With its complex history, Clonmacnoise is the centrepiece of Co Offaly's early Christian landscape, writes Eileen Battersby.
Summer or winter, first light at Clonmacnoise, the great monastic site evocatively situated on the banks of the River Shannon in Co Offaly, is always magical. It is as if the sun is rising from the river itself and the birds are united in welcoming the spectacle. Even the elusive corncrake in the callows adds his voice.
Poised at the point where the Shannon meets the Esker Riada, part of one of the five great roads of ancient Ireland, Clonmacnoise celebrates the beauty of the natural world as well as the pioneering spiritual vision of its founder, St Ciarán. He made his intentions clear from his arrival in about 548AD, and is said to have declared "Here will I live; for many souls shall leave this place to enter the kingdom of God, and this will be the place of my resurrection." He was true to his word; Clonmacnoise as a study in settlement continues to inspire thought and excite the imagination.
The monastery established at the geographic centre of Ireland became "a shining and saintly city" and a place of pilgrimage. It survived many attacks including Viking raids and a visit by the Anglo-Normans which resulted in the destruction of 105 houses. During the 11th century, the Annals of Tighernach were written here, and a century later, the Book of the Dun Cow was completed. Among a range of inscribed cross slabs and stone buildings is the ninth century Cross of the Scriptures, one of the finest achievements of medieval European art.
"Many of the men and women who became the first saints of Ireland," writes archaeologist Caimin O'Brien in Stories From a Sacred Landscape, his magnificent cultural travelogue through monastic Offaly, "came from noble families; Ciarán was the son of a carpenter." Born in 512, he entered the famous monastery and school of St Finnian at Clonard in Co Meath. Although no trace of it remains, Finnian's school was hailed in the fifth century as a major European university and among its other famous graduates was St Colmcille or Colum Cille, also known as Columba, who would later establish his monastery at Durrow.
O'Brien's multidimensional approach is shaped by his grasp of the importance of folklore, legend, local history and customs such as Pattern days, which honour saints associated with a locality. As well as his use of the archaeological and historical source material and ability to tell a good story by availing of the scholarly and the oral - and in the case of a story about St Manchan's well and its cures, a schoolboy's version dating from the 1930s - this sophisticated, beautifully designed book is a triumph of unusually subtle, artistic design values and something that has become a lost art - inspired editing - particularly in the use of pull-out sequences that stand alone while also working within the overall narrative. There is an index, extensive footnotes to each chapter and a comprehensive identification of every image and photograph.
Wonderful use is made of James Fraher's atmospheric and original landscape photography as well as incisive pictures of stone and metal artefacts, details of stained glass windows, a number of manuscript pages such as the example from the Book of the Dun Cow - which contains, among other texts, the earliest version of the Táin Bó Cuailgne - and several details from the Book of Durrow. It all contributes to the stories weaving through time, history and an ever-changing landscape.
One of many photographs of the Clonmacnoise complex features the Nun's Chapel, a beautiful Romanesque church, framed by details of the stonework.
Inset photographs are used effectively throughout the book. Co Offaly has a remarkable cultural heritage and is particularly rich in monastic and early Christian church sites and monuments. This visionary volume not only showcases the county, it testifies to a neglected tradition - that of presenting a book as a work of art - of which this book, which deserves to be festooned with design awards, is an outstanding example.
The entry on Clonmacnoise which places the site in its historic context while also exploring specific elements is the centre piece of a glorious selection of short essays featuring major sites such as Durrow, Banagher, Birr, Killeigh, Lynally - the Church of Swans - Croghan Hill - the extinct volcano, once a important burial site - Seirkieran, Drumcullen, Rahan and Gallen, with its majestic inscribed cross-slabs, and a number of other places.
What could have been merely an opulent coffee-table book is, for all its beauty, far more and presents an intriguing store of references and cross-references accessed through portraits of specific and related sites and stories, always stories. O'Brien has looked beyond the physical evidence and revealed the personalities that helped shape them. In the entry on Killeigh, O'Brien introduces Margaret O'Carroll, of whom he writes: "she was described as the 'best woman of her time'." The daughter of Tadhg O'Carroll, she married Calvagh O'Connor, ruler of Uí Failge who was known as a "warlike prince". He died in 1458 and, according to the Annals of the Four Masters, had "won more wealth from the English and Irish enemies than any other lord in Leinster".
His independent-minded wife, Margaret, died seven years before him and was far less warlike. As a patron of the arts and the church, she developed her society by instigating the construction of roads, bridges and churches. When famine began to rage in the summer of 1433, she set out to feed the starving and held two major gatherings at which food and medicines were distributed to the needy. More than 2,700 people attended. Two years later, she set off on a pilgrimage to Compostela in Spain and entered into negotiations with the English to secure the release of members of the Gaelic aristocracy. While pulling down part of the Franciscan friary in the 19th century, workmen discovered an upright female skeleton wearing a small iron cross of Spanish style. "This may very well have been the body of Margaret O'Carroll" writes O'Brien, "wearing a keepsake from her pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela."
Elsewhere, in the chapter on Rahan, O'Brien tells the story of how St Carthage, the son of a chieftain, had as a boy been a favourite at the court of Maoltuile. One day he abandoned the pigs he was minding, drawn by the sound of monks who were singing as they went home to their monastery.
Eventually, the king sent a messenger to fetch the boy home. Carthage said he wanted to learn the psalms and rituals of the monks. He joined the monastery and in time went on pilgrimage which led him to his own destiny - that of establishing a monastery at Rahan, not far from modern day Tullamore.
Anyone with an interest in conservation versus planning sagas may ponder the entry on Durrow, site of Colmcille's monastery. For several years, from the mid 1990s onwards, this site was threatened by an extensive leisure complex development project. The controversy, despite the existence of major subsurface archaeology, raged. Had permission been granted, one of two proposed golf courses would have traversed the northern section of the monastic enclosure and a major site would have been obscured. Durrow had survived much violence including a sixth-century fracas between warring monks, each side battling for the right to bury the same king; the monastery itself had been burnt out in 1095, again in 1153 and twice in 1155; and an Augustinian monastery had been devastated by an Anglo-Norman attack led in 1175 by Hugh de Lacy, who set about building a castle next to the monastery.
As it neared completion in 1186, de Lacy, described in the Annals of the Four Masters as "the profaner and destroyer of many churches" was assassinated - beheaded by a local, wielding an axe.
Although the Heritage Council and An Taisce opposed the development, in the absence of any formal objection being made by the then heritage body, Dúchas, which was criticised for its passivity, most of the blame was directed at Offaly County Council. The project was abandoned, however, and the vulnerable high cross, of which there is a fine study in the book, has since been moved inside the church, while this most atmospheric site remains as described in the text. By publishing Stories From a Sacred Landscape, Offaly County Council has exonerated itself.
The Book of Durrow, the earliest surviving fully decorated Gospel-book is believed to have been written and illuminated at Durrow monastery during the early seventh century. It served as a healing relic and was often dipped in water to effect a cure. This splendid manuscript, now held in the library of Trinity College, is well represented in the seductive pages of a treasure trove which not only celebrates Co Offaly's singular heritage, it explores it with vision, enthusiasm and cohesive artistry.
Stories From A Sacred Landscape by Caimin O'Brien with photographs by James Fraher is published by Offaly County Council, €40.00