The Four Leafed Shamrock

Four Pools of Irish Spirituality

 

By Dara Molloy

Published in AISLING Magazine.

Many people have a keen but vague interest in Irish spirituality. When trying to describe what Irish spirituality really is, it is difficult to get past generalities. This article is an attempt to get past the generalities. It provides hooks on which peoplecan hang their own research.

If somebody is hungry, give them food. But if the problem is food-supply, it is better to give them a fishing-rod and teach them to fish. I learned to fish quite recently. I am not an expert at fishing, but I have found a river that is teeming with fish. Not many people fish on its banks.

Let me loan you my fishing-rod, makeshift and all as it is, and I'll show you how I do it. Maybe then you could make your own rod, and find your own favourite spot on the river. There is room for everybody. There is no danger of over-fishing this river. This is a mystical river, and she obeys spiritual laws, not physical laws. In the physical world, the more you give away, the less you have. In the spiritual world, the more you give away, the more you have. This river can nourish the nation.

I have four favourite pools on-this river. The first is away up near its source. The next two are down along the plain, as the river me anders; and the third is near its mouth.

The best thing I can do to introduce you to each fishing pool is to tell you of some of the fish that have nourished my soul from this pool. In the Pool of Celtic Mystery I have found Newgrange, Sacred Sites, and Halloween.

 

NEWGRANGE
If I were to visit the empty tomb in Jerusa lem, the one from which Jesus rose, I think l would be very inspired. It is a wonderful symbol of hope against death, and of victory over darkness. I have discovered that we Irish have our own empty tomb - at Newgrange in Co. Meath. The druids and astronomers who built Newgrange built it so that on the darkest day of the year, December 21st, the sun would shine into its innermost chamber and fill it with light. On the shortest day, in the depths of winter, the sun lights up a burial chamber that lay in darkness for the previous 364 days of the year. What a wonderfully magic phe nomenon! There is no knowing for certain what type of ritual took place during these short mo ments of light, but everything points to the celebration of a belief in life after death, and in the body's transportation into another dimen sion. Not alone is the opening at Newgrange aligned to catch the sun as it rises an this one day, but the frontage of quartz stone, and perhaps also the stone bowls in the central chamber, are there to give a concentration of light and energy to the innermost cavern, where possibly people gathered, or bodies lay. While the empty tomb of Jerusalem dates back two thousand years, Newgrange goes back possibly five thousand years.

 

SACRED SITES
The Celts may not have been great architects in the way that other civilisations were. They did not leave behind them anything like the Greek temples or the Colosseum of Rome. Their skills were different, more mystical, and lay in sensing the spirit or energy of a place or object. Their buildings marked and mani fested the spiritual quality already inherent in the place. This was also true of their art, which brought out the essence of the piece of material they were using. The Celts chose sacred sites on which to perform their rituals and to hold their ceremonies. Dun Aengus on Inismor in the Aran Islands is one such place. World famous, it has a constant daily stream of tourists to it. Yet it is little more than a semi-circle of dry stone walls. The human input to the site is minimal, but the site itself is wonderful. Perched on the edge of a three hundred foot cliff, the Celts have marked the spot where the heart is filled with wonder. Central to the site is a stone platform, like a stage, on the edge of the cliff. It looks manmade, but is in fact natural. Thankfully, it is not possible to bring any mode of transport, not even a bicycle, near this site. Everybody, both rich and poor, must walk the half hour to the site. This fortuitously makes it more like a pilgrimage, which of course it should be. Many of the holy places that are in Ireland were regarded as holy long before the advent of Christianity. Croagh Patrick was a holy mountain before St Patrick pilgrimed to its peak and gave it his name; Aran was a holy island before St Enda set foot on it; and the oak wood of Kildare was a place of worship and ritual before St Brigit built her mixed monastery there. In particular, the holy wells of Ireland date back further than the saints that now give their names to them. It is from the Celts that we have inherited the practice of doing a 'station' around these wells. Doing a 'station' means walking in a circle a number of times around the well and its vicinity in a clockwise (sunwise) direction while saying certain prayers. The meaning of this ritual lay in the Celtic belief that walking sunwise in a circle built up the positive energy of the place and made it even more holy. Walking sunwise meant walking in the direction of the sun during the day. Walking in the opposite direction would do the opposite, of course, and this was applied when you wanted to curse someone. There is a cursing stone on the island of Inis murray off Sligo where you can curse your neighbour by turning the stone in an anti clockwise direction!

