Island hopping in Aegean-like summer sunshine in Ireland

A sculptor’s workshop close to Saint John’s Church in Knightstown on Valentia Island (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

Patrick Comerford

It is two years since I have been in Greece. But now that the vaccine has been rolled out and – despite the forest fires and soaring temperatures in August – Greece appears to be as safe a place to be as Ireland.

I hope to be back in Crete later in September, returning to an island that has been almost like a second home since the 1980s.

But the warm sunshine earlier this summer in Ireland offered opportunities for some ‘island hopping’ in Cork and Kerry that was almost as inviting as ‘island hopping’ in the Aegean and the Mediterranean.

Over a number of weeks, two of us found the opportunities – more by accident than design – to visit Valentia Island and the Blasket Islands off the coast of Co Kerry, and Cape Clear Island and Garinish Island off the coast of Co Cork.

The Church of Saint John the Baptist, Valentia … is this ‘the most westerly Protestant Church in Europe’? (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

Returning to Valentia
by accident

As the first promises of summer arrived, we spent a day at Kells Bay House and Gardens and Kells Bay Beach on the north loop of the Ring of Kerry, and as the day, drew to a close we visited Cahersiveen.

Cahersiveen’s place in church history includes the story of Monsignor Hugh O’Flaherty (1898-1963), who is known as the ‘Scarlet Pimpernel of the Vatican,’ for his daring exploits and the rescue of over 4,000 people, including Jews and Allied soldiers, in Nazi-occupied Rome.

The town’s Roman Catholic parish church is named the Daniel O’Connell Memorial Church, in honour of the monumental figure in Irish politics in the early 19th century. Saint Finian’s, the former Church of Ireland parish church in the town, has housed the Oratory Pizza and Wine Bar since 2016.

As the early summer sunshine continued to linger, we found ourselves on the ferry to Valentia Island once again, and visiting the Church of Saint John the Baptist in Knightstown, which claims to be ‘the most westerly Protestant Church in Europe.’

Previous Rectors of Valentia include John Godfrey Day (1830-1847), later Dean of Ardfert (1861-1879), father of Bishop Maurice Day of Clogher and grandfather of Archbishop Godfrey Day, Abraham Isaac, later Dean of Ardfert (1894-1905); the Revd Alexander Delap, father of the marine biologist, Maude Delap (1866-1953); and George Lill Swain, later Dean of Limerick (1929-1954).

The Sensory Garden was designed by Arthur Shackleton to cater for people with disabilities and was opened by Bishop Michael Mayes in 2005.

A sign outside the church claims it is ‘the most westerly Protestant Church in Europe.’ But, of course, that depends on how you draw the maps and boundaries of Europe. No doubt, churches in Iceland could make similar claims, but is Greenland part of Europe of part of the North American continent?

The Blasket Islands in summer sunshine … an invitation to a Mediterranean experience – but only in summer (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

The literary legacy of
the Blasket Islands

The Great Blasket Island is one of the most remote parts of the Gaeltacht or Irish-speaking area of Co Kerry. It has been deserted since 1954, but remains a part of Irish literature and cultural identity because of the disproportionate number of islanders whose books were part of the school curriculum for generations of Irish schoolchildren.

Their books continue to be read, and most Irish people are still familiar with the names of Peig Sayers (1873-1958), no matter how negative their memories are of her book, and Muiris Ó Súilleabháin and Tomás Ó Criomhthain.

I am typical of my generation when I say I still resent having to read through Peig, and it helped to create many long-lasting negative images of how the Irish language was taught at schools in the 1960s.

But my schoolboy experiences of the Kerry Gaeltacht in Ballinskelligs have left me with a life-long affection for this part of Ireland, and a day-long guided tour of the Blasket Islands seemed inevitable during a summer visit to the Dingle Peninsula.

The Church of Ireland school on the Great Blasket set up by Mrs Thompson from Ventry lasted a mere two or three decades (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

The Great Blasket covers over 1,100 acres of largely mountainous terrain, and is about 4 miles long and half a mile wide.

A number of books were written in the early 20th century by islanders, recording island traditions and way of life. These include Peig or Machnamh Seanamhná (An Old Woman’s Reflections) by Peig Sayers (1939), An tOileánach (The Islandman) by Tomás Ó Criomhthain (1929), and Fiche Blian ag Fás (Twenty Years a-Growing) by Muiris Ó Súilleabháin (1933).

During my visit, I began to feel sorry for Peig, with her arranged marriage, her sorrows, her hardships, the children who died without the joys of childhood, the reproaches for her grief and mourning, and the bodies falling out of coffins.

They were stories that should never have been imposed on young teenagers in the 1960s. My new-fond sympathy for Peig was complimented during that visit by comparisons of Tomás Ó Criomhthain with his Russian contemporary Maxim Gorky, placing him within the corpus of European literature of the day.

