People from all over Connemara and the rest of the world braved sea journeys to a small island off Co Galway for the annual Féile Mhic Dara gathering on Wednesday.
About 85 boats, mostly traditional fishermen’s wooden currachs, ferried some 500 people to Oileán Mhic Dara, St MacDara’s Island, for the July 16th pilgrimage, when the patron saint of Connemara’s fishermen is honoured.
But no fishing was done. Local fishermen devoted their time, as they do on this day every year, bringing locals and others to the early Christian oratory that stands like a stone barnacle on this uninhabited rock for the traditional mass.
“People come back from every corner of the world. They come back for Christmas and for St MacDara’s Day,” said Fr Shane Sullivan, the parish priest from nearby Carna and, like his new boss in the Vatican, a native of Chicago.
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Tides and weather set the rhythms of fishing and life out here. A morning high tide and overcast but calm day allowed people to make the 11.45am mass.
Fr Sullivan said people in Connemara feel a “strong sense” of heritage, place and community. He described the “rough and ready” tradition of travelling to the island by various seafaring crafts as an “awesome chance” for everyone to gather.
“It’s a bit like James Joyce said: here comes everybody,” he said.
“It is a great pilgrimage for the boatmen and for fishermen. Their work is very dangerous so they come here and they have a sense of wanting a blessing.”
He ended the hillside mass – said over a wooden altar that could be broken up into three to fit on a currach – with a blessing for the men and their boats.
Fishermen first like to circle the island to honour the sixth century saint who fished, survived and built a wooden church on this windswept location.
One fisherman, Johnny Cloherty of Muighinis, dipped his hand in the water passing the island on John Ó Flatharta’s boat Golden Adventure to bless himself.
“It is a big day for the fishermen,” said Cloherty.
Locals say, in old days, fishermen dipped their foresail passing by in tribute to the saint.
“There is a story that one man didn’t dip his sail on purpose,” said local fisherman MacDara Breathnach, who was named after a grandfather who was named after the saint.
“The mast broke and fell down on top of him and killed him dead in the boat. They are just stories. We would respect it.”
Sitting on the island, well-known Connemara actor Páraic Breathnach, a pilgrim to the island for most years of his life, said people here still have a “pre-Christian faith”.
“They believe in superstition and when are you dealing with the sea and the weather and the wind and the vagaries of the ocean you have to believe in something and MacDara is a great man to have on your side,” he said.
For many, the day is a time to catch up, as generations mix over post-mass picnics and flasks of tea.
Mairtín Barrett (92) said the day “hasn’t changed a lot really” in all his years.
Margaret Mulkerrin (76), who returned from Boston, said her first MacDara’s trip was 72 years ago: “It was a very windy day. We were kind of afraid; there were nine in the boat.”
It is a first visit to Ireland for her grandson, Michael Frazier Jr (12).
“It is a really fascinating experience to see something that has been here so long and is still standing,” he said, looking up at the oratory.
This is Fr Sullivan’s fourth MacDara’s as the local priest. His father emigrated to Chicago from this parish in the 1970s. Shane returned in 2008 and was ordained in 2012.
“I really wanted to come here and be a priest – it felt like a calling,” said Fr Sullivan, who was motivated by “how few young men were going forward to the priesthood”.
Serving in a Gaeltacht meant learning Irish over three summers in Carraroe. His mass on the island was said in a strong American Irish.
“People get a laugh out of it because I still do sound like an American,” he said.
“Try to speak Irish with this accent – it’s a bit strange.”
