Praying in Ordinary Time 2021: 50, Saint Mary’s Cathedral, Scattery Island

The ruins of Saint Mary’s Cathedral and the round tower on Scattery island (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

This is the Seventh Sunday after Trinity (Trinity VII), and later this morning (18 July 2021) I am taking part in Morning Prayer in Saint Mary’s Church, Askeaton, Co Limerick, and presiding and preaching at the Parish Eucharist in Saint Brendan’s Church, Tarbert, Co Kerry.

Before the day becomes a busy Sunday, I am taking some time this morning for prayer, reflection and reading.

During this time in the Church Calendar known as Ordinary Time, I am taking some time each morning to reflect in these ways:

1, photographs of a church or place of worship;

2, the day’s Gospel reading;

3, a prayer from the prayer diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel).

Last week, my photographs were from seven cathedrals or former cathedrals in the Diocese of Limerick and Killaloe: Aghadoe, Ardfert, Emly, Gort, Kilfenora, Kilmacduagh and Roscrea.

I could have included the ruined cathedral on Scattery Island in the Shannon Estuary. Instead, Saint Mary’s Cathedral on Scattery Island introduces this week’s theme of island churches.

The west end of the Cathedral on Scattery island (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Scattery Island has a ruined cathedral, ruined churches, a round tower and monastic sites. This once-inhabited but now deserted island in the Shannon estuary is about a mile south-west of Kilrush, Co Clare. The island and the tall round tower are clearly visible from the coast, and the longest part of this short boat trip from Kilrush is passing through the lock that allows boats to pass from the Marina into the estuary.

Apart from the monastic site, Inis Cathaigh or Scattery Island is also home to a lighthouse, the remains of an artillery battery, a visitor centre, a ruined castle and the scattered remains of the homes of families who had lived on the island until the 1970s. Most of the island is now owned by the Office of Public Works.

The Irish name Inis Cathaigh later became Iniscathy, Iniscattery and finally Scattery, and means Island of the Battles, or, in legend, the island of the sea monster vanquished by Saint Senan.

The island is closely inked in history and in myth with the story of Saint Senan, who was born at Magh Lacha, east of Kilrush, ca 488. Legend says his birth was foretold by Saint Patrick on a visit to the area. As a boy, Senan was placed under the guidance of an abbot named Cassidan, and he finished his studies with Saint Naul at Kilmanagh, Co Kilkenny.

Saint Senan began his mission work by founding a church near Enniscorthy, Co Wexford, ca 510-512. The parish is still known as Templeshannon (Teampail Seanain, or the Church of Senan). He then founded churches at Sennen’s Cove, Cornwall, and at Plouzane (‘Church of Senan’) in Brittany. He is also said to have visited Menevia, Rome, and Tours, before returning to Ireland ca 520.

Having founded more churches back in Ireland, Saint Senan finally settled at Inis Cathaigh or Scattery Island. Legend says Saint Senán vanquished ‘The Cathach,’ a sea monster that lived on the island and killed anyone who stepped ashore. The Angel Raphael led him to Ard na nAingeal, where he faced the monster.

Saint Senan was visited by Saint Ciarán, Saint Brendan and other holy men. But no woman was allowed onto Inis Cathaigh – not even Saint Senan’s sister Saint Cannera was allowed to land there. Legend says she asked to be buried near Saint Senan. When she died, her brother waited until low tide to bury her in an inter-tidal zone, fulfilling her wish without breaking his own rules.

Inis Cathaigh became an abbey and the seat of a bishop, with Saint Senan counted as its first bishop from ca 535-540. He is listed among the ‘12 Apostles of Ireland’ and died on 8 March 544, when he was buried in the abbey church.

The Vikings first raided the island in 815, killing many monks. The monastery was plundered repeatedly until the Vikings came to settle there in the mid-10th century. This, in turn, led to attacks by Irish kings.

Scattery was a part of the Norse Kingdom of Limerick, and with its strategic location at the mouth of the Shannon it effectively controlled all maritime traffic passing up the river to Limerick.

The Annals of Inisfallen record that in the 970s, the Norse kings of Limerick were living on Scattery. Maccus mac Arailt, King of the Isles, captured Ivar of Limerick in 974, but he ‘escaped over sea’ the following year. Ivar of Limerick, the last Norse king of Limerick, and two of his sons, were slain on Scattery by Brian Boru in 977.

At an early period, the abbot-bishop of the monastery tried to exercise authority over what later became parts of the dioceses of Killaloe, Limerick and Ardfert. The Diocese of Inis Cathaigh was recognised at the Synod of Ráth BreasailI in 1111, and included the present Baronies of Moyarta and Clonderalaw in Co Clare, the Barony of Connelo in Limerick, and a small portion of Kerry from the Feal to the Atlantic.

After Bishop Áed Ua Bécháin died in 1188, the diocese was absorbed into the dioceses of Limerick, Killaloe and Ardfert in 1189.

An Irish Franciscan friar, Thomas McMahon, was appointed Bishop of Scattery by Pope Innocent VI in 1360, and tried to take possession of the island and the diocese. But the bishops of Limerick, Killaloe and Ardfert complained to Rome, and in 1366 Pope Urban V declared the appointment null and void. In 1378, its possessions were divided, and the island remained a portion of the Diocese of Killaloe, being subsequently merged into the parish of Kilrush.

There was a series of titular Bishops of Scattery in the 14th and 15th centuries, but they were absentees and generally served as assistant bishops in York and Canterbury until 1467. They included an English Augustinian, John Grene, who was Bishop of Inis Cathaig in 1452-1467 but lived in England.

In the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, the abbey with the churchyard, 24 acres of land, a house, a castle, and three cottages in the island of Inniscattery were granted to the Mayor and citizens of Limerick, together with a church in ruins, 20 acres of wood and stony ground, and all the tithes.

The Keane family built a stone castle on the island in the 1577, a decade before the Spanish Armada in 1588. It was several storeys high in 1681, but today only the vaulted chamber at ground level is all that can be seen of the castle near the pier.