Cape Clear Island off the coast of Co Cork is intimately linked with the legends surrounding the life Saint Ciarán (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

Saint Ciaran’s legacy
on Cape Clear Island

Clear Island or Cape Clear Island (Cléire or Oileán Chléire), 8 miles off the south-west coast of Co Cork, is the most southerly inhabited part of Ireland. Cape Clear is 3 miles long by 1 mile wide. Most of the 147 residents are bilingual in Irish and English, making this Ireland’s southern-most inhabited Gaeltacht island.

Mizen Head, the mainland’s most southerly point, is to the north-west. The nearest neighbouring island is Sherkin Island, 2 km to the east, and the solitary Fastnet Rock, with its lighthouse, is three miles west of the island. The boat trip from Baltimore this summer took only 40 minutes, with views of the rugged coastline West Cork and occasional sightings of dolphins.

Ferries from Schull and Baltimore arrive into the North Harbour, while the South Harbour is often a berth for yachts and pleasure boats.

Arriving on the ferry from Baltimore into the North Harbour, the first archaeological and ecclesiastical site the visitor sees are the ruins of a 12th-century church, close to the main pier, with Saint Ciaran’s Well beside it.

Saint Ciarán of Saighir gives his name to the ruined church and holy well at the North Harbour (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

Saint Ciarán, the island’s patron, is allegedly one of Ireland’s four, early pre-Patrician saints. He is said to have been born on the shoreline beside the harbour, Trá Chiaráin, in front of the well, and the islanders gather there to mark his feast on 5 March each year.

Saint Ciarán of Saighir was one of the ‘Twelve Apostles of Ireland’ and was the founding Bishop of Saighir (Seir-Kieran). He remains the patron saint of the Diocese of Ossory. Sometimes he is called Saint Ciarán the Elder to distinguish him from Saint Ciarán of Clonmacnoise.

The reverence for Saint Ciarán is reflected in the proliferation of his name on Cape Clear Island, from beaches to holy wells, from churches to graveyards. Indeed, almost every family includes someone with the name Ciarán.

The ruins of Saint Ciaran’s Church, a 12th century rectangular church surrounded by a graveyard, face the North Harbour. A steep climb from the harbour and a 15-minute walk lead up to Saint Ciarán’s Roman Catholic Church, built in 1839. It is the southern-most church still in use in Ireland.

The Italian Garden is the outstanding feature on Garinish Island (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

Mediterranean gardens
on Garinish Island

The Harbour Queen ferry from Glengarriff Pier brought us to Garinish Island at the mouth of Bantry Bay. Garinish is renowned for its gardens, laid out in beautiful walks and it has specimen plants that are rare in this climate.

Garinish Island extends to 15 hectares (37 acres). The gardens on Garnish Island flourish in the mild humid micro-climate of Glengarriff Harbour. This is an island garden of rare beauty, assisted by a mainly pine shelter belt, and known to horticulturists and lovers of trees and shrubs around the world.

The gardens were designed by the architect and garden designer Harold Peto (1854-1933) for the island’s owners, John Annan Bryce (1841-1923), a Belfast-born Scottish politician who bought the island from the War Office in 1910, and his wife Violet (L’Estrange).

Peto and Bryce were a creative partnership, so the island is still renowned for its richness of plant form and colour, changing continuously with the seasons.

The Italian Garden is, perhaps, the outstanding feature of Garinish. Here, Peto’s genius, combined with Bryce’s ideas and resources, resulted in the creation of a formal architectural garden that blends with its natural setting.

The Martello tower on the island dates from the time of the Napoleonic Wars. Plans were drawn up for a mansion incorporating the Martello Tower, but it was never built. Instead, Bryce House, an extensive cottage, became the home of the Bryce family.

Among the guests were the writers George Bernard Shaw, who stayed on the island in 1923 while writing his play, Saint Joan, the poet Æ George Russell, and Agatha Christie.

Bryce House is presented as it would have appeared when the Bryce family lived there. A selection from their vast collection of important paintings, prints, drawings, and books is on display.

A theme throughout the house is the winged lion of Saint Mark, the symbol of Venice – yet another reminder of the Mediterranean during an island-hopping expedition in Ireland this summer.

This two-page feature was first published in the September 2021 edition of ‘The Church Review’ (Dublin and Glendalough), pp 14-15

Praying in Ordinary Time 2021: 51, Saint Ciarán’s churches, Cape Clear Island

Cape Clear Island off the coast of Co Cork is intimately linked with the legends surrounding the life of Saint Ciarán (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

Patrick Comerford

I had planned to be in High Leigh these days for the annual conference of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel). But the pandemic means the conference has become a virtual event, beginning today, and continuing until Wednesday.

Before this day becomes a busy day, with much of it devoted to the USPG conference, 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 before the day gets busy 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 USPG prayer diary.

I introduced this week’s theme of island churches with Saint Mary’s Cathedral on Scattery Island yesterday (18 July 2021), and this series has already featured Saint Thomas’ Church in Dugort on Achill Island, Co May (28 March 2021).

This morning (19 July 2021), my photographs are from the church and church ruins on Cape Clear Island, off the coast of West Cork, which I visited last month.

