The South Isles of Aran Part 2

| | Ruins of Church--Tempul more mac | | Dara.

| | Ruins of Church--Tempul a.s.surniadhe.

| | Ruins of Church--Tempul Ciara | | Monastir.

| | Ruins of Church--Tempul a Phoill (the | | seven churches).

| | Ruins of Church--Tempul an Cheathrair | | Aluin.

| | Ruins of Church--Teglach Enda (St.

| | Enda's Church).

[Sidenote: CLOGHAUNS.]

Close by are the remains of the hermitage, partly sunk in the rock, and of some cloghauns, or stone-roofed dwellings. How those solitaries, who for centuries held up the lamp of learning which shone across Europe during the long night which followed the breaking up of the Roman empire, could live in such comfortless cells, it is impossible to apprehend: circular chambers about twenty feet in exterior diameter, with a hole in the stone beehive roof for a chimney, and with an Egyptian-like doorway that a tall man could with difficulty enter.

_Teampul-Chiarain_ has a beautiful eastern window, with some crosses.

Four miles from Kilronan are Kilmurvey and _Teampul McDuach_, a sixth-century church, consisting of nave and choir in beautiful preservation. There are windows there of remote antiquity, with lintels formed of two leaning stones; and there is a semicircular window of great beauty of a more recent date. There is a stone leaning against the eastern gable with a rudely cut opening which seems to have been the head of the more ancient window. The narrow doorway is like the entrance to an Egyptian tomb. Another small church, _Teampul-beg_, together with a holy well and monastic enclosure, is worthy of inspection. At the north-western side of the Inishmore island, and six miles from Kilronan, are the remains of the seven churches, one of which is called _Teampul Brecain_--the church of St. Braccan, who was the founder of the monastery of Ardbraccan, now the cathedral church of the diocese of Meath. The ruined church of _Teampul-saght-Machree_ is an object of interest on the middle island. The eastern island in ancient times was called _Aran-Coemhan_ in honour of _St. Coemhan_ (St. Kevin), brother of St. Kevin of Glendalough. He was one of the most renowned of the saints of Aran, and is believed to have not unfrequently abated storms after being piously invoked.

[Sidenote: CHILDLESS MARRIAGES.]

There is a legend in the islands worthy of remembrance by those whose marriages are as yet unblest with children. We speak of that of St.

Braccan's bed, where many a fair devotee has prayed and has had her prayers granted, as Anna of old had in the temple of Silo,[6] when the Lord bestowed on her childless marriage a child who was afterwards the prophet Samuel.

[Sidenote: ARAN CHURCHES.]

The churches are all of small dimensions--never more than sixty feet in length--at the eastern end of which is not unfrequently a chancel in which the altar was placed. Between the nave of the church and the chancel was the chancel arch of a semicircular form, a very beautiful specimen of which exists in the Protestant cathedral of Tuam. These temples, very imperfectly lighted by small windows splaying inwards, do not appear to have ever been glazed. The chancel had usually two or three windows--one of which is always in the centre of the east end, with another in the south wall, another in the south wall of the nave, sometimes, though rarely, two in number. The windows are frequently triangular-headed, but more usually arched semicircularly, whilst the doorway is almost universally covered by a horizontal lintel consisting of a single stone. In all cases the sides of the doorways incline like the doorways in the old Cyclopean buildings, to which they bear a striking resemblance. The smaller churches were usually roofed with stone, whilst the larger ones were roofed with wood covered with thatch.

The wells are carefully preserved, the scarcity of water rendering the possession of a well almost as precious to them as to the Eastern shepherds in the days of Rebecca.

The Aran churches, it must be admitted, have little in them to interest the mind or captivate the senses; nevertheless, in their symmetrical simplicity, their dimly lighted naves, in the total absence of everything that could distract attention, there is an expression of fitness for their purpose too often wanting in modern temples of the highest pretensions.

[Sidenote: LIVES OF THE MONKS.]

The monastic establishments close by contained little that would savour of luxury. The cells of the friars were low, narrow huts, built of the roughest materials, which formed, by the regular distribution of the streets, a large and populous village, enclosing within a common wall a church and hospital, perhaps a library. The austere inmates slept on the ground, on a hard mat or a rough blanket, and the same bundle of palm leaves, served them as a seat by day and a pillow by night. The brethren were supported by their manual labour, and the duty of labour was strenuously recommended as a penance, as an exercise, and as the most laudable means of securing their daily subsistence. "_Laborare est orare_" was a monastic maxim. The garden and the fields which the industry of the monks had rescued from the forest or the mora.s.s were cultivated by their ceaseless toil. In the evening they a.s.sembled for vocal or mental prayer, and they were awakened by a rustic horn, or by the convent bell in the night, for the public worship of the monastery.

