Whether the Fir Domnann or the Gamanrad ever heard of the tale of ‘The Children of Lir’* is a moot point, but if they had, they would not have had far to go to see their final resting place by taking to the sea from Irrus Domnann (Bangor Erris) and sailing down to Inishglora (Inis Gluaire) [22]. ‘The Children of Lir’ is one of the great tales of Irish myth, and its original title is Oidheadh Cloinne Lir or ‘The Fate of the Children of Lir’, which is counted as one of the ‘three sorrowful tales of Ireland’.
The Children of Lir* spent 900 years as swans because of a curse placed on them by their stepmother. They spent the first 300 on Lough Derravarragh in Westmeath, the second 300 on the Sea of Moyle, the North Channel between Ireland and Scotland, and the last 300 on Irrus Domnann. At Irrus Domnann they turned back into human shape and met a man named Ebric, who wrote down their tale. They then went to Inishglora where they died. The four Children of Lir are Fionula, Aodh, Fiachra and Conn; before they left the Moyle, Fionula chanted a lay, part of which is as follows:
We leave forever the stream of Moyle:
on the clear, cold wind we go;
three hundred years around Glora’s isle,
where wintry tempests blow.
[Translated by P. W. Joyce]
Their grave can be seen today as four standing stones about a well; the central stone is said to be Fionula’s headstone.
Moving to the early Christian era, also found on Inishglora are three round beehive huts or cells close together as part of the same block of masonry. They have the same corbelled dome as the Skellig huts off the coast of Co. Kerry [83].
Less well known than the Children of Lir* but a vital force in both pre-Christian and Christian mythology is Brigit. In addition to the numerous places in Ireland, Britain and throughout Europe, she also has a strong connection with Ceann na Corra (‘headland of the bend’) on Clare Island [30]. Kinnacora is on the most easterly point of the island, where there is a holy well known as Tobar Féile Brighde or ‘the well of Brigit’s Feast’. A pattern was observed here on Lady’s Day, 15 August, with worshippers walking seven times around the nearby cashel or enclosure in a clockwise direction or deas sol – ‘right to the sun’. Devotional exercises are also practised at it on 1 February, St Brigit’s feast day.
At Murrisk (Muraisc, ‘low-lying seashore’) [30], towards the south-east end of Clew Bay and five miles west of Westport, a battle was fought between the invading Gaels under Édan and the pre-Gaelic Tuatha Dé Danann,* supposedly around 100 AD. Here the older tribes with their allegiance to the goddess Anu were slaughtered, and the Gaelic chief Édan established a fort named Rath Rígbairt. This fort is mentioned in the Book of Leinster as Argain Ratha Rigbaird, meaning the ‘destruction of the fort of the supreme bard’. Did Édan destroy an existing fort or did he establish one? Another reference to a battle in the vicinity is the Battle of Glaise Fraochain where Fraochan Faidh fell. Glaise Fraochan or ‘the stream of Fraochan’ is said to be close to Rosreaghan.
Clare Island [30], three and-a-half miles from Roonagh pier and fifteen miles west from Westport, is situated in the middle of the entrance to Clew Bay. Covering an area of almost 4,000 acres, it is five miles long and three miles wide. Knockmore in the Bunnamohaun mountain range rises to 1,500 feet above sea level. Here are also found the Bunnomohaun group of sod huts, said to have been huts or shelters for herders and milkers rather than part of a ‘booley’ settlement (a summer settlement in which pastoral communities lived close to their herds on high ground).
A comprehensive natural history survey was carried out in 1909 under the direction of the botanist Robert Lloyd Praeger. Between 1909 and 1911, over 100 field workers collected material which was published in a series of reports by the Royal Irish Academy. A member of this team, Jane Stephens, was part of the dredging expedition which collected sponges. A sponge she found in Ballytoohy More to the north of the island was five million years old, making it one of the oldest fossils found in Ireland. More recent discoveries by the archaeologist Paul Gosling have included court cairns, fulacht fia – cooking sites – and a court tomb.
The island was owned for a while by the O’Malley clan, although it had other owners. The most famous O’Malley is undoubtedly Grace, more frequently known as Granuaile. She was born in 1530 into the chief family of the O’Malleys. She was a formidable woman and controlled the waters of the western seaboard during the sixteenth century. The Lord Deputy Henry Sidney, writing to the English Council in 1576, stated: ‘O’Malley is powerful in galleys and seamen.’ This observation followed him being offered three galleys and 200 fighting men by Granuaile in 1576 at Galway. However, the government did not give enough money to allow Sidney to hire her ships.
The O’Malley castle close to the harbour is one of eleven castles associated with the O’Malleys and the one which Grace used as her base. Her father was Owen Dubhdara O’Malley, the chief of the clan. When not engaged in piracy, she spent much of her time defending her realm againt the invading Elizabethan forces. At one time she ended up in prison in Dublin and at another sailed up the Thames and met Queen Elizabeth. Their conversation was in Latin and is recorded in the Elizabethan State Papers. She was offered the title of countess but refused, saying that she herself was a queen. Her son Tiobóid became the first Viscount of Mayo after her death. She is said to be buried in Clare Abbey close to the harbour on Clare Island. T.H. Mason, the antiquarian and authority on St Brigit’s crosses, was once shown a skull in the abbey which local people said was that of Granuaile. This, if it existed, has either been hidden or more likely stolen. The O’Malley arms are displayed in this abbey. The coat of arms is topped by a white seahorse, below which is a boat with six oars, and to its right a bow with an inlaid arrow. The inscription is Terra Marique Potens O’Maille (O’Malley powerful on land and on sea).
The Legend of the Seal Wife played a big part in the folklore of the island. Many versions of the tale can be found in the Hebrides and the west of Ireland, but the fullest version was recorded by Nathaniel Colgan in the early part of the last century on Clare Island:
Three Clare men went out seal fishing in a canoe one day, when they got out to the island they were making for, one of them landed in a cave to see if any seals would be in it, and the other three pulled away to another cave to look for more seals. But by the time the canoe came back to pick up the first man, the wind had rose up and the sea was that coarse they didn’t dare venture in with the canoe to take him off … So the end of it the man in the cave roared out: ‘Go away with yous before the storm gets real bad and leave me here for the night.’
So away they went and left him there all alone by himself, and he climbed into a skelp [cleft] of the rocks the way the high tide couldn’t catch him. But it wasn’t long he’d been there when a big herd of seals came swimming and splashing into the cave and got up and lay down on the round stones on the floor, and he could see them without they seeing him, for its well hid he was in the skelp of the rock above them. And he kept watching them; and when the night began to fall what does he see but all the seals taking off their cuculs [cochall, ‘cowl or hood’] and hanging them on to the rocks. And the minute they took off the cuculs they all turned into men and women and began to talk to each other, the way you and me is talking at this present. And when they got tired talking they all lay down to sleep, the women seals lying up at the top of the cave by themselves where the stones were dry, and the men seals lower down near the water.
And they slept there all night; and as the light of morning came creeping into the cave, the canoe man rose up softly in the skelp he was hiding in and put his hand down and pulled up one of the women’s cuculs and hid it under him in the skelp. It wasn’t long till all the men and women woke up and went putting on their cuculs and swimming off into the sea as good seals… as ever they were when they came in. But one of the women couldn’t find her cucul at all, and she went up