Saint Ciarán of Saighir gives his name to the ruined church and holy well at the North Harbour (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

Clear Island or Cape Clear Island ( Cléire or Oileán Chléire), 8 miles off the south-west coast of Co Cork, is the most southerly inhabited part of Ireland. Cape Clear is 3 miles long by 1 mile wide. Most of the 147 residents are bilingual in Irish and English, making this Ireland’s southern-most inhabited Gaeltacht island.

Mizen Head, the mainland’s most southerly point, is to the north-west. The nearest neighbouring island is Sherkin Island, 2 km to the east, and the solitary Fastnet Rock, with its lighthouse, is three miles west of the island. The boat trip from Baltimore took only 40 minutes, with views of the rugged coastline West Cork and occasional sightings of dolphins.

Visiting the island last month, I also found I was visiting Ireland’s most southerly churches.

Arriving on the ferry from Baltimore into the North Harbour the first archaeological and ecclesiastical site the visitor sees are the ruins of a 12th-century church, close to the main pier, with Saint Ciaran’s Well beside it.

Saint Ciarán, the island’s patron saint, is allegedly one of Ireland’s four, early pre-Patrician saints. He is said to have been born on the shoreline beside the harbour, Trá Chiaráin, in front of the well, and the islanders gather there to mark his feast on 5 March each year.

Saint Ciarán of Saighir was one of the ‘Twelve Apostles of Ireland’ and was the founding Bishop of Saighir (Seir-Kieran). He remains the patron saint of its successor, the Diocese of Ossory.

Sometimes he is called Saint Ciarán the Elder, to distinguish him from another sixth century Saint Ciarán, Abbot of Clonmacnoise. He shares the feast date of 5 March with his mother, Saint Liadán, and his disciple and episcopal successor, Saint Carthach the Elder.

The reverence for Saint Ciarán is reflected in the proliferation of his name on Cape Clear Island: Saint Ciarán’s Beach (Trá Chiaráin), Saint Ciarán’s Well (Tobar Chiaráin), Saint Ciarán’s Church (Séipéal Chiaráin) and Saint Ciarán’s Graveyard (Reilg Chiaráin); it is said almost every family on island has someone with the name Ciarán.

Saint Ciarán’s life has inspired some colourful stories. Before he was conceived, his mother, Saint Liadán, dreamt a star had fallen into her mouth. She related this dream to the tribal elders, who told her she would give birth to a son whose fame and virtues would spread around the world.

It is said that when Ciarán heard from sailors about a new religion in Rome he went there and embraced Christianity. He was ordained in Rome and after 30 years there returned as Bishop of Ireland. He built his first church on the island, and legends claim the people of Cape Clear were the first in Ireland to accept Christianity.

His first disciples included a boar, a fox, a brock and a wolf: they all became monks and worked together to build the community.

The ruins of Saint Ciaran’s Church, a 12th century rectangular church surrounded by a graveyard, face the North Harbour. The east gable and north and south walls survive to near full height (1.8 metres), but the upper part of west gable is missing.

There is an arched doorway near the west end of the south wall, a lintelled window near the east end, a single-light window in the east gable with an unusual foil or drop in the centre, and small aumbries in the north and south walls near the east gable.

The church was in ruins by 1693, but it remains Ireland’s southern-most church.

Toberkieran or Saint Ciarán’s well is a few steps away from the church ruins and churchyard. Beside the well, a flat-topped standing stone has a cross-like carving in relief. On the north-east face is an incised Latin cross, with expanded shaft terminals. On the south-west face is a very worn Latin cross with expanded terminals. There is a slight trace of another incised cross on the south-east face, with an indecipherable incised carving beneath.

A steep climb leads north-east behind the harbour, with a 15-minute walk to island’s present church. Saint Ciarán’s Roman Catholic Church was built in 1839. It is part of the parish of Skibbereen, Rath and the Islands, and is the southern-most church still in use in Ireland.

This simple church is typical of earlier 19th century churches that are plain in style and modest in scale. Despite replacement windows and doors, it retains notable features, including a bellcote at the west end.

This is a single-cell, double-height church, with a four-bay nave and a recent single-storey sacristy. The pointed arch openings have replacement uPVC windows, a replacement timber battened door and tympanum. Inside, there is a fine open truss roof, polychrome tiles and a carved timber confessional.

The other sites on the island include megalithic standing stones, a 5,000-year-old Neolithic passage grave, the ruins of Dún an Óir, a 14th promontory fort or castle built by the O’Driscolls in the 14th century and destroyed by cannon in the early 1600s, and a signal tower dating from the Napoleonic Wars. More modern additions to the island include a lighthouse, a bird observatory and two Irish summer colleges for secondary school pupils.

The island population is about 140. The primary school was built in 1897, and the island has a restaurant, shop and pubs, and a new café overlooking the harbour opened at the beginning of this summer.

Cape Clear’s remote location and the wild scenery, sparkling harbours, cliffs, bogs and the lake all contribute to the island’s unspoilt charm.

