Killybegs
After the clear blue skies of Iona, we awoke to what the Irish call a "soft" day. More than that, to be sure, with a strengthening wind already strong enough to curtail our planned landing on the now deserted island of Inishmurray. After cruising along its shore shortly after breakfast, with our Irish archaeologist Vinnie Butler giving commentary on the deserted village and monastic site, we crossed Sligo Bay into the safe harbor of Killybegs, Ireland's biggest fishing port and a rare deep water harbor on Ireland's exposed Atlantic shore. The morning was spent at leisure exploring this small rural township.
In the afternoon, we were back on schedule with a visit to Glencolmcille, a typically verdant vale of County Donegal, in the geographical North (but political South) of Ireland. The name means the Valley of St Columba, and it was from here that the sixth-century saint went into exile to the island of Iona in 563AD, taking Christianity to Scotland. Why he left these lovely shores is something of a mystery. There are references in the hagiographical literature to a scar, so maybe he was involved in a power struggle, for he was a member of the aristocratic O'Neill clan much given to quarrelling with their neighbors. There was also the manuscript he had made and decided to keep for himself, a case that provoked the judicial ruling: To each cow its calf, and to each book its copy. Columba's departure to Iona was momentous for the history of Christianity in the British Isles. By the year of his death, 597AD, he had converted the Picts in north-eastern Scotland. His successor as Abbot of Iona, Aidan, was responsible for the conversion of the Saxon kingdom of Northumbria. It was in 597AD that Augustine arrived in Canterbury. The conversion of the Saxons was a pincer movement over years, with Celtic Christianity coming down from the north and the Roman variety coming up from the south. It was the latter form that won out in 667AD at the Synod Whitby.
Today, the valley thrives in no small measure thanks to the vision of Father McDyer who became parish priest for a declining rural community in the valley in 1951. A persistent advocate of cooperative principles and a hounder of Dublin bureaucrats (as he saw them), within a few years he had secured the arrival of electricity in the valley, built a community hall and brought a new sense of optimism to the social and economic life of his parish. He had also set an example for similar communities to follow. The folk village museum (pictured) that we visited in the afternoon was his idea and his vision was vindicated by our subsequent visit to The Glebe Mill, a thriving woolen factory using traditional methods in the village of Kilcar. If any doubts remained about the buoyant state of Irish culture in this beautiful corner of Ireland, these were surely dispelled by the session of traditional Donegal music that filled the bar before dinner.
After the clear blue skies of Iona, we awoke to what the Irish call a "soft" day. More than that, to be sure, with a strengthening wind already strong enough to curtail our planned landing on the now deserted island of Inishmurray. After cruising along its shore shortly after breakfast, with our Irish archaeologist Vinnie Butler giving commentary on the deserted village and monastic site, we crossed Sligo Bay into the safe harbor of Killybegs, Ireland's biggest fishing port and a rare deep water harbor on Ireland's exposed Atlantic shore. The morning was spent at leisure exploring this small rural township.
In the afternoon, we were back on schedule with a visit to Glencolmcille, a typically verdant vale of County Donegal, in the geographical North (but political South) of Ireland. The name means the Valley of St Columba, and it was from here that the sixth-century saint went into exile to the island of Iona in 563AD, taking Christianity to Scotland. Why he left these lovely shores is something of a mystery. There are references in the hagiographical literature to a scar, so maybe he was involved in a power struggle, for he was a member of the aristocratic O'Neill clan much given to quarrelling with their neighbors. There was also the manuscript he had made and decided to keep for himself, a case that provoked the judicial ruling: To each cow its calf, and to each book its copy. Columba's departure to Iona was momentous for the history of Christianity in the British Isles. By the year of his death, 597AD, he had converted the Picts in north-eastern Scotland. His successor as Abbot of Iona, Aidan, was responsible for the conversion of the Saxon kingdom of Northumbria. It was in 597AD that Augustine arrived in Canterbury. The conversion of the Saxons was a pincer movement over years, with Celtic Christianity coming down from the north and the Roman variety coming up from the south. It was the latter form that won out in 667AD at the Synod Whitby.
Today, the valley thrives in no small measure thanks to the vision of Father McDyer who became parish priest for a declining rural community in the valley in 1951. A persistent advocate of cooperative principles and a hounder of Dublin bureaucrats (as he saw them), within a few years he had secured the arrival of electricity in the valley, built a community hall and brought a new sense of optimism to the social and economic life of his parish. He had also set an example for similar communities to follow. The folk village museum (pictured) that we visited in the afternoon was his idea and his vision was vindicated by our subsequent visit to The Glebe Mill, a thriving woolen factory using traditional methods in the village of Kilcar. If any doubts remained about the buoyant state of Irish culture in this beautiful corner of Ireland, these were surely dispelled by the session of traditional Donegal music that filled the bar before dinner.