The artillery battery, located on the south of Scattery, was built during the Napoleonic Wars. After the Windsor Castle was salvaged in 1842, Scattery Island was home to Shannon Estuary river pilots and their families. The lighthouse on the island was built in 1872. Today, it is fully automated and powered by solar power.

Scattery Island has the ruins of six churches and one of the highest Round Towers in Ireland.

Saint Mary’s Cathedral, he main church on the island, was probably built in the 8th century, and was repeatedly altered and enlarged until the 15th century. It is 20.7 metres long and 8.2 metres wide. The north wall, the lower part of the west gable and parts of the south wall possibly date from the 8th or 9th century.

The east gable was rebuilt at a later date and a large Gothic window was inserted. Gothic windows and a pointed doorway were also inserted into the south wall during that later period and the doorway in the west gable was blocked up.

An effigy of a bishop’s head on the outside of the east window is said to be Saint Senan. Below this are two carved heads of snarling animals, said to represent the monster Saint Senan banished from the island.

To the north the cathedral, a smaller church or ‘oratory’ was probably a private chapel used by the monks and priests of the island community. Excavations of the site revealed the base of a rich Romanesque chancel arch dating from ca 1100, with clustered pillars and chevrons.

To the immediate west of the cathedral, the Round Tower is 26 metres (85.3 ft) high. It is one of the oldest and tallest surviving round towers in Ireland, and one of only two with its door at ground level – a feature shared with the round tower in Castledermot, Co Kildare; most round towers have doorways raised 1.5 to 4.5 metres above the ground.

Saint Senan’s Well or Tobar Senan, to the south of the round tower, is a sunken well entered by steps and still filled with water. It remains a place of pilgrimage associated with a ‘pattern’ on Saint Senan’s Feast Day, 8 March.

To the north of the cathedral site, Saint Senan’s Church is a small 12th century church built in the Romanesque style. Immediately west of this church, ‘Saint Senan’s Bed’ is a small church built over the burial place of Saint Senan. An iron bar blocking the doorway was traditionally used to block women from entering this small church.

Close to Saint Senan’s Church and Saint Senan’s Bed, a mediaeval grave slab is carved with an ornate cross and inscription in mediaeval Irish that reads, Or do Moenach aite Mogroin, ‘Pray for Moenach, the teacher of Mogroin.’ This is probably the burial ground reserved for the island’s monks, priests and bishops.

The highest point on the island is the Hill of the Angel or Cnoc an Aingeal, a ridge to the south-west of the cathedral. The ruins here are from a church built to commemorate Saint Senan’s battle with the island monster and to mark where Saint Senan first set foot on the island.

This is thought to be one of the earliest surviving churches from Saint Senan’s monastery, but only a few sections of the foundations and the south wall of the church remain, including a window and two doorways.

The most recent church on the island is the Church of the Dead or Teampall na Marbh, dating from the late 14th or early 15th century. Inside is a mediaeval carving of a man’s face to the right of the east window.

The graveyard at this church was the traditional burial place for the lay inhabitants of the island. The last burial here took place in 2007.

A ‘Prayer Stone’ was placed close to the Visitor Centre on the shore in the 19th century as marker to guide pilgrims visiting the island. At one time, there were seven prayer stones on Scattery.

The population of Scattery Island peaked at 141 in 1881, and the population continued to thrive into the 20th century, with a post office opening in the 1930s. The school closed in 1948, and the last two islanders, brother and sister Bobby and Patricia McMahon, left Scattery in 1978. Most of the island had been bought on behalf of the Irish State by 1989.

Inis Cathaigh remains the name of a titular see in the Roman Catholic Church, and today the titular Bishop of Inis Cathaigh is Bishop Josef Graf, who was appointed in 2015 as an auxiliary bishop of Regensburg in Germany. In the Church of Ireland, Inniscattery remains the name of a prebendal stall in the United Chapter of the Cathedrals of Limerick, Killaloe and Clonfert. Canon Charles McCartney was installed as the Prebendary of Inniscattery in Saint Flannan’s Cathedral, Killaloe, last month (20 June 2021).

The figure of a mitred bishop above the east window of the Cathedral on Scattery island (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Mark 6: 30-34, 53-56 (NRSVA):

30 The apostles gathered around Jesus, and told him all that they had done and taught. 31 He said to them, ‘Come away to a deserted place all by yourselves and rest a while.’ For many were coming and going, and they had no leisure even to eat. 32 And they went away in the boat to a deserted place by themselves. 33 Now many saw them going and recognized them, and they hurried there on foot from all the towns and arrived ahead of them. 34 As he went ashore, he saw a great crowd; and he had compassion for them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd; and he began to teach them many things.

53 When they had crossed over, they came to land at Gennesaret and moored the boat. 54 When they got out of the boat, people at once recognized him, 55 and rushed about that whole region and began to bring the sick on mats to wherever they heard he was. 56 And wherever he went, into villages or cities or farms, they laid the sick in the market-places, and begged him that they might touch even the fringe of his cloak; and all who touched it were healed.

Inside the Round Tower, one of the tallest in Ireland (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Prayer in the USPG Prayer Diary:

The Prayer in the USPG Prayer Diary today (18 July 2021) invites us to pray:

Almighty God,
We have much to learn.
Teach us your ways of righteousness, your gospel of love.
May we be faithful servants, eager to do your will.
Bless us in all we do.

Yesterday’s reflection

Continued tomorrow

At the pier on Scattery Island … with views of the Church of the Dead, the Round Tower and the Cathedral (Photograph: Patrick Comerford; click on image for full-screen view)

Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicised Edition copyright © 1989, 1995, National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. http://nrsvbibles.org

Following the monastic trail around Scattery island (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

A dozen Irish islands worth visiting … when this social isolation ends

Sunrise on Inishmore … the largest of the Aran Islands in Galway Bay (Photograph: Patrick Comerford; click on images for full-screen view)

Patrick Comerford

The present travel restrictions in Ireland, imposed last week in response to the Corona virus or Covid-19 pandemic mean that all travel to the offshore islands is restricted to the permanent residents of those islands.

So, if you are feeling wistful and wanting to conjure up images in your mind’s eye of some of these offshore islands, here are images of a dozen or so islands (click on the images for full-screen views).