Even sleep, the last refuge of the unhappy, was rigorously measured; and it was to lives of self-denial like this that great mult.i.tudes in the first century of the Christian era betook themselves. Pliny, who lived when Christ was crucified, surveyed with astonishment the monks of the first century, "a solitary people," he says, "who dwelt amongst the palm trees near the Dead Sea, who increased, and who subsisted without money, who fled from the pleasures of life, and who derived from the disgust and repentance of mankind a perpetual supply of voluntary a.s.sociates."[7]

[Sidenote: ORDNANCE SURVEY.]

On Inisheer island is a signal tower, and near it is an old castle on an eminence. Here is shown the "bed of St. Coemhan," much famed for its miraculous cures. On the south-west point is a lighthouse showing a light one hundred and ten feet in height. It is stated in the _Leabhar-braec_ that one of the Popes was interred in the great island of Aran. The same is repeated in one of the volumes of the Ordnance Survey, a work which, never printed, is stowed away on the shelves of the Royal Irish Academy, liable at any moment to be destroyed by a conflagration. In the three or four volumes on the county of Galway are contained, and in the English language, the inquisitions of Elizabeth, the subsequent patents of James I., and much learning touching t.i.thes, fisheries, abbeys, abbey lands, priories, and monasteries, as well as letters on these subjects between Petrie and O'Donovan and other antiquarians employed on that survey.

FOOTNOTES:

[2] II. c.o.ke's Reports, part iii. Preface, p. viii.

[3] The "Old Sea," the ancient name of the Atlantic in Irish.

[4] Sir Aubrey De Vere, "Irish Odes," p. 274.

[5] Colgani, Acta SS. Hiberniae.

[6] 1 Sam. i. 9-17.

[7] Pliny, Hist. Nat., v. 15.

CHAPTER III.

ISLES OF ARAN, 14TH-18TH CENTURIES.

"Long thy fair cheek was pale, _Erin Aroon_-- Too well it spake thy tale, _Erin Aroon_-- Fondly nursed hopes betrayed, Gallant sons lowly laid, All anguish there portrayed, _Erin Aroon._"

_Sliabh Cuilinn._

[Sidenote: ANNALS OF ARAN.]

A.D. 1308. The trade of Galway, which at the time of the Anglo-Norman invasion in the twelfth century was at zero, rapidly rose to a comparatively high figure in the fourteenth century. In 1300 the customs receipts were 24 15_s._ 2_d._ at that port, and in 1392, 118 5_s._ 10_d._ This augured well for the progressive improvement of the town; but that improvement was blasted for a season by the appearance in the bay of a fleet of pirates who swept the ships from the seas. The merchants applied to their powerful neighbour,[8] Dermot More O'Brien, lord of the isles of Aran, to succour them in their straits; and for that succour and the protection which he agreed to give them they agreed to pay him yearly twelve tuns of wine; the trade, commerce, and harbour of the town to be protected, and otherwise by him and his successors defended, from all and every attack of pirates and privateers whatsoever, to which intent and purpose, and for the considerations aforesaid, he covenanted and agreed to maintain a suitable maritime force. This Dermot More O'Brien was descended from Brian [Boru]

Boroimhe, slain at the battle of Clontarf in 1014.

A.D. 1334. In this year the islands were plundered by Sir John Darcy, who sailed with fifty-six ships around the Irish coasts.

[Sidenote: REVOLT OF ARAN.]

A.D. 1400. The rebellion of the Mayo and Clanrickarde Burkes in the province of Connaught, consequent on the murder, in 1333, of William De Burgh, Earl of Ulster and fifth Lord of Connaught, caused the overthrow for nearly two hundred years, of the English power in that province. The town of Galway, oscillating in its allegiance between the Crown and the Clanricardes, joined that powerful family against Henry IV., and in their revolt they were joined by the South Isles of Aran.

[Sidenote: ROYAL LICENSE.]

Thereupon the King did by royal license permit certain persons to attack the rebels in the said island, which license is as follows:--

"The King to all and singular our admirals mayors and others in our kingdom of England and lordship of Ireland greeting At the supplication of John Roderic William Pound Edward White and Philip Taylor all of Bristol and of Nicholas Kent burgess of Galway in Ireland In as much as our aforesaid liege subjects have given to us security that they shall not nor will presume to make war or afford cause for making war against any of our faithful Irish subjects or attempt anything against the form of the truces entered into between us Wherefore know ye that we have granted and given license and do hereby grant and give licence to them the said John Roderic William Pound Edward White Philip Taylor and Nicholas Kent that they with as many men at arms as they choose to have and provide at their own expenses may take their course for and pa.s.s over to our said lordship of Ireland in four ships called by the divers names of 'The Christopher' 'the Trusty' 'the Nicholas' and 'the May of Bristol' and there make war against the rebels and enemies of us in the said town of Galway and also in the islands of Arran which lie full of gallies to ensnare capture and plunder our liege English and further KNOW YE ALL MEN that if said John and William and Edward and Philip and Nicholas shall be able by force and armed power to obtain and take the town and islands aforesaid they may have hold and inhabit the same town and islands taking to their own use and profit all and singular the property of the aforesaid rebels and enemies of us and all that which they shall be able so to obtain and take The right nevertheless and other the rents revenues services and other moneys whatsumever to our royal prerogative there pertaining always saved unto us saving also the right of the son and heir of Roger de Mortimer late Earl of March deceased being within age and within our wardship and the rights of all other liege subjects whomsoever--given at our Palace at Westminster on the 22nd day of May in the first year of our reign--A.D. 1400 'By the King himself'"[9] The town however returning to its allegiance, the above license was in the same year revoked.