The ruins of the 12th century church beside the North Harbour … Saint Ciarán’s life has inspired colourful stories (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

Matthew 12: 38-42 (NRSVA):

38 Then some of the scribes and Pharisees said to him, ‘Teacher, we wish to see a sign from you.’ 39 But he answered them, ‘An evil and adulterous generation asks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. 40 For just as Jonah was for three days and three nights in the belly of the sea monster, so for three days and three nights the Son of Man will be in the heart of the earth. 41 The people of Nineveh will rise up at the judgement with this generation and condemn it, because they repented at the proclamation of Jonah, and see, something greater than Jonah is here! 42 The queen of the South will rise up at the judgement with this generation and condemn it, because she came from the ends of the earth to listen to the wisdom of Solomon, and see, something greater than Solomon is here!’

Saint Ciarán’s Church, built in 1839 … the southern-most church still in use in Ireland (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

Prayer in the USPG Prayer Diary:

The Prayer in the USPG Prayer Diary today (19 July 2021) invites us to pray:

Let us pray for the USPG conference, giving thanks for all in attendance and those who planned the event. May we use this opportunity to amplify voices from across the Anglican Communion as we seek to deepen existing partnerships and begin new friendships.

Yesterday’s reflection

Continued tomorrow

Inside Saint Ciarán’s Church … part of the parish of Skibbereen, Rath and the Islands (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

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

Saint Ciarán is said to have been born on the shoreline beside the North Harbour (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

How do women who are forced to the margins hear the Gospel as good news?

‘The Daughter of Jairus’ by James Tissot (1836-1902)

Patrick Comerford

Sunday 27 June 2021

The Fourth Sunday after Trinity (Trinity IV)

The Readings: II Samuel 1: 1, 17-27; Psalm 130; Mark 5: 21-43

9.30 a.m. Castletown Church, Morning Prayer

11.30 a.m. Holy Trinity Church, Rathkeale, the Parish Eucharist (Holy Communion II)

There is a link to the readings HERE.

‘When Jesus had crossed again in the boat to the other side, a great crowd gathered round him’ (Mark 5: 21) … a boat in the South Harbour on Cape Clear Island off the coast of Co Cork (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

May I speak to you in the name of God, + Father, Son and Holy Spirit, Amen

Our Gospel reading this morning (Mark 5: 21-43) tells the stories of how Christ responds to the plight of two very different people: a young girl who is on her deathbed, and a woman who has been suffering for the previous 12 years, as long as the young girl has lived.

The women in this reading remain unnamed, like so many women in the New Testament: three women in all, the dying girl, the older woman, and the girl’s mother.

The young girl who is on her deathbed and her mother are from a religious family; the older woman who interrupts this story, and who disrupts Jesus and intrudes on the crowd, has endured a lifetime of suffering. The two principal women in this story both suffer and are marginalised, are seen as not worth bothering about, because of their gender and because of their age.

This morning’s readings remind us that Christ calls the unnamed, the marginalised, and the long-suffering from the outside into the community. They call out, just as the psalmist cries out, ‘Out of the depths I cry to you, O Lord’ (Psalm 130: 1).

This Psalm (Psalm 130), known as De Profundis, is a prayer for deliverance from personal trouble, but it ends with a message of hope for all people.

God is attentive to our pleas, despite everything that has gone wrong. God forgives, God is merciful, God offers unfailing love and freedom.

The psalmist makes the powerful and paradoxical point that God is to be held in awe not because he punishes but because he forgives.

God’s love for us surpasses the love of any father or mother for their children.

In the Gospel reading, one of the key people is the daughter of a leading member of the local synagogue. But religious position and social status are of little value when a small girl is struck with a death-threatening illness or disease.

In both cases these women are ritually unclean … a bleeding woman, a dying or dead women. Jesus should not touch them. Yet their plight touches his heart, and he reaches out to them with a healing touch.

One young woman is restored to her place in her family and in her community. One older woman, who has lost everything, who is at risk of being marginalised, even by the Disciples, is offered the hope of her proper place.

In the Gospel reading, the crowd who gather around Jesus by the lake becomes a large crowd pressing in on him.

Too often in a crowd, it is those who get to the front first, who have the loudest voices, who are heard, whose demands are met.

But in this case, it is not the loud and the proud, the rich or the famous, who grab the attention of Christ – it is a weak, timid, neglected impoverished, exploited and sick woman. All her money has gone on quacks, and she has no man to speak up for her.

But look at what Christ does for her. Without knowing it, he heals her. And when he realises what has happened, he calls her ‘Daughter.’

In a society where men had the only voices, where to have a full place in society was to be known as a Son of Israel, she is called ‘Daughter.’ She too has a full and equal place in society, in the world, and before God.

It is shocking that when the unnamed girl dies the first reaction of some key local figures is to upbraid her father for seeking help, and not to offer him comfort and sympathy.

Their lack of compassion and sympathy contrasts sharply with the compassion Christ shows for both the older and the younger woman.

Until last week, I was still hoping to take part in the annual conference of the Anglican mission agency USPG (the United Society Partners in the Gospel) next month. However, the impact of the Delta Variant means the conference has been replaced by a virtual event.