Some, of course, have no residents, permanent or part-time, so I imagine they are receiving no visitors at all. Others are joined to the Irish mainland by bridges, so I imagine they do not face the same restrictions. And one is not really an island … guess which one.

1, Achill Island, Co Mayo:

Dugort beach and Slievemore on Achill Island (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

I have been a regular visitor to Achill Island since I first visited it at the end of 1974. Although my visits I have been less frequent since moving to Askeaton three years ago, I was invited a number of times in recent years to speak at the Heinrich Boll summer school in Achill.

Of course, Achill is linked to the rest of Co Mayo by a bridge at Achill Sound. But it still feels like an island.

2, Inishbiggle, Co Mayo:

Inishbiggle is an inhabited offshore island off another island (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Inishbiggle must be unique as an inhabited offshore island off another island. It is wedged between Achill and the Mayo coastline. In recent years, I have been invited during the Heinrich Boll summer school in Achill to lead a walking tour of Inishbiggle and to speak in the church about Nangle and the role of his Achill Mission on Inishbiggle.

3, The Blasket Islands, Co Kerry:

The Blasket Islands have had no permanent residents since 1954 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

The Blasket Islands are said to be the western-most part of Munster. The last permanent residents left the Blasket Islands in 1954, although the former Taoiseach Charlie Haughey had his own house there in the 1980s.

The islanders included Tomás Ó Criomhthain, Peig Sayers and Muiris Ó Súilleabháin. But Peig Sayers, the scourge of every schoolboy trying to learn Irish and forced to read her autobiographical Peig was actually born on the Kerry mainland in Dunquin, and died on the mainland in Dingle.

4, Valentia Island, Co Kerry:

Valentia Island and the Royal Valentia Hotel at Knightstown is not strictly an offshore island … it is linked to the Kerry mainland by a bridge at Port Magee (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

This is probably another diversion, for Valentia Island is not strictly an offshore island … it is linked to the Kerry mainland by a bridge at Port Magee.

I first visited Valentia as a schoolboy in 1966, and visited again in recent years. I have been promising myself ever since that I should stay overnight sometime in the Royal Valentia Hotel at Knightstown.

5, Lambay Island, Co Dublin:

Lambay Island from the shoreline below the Lynders house at the Quay, Portrane (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

This photograph of Lambay Island was taken from the shoreline beneath the house where my grandmother Bridget Lynders was married from in 1905. I recently tried to visit Lambay Island from Skerries, but the venture had to be called off when the boat started to take in too much water.

This is the eastern-most part of the province of Leinster and the largest island off the east coast of Ireland. It was known to Ptolemy and the Greeks as Εδρου (Edrou). The Baring family commissioned Edwin Lutyens to transform a house on Lambay Island into a castle, and Michael Powell stayed in Lambay Castle while he wrote the screenplay for Black Narcissus, a 1947 movie about a group of Anglican nuns, led by Sister Clodagh (Deborah Kerr), sent to a mountain in the Himalayas.

Today, Lambay has six residents, but the principal resident population of the island are the birds, a herd of 200 fallow deer introduced by the Barings, and a colony of 100 wallabies moved here from Dublin Zoo.

6, Tarbert Island, Co Kerry:

The lighthouse on Tarbert Island (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Tarbert Island in is one of the many islands in the Shannon estuary in Co Kerry and Co Limerick in my group of parishes. Most people who visit Tarbert do not realise there is an island here because Tarbert Island, with Tarbert House, the Tarbert ferry point, a lighthouse and a power station, is linked to the town by a causeway.

The car ferry between Tarbert in Co Kerry and Killimer in Co Clare is a 20-minute crossing. This route is the longest distance domestic ferry in Ireland.

Foynes Island and Foynes Harbour … one of the busiest harbours in Ireland (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Foynes Island is another of the many islands in the Shannon Estuary that are part of the Rathkeale and Kilnaughtin Group of Parishes.

Foynes was the home of the ‘flying boats’ before the development of Shannon Airport. Foynes is the home of Irish coffee and of Foynes Yacht Club. Foynes Island was the home of the Conor O’Brien, who once sailed around the world and spent his last days here. The island still belongs to the O’Brien family.

The causeway linking Carrig Island with the north Kerry coast near Carrigafoyle Castle, near Ballylongford (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Another island in the parish, Carrig Island, is joined to the north Kerry coast by a causeway. This tiny island covers 261 acres and its highest point is 6 metres above sea level. Like Foynes Island, it is a townland in its own right.

The island was once part of the estate of Trinity College Dublin, and in 1837, Samuel Lewis notes, it was farmed by the Revd SB Lennard of Adare, and was ‘in a high state of cultivation.’ It also had a barrack for 20 men and a coastguard station. Carrig Island features in Brendan Kennelly’s The Boats are Home, and in particular in his poems ‘The Bell,’ ‘Living Ghosts’ and ‘The Island Man.’ Today it has a population of six.

Islands and islets where the River Deel flows into the Shannon estuary north of Askeaton (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2017)

Other islands in the parish include Aughunish, but there are seemingly countless other, smaller islands in the Shannon estuary too.

At the east end of the parish boundaries are Pigott’s Island, Waller’s Island and Bushy Island, close to Castletown Church and Pallaskenry. In the mouth of the River Deel, where it flows into the Shannon Estuary immediately north of Askeaton, Greenish Island is the largest of the small islands, islets, rocky outcrops and raised mudflats and sandbanks that are marked on maps. Close by are White’s Island and the little island of Lan Tighe.

Island Macteige was once an island off Aughunish, but it is now joined to the mainland and is now a peninsula.

7, The Skerries Islands, Co Dublin:

Shenick Island can be reached on foot at low tide (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2020)

Skerries in north Co Dublin has long been one of my favourite places for beach walks – usually preceded or followed by coffee in the Olive café. The town has five islands off its coastline. Three of these islands are grouped together and are known as the Skerries Islands: Shenick Island, Saint Patrick’s Island and Colt Island.

Shenick, the largest of the three islands, takes its name from the Irish word sionnach, ‘fox.’ Shenick Island can be reached on foot at low tide. Like many other Dublin islands, it has a Martello tower, built during a threatened Napoleonic invasion in the early 19th century.

