side of the island contains the main mass of this stone, a hard, sandstone rock of quartz grains cemented together by silica.
One may take an open boat from Howth Harbour to Ireland’s Eye, a journey of about fifteen minutes. The boat lands near the Martello Tower, which is on lower ground, and was built at the same time as the tower on Dalkey Island (see below). This tower was built by order of the Duke of York in 1803 as a lookout point and fortification against a Napoleonic invasion. On the east side there is a rock known as Puck’s Rock, with a cleft in it which is said to have been formed by the devil, and its lore is like that of the Devil’s Bit Mountain, a few miles north-west of Templemore, Co. Tipperary. Around here is a gannet colony, established in 1989. There are now a few hundred of these birds, and in time it may rival the vast colony on the Skelligs off the coast of Co. Kerry. As well as the gannets, breeding seabirds include kittiwakes, guillemots, fulmars, cormorants, shags and razorbills. There are also a few puffins; during winter, brent and greylag geese can be seen grazing the land. Indeed, with good eyesight or with a pair of binoculars one can see them from Howth Harbour. For a view of the nests it may be necessary to persuade the boatman to encircle the island, and if that happens, you may see seals as well.
Lambay Island [50] is situated about six miles north of Howth Head. The island is privately owned by the Revelstoke family and landing is not encouraged; when embarkation does take place, it is usually done from Rush Harbour, but if the weather is rough travelling takes place from the sheltered harbour of Lough Shinny. The island possesses the largest colony of cormorants in Ireland, and the second-largest colony of guillemots. In winter there are as many as 1,000 greylag geese on the island. Puffins can also be seen here. It is also home to a large colony of shag and herring gull. The Romans called the island Limnios, and Roman coins have been found on the nearby peninsula of Drumanagh on the mainland. The first Viking raid in Ireland occurred here in 795 AD. After the Battle of the Boyne in 1691, a fifteenth-century castle was used as a holding centre for the defeated Jacobite troops. This was converted into the present mansion about 1900. A shipping tragedy occurred on the east side of the island in 1854 when the Tayleur, a passenger ship of the White Star Line bound for Australia, floundered in shallow water and many passengers lost their lives. More than 100 are buried on the island.
Dalkey Island [50] is situated south of Dublin Bay, Co. Dublin. It covers an area of about twenty-five acres or a third of a mile by a third of a mile, and is less than half a mile from Coliemore Harbour, close to the village of Dalkey. The early name in Irish is Delginis Cualann. It is referred to in the twelfth-century Book of Leinster in the chapter concerning the sovereignty of Ireland:
7 Cumtach Delginsi Cualand la Setga.
And [a fort] at Dalkey Island was built by Setga.
Dealg (delg in Old Irish) means ‘a thorn’ or ‘a brooch’. It is to be found also in the village of Delgany, Co. Wicklow, and in Dundalk (Dún Delca), Co. Louth. It was an ancient custom for an important woman to encircle a piece of land prior to building on it, thus making it sacred. This custom goes all the way back to Medea and beyond. The pin or clasp on many brooches was often about a foot long. The present name of ‘Dalkey’ shows a Viking influence in that the suffix ey is Norse for island; this word appears again in Ireland’s Eye north of Howth Harbour (see above).
Dalkey’s ‘history’ begins in the Late Mesolithic Age about 7,000 years ago. Flint blades, which had long cutting edges and were possibly set in handles to be used for cutting and for whittling, were found at Dalkey Island, showing signs of habitation during Mesolithic times. Domesticated animal remains have been found on the island going back to these times, showing contact between hunter–gatherers and a farming community; Neolithic hollow scrapers and Bronze Age arrowheads have also been excavated.
Easily visible from the mainland is the church of St Begnet. Little is known of the saint, and the church has undergone many changes since her time. There are pilasters at each corner of the church and a lintel over the doorway. There is a fireplace at the east gable, apparently built for the workers who were constructing the nearby Martello tower between 1801 and 1803. The bell tower was possibly added during the fifteenth century. On a rock close to the west gable of the church is a rock with a circular or Greek cross incised upon it. This may be associated with the original settlement of St Begnet; another church associated with Begnet stands beside Dalkey Castle and Heritage Centre and is accessed through there.
KILDARE
Cill Dara, ‘church of the oak tree’
Kildare town [55] still celebrates the feast of imbolc on the eve of 1 February. Imbolc is referred to in Cormac’s Glossary as óimelc, or ‘sheep’s milk’ (Óimeilg .i. Is í aimser andsin tic as cárach melg. i.ass arinni mblegar, ‘at this time the sheep comes for the purpose of milking’); this ancient event became in time contemporaneous with the old pagan festival celebrating the first day of spring. As the festival is believed to have been at first connected with shepherding, it is understandable that a sheep was part of the ritual. It finds its origins in Greece and beyond, where it is associated with Pan, and in ancient Rome, where it is associated with the festival of the Lupercalia. This latter festival was held on 15 February: during it goats and dogs were sacrificed, and their skins were cut up and twisted into thongs with which women would run through the streets striking all in the hope that the gods of fertility would be propitious towards them. The place where the festival was held was called the Lupercal and was situated at the foot of the Palatine Hill. It contained an image of Lupercus covered with a goat’s skin.
The early Christian Church responded to the Lupercalia with the Feast of Lights, also known as Candlemas. This festival took place on 2 February. Processing through towns with waxed candles which had been blessed in the church was the answer to the torches people carried through the streets of Rome even centuries after the arrival of Christianity.
An important part of the rites during the feast of Imbolc centred on fire, and the pit in which it was begun still exists within the grounds of Kildare Cathedral. This pit no longer contains fire at Imbolc, but the fires and festivities connected with Brigit now continue outside the church gates. The goddess associated with the rites at Imbolc is Brigit, whose name has been translated as breo-shaighead or ‘arrow of fire’; as Brigit is the goddess of fertility, her symbol is fire represented by her sun symbol, Brigit’s Cross. The sacred fire of Brigit was kept alight from pre-Christian times until it was extinguished by the Normans in the twelfth century. This fire, which may originally have been looked after by vestal virgins, was protected by nuns after the Christian Brigit became Abbess of Kildare in the sixth century. It is recorded in the Historia Pontificalis that these nuns took precedence over the bishops until the papal envoy directed otherwise in 1151. As Brigit was the goddess of éicse or divination, and was thus associated with supernatural knowledge, her centre, which stood at the heart of present-day Kildare town, was presumably enclosed within an oak wood.
Five miles north-east of Kildare town on the R415 is the Hill of Allen [49], standing 676 feet high. A large part of it has been quarried, and the erection of a monument in the late nineteenth century nearly destroyed the ancient mound at the summit of the hill. Its ancient name was Almu, who was the wife of Nuadu. Legend says that they were both buried on the hill. In the Dindshenchas,* there are twenty-two verses to Almu, three of which are given here to help with an early understanding of the place:
Almu rop alaind in ben
ben Nuadat móir mic Aiched
rachunig, ba fír in dál,
a ainm ar in cnocc comlán ...
FIGURE 13. An earlier form of Brigit’s Cross known as a triskel – a symbol of the sun.
Almu, beautiful was the woman!
the
