the N59, Liscarney village [38] is merely one mile north along the road. One mile north from Liscarney you pass two lakes on your left, which are known as Boheh Loughs, and beyond them you are back on Tóchar Phádraig. At this point you should turn right to view the rock art on a rock outcrop, which consists of cup and ring motifs and is regarded as one of the most highly decorated forms of rock art in Britain and Ireland. Archaeologists such as Corlett, Bradley and Johnson researching in the 1990s have suggested that this form of art may have its origins from as early as the fourth millennium BC. In Offaly, another example of this art can be seen at Clonfinlough, close to Clonmacnoise [47].
Croagh Patrick can be seen from many locations both near and far, and observing it from ancient sites adds to its appeal. A cairn in the townland of Aillemore on a hill two miles south-east from Bunlough Strand [37] is an excellent viewing location. Slightly north of the megalithic court tomb at Formoyle, three miles east from Sruhir Strand [37], is another viewing point. Carrowkeel