Some years ago, at the USPG conference, I heard powerful and engaging stories of how projects supported by USPG are empowering women around the world.

Canon Delene Mark from South Africa gave harrowing accounts of gender-based violence, people trafficking, child murder and forced prostitution.

Sheba Sultan from the Church of Pakistan reminded us that women in Pakistan cannot achieve anything without tackling bigotry and intolerance.

We heard from India where the Delhi Brotherhood is challenging gender-based violence, including rape and murder.

The Revd Dr Miranda Threlfall-Holmes talked about gender justice, which is much more than ending gender-based violence. She shared a vision of equality for men and women created equally in the image and likeness of God, made one in Christ, called and equipped by the Holy Spirit, and living with the promise of abundant life for all.

We were challenged each day to ask ourselves: how is the Gospel good news for women?

Speaker after speaker insisted the Gospel is Good News – but only if we read it, accept its consequences for us, and then live it out.

The Gospel is Good News for women like the two women in the Gospel story and for the women I heard about at that USPG conference. But … only if we read it and if we put it into practice.

And so, may all we think, say and do be to the praise, honour and glory of God, + Father, Son and Holy Spirit, Amen.

‘When Jesus had crossed again in the boat to the other side, a great crowd gathered round him’ (Mark 5: 21) … a crowded boat in the Mediterranean (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Mark 5: 21-43 (NRSVA):

21 When Jesus had crossed again in the boat to the other side, a great crowd gathered round him; and he was by the lake. 22 Then one of the leaders of the synagogue named Jairus came and, when he saw him, fell at his feet 23 and begged him repeatedly, ‘My little daughter is at the point of death. Come and lay your hands on her, so that she may be made well, and live.’ 24 So he went with him.

And a large crowd followed him and pressed in on him. 25 Now there was a woman who had been suffering from haemorrhages for twelve years. 26 She had endured much under many physicians, and had spent all that she had; and she was no better, but rather grew worse. 27 She had heard about Jesus, and came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak, 28 for she said, ‘If I but touch his clothes, I will be made well.’ 29 Immediately her haemorrhage stopped; and she felt in her body that she was healed of her disease. 30 Immediately aware that power had gone forth from him, Jesus turned about in the crowd and said, ‘Who touched my clothes?’ 31 And his disciples said to him, ‘You see the crowd pressing in on you; how can you say, “Who touched me?” ’ 32 He looked all round to see who had done it. 33 But the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came in fear and trembling, fell down before him, and told him the whole truth. 34 He said to her, ‘Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace, and be healed of your disease.’

35 While he was still speaking, some people came from the leader’s house to say, ‘Your daughter is dead. Why trouble the teacher any further?’ 36 But overhearing what they said, Jesus said to the leader of the synagogue, ‘Do not fear, only believe.’ 37 He allowed no one to follow him except Peter, James, and John, the brother of James. 38 When they came to the house of the leader of the synagogue, he saw a commotion, people weeping and wailing loudly. 39 When he had entered, he said to them, ‘Why do you make a commotion and weep? The child is not dead but sleeping.’ 40 And they laughed at him. Then he put them all outside, and took the child’s father and mother and those who were with him, and went in where the child was. 41 He took her by the hand and said to her, ‘Talitha cum’, which means, ‘Little girl, get up!’ 42 And immediately the girl got up and began to walk about (she was twelve years of age). At this they were overcome with amazement. 43 He strictly ordered them that no one should know this, and told them to give her something to eat.

‘Christ raises the daughter of Jairus’ (left), in the Hardman window by JH Powell at the west end of the nave in Saint Nicholas Church, Adare, Co Limerick (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Liturgical Colour: Green

The Collect of the Day (Trinity IV):

O God, the protector of all who trust in you,
without whom nothing is strong, nothing is holy:
Increase and multiply upon us your mercy;
that with you as our ruler and guide,
we may so pass through things temporal
that we finally lose not the things eternal:
Grant this, heavenly Father,
for Jesus Christ’s sake, our Lord.

The Post-Communion Prayer:

Eternal God,
comfort of the afflicted and healer of the broken,
you have fed us at the table of life and hope.
Teach us the ways of gentleness and peace,
that all the world may acknowledge
the kingdom of your Son Jesus Christ our Lord.

Old newspaper cuttings … when and how is the Gospel good news for people on the margins?

Hymns:

211, Immortal love for ever full (CD 13)
592, O Love that wilt not let me go (CD 34)

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

Material from the Book of Common Prayer is copyright © 2004, Representative Body of the Church of Ireland.

How Baltimore recovered after being sacked by the Pirates of Algiers

The Harbour at Baltimore … the Wild Atlantic Way meets the coast of West Cork (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

Patrick Comerford

During last week’s road trip or ‘staycation’ in Co Kerry and West Cork, the village of Baltimore was the starting and return point for a visit to Cape Clear Island, at the very southern tip of Ireland.