The Stations of the Cross work on the same principle. If we are to be true to our Celtic heritage, these fourteen stations should be arranged inside or outside the Church so that people can walk around in a clockwise, or 'sunwise', direction.

 

HALLOWEEN
Many practices in Ireland date back to Celtic times, sometimes unknownst to us. Bonfires are one example, where the word bonfire itself stems from the burning of bones. Burning bones released the spirits of the dead back into the air. A bonfire on St John's Eve, June 23rd, was originally a Celtic festival celebrating the high point of the sun in the year. Spring was a time of upward growth from under the soil - plants reaching for the sky. The fire expressed the release of these plant spirits into the sky. Halloween is a more obvious Celtic festival whose traditions are still maintained. The eating of fruit and nuts makes it a harvest festival. But this is combined with something a lot more mysterious. November 1st was the beginning of the new year for the Celts. There were certain times and certain places where the gates to 'the other world' would be opened. Halloween night was such a time. During this night, people from the other world could freely walk among us. We too could travel into their world, spending maybe three hundred years there, and then return to exactly the place and the moment in time where we had left! Our friends would not have noticed us gone, but might think we were acting a little strange! We, on the other hand, woulld have been totally transformed having experienced something unimaginable. Halloween introduces us to one source of our belief in another world, and teaches us something about that world. The Halloween tradition demonstrates how we can ritualise our beliefs and celebrate them without words. On Aran, Halloween is magic, as it is the adults who dress up totally concealing their identity as they sit in the pub or walk the roads. The effect is dramatic as the village of Cill Ronan becomes a place where two worlds mingle.

 

In the Pool of Irish Monasticism my fishing has come up with A Model Of Church and A Style Of Mission.

 

A MODEL OF CHURCH
The Roman model of church has spread so far and wide throughout the world that it is hard to imagine any other model. Yet in early Christianity there were many models of Church reflected in the New Testament writ ings. The Roman model that we have today became dominant only in the 4th century and owes more to the Roman Empire - a political system of the time - than to any Christian inspiration. Unlike the rest of Europe, Ireland had never been part of the Roman Empire, and when Christianity came to Ireland it took on a distinctly Trish shape. The Roman model brought to Ireland by Patrick was put on the back boiler, and the Irish Church took on a monastic shape, more suited to the structure of Celtic society at the time. But even to say that the Irish church took on a monastic shape is not quite accurate enough. Irishmonasteries were distinctly different and distinctly Irish. Monasteries as we know them today are all of the European variety. Unlike European monasticism, Celtic monasteries were at the heart of the local community. Irish towns grew up around them. They were an expression of the local clan, who owned the land, and to whom the abbot had to be related. In these monasteries, the already highly developed culture and spirituality of the Celtic people was transformed by a vertical shift to a new plain. The Celtic model of Church put community at its heart. The abbot, not the bishop, was the person of local importance, and it was the abbots, not the bishops, who became the great saints in Ireland. Within that community all aspects of life were lived according to the values and beliefs upon which that community was founded. These communities were 'intentional' communities, founded by people who had vision, commitment, and skills of leadership. Celtic monasticism and its model of church presents a challenge to today's religious or ders.

