wait, and so they went off with themselves and left her alone by herself.
By this time the sea had gone down, and the canoe came out again to take the man from the cave; so he got down out of the skelp with the cucul hid under his bawneen [white flannel vest], for well he knew the seal woman once she got hold of the cucul would slip it on and turn back into a seal and swim off with herself. A real handsome woman she was, and after speaking to her fair and kindly, he took her into the canoe and brought her home to the island, and they were married there by the priest. And they lived very happy there, and had two children, and the husband took care to keep the cucul hid in the thatch the way the wife wouldn’t see it.
But one day he was out fishing, and the wife was drying flax by the fire – for at that time flax was grown on the island – when the flax caught fire and before she knew where she was the house was all in a blaze. So she ran out with the children, and the flax caught fire in a few minutes and she got a queer smell coming from the thatch and she looked up and what did she see but her cucul, and it singeing with the fire. With that she made a leap at the cucul and caught it, and ran down to the shore with it, and slipped it on and made a seal of herself, and away she swam off with herself, leaving the two children behind her.
So the husband was left forlorn there with the children till one day a neighbour came and told him how he’d seen his wife come out of the sea and throw off her cucul and walk up on the rocks and hug and kiss the children and cry as if her heart were breaking. ‘And,’ says he, ‘if you go your way down now to the shore and hide till she comes up again you’ve nothing to do only dart out and snap up the cucul, and you’ll have her back with you.’ With that the husband goes down to the shore and hides behind a rock where the children were sitting, and sure enough a seal comes swimming up and throws off its cucul and he seen at once that ‘twas his wife that was in it, and she takes to hugging and kissing the children as if she’d like to eat them. Then out he leaps and grabs at the cucul; but he wasn’t smart enough, for she caught it up before he came near it and on she claps it, and away with her into the sea. And the poor man never seen sight or light of her after that. He was a man that lived over there at the other end of the island, but I disremember his name.
The word cucul, more correctly cuculle, means a ‘hood’, or ‘cowl’. The islanders, according to Colgan, had various translations for the word: some thought it was a cap, others thought it meant a cape or the whole skin or vesture of the seal. Larminie, in his West Irish Folk Tales, translates it as a ‘transforming cap’, whereas the Scottish folklorists MacDougall from Argyleshire and Campbell of Islay render it as ‘husk’. It is also connected to the infant’s caul, which is the inner membrane enclosing the foetus before birth, a portion of which may sometimes envelop the head of the child at birth. It is regarded as lucky and is supposed to be a preservative against drowning, particarly by sailors.
According to Westropp in A Folklore Survey of County Clare,
the belief that seals are disguised human beings prevailed, I am told, in Clare forty years ago, at least along the Kilkee coast. I never heard it myself from fisherfolk. A little further north, from Connemara up to Mayo the Kinealys are reputed to be descended from a beautiful seal-woman. The belief is nearly universal and is attached even to a few of the family in Clare.
In the Book of Lismore, St Brendan changes fifty seals into horses, which carry into the sea their riders who are then also changed into seals. In Galway, it is said that the O’Connollys or Ó Conghaile are of seal descent.
Caher or Cahir Island [37], south-west of Clew Bay and ten miles from Westport, is known in Irish as Cathair na Naomh (‘the stone enclosure of the saints’) as well as Cathair Phadraig (‘the monastic settlement of St Patrick’). It is about one mile in length from its north-western extremity to its south-eastern one, covering about 130 acres. It rises to about 270 feet on its western side, and here are several daunting cliffs. Uninhabited for more than a century, it has no harbour, so landing is only possible on a calm day. The usual landing spot is at Portatemple, which is on the north shore.
The monastic settlement associated with St Patrick, close to the landing place at Portatemple, is in ruins. The smallness of the site would seem to make it an oratory. Around it are twelve crosses, and above it on a hilltop a stone cross has a human face in relief. Of the two entrances to the oratory, one is Romanesque in design and the other has a lintel stone above the door; this may have been an earlier entrance. On the leacht or altar there is a stone dish with coins placed by people in recognition of favours granted.
There is a horizontal slab in the graveyard known as ‘St Patrick’s Bed’, which is said to cure ailments such as epilepsy and nervous disorders. There are marks on this bed which are said to be the marks of hands, feet and hips. All that is required of the person seeking a cure is that they stay on the bed overnight.
Stones on the island can be used to put a curse on wrongdoers – such ‘cursing stones’ also feaure on both Inishmurray and Tory. Also like Tory, Caher has sacred soil which can be used to keep rats at bay and, like the stone bed, has many curative powers. Perhaps we can expand from this and assume that, with its sacred stones and earth, the island itself is sacred and that simply being there induces a state of blessedness.
Close to the monastic ruins are traces of an old path known as Bothar na Naomh (‘the way of the saints’), which is said to traverse the seabed and join the ancient pilgrim track from Croagh Patrick. This would make this pilgrim track about twenty miles in length. Interestingly, there is also a Leaba Phadraig or ‘St Patrick’s Bed’ on the top of Croagh Patrick. In keeping with this lore and coincidence, Caher island formed a part of the pilgrimage on Reek or Garland Sunday on the last Sunday in July each year.
As in the case of Mac Dara’s island off Galway, boatmen can occasionally be seen lowering their sails as they pass Caher. This is in recognition of its holy esteem and the rumour that St Patrick is said to lie beneath one of its carved stones.
Inishturk Island [37], measuring three by two miles, lies about four miles west of Louisburgh and has a population of about ninety, in contrast to its pre-Famine population of 577, recorded in the 1841 census. The name of the island may mean ‘island of the hog’, but torc also means a pile or a heap and may refer to the rugged landscape that the island presents.
The island is of special interest to the geologist; the sandstone here dates back to the Lower Palaeozoic era and is from the Ordovician period about 500 million years ago. The sandstone ridges are still visible today. From the Iron Age, about 2,000 years ago, one can find a standing stone, a fulacht fia and a promontory fort situated on the south coast of the island. North of this is a cillín, which can be accessed from the road. Less than a mile north-west from the standing stone and at a height of 500 feet is a signal tower.
From either the graveyard or the promontary fort, one can look south-east and, weather permitting, see Inishdalla, which may mean either a dark and gloomy island or ‘the island of the blind’ or possibly ‘seers’. South of this isle is a place called Ooghnamuirish which may well mean ‘a sea cave’ but could also mean ‘the cave of the mermaid’. And there is a legend that it is the home of a seal with horns like that of a cow. It is said to be seen once every two or three generations.
The island has a connection with a son of Grace O’Malley or Granuaile. His name was Owen O’ Malley, and both he and his family were massacred by Bingham, the then Governor of Galway.
ROSCOMMON
Ros Comáin, ‘Coman’s grove’
The royal centre of Connacht was based in Roscommon at Cruachain [33], the high status of which is testified in many sources. The other royal and assembly centres in Ireland were Emain Macha in Ulster, Tara in the kingdom of Meath, Dind Ríg in Leinster and Cashel in Munster.
The