Baltimore is where the Wild Atlantic Way meets Carbery's Hundred Isles and the beautiful coast of West Cork. It is the main ferry port for Cape Clear Island, Sherkin Island, and the east side of Roaring Water Bay and Carbery’s Hundred Isles.

Baltimore was once the haunt of pirates, but today is a centre for all kinds of waterborne activity. This is a village of about 400 residents, but those numbers swell in the summer months with the arrival of visitors. It is about 100 km west of Cork city and the final stop on the 2,500 km length of the Wild Atlantic Way.

Baltimore’s large natural harbour is formed partly by the islands in the archipelago known as Carbery’s Hundred Isles. Around the pier, charter boats and pleasure craft jostle with fishing vessels and ferries to the islands.

The village ‘Square’ – which is more of a triangle – is at the heart of Baltimore (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

The oldest part of the village with its castle and rows of fishermen’s cottages is spread along the east shore of the harbour. At the heart of Baltimore is the village ‘Square’ – more of a triangle – around which are clustered bars and restaurants looking west over the sea and islands.

Baltimore (Dún na Séad, the ‘Fort of the Jewels’) was a seat of one of Ireland’s most ancient dynasties, the Corcu Loígde, ancestors of the O’Driscoll, O’Leary and Hennessy families, and the O’Driscoll castle, Dún na Séad, gave its name to the Irish language name of the town.

The castle was built in 1215 by the Anglo-Norman Sleynie, but later became the principal castle of the O’Driscoll clan.

The name Baltimore is an anglicisation of the Irish Baile an Tí Mhóir, ‘town of the big house’.

The Customs House … the name is a reminder of Baltimore’s trading past (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

In the early 1600s, Baltimore had a thriving pilchard industry and wine trade, but was also regarded as a lucrative pirate base and was known in Venice as ‘a nest of pirates.’ English piracy, however, declined, partly due to competition from Barbary pirates.

In the early 17th century, the head of the O’Driscoll clan, Sir Fineen O’Driscoll, an ally of the Crown, leased his lands to Sir Thomas Crooke (1574-1630), who received a Charter from James I for a colony founded ca 1605. Baltimore became a market town in 1607, with a weekly market and two annual fairs.

Baltimore became a borough in 1612 with a town government consisting of a sovereign or mayor, Sir Thomas Crooke, and 12 burgesses, and it sent two MPs to the Irish House of Commons from 1613 to 1801.

The Algiers Inn … Baltimore was sacked by Barbary pirates in 1630 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

When Crooke died in 1630, his claims in Baltimore were contested by Sir Walter Coppinger. But, a year, later, the town was depopulated in 1631 in the Sack of Baltimore, a raid by Barbary pirates from either Ottoman Algeria or Salé in Morocco. Between 100 and 237 people, English settlers and Irish local people, were sold into slavery, of whom only two or three ever saw Ireland again.

On board two ships that left Algiers was a combined force of Dutch, Algerians and Turks, under the command of one of the most successful leaders of Barbary pirates, a renegade Dutch captain, Jan Janszoon van Haarlem, known as Murad Reis the Younger.

By the time they reached the coast of West Cork, they had already seized a number of smaller vessels, imprisoning their crews. The captain of one was a Dungarvan man, John Hackett. Reis’s original target was probably Kinsale, but Hackett declared the harbour there ‘too hot’ to enter and in return for his freedom he offered to pilot Reis to the defenceless village of Baltimore.

Undetected, the pirates anchored outside the harbour of Baltimore, ‘about a musket shot from the shore’ late in the evening of 19/20 June. From there, they launched an attack on the sleeping village before dawn the next day.

The people of Baltimore were taken by surprise. More than 200 armed corsairs landed in the cove, torching the thatched roofs of the houses and carrying off ‘young and old out of their beds.’

Moving on to the main village, the pirates took more captives before musket fire and the beating of a drum alerted the remaining villagers and persuaded Reis to end the raid.

By then, more than 100 men, women and children had been taken. They were herded back to ships that bore them away from West Cork to the slave markets of North Africa.

The Barbary pirates were led by a renegade Dutch captain, Jan Janszoon van Haarlem, known as Murad Reis the Younger (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

The raid on Baltimore was the worst-ever attack by Barbary corsairs on the mainland of Ireland or Britain. Most of the names in the official report sound English, but it is likely that there were also a few native Irish among the prisoners.

Very few of these people were ever heard of again. At most, three returned to Ireland: one was ransomed almost at once, and two others in 1646.

However, the fate of the rest is unknown. Many may have ended their days as galley slaves or concubines in the harems of Algiers. For his part, Hackett was arrested and hanged on a clifftop above Baltimore.

The Sack of Baltimore has given rise to many conspiracy theories. They generally point the finger at the rapacious Sir Walter Coppinger, who had been seeking to prise the village away from the O’Driscolls, oust the Crooke family and the settlers and secure it for himself. Whether by accident or design, the pirates carried out part of this plan for him.

Suspicion also points to O’Driscoll’s exiled relatives, who had fled to Spain after the Battle of Kinsale and had no hope of inheriting Baltimore by legal means.