 

A STYLE OF MISSION
Irish missionaries were not solo artists. The history of the Celtic Church in Europe shows clearly that the Irish moved, not as individuals, but as communities. St Columbanus is a clear example. He and his community of monks moved to northern France, where he approached the king and was given a piece of land on which to build his monastery. He settled there. Only when the community became too big did he move to build another one - two miles down the road He subsequently built a third, also close-by. The evangelisation practiced by the Celtic Church was what Theo Sundermeier, a Protestant theologian, calls 'Abrahamitic' - that is, as a believing community, they left their home and country and travelled to a strange land, to settle in a place that God would show them. There they stayed, becoming, in the words of Jesus, 'a light on a hilltop'. Their commitment was to place, and they evangelised by the quality of their lives within community.

There are so many fish in the Pool of the Saints that it is like a supermarket, with every brand and type and quality of saint that one might want. A saint for every season. A full account of the saints of Ireland, as passed on to us in folklore, comes to twelve large volumes. There is an Irish character about these saints that is not found in European saints. They embody the finest spirit of the Irish. Here I have chosen three - Colmcille, Brigit, and Columbanus. They represent the founding trinity of the Celtic Church.

 

ST COLMCILLE
Colmcille represents the cream of the Irish saints. For many centuries he was regarded as the founder of the Irish church. Today we can say that if Patrick was the founder of the Roman church in Ireland, Columcille was the founder of the Celtic church. In Ireland, north, south, east, and west, Columcille is remembered in place names, wells, churches, and in folk-tales. There is a Glencolmcille in Co. Clare as well as in Co. Donegal. Swords, in north Co. Dublin, is Sord Colmcille. His name is intimately connected with Kells, with Durrow, and with Derry. There are stories of him all over Ireland, and this despite the fact that he spent most of his life on the island of Iona off Scotland, where he became the evangelist of Scotland and northern England. The stories of Colmcille are of equal rank with those of King David in the Old Testament, and far surpass those of Patrick. Like the story of David, Colmcille comes across both in his greatness, and in his weakness, in his sanctity and in his sinfulness. There is a great humanity to the stories, and one with which the Irish people in particular can identify. Take for example the story about Colmcille on Aran, where he is still remembered and his feasklay celebrated by a visit to Tobar Colmcille on June 9th. When he came to Aran he met St Enda. Now Enda was the Prince of Oriel, but Colmcille was a prince of the O'Neill's in Donegal. This made Colmcille more powerful than Enda, politically speaking. Colmcille asked Enda for a piece of land on the island on which to build a church. "If I were to give you even as much land as your cloak would cover, you would end up taking the whole island!" said Enda, and he would not give him the land. Enda and Colmcille had a blazing row, and the outcome of it was that Colmcille was banished from the island. But being ostracized, none of Enda's monks would take him off the island on a boat. So Colmcille sat on a rock near Cill Einne, at a spot now marked as Tobar Colmcille, and the rock turned into a currach. He floated out on the currents without oar or sail, and was brought to the shores of Co. Clare, where the boat again turned into a rock and can be seen to this day. On leaving Aran in such circumstances, Colmcille put three curses on the island, curses which are felt to this day. Being an archetypical Irish saint, Colmcille's power could be used for blessing or cursing. The three curses were: the island would never have soil enough to bury a man, or trees enough to hang a man; it would be without fuel (there is no turf on the island); and, worst of all, it would always be ruled by outsiders. It will take a saint of equal calibre to Colmcille to undo these curses, which have been in force now for over fourteen hundred years.

 