Saint Patrick’s Island and Colt Island off the coast of Skerries (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Saint Patrick’s Island has the ruins of an early church, and is one of the many places where Saint Patrick is said to have first landed in Ireland.

Colt Island is the closest and smallest of three low-lying, uninhabited islands off Skerries. Like the other two Skerries Islands, it is an important for breeding seabirds and wintering waterfowl.

Rockabill Island – also off Skerries – is actually two islands separated by a channel. The lighthouse built on Rockabill in the 1850s has been automated since the 1970s.

Red Island, seen from the South Beach in Skerries, is now joined to the mainland by a causeway (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

The Skerries Islands can be viewed as a cluster from Red Island, which also has a Martello View, and has views as far north as the Mourne Mountains. In the past, it was known as Key Island and later, in the 17th century, as Haven Island, names that refer to the harbour on the north side of the island.

But, despite its name, Red Island is no longer an island. It is now a rocky headland connected to the mainland by a roadway that forms part of the quay wall of the harbour.

When Skerries became a popular holiday resort in the 20th century, Red Island was the centre of summer activities, and a holiday camp opened on Red Island in 1947. It also had a dance hall, theatre, a miniature golf course, a sun lounge and a bar. It was demolished in 1980.

8, Dalkey Islands, Co Dublin:

Dalkey island was inhabited 6,000 years ago (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Dalkey Island is just 300 metres offshore and has an area of 9 hectares. Its name comes from the Irish deilg (‘thorn’) and the Old Norse øy (‘island’ – as in Ireland’s Eye). The island has no residents, but as I sailed round it some years ago, I could the remains of a church, houses, fortifications and a Martello Tower.

Archaeological evidence shows that the first residents lived on Dalkey Island in the Mesolithic or Middle Stone Age, and that it was inhabited 6,000 years ago. There are remains of an Iron Age fort, although only the ditch is noticeable today. People continued to live on Dalkey Island until the Early Christian period, and there are suggestions that the island was a trading centre during Roman and Viking times.

The ruined stone church, named after Saint Begnet, was built in the ninth or tenth century, but there may have been an older wooden church on the site. The church was probably abandoned when the Vikings used the island as a base to form part of the busiest port in Ireland at the time.

The Admiralty built a Martello Tower and a gun battery on Dalkey Island in 1804. The builders of the tower used the church ruins as living quarters, and altered the east side of the church, adding windows and a fireplace.

9, Scattery Island, Co Clare:

Scattery Island, once a diocese on its own, was inhabited until 1978 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Scattery Island in the Shannon Estuary, with its ruined cathedral, six churches, round tower and monastic sites, was once an independent diocese. The island, which can be reached by boat from Kilrush Marina in Co Clare, also has a lighthouse, the remains of an artillery battery, a visitor centre, a ruined castle and the scattered remains of the homes of families who lived on the island until the 1970s. Most of the island is now owned by the Office of Public Works.

The main church on the island is Saint Mary’s Cathedral, probably built in the 8th century, and repeatedly altered and enlarged until the 15th century. The population of Scattery Island peaked at 141 in 1881, and the population continued to thrive into the 20th century, with a post office opening in the 1930s. The school closed in 1948, and the last two islanders, brother and sister Bobby and Patricia McMahon, left Scattery in 1978.

Inis Cathaigh remains the name of a titular see in the Roman Catholic Church, and today the titular Bishop of Inis Cathaigh is Bishop Josef Graf, an auxiliary bishop of Regensburg in Germany. In the Church of Ireland, Inniscattery remains the name of a prebendal stall in the United Chapter of the Cathedrals of Limerick, Killaloe and Clonfert. Since 2016, the Prebendary of Inniscattery is Canon Ruth Gill.

10, Inisheer, Galway Bay:

Island-hopping on Inisheer in the Aran Islands (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2019)

Inisheer (the ‘east island’) is the smallest of the three Aran Islands in Galway Bay, but the first stopping point for arrivals on the ferry from Doolin in Co Clare. This island extends to 1,400 acres and is an outcrop of the Burren landscape in Co Clare. O’Brien’s Castle, a 15th century castle, was built within Dún Formna, a cashel that is thousands of years old.

Inishmaan, the middle island, has a land area of 2,252 acres. Inishmore, literally the ‘Big Island,’ is the largest of the Aran Islands, with an area of 31 sq km (12 sq m) or 7,635 acres and a population of about 840. It is known for its strong Irish culture, Irish language as a Gaeltacht area, and a wealth of pre-Christian and Christian ancient sites including Dún Aengus, described as ‘the most magnificent barbaric monument in Europe.’

11, The Skelligs, Co Kerry:

The monastic islands at Skelligs are now closed off, even to the makers of Star Wars (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

The monastic settlement on Great Skellig is said to have been founded in the sixth century by Saint Fionán. The first definite reference to monks on the Skelligs dates to the eighth century when the death of ‘Suibhni of Scelig’ is recorded. While the monks settled on the rocks of Skellig Michael, they found a winter home on the mainland in Ballinskelligs.

A number of factors in the 13th century forced the monks to abandon their monastery on Skellig Michael: there was a general deterioration in the climate in this part of Europe, bringing with it colder weather and increased storms; the structures of the Irish Church had changed, shifting from an emphasis on the monasteries to the diocesan structures; and, with the reorganisation of the church and monastic life, the Rule of Saint Augustine suited a more stable existence in a new priory at Ballinskelligs.

With the dissolution of the monastic houses at the Reformation, the monks lost their grip on the Skelligs Rocks, and in 1578, the Skellig Islands passed to the Butler family. The islands were bought by the predecessors of the Commissioners of Irish Lights in 1821 for £780 from the Butler family of Waterville. In 1989, the State bought the islands from the Commissioners of Irish Lights, with the exception of the working lighthouse and ancillary areas. In 1996, Skellig Michael was added to the UNESCO World Heritage List.

Skellig Michael was one of a location for filming two episodes of Star Wars: Episode VII – The Force Awakens and Episode VIII – The Last Jedi. Skellig Michael was closed off to visitors during filming in September 2014 and again in September 2015. Will it still be closed off to visitors in September 2020?