[Sidenote: THE REFORMATION.]

A.D. 1485. A monastery was built in this year on the great island for the Franciscans of the strict observance; but this community was doomed to be short lived, for the word had gone forth from Henry VIII. to suppress the monasteries and they were suppressed; and the annalists thus, in the Annals of the Four Masters, A.D. 1537, chronicle not alone their overthrow, but the spread of a new religion in England, "A new heresy and error arose in England through pride, vain-glory, avarice, sensuality, and many strange speculations, so that the people of England went into opposition to the Pope and to Rome. They have demolished the abbeys, sold their roofs and bells, and there is not one single monastery from Aran of the Saints to the '_Straits of Dover_'[10] that has not been completely destroyed."

[Sidenote: A STORM.]

A.D. 1560. A tragic occurrence occurred in this year when Teige O'Brien, lord of the isles, was returning, loaded with booty if not with honours, to Aran, from a plundering expedition which he had made into Munster; from one of the seaports of which province he had the rashness with his homeward bound barque to put to sea when a tempest was said by his sailors to be impending. Deceived by the "calm before the storm" he insisted on weighing anchor. It was weighed, and as the starless night was closing and deepening around him, the gale freshened as he advanced--his tempest-tossed vessel struggled amidst the waves, for the wind was high against it--and when the morning rolled the clouds away, a broken spar, an oarless boat, were all that remained to tell the ghastly tale, that every hand on board was lost. At the entrance of the Great Man's Bay, which was far out of their course, is even now shown the spot where on that fatal night they perished.

A.D. 1570. Morchowe O'Brien, in consideration of a sum of money to him in hand paid, conveyed these islands by way of mortgage to James Lynch Fitz Ambrose and his heirs.

[Sidenote: THE O'BRIENS.]

A.D. 1575. In June of this year it was agreed between the mortgagor and mortgagee of the islands "that in case the sept of clan Tiege O'Brien, the said mortgagor, should decease and perish, then that James Lynch Fitz Ambrose, the mortgagee, should be their sole heir, and possess, Aran, and all other their lands, and that said O'Brien should not alienate or mortgage any part or parcel of Aran to any person without the mortgagee's consent and license." It appears, however, that Tieg Eturgh, Morchowe Morowe, Conchor McMurchowe, Terrilagh Meeagh, Tieg McTerrilagh, Dermot McMurchowe, Tieg McTerrilagh Oge, and Conchor McMoriertagh, McBrene, gentlemen, all of Aran, and Dermot McCormick McConnor, of the Castle of Trowmore, afterwards on July 14, 1575, appointed Captain Morchowe McTerrilagh O'Brien their attorney for ransoming the isles of Aran from James Lynch, that all such parts as he should so ransom should belong to him (O'Brien) and his heirs for ever.[11]

It would appear that this Captain Morchowe McTerrilagh O'Brien, of the Clantiege of Aran, on July 14 of the same year, 1575, was in Galway; and being there, was minded to claim the privilege his ancestors had, he alleged, enjoyed of lodgings and meals for two days and two nights in the town, and the "mayor calling before him auncient old credibel witnesses, they declared upon their oaths that they never heard of their parents or saw the said sept have no more than two meals in the town, and it was thereupon ordered that said sept shall have no more than two meals, they being always bound to serve attend and wait upon us and in our service as their ancestors had been, and further that it was the O'Brien sept that was bound to give lodging and entertainment to all the commons of Galway, when they shall repair to the islands of Aran. And the said mayor did grant and promise O'Brien to be aiders, helpers, maintainers and a.s.sisters, of him against all persons that would lay siege to spoil the islands or castle of Aran or otherwise wrong the said Morchowe or his sept."[12]

[Sidenote: THE CLANRICARDES.]

A.D. 1579. Queen Elizabeth, by her charter to the town of Galway, having recited that Richard III., late King of England, out of his abundant grace and for the greater security and safeguard of the town of Galway, willed and ordained that neither MacWilliam Burke, Lord of Clanricarde, nor his heirs, should have any rule or power in the said town of Galway, therein to act, exact, receive, ordain, or dispose of anything without the special license, and by the a.s.sent and superintendence of the mayor, bailiffs, and commonalty of the said town of Galway; appointed the mayor of Galway to be admiral of her and her successors within the town aforesaid and within and over the islands of Aran and from the said islands to Galway.

A.D. 1580. There died in this year in the islands of Aran an islander who had reached the extreme old age of two hundred and twenty years.