ST BRIGIT
I like Columcille, Brigit too is a powerful archetype for the Irish psyche. Representing the feminine, she is a latter day Queen Maeve. Men fell at her feet, not through the sword, but in awe and admiration. Many of the stories concerning her show her putting men in their place. St Brendan the Navigator thought he would investigate her supposed greatness, and on going to visit her, demanded that she make her confession to him. She did, and then asked him to make his confession to her! To complete his humiliation, she hung her cloak on a rainbow. When he tried to do the same, it fell to the ground. At the end of his meeting, Brendan knew who was the more worthy. Brigit, like no other Irish saint male or female, represents the transition from the Druidic religion through to Christianity. Brigit may have been a Druidic priestess practicing her rituals with her band of Druidic women in the sacred oak wood of what is now Kildare. In her transition to Christianity, she brought with her not just the other Druidic women, but also many of the Druidic practices. The perpetual fire at Kildare burned for over a thousand years after Brigit's death, but no-one knows how long it was burning before Brigit took it over. Brigit represents the bridge between the old and the new in the Irish spiritual testament. Her cult carries with it the cult of Brid, the Celtic goddess, who was in fact a triple goddess, and may have represented all the goddesses of Ireland. She represents also the clash between the Roman and Celtic Church, especially as regards women. One story tells of Brigit going to St Mel in Longford, to kneel before him and take her vows as a nun. There were two other women with her who were also taking their vows. Mel, who was very old, received the vows of the first two women and said the prayers of consecration over them. But when he got to Brigit his book fell, and when he reopened it it was at the wrong page, so that instead of consecrating her as a nun, he consecrated her as a bishop! And bishop she was. She had jurisdiction over a large area of Ireland, including what is now Dublin. She was recognised by the other bishops of Ireland as having this power - they visited her regularly for prayers and advice. In her mixed monastery of Kildare she had placed Bishop Conleth in charge of the men, but she kept fifty-one per cent of the shares, and remained in charge. There are many stories of pressure being put on Brigit to change over to the Roman way lously the Roman 'ordo', or instruction book for the Roman liturgy, never arrives!

 

ST COLUMBANUS
St Columbanus represents the missionary dimension of the Irish Church. His mission was highly successful, and his style was Irish and Celtic to the last. It is insightful to compare and contrast him with his counterpart in European monasticism, St Benedict. Both are patrons of Europe, but Benedict is the primary patron. Yet, Columbanus, who was slightly later than Benedict, was making his mark in Europe before him. Benedictine monasticism was a late developer, whereas Columbanus had over a hundred monasteries founded in his name all across Europe before his death. The Rule of St Columbanus was a very distinct rule. Over a period in Europe however it was modified to come more in line with that of St Benedict and with the Roman way of doing things. Today all religious rules must be based on that of St Benedict, and the Rule of St Columbanus is consigned to the museums and academic libraries. Columbanus bears the flag for the wonderful success of Irish monasticism throughout Europe. In cities, towns, and villages from France to Poland to Russia, and down to the toe of Italy, Irish monks have left their mark. The feast of St Columbanus on November 23rd is a full week's festival in parts of Italy. Fiacre and Fursey in France, Gall in Switzerland, Killian in Wurzburg, Germany, and Feargal (Virgilius) in Saltzburg, Austria, are equally celebrated. It was a Soviet TV producer who confirmed for me last year that the Irish monks had in fact reached Russia. She knew more about it than I did! Irish monasticism, and the Celtic Church, was responsible for the rescue of Europe from the Dark Ages. Its contribution, like the stone that was initially rejected for the temple in Jerusalem, was to be the cornerstone for the building of modern Europe. Despite its contribution, it was subsequently rejected, as it had become a real threat to the power of Rome.

Poll ár dTeanga agus ár nDúchais
The fourth pool that I use for mystical fishing, Poll ár dTeanga agus ár nDúchais (the Pool of our Language and Heritage), is near the mouth of the river. It lies in an estuary where rich fertile silt has gathered after travel ling downriver for thousands of years. Now environmental changes are washing it out to sea where it will be lost forever. But, as yet, there are rich pickings to be had, and who knows but other environmental changes may happen that will save its irretrievable loss.