12, Great Island, Co Cork:

A view from Cobh on Great Island across Cork Harbour and the neighbouring islands of Haulbowline and Spike Island (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2020)

Cobh is a harbour and the largest town on Great Island in Cork Harbour and the mouth of the River Lee. Great Island is connected by road bridge to Fota Island to the north – which, in turn, connects through a causeway to the Cork mainland. This road bridge, Belvelly Bridge, was built in 1803 at one of the narrowest points in the channels around Great Island. The bridge is the only road bridge to the island. And still the road to Cork has to cross two further islands – Brown Island and Harper’s Island.

A railway bridge and rail line also runs out through Fota Island to Great Island. The railway stations on Great Island include Carrigaloe, Rushbrooke and the terminus at Cobh. A ferry service also connects the island from a point near Carrigaloe to the Cork mainland at a point near Passage West.

Cobh is a pretty town on a steep hill on Great Island, with distinctive Victorian architecture and streetscape crowned by Saint Colman’s Cathedral. It is closely identified with the stories of the sinking of the Titanic and the Lusitania. Some of the offshore islands off Cobh include Haulbowline and Spike Island.

So many islands:

Windsurfers and kite-surfers on Bull Island on a winter’s day (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Ireland is not just an island, but a collection of islands, some of them inhabited, others uninhabited today, but once providing homes for monks and families; some of them are offshore and some of them off other islands. There are 240 off-shore islands before we even begin to count the inshore islands in rivers and lakes.

Most are natural islands, some are no longer islands, as is the case with Red Island, and it is difficult to know whether to count the many islands in the estuary of the River Lee that Cork City is built on.

Bull Island in Dublin Bay is a 5 km ‘man-made’ island. Its beach – Dollymount Strand – was formed when the Great South Wall was built in in 1730 and the North Bull Wall was built in 1825 to reduce silting in the Port of Dublin.

Bull Island became Ireland’s first National Bird Sanctuary in 1931, and today it has the most nature conservation designations in all of Ireland. It is, apparently, the only Unesco Biosphere Reserve located entirely in a capital city.

Ireland’s Eye got its name through mistranslation. In Celtic times it was known as Eria’s Island – Eria being a woman’s name at the time – but this was later confused with the Irish word for Ireland, Eireann. The Viking word for island was øy, and so it ultimately came to be known as Ireland’s Eye.

A monastery was founded on the island during the sixth century, and a ruined church dates from the year 700. The island is also the site of one of Howth’s three Martello towers.

Which are your favourite offshore islands?

On Ireland’s Eye, off Howth Head, north Dublin (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Kilnaughtin Church, west of Tarbert, may stand on a Druidic site

Kilnaughtin Church takes its name from a fifth or sixth century saint but is said to stand on the site of a druids’ sanctuary (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2019)

Patrick Comerford

During my Christmas rounds of the parish this week and last week, I also visited the ruined, mediaeval church at Kilnaughtin that is said locally to stand on the site of an earlier sanctuary used by Druids that was converted into a church in the decades immediately after Saint Patrick.

Kilnaughtin is the ancient name of the parish of Tarbert and the name is derived from the Irish, meaning the Church of Saint Naughtin or Neachtain. The name Kilnaughtin is now attached to Saint Brendan’s Church on Steeple Road, at the east end of Tarbert, off the road to Glin and Foynes.

However, the original church at Kilnaughtin stands about 4 or 5 km west of Tarbert (52.571200, -9.422000), at Cockhill, Carrowdotia, a little south of the coast road (L1010) to Ballylongford.

A replica of the fifth century Ogham stone found at Kilnaughtin and now in the Pitt Rivers Museum in Oxford (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2019)

The regular discovery of the roots and stumps of ancient yew and holm oak trees during burials and the survival of an ancient Ogham stone bearing the inscription ‘Mac I Broc’ (‘son of Broc’ or ‘son of the Badger’), that once stood about four feet to the south east of the church, suggest to some that this site may once have been a Druidic sanctuary.

The present mediaeval structure stands on the site of an earlier cillín (small church) or oratory that may have been built originally by the saint who gives his name to this place. Saint Naughtin is said to have been a nephew of Saint Patrick and a disciple of Saint Senan (ca 488-544), an important early church leader in this region.

Saint Senan established his monastery and cathedral ca 534 on Scattery Island in the mouth of the Shannon estuary, to the north-west of this site. From there, he and his monks brought Christianity to the northern and southern shorelines of the Shannon, in areas that are now north Co Kerry and south Co Clare.

The original church at Kilnaughtin is west of Tarbert off the coast road to Ballylongford (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2019)

In reality, little is known about Saint Naughtin, although he was venerated alongside Saint Senan, Saint Erc, Saint Lughach, Saint Ita, Saint Eithne, Saint Eiltín and Saint Brendan, among the early saints of north Kerry and west Limerick.

A holy well nearby, known as Tobernaughtin, is dedicated to Saint Naughtin. It is said the well dries up during the Summer, but some water comes in during Winter.

From the late sixth century until the early twelfth century, Kilnaughtin was one of the termons or sanctuary lands of the monastic Diocese of Scattery.

After the reorganisation of the Irish Church at the Synod of Rath Breasail in 1111-1112, Kilnaughtin was transferred to the Diocese of Ardfert and Aghadoe, although it retained its links with Scattery.

Following the death of the last Abbot-Bishop of Scattery, the monastery on Scattery Island was reconstituted as a college of the Augustinian Canons Regular of the Lateran, and the former cathedral on the island became a collegiate church with a chapter of 24 canons, of whom 12 were appointed by the Bishop of Limerick and 12 by the Bishop of Killaloe. The 12 canons appointed by the Bishop of Limerick were supported by the income from the termon or sanctuary lands at Kilnaughtin, and they served the churches and oratories in the district.

Inside the church at Kilnaughtin, facing east (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2019)

The list of rectors of the parish dates back to at least 1347, when a priest named Maurice FitzPeter was presented by the Crown on 4 September to the Church of Kylnathyn in Mynnour in the Diocese of Ardfert.

