Inishmrray, Co. Sligo, Ireland
This morning dawned bright and sunny over Donegal Bay. During breakfast we anchored at Inishmurray, a small island in the bay, and soon went ashore. This small island is the site of a monastic community founded in the middle of the 6th -century by St. Molaise and visited by St. Columba, founder of the community at Iona where we expect to be tomorrow. This site was, therefore, one of the earliest occupied as Christianity first spread from the southwest of Ireland to Scotland and England. At the community monks lived and worked, preserving the literary treasures of Western Civilization as Rome fell under the attacks of the barbarian hordes. After centuries of quiet prayer and contemplation, this peaceful existence was destroyed by Viking raiders some time in the 9th-century and the site was abandoned. Later settlers farmed on the island and lived in small cottages which line the coast today. These farmers fell victim to another plague, this time caused by the potato famine of the mid-19th century. A few held out until the first half of the last century, but since that time the island has heard only the cries of the gulls, fulmars and oystercatchers which breed there today.
As we walked the paths along the sea cliffs in the early morning light, looking across the blue waters of Donegal Bay to Sligo, we could feel the souls of those early monks and of those later peasant farmers who walked these same paths and looked out on this same ocean. It was a remarkable experience—one that will remain vivid in our memories of Ireland.
This morning dawned bright and sunny over Donegal Bay. During breakfast we anchored at Inishmurray, a small island in the bay, and soon went ashore. This small island is the site of a monastic community founded in the middle of the 6th -century by St. Molaise and visited by St. Columba, founder of the community at Iona where we expect to be tomorrow. This site was, therefore, one of the earliest occupied as Christianity first spread from the southwest of Ireland to Scotland and England. At the community monks lived and worked, preserving the literary treasures of Western Civilization as Rome fell under the attacks of the barbarian hordes. After centuries of quiet prayer and contemplation, this peaceful existence was destroyed by Viking raiders some time in the 9th-century and the site was abandoned. Later settlers farmed on the island and lived in small cottages which line the coast today. These farmers fell victim to another plague, this time caused by the potato famine of the mid-19th century. A few held out until the first half of the last century, but since that time the island has heard only the cries of the gulls, fulmars and oystercatchers which breed there today.
As we walked the paths along the sea cliffs in the early morning light, looking across the blue waters of Donegal Bay to Sligo, we could feel the souls of those early monks and of those later peasant farmers who walked these same paths and looked out on this same ocean. It was a remarkable experience—one that will remain vivid in our memories of Ireland.