 

AN TEANGA
The Irish language is indelibly coloured with Irish spirituality. It is impossible to be an atheist or an agnostic and speak the Gaelic tongue. How do you say 'hello' if you don't believe in God? The Gaelic greeting is Dia dhuit (Godbewithyou). The days of the week are renamed: Friday - Dé hAoine-'the fast day'; Wednesday - Dé Céadaoin - 'the first fast day'; Thursday - Déardaoin - 'the day between the two fast days'; Sunday - Dé Domhnach - 'the Lord's Day' (from the Latin 'Dominus'). From the moment you open your mouth to speak with someone in Gaelic, you are praying! Prayer is an integral part of Gaelic conversation: Buíochas le Dia (Thanks be to God), le cúnamh Dé (with God's help), Go ndéanfaigh Dia trócaire ar a anam (May God have mercy on his soul), le toil Dé (God willing), Go mbeannaigh Dia dhuit ( God bless you), Go dtabharfaidh Dia sólás dhuit (May God give you comfort), Bail ó Dhia ar an obair (God bless the work), Go ngnóthaí Dia dhuit (May God work with you), and Go dtógfaidh Dia slán abhaile thú (May God take you safely home). Gaelic-speaking people pray as they talk. They also pray as they sing. Many traditional Irish songs, especially sean-nós (old style), are deeply spiritual. Then there are the traditional prayers, ár bpaidreacha dúchais. These are prayers, passed down through an oral tradition from parents to children, that apply to every significant human activity - milking the cow, lighting the fire, lighting the lamp in the evening, going to bed, getting up, walking to Mass, passing the graveyard, baking bread, before and after a meal, going outof the house, going on a journey, and so on. Many of the prayers are very beautiful and contain a deep theology. The spirituality expressed in the Gaelic language is recognisably Irish. For example, the organisation of Irish society was around clans, that is, people who were blood related. Blood relationships were what gave people identity in Ireland. In the Irish spiritual tradi tion, Jesus is identified not so much as Íosa Críost (Jesus Christ) as Íosa mac Mhuire (Jesus the son of Mary). The same Mary, the mother of Jesus, has a special place in Irish hearts and is given a name given to no other - Muire. Any children called after Mary are calledMaire, but Mary herself is called Muire. The Gaelic say ing Ta Dia láidir agus tá máthair maith aige (God is strong, and He has a good mother) encapsulates this spirituality.

 

AN DÚCHAS
The oppression of Gaelic/Celtic culture and Gaelic/Celtic religious expression over a period of fifteen hundred years by outside ec clesiastical and political vested interests meant that i ts only hope of survival lay in non institutionalised customs and traditions. Irish folklore; bealoideas, is rich in stories and cus toms about saints and heroes that go back thousands of years. Around the beautiful countryside of Ireland holy places are still celebrated through pilgrimages, stations, and prayers. Feast-days of local saints are remem bered and people gather at their shrine whether it be church, or well, or grave. Irish spirituality is expressed today also in pilgrimage and in penance. Lough Derg in Donegal is the most penitential place in Chris tendom, yet has not lost its popularity. Despite bare feet, fasting for three days, loss of a night's sleep, and continuous prayers around stations and in the church, it appears as noth ing cnmpared to the stories of long ago, of saints praying with the sea up to their necks, or living on the bare rocky island of Scellig Mhichil . Croagh Patrick, Ireland' s holy moun tain, has a traditional pilgrimage day where lhousands climb to its stony peak. Initially this was a night pilgrimage, linking it to a pre Christian practice of celebrating the sunrise. The sun was a significant symbol for the Celts, who were astronomers and cosmically aware witness Newgrange), and the stone high crosses of Ireland incorporate this cosmic connection.

Scattered all over the Irish landscape, there are pre-Christian forts and dolmens and standing stones and burial mounds. Even more so, from the Christian era, there are ruins of monasteries, round towers, stone crosses, holy wells, pilgrim paths, and sacred places. The Irish National Museum has a rich collec tion of artefacts that express a deep spirituality, from the pre-Christian and the Christian era. These too by their very existence can nourish the soul.

 

In the Celtic tradition each river was a goddess - feminine because she gave and nurtured life. The river of life that is Celtic lrish spirituality is a mother who knows her ownand who feeds them what their hearts desire. It is a source of living water that wells up within us, and that will never run dry.

Gone fishing!

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