After that, there is a long gap in the records until 1418, when Donald O’Kynnelyoe is appointed Rector of Killreachtayn. The parish seems to have been vacant for a long time, and it is noted that Killreachtayn is commonly called the Church of Dunchacha and Dryseach and Tearmundscanayn. There were objections to his appointment too, and he needed a dispensation in those pre-Reformation days because he was the son of a priest.

Inside the church at Kilnaughtin, facing west (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2019)

During the 15th century, John O’Connor Kerry, Lord of Carrigafoyle and Tarbert and the founder of the Franciscan Friary at nearby Lislaughtin, oversaw extensive rebuilding of the church at Kilnaughtin.

This rebuilding included the elegant pointed gothic arched doorways, ogee lancet windows, a cinquefoil piscina and an interior architrave. The traces of a porch can also be seen over the south door.

On the exterior wall, over the east window, there is a carved head wearing a chapeau de seigneur, which may represent the local lord, John O’Connor Kerry, whose patronage financed the present structure.

The exterior east wall of Kilnaughtin church (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2019)

As the FitzGeralds, Earls of Desmond, extended their power in this area, Dermot O’Connor, Lord of Tarbert and kinsman of John O’Connor Kerry of Carrigafoyle Castle, forfeited his lands in Tarbert to James FitzGerald, 6th Earl of Desmond, the ‘Usurper’ Earl, in 1450. Within a decade, the Earl of Desmond built a castle or tower house in Tarbert, probably located on the north side of the present-day Square.

Following the Tudor Reformations, the church became an Anglican parish church. However, Roman Catholics continued to use the churchyard for burials, and maintained a clandestine chapel nearby.

For almost 200 years, the 15th century church at Kilnaughtin served as the Church of Ireland parish church, with some occasional interruptions. In 1587, following the defeat of the Earl of Desmond, the Manor and Castle of Tarbert and the adjoining lands were granted to Sir William Herbert (1554-1593), a Welsh colonist, religious writer and politician.

Herbert became an ‘undertaker’ for the plantation of Munster in 1586, and he applied for three ‘seignories’ in Kerry. In 1587, he was allotted many of the lands confiscated the Earl of Desmond. These included Castleisland and its neighbourhood, and covered 13,276 acres. He wished to see Kerry colonised by English settlers, he had the articles of the Creed, the Lord’s Prayer, and the Ten Commandments translated into Irish, and he directed the clergy on his estate to read the services in Irish.

After almost two years at Castleisland, Herbert acted as vice-president of Munster. But his work was severely attacked by Sir Edward Denny, High Sheriff of Kerry and owner of Tralee and the neighbourhood, who complained of Herbert’s self-conceit, and who said his constables were rogues.

Herbert finally returned to England in 1589, and died in 1593. His only daughter and heir, Mary, married her cousin, Edward Herbert (1583-1648), 1st Baron Herbert of Cherbury, when he was 15 and she was 21; his brother was the priest-poet George Herbert (1593-1633).

The south door show traces of a Gothic porch (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2019)

The Herbert family lost its estate in Tarbert soon after, and in 1607, the Lord Deputy, Sir Arthur Chichester, asked the Privy Council to grant Tarbert to Patrick Crosbie of Leix. The grant was made subject to families from the ‘Seven Septs’ of Leix being settled there.

Local lore says that monks who fled Kilnaughtin Church were the monks whose earns were shorn of their ears by Cromwellian soldiers in Glouncloosagh in the mid-17th century.

The Crosbie family sold Tarbert to the Roche family of Limerick in 1653. The lands were eventually bought by Daniel O’Brien, Lord Clare, who held them until the Battle of the Boyne and the Treaty of Limerick in 1690. As a Jacobite, he was obliged to flee to France, and in 1697 John Leslie, a supporter of King William III, was granted the confiscated Tarbert estate of Lord Clare.

The Leslie family began building Tarbert House in 1700, and John Leslie was the Church of Ireland Bishop of Limerick, Ardfert and Aghadoe in 1755-1770. Sir Edward Leslie laid out the village of Tarbert in 1775. Around this time, the first Palatine settler, Peter Fitzell moved from Rathkeale to Tarbert as a tenant farmer on the Sandes estate at Sallowglen.

Kilnaughtin Church was ‘in ruins’ by 1778 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2019)

By 1778, Kilnaughtin Church was ‘in ruins’ and the Vestry Minutes record a discussion in Kilnaughtin that year on the need to move the church from Kilnaughtin to Tieraclea or Steeple Road, which was closer to the town and port of Tarbert. From 1779 on, the Vestry Minutes for Kilnaughtin are written from the ‘church of Tieraclea,’ so the new church probably dates from 1778.

But the new church was destroyed in a ‘violent hurricane’ in 1789, and an enlarged church was built on Steeple Road. The Vestry Minutes from Kilnaughtin for 1812 and later show that the present church, Saint Brendan’s Church, which has the date 1814 inscribed above the porch, is a rebuilding and extension of the existing church at Tieraclea.

Around the same time, Sir Edward Leslie established an Erasmus Smith School on the Glin Road in 1790. The school has 75 Roman Catholic pupils (56%) and 44 Protestant pupils (44%) on the roll book. When Sir Edward Leslie died at the age of 73 in Weymouth in 1818, the title of baronet he had received in 1787 died out and a considerable fortune of between £3,000 and £4,000 a year devolved on his first cousin, Robert Leslie of Leslie Lodge, Tieraclea.

Old tombs and graves at Kilnaughtin, where the churchyard is still used for burials (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2019)

Samuel Lewis in his Topographical Directory of Ireland (1837) notes that the Rectory of Kilnaughtin was impropriate in Anthony Raymond, who was receiving two-thirds of the tithes, while the vicar received only one-third.

The church was remodelled again in the 1850s and 1860s under the influence of the Oxford Movement, giving it the present unusual shape and structure. In 1867, the architects William John Welland (1832-1895) and William Gillespie (1818-1899) designed and laid out new pews for the T-plan church of 1814.