On the other hand, Murad may have planned the raid without any help. The authorities had advance intelligence of a planned raid on the Cork coast, but Kinsale was thought to be a more likely target than Baltimore.

The Sack of Baltimore had an impact on the village for over 200 years (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

In the aftermath of the raid, the surviving villagers moved inland to Skibbereen and other places in search of greater security and Coppinger’s designs on the village were realised. The sack marked the end of the 400-year reign of the O’Driscolls as overlords of Baltimore, and Baltimore was almost deserted for generations.

A slow recovery began in the 18th century, and by the early 1800s the village was starting to prosper again, only to suffer further great losses in the Great Famine.

Reminders of the Sack of Baltimore still exist in the form of pub names, like the ‘Algiers Inn.’ It inspired Thomas Davis to write his poem, ‘The Sack of Baltimore.’ A detailed account of the disaster is told by Des Ekin in his book The Stolen Village: Baltimore and the Barbary Pirates.

Saint Matthew’s Church was designed by James Pain and built in 1819 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

Two years ago, in 2019, parishioners celebrated the 200th anniversary of the consecration of Saint Matthew’s Church, the Church of Ireland parish church in Baltimore.

Saint Matthew’s Church was built in 1819 on a site donated by Lord Carbery, with a loan of £600 from Board of Frist Fruits. The church was designed by the Limerick-based architect James Pain and built with sandstone quarried on Cape Clear Island. Saint Matthew’s was consecrated by Thomas St Lawrence, Bishop of Cork and Ross, on 25 September 1819.

Oak panelling, oak fonts and ends to choir seats, mosaic tiling, a marble step to in the sanctuary, and a pavement in the choir aisle were installed in the church in 1918. They were designed by the Cork-born architect Robert Walker (1866-1937) as a gift from Annie Becher in memory of her husband, William Start Becher, who died of war wounds in France in July 1916.

Saint Matthew’s Church stands on a prominent location in Baltimore and is an important focal point in the village. The tower, a classic component of the Board of First Fruit style churches, is a striking feature adding to the architectural diversity of the village.

In the Roman Catholic Diocese of Ross, Baltimore is the main village in the parish of Rathmore and the Islands, the southernmost parish in Ireland, which includes Cape Clear Island.

Baltimore’s castle, Dún na Sead, overlooks the town but was ruined by the mid-17th century. It was restored in 1997-2005, is open to the public and is home to a ‘Pirate Exhibition.’

Dún na Sead was restored in 1997-2005 and is home to a ‘Pirate Exhibition’ (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

Despite local claims and persistent lore, the city of Baltimore in Maryland takes its name not from this Baltimore in West Cork but from Baltimore Manor in Drumlish, Co Longford, the ancestral home of the Calvert family who held the title of Lord Baltimore.

Yet, it is a curious coincidence that Frederick Calvert (1731-1771), 6th and last Baron Baltimore, who inherited near feudal rights in the colony of Maryland, was ‘living at Constantinople like a Turk, with his seraglio all around him’ in 1764, according to James Boswell.

Lord Baltimore was said to have ‘lost all physical and moral taste’ and later rebuilt his London home in the style of a Turkish harem.

Street art at the top of steps in Baltimore (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

In search of Ireland’s most southerly churches on Cape Clear Island

Cape Clear Island off the coast of Co Cork is intimately linked with the legends surrounding the life Saint Ciarán (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

Patrick Comerford

Clear Island or Cape Clear Island ( Cléire or Oileán Chléire), 8 miles off the south-west coast of Co Cork, is the most southerly inhabited part of Ireland. Cape Clear is 3 miles long by 1 mile wide. Most of the 147 residents are bilingual in Irish and English, making this Ireland’s southern-most inhabited Gaeltacht island.

Mizen Head, the mainland’s most southerly point, is to the north-west. The nearest neighbouring island is Sherkin Island, 2 km to the east, and the solitary Fastnet Rock, with its lighthouse, is three miles west of the island. The boat trip from Baltimore took only 40 minutes, with views of the rugged coastline West Cork and occasional sightings of dolphins.

Little did I realise when this island-hopping boat trip was being booked as part of last week’s road trip or ‘staycation’ that I would end up visiting Ireland’s most southerly churches.

The South Harbour on the seaward side is often a berth for yachts and pleasure boats (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

The island is divided into east and west by an isthmus called the Waist, with the North Harbour to the landward side and the South Harbour on the seaward side.

Ferries from Schull and Baltimore arrive into the North Harbour, while the South Harbour is often a berth for yachts and pleasure boats.

Arriving on the ferry from Baltimore into the North Harbour the first archaeological and ecclesiastical site the visitor sees are the ruins of a 12th-century church, close to the main pier, with Saint Ciaran’s Well beside it.

Saint Ciarán of Saighir gives his name to the ruined church and holy well at the North Harbour (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

Saint Ciarán, the island’s patron saint, is allegedly one of Ireland’s four, early pre-Patrician saints. He is said to have been born on the shoreline beside the harbour, Trá Chiaráin, in front of the well, and the islanders gather there to mark his feast on 5 March each year.