The Kerry-born architect James Franklin Fuller (1835-1924) prepared plans for additions to the church in 1876. The work was in progress in November 1877, and the chancel was completed by September 1878. The contractor was a Mr Crosbie of Tralee.

Fuller’s alterations and additions realigned the church, so that the original east-west church became the transepts, while the chancel area or top of the church is now at the south end of the building. The Irish Ecclesiastical Gazette, the forerunner of the Church of Ireland Gazette, reported during this renovation: ‘A correspondent tells us that a very handsome stone cross, which was to have been placed on the new porch, has been thrown aside, the incumbent objecting to its erection.’

The inscriptions on the church plate include ‘Tarbert Church 1857’ and ‘Kilnaughtin Church 1866.’ The plaques in the church commemorate many prominent local families, including the Fitzell, Leslie and Sandes families, and one plaque was moved from the former Methodist Church in Tarbert into the church.

The former chancel area at the east end of Kilnaughtin Church (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2019)

Meanwhile, when a new Roman Catholic parish church was built in Tarbert in 1833, a stone from the old church in Kilnaughtin was incorporated in the foundation of the sanctuary.

The Ogham stone found in the old churchyard at Kilnaughtin in 1836 was donated to the Pitt Rivers Museum in Oxford in 1884, where it is on display. Known as the ‘Cockhill Stone,’ is dates from the early fifth century. The Ogham inscription ‘Maqi Broc’ commemorates someone who was the son of an important local man named Broc (‘Badger’).

The tradition of this ancient church at Kilnaughtin is kept alive in the two parish churches in Tarbert.

The tradition of this ancient church at Kilnaughtin is kept alive in the two parish churches in Tarbert (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2019)

Following the monastic trail around the cathedral and churches on Scattery Island

The Cathedral ruins and round tower on Scattery island (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2018)

Patrick Comerford

Late last week, I joined a tour group of about 30 people who took a boat from Kilrush Marina in Co Clare, with Scattery Island Tours to visit Scattery Island, with its ruined cathedral, churches, round tower and monastic sites.

Scattery Island is a once-inhabited but now deserted island in the Shannon estuary, about a mile south-west of Kilrush. The island and its tall round tower are clearly visible from the coast, and the longest part of this short boat trip was passing through the lock that allows boats to pass from Kilrush Marina into the Shannon Estuary.

Apart from the monastic site, and Inis Cathaigh or Scattery Island is also home to a lighthouse, the remains of an artillery battery, a visitor centre, a ruined castle and the scattered remains of the homes of families who had lived on the island until the 1970s. Most of the island is now owned by the Office of Public Works.

The Irish name Inis Cathaigh later became Iniscathy, Iniscattery and finally Scattery, and means Island of the Battles, or, in legend, the island of the sea monster vanquished by Saint Senan.

The island is closely inked in history and in myth with the story of Saint Senan, who was born at Magh Lacha, east of Kilrush, ca 488. Legend says his birth was foretold by Saint Patrick on a visit to the area. As a boy, Senan was placed under the guidance of an abbot named Cassidan, and finished his studies with Saint Naul at Kilmanagh, Co Kilkenny.

Saint Senan began his mission work by founding a church near Enniscorthy, Co Wexford, ca 510-512. The parish is still known as Templeshannon (Teampail Seanain, or the Church of Senan). He then founded churches at Sennen’s Cove, Cornwall, and at Plouzane (‘Church of Senan’) in Brittany. He is also said to have visited Menevia, Rome, and Tours, before returning to Ireland around 520.

Having founded more churches back in Ireland, Saint Senan finally settled at Inis Cathaigh or Scattery Island, where he was visited by Saints Ciarán and Saint Brendan, and other holy men. No woman was allowed to enter Inis Cathaigh – not even Saint Senan’s sister, Saint Cannera, was allowed to land there.

Legend says that Saint Cannera she asked to be buried near Saint Senan. When she died, her brother waited until low tide to bury her in the inter-tidal zone, which was not officially part of the island, thus fulfilling his sister’s wish without breaking his own rules.

According to local legend, Saint Senán had to defeat ‘The Cathach,’ a sea monster that inhabited the island and killed anyone who stepped ashore. The Angel Raphael led him to Ard na nAingeal, where he faced the monster.

Inis Cathaigh became an abbey and the seat of a bishop, with Saint Senan counted as its first bishop from ca 535-540. He is listed among the ’12 Apostles of Ireland’ and died on 8 March 544, when he was buried in the abbey church.

The Vikings first raided the island in 815, killing many monks. The monastery was plundered repeatedly until the Vikings came to settle there in the mid-10th century. This, in turn, led to attacks by Irish kings.

Scattery was a part of the Norse Kingdom of Limerick, and with its strategic location at the mouth of the Shannon Estuary it effectively controlled all maritime traffic passing up the Shannon to Limerick.

The Annals of Inisfallen record that in the 970s, the Norse kings of Limerick were living on Scattery. In 974, Maccus mac Arailt, King of the Isles, captured Ivar of Limerick, but he ‘escaped over sea’ the following year. Ivar of Limerick, the last Norse king of Limerick, and two of his sons, were slain on Scattery by Brian Boru in 977.

Following the monastic trail around Scattery island (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2018)

At an early period, the abbot-bishop of the monastery tried to exercise authority over what later became parts of the dioceses of Killaloe, Limerick and Ardfert. The Diocese of Inis Cathaigh was recognised at the Synod of Ráth BreasailI in 1111, and included the present Baronies of Moyarta and Clonderalaw in Co Clare, the Barony of Connelo in Limerick as well as a small portion of Kerry from the Feal to the Atlantic.

After Bishop Áed Ua Bécháin died in 1188, the diocese was absorbed into the Diocese of Limerick and the Diocese of Killaloe in 1189.

An Irish Franciscan friary, Thomas McMahon, was appointed Bishop of Scattery by Pope Innocent VI in 1360, and tried to take possession of the island and the diocese. But the bishops of Limerick, Killaloe and Ardfert complained to Rome, and in 1366 Pope Urban V declared the appointment null and void. In 1378, its possessions were divided, and the island remained a portion of the Diocese of Killaloe, being subsequently merged into the parish of Kilrush.

There was a series of titular Bishops of Scattery in the 14th and 15th centuries, but they were absentees and generally served as assistant bishops in York and Canterbury until 1467. They included an English Augustinian, John Grene, who was Bishop of Inis Cathaig in 1452-1467 but lived in England.

In the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, the abbey with the churchyard, 24 acres of land, a house, a castle, and three cottages in the island of Inniscattery were granted to the Mayor and citizens of Limerick, together with a church in ruins, 20 acres of wood and stony ground, and all the tithes.

The ruins of the Keane Castle on Scattery island (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2018)

The Keane family built a stone castle on the island in the 1577, a decade before the Spanish Armada in 1588. It was several storeys high in 1681, but today only the vaulted chamber at ground level is all that can be seen of the castle near the pier.

The artillery battery, located on the south of Scattery, was built during the Napoleonic Wars and is well preserved. The Shannon Estuary was one of three invasion places the French had considered along the west coast of Ireland, and Scattery Island is one of six batteries built in the estuary.

After the Windsor Castle was salvaged in 1842, Scattery Island was home to Shannon Estuary river pilots and their families. The main families of the island were the Brennan, Griffin, Hehir, McMahon, Melican, Moran and Scanlan families.

The lighthouse on the island was built in 1872. Today, it is fully automated and powered by solar power.

The west end of the Cathedral on Scattery island (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2018)

Scattery Island has the ruins of six churches and one of the highest Round Towers in Ireland.

The main church on the island is Saint Mary’s Cathedral, probably built in the 8th century, and repeatedly altered and enlarged until the 15th century. It is 20.7 metres long and 8.2 metres wide. The north wall, the lower part of the west gable and parts of the south wall possibly date from the 8th or 9th century.

The east gable was rebuilt at a later date and a large gothic window was inserted. Gothic windows and a pointed doorway were also inserted into the south wall during that later period and the doorway in the west gable was blocked up.

An effigy of a bishop’s head on the outside of the east window is said to be Saint Senan. Below this are two carved heads of snarling animals, said to represent the monster Saint Senan banished from the island.

The figure of a mitred bishop above the east window of the Cathedral on Scattery island (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2018)

To the north the cathedral, a smaller church or ‘oratory’ was probably a private chapel used by the monks and priests of the island community. Excavations of the site revealed the base of a rich Romanesque chancel arch dating from ca 1100, with clustered pillars and chevrons.

Inside the Round Tower, one of the tallest in Ireland (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2018)

To the immediate west of the cathedral, the Round Tower is 26 metres (85.3 ft) high. It is one of the oldest and tallest surviving round towers in Ireland, and one of only two to have its door at ground level – a feature shared with the round tower in Castledermot, Co Kildare; most round towers have doorways raised 1.5 to 4.5 metres above the ground.

Saint Senan’s Well to the south of the round tower (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2018)

Saint Senan’s Well or Tobar Senan, to the south of the round tower, is a sunken well entered by steps and still filled with water. It remains a place of pilgrimage associated with a ‘pattern’ on Saint Senan’s Feast Day, 8 March. Legend says that during a drought Saint Senan prayed for water and an angel appeared, guiding him to this place. When he plunged his staff into the ground, water sprung forth.

Saint Senan’s Church seen from ‘Saint Senan’s Bed’ (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2018)

To the north of the cathedral site, Saint Senan’s Church is a small 12th century church built in the Romanesque style.

Immediately west of this church, ‘Saint Senan’s Bed’ is a small church built over the burial place of Saint Senan. An iron bar blocking the doorway was traditionally used to block women from entering this small church.

The mediaeval grave slab close to Saint Senan’s Church and ‘Saint Senan’s Bed’ (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2018)

Close to Saint Senan’s Church and Saint Senan’s Bed, a mediaeval grave slab is carved with an ornate cross and inscription in mediaeval Irish that reads, Or do Moenach aite Mogroin, ‘Pray for Moenach, the teacher of Mogroin.’ This is probably the burial ground reserved for the island’s monks, priests and bishops.

The church ruins on the Hill of the Angel (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2018)

The highest point on the island is the Hill of the Angel or Cnoc an Aingeal, a ridge to the south-west of the cathedral. The ruins here are from a church built to commemorate Saint Senan’s battle with the island monster. It is said this is where Saint Senan first set foot on the island, having been flown there by an angel to confront the monster.

This is thought to be one of the earliest surviving churches from Saint Senan’s monastery, but only a few sections of the foundations and the south wall of the church remain, including a window and two doorways.

The Church of the Dead is the most recent church on the island (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2018)

The most recent church on the island is the Church of the Dead or Teampall na Marbh, which probably dates from the late 14th or early 15th century. Inside the church, there is a mediaeval carving of a man’s face to the right of the east window.

A Piscina in the Church of the Dead (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2018)

The graveyard at this church was the traditional burial place for the lay inhabitants of the island. The last burial here took place in 2007.

On the shore, close to the Visitor Centre, a ‘Prayer Stone’ was placed here in the 19th century as marker to guide pilgrims visiting the island. At one time, there were seven of this prayer stones on Scattery.

An abandoned house on Scattery Island … the last islanders left in 1978 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2018)

The population of Scattery Island peaked at 141 in 1881, and the population continued to thrive into the 20th century, with a post office opening in the 1930s. The school closed in 1948, and the last two islanders, brother and sister Bobby and Patricia McMahon, left Scattery in 1978, and by 1989 most of the island had been bought on behalf of the Irish State.

Inis Cathaigh remains the name of a titular see in the Roman Catholic Church, and today the titular Bishop of Inis Cathaigh is Bishop Josef Graf, who was appointed in 2015 as an auxiliary bishop of Regensburg in Germany. In the Church of Ireland, Inniscattery remains the name of a prebendal stall in the United Chapter of the Cathedrals of Limerick, Killaloe and Clonfert. Since 2016, the Prebendary of Inniscattery is Canon Ruth Gill, of Shinrone Parish in the Diocese of Killaloe.

At the pier on Scattery Island … with views of the Church of the Dead, the Round Tower and the Cathedral (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2018; click on image for full-screen view)