Saint Ciarán of Saighir was one of the ‘Twelve Apostles of Ireland’ and was the founding Bishop of Saighir (Seir-Kieran). He remains the patron saint of its successor, the Diocese of Ossory.

Sometimes he is called Saint Ciarán the Elder, to distinguish him from another sixth century Saint Ciarán, Abbot of Clonmacnoise. He shares the feast date of 5 March with his mother, Saint Liadán, and his disciple and episcopal successor, Saint Carthach the Elder.

The reverence for Saint Ciarán is reflected in the proliferation of his name on the island: Saint Ciarán’s beach (Trá Chiaráin), Saint Ciarán’s Well (Tobar Chiaráin), Saint Ciarán’s Church (Séipéal Chiaráin) and Saint Ciarán’s Graveyard (Reilg Chiaráin); indeed, almost every family includes someone with the name Ciarán.

Saint Ciarán is said to have been born on the shoreline beside the North Harbour (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

Saint Ciarán’s life has inspired some colourful stories. Before he was conceived, his mother, Saint Liadán, dreamt a star had fallen into her mouth. She related this dream to the tribal elders, who told her she would give birth to a son whose fame and virtues would spread around the world.

It is said that when Ciarán heard from sailors about a new religion in Rome he went there and embraced Christianity. He was ordained in Rome and after 30 years there returned as Bishop of Ireland. He built his first church on the island, and legends claim the people of Cape Clear were the first in Ireland to accept Christianity.

His first disciples included a boar, a fox, a brock and a wolf: they all became monks and worked together to build the community.

The ruins of the 12th century church beside the North Harbour … Saint Ciarán’s life has inspired colourful stories (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

The ruins of Saint Ciaran’s Church, a 12th century rectangular church surrounded by a graveyard, face the North Harbour. The east gable and north and south walls survive to near full height (1.8 metres), but the upper part of west gable is missing.

There is an arched doorway near the west end of the south wall, a lintelled window near the east end, a single-light window in the east gable with an unusual foil or drop in the centre, and small aumbries in the north and south walls near the east gable.

The church was in ruins by 1693, but it remains Ireland’s southern-most church.

Toberkieran or Saint Ciarán’s well is a few steps away from the church ruins and churchyard. Beside the well, a flat-topped standing stone has a cross-like carving in relief. On the north-east face is an incised Latin cross, with expanded shaft terminals. On the south-west face is a very worn Latin cross with expanded terminals. There is a slight trace of another incised cross on the south-east face, with an indecipherable incised carving beneath.

Saint Ciarán’s Church, built in 1839 … the southern-most church still in use in Ireland (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

A steep climb leads north-east behind the harbour, with a 15-minute walk to island’s present church. Saint Ciarán’s Roman Catholic Church was built in 1839. It is part of the parish of Skibbereen, Rath and the Islands, and is the southern-most church still in use in Ireland.

This simple church is typical of earlier 19th century churches that are plain in style and modest in scale. Despite replacement windows and doors, it retains notable features, including a bellcote at the west end.

This is a single-cell, double-height church, with a four-bay nave and a recent single-storey sacristy. The pointed arch openings have replacement uPVC windows, a replacement timber battened door and tympanum. Inside, there is a fine open truss roof, polychrome tiles and a carved timber confessional.

Inside Saint Ciarán’s Church … part of the parish of Skibbereen, Rath and the Islands (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

The other sites on the island include megalithic standing stones, a 5,000-year-old Neolithic passage grave, the ruins of Dún an Óir, a 14th promontory fort or castle built by the O’Driscolls in the 14th century and destroyed by cannon in the early 1600s, and a signal tower dating from the Napoleonic Wars.

More modern additions to the island include a lighthouse, a bird observatory and two Irish summer colleges for secondary school pupils, Coláiste Phobal Chléire and Coláiste Chiaráin. Students stay in local houses or dorms and improve their spoken Irish as part of their immersion courses.

The island had a population of over 1,052 before the Great Famine, but the current population of is about 140. The primary school was built in 1897. Cape Clear’s electricity was once produced by diesel generators, but these were replaced ca 1995 with a n underwater cable from the mainland. The island has a restaurant, shop and pubs, and a new café overlooking the harbour opened at the beginning of this summer.

The wild scenery contributes to the island’s unspoilt charm (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

Since 1994, the island has hosted the Cape Clear Island International Storytelling Festival on the first weekend of September.

Cape Clear’s remote location and its proximity to the continental shelf make the island an important centre for bird watching. Whales, leatherback turtles, sun fish, dolphins and sharks are spotted regularly every year.

The wild scenery, the sparkling harbours, the cliffs, bogs and the lake all contribute to the island’s unspoilt charm. The bird life includes black and common guillemots, cormorants and storm petrels. Heather, gorse and wild flowers cover the rugged hills, while myriad stone walls give a patchwork effect to the landscape.

Cape Clear Island is colourful in the summer sunshine (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)