St. Patrick - Ireland's Patron Saint

 

Stained glass image of St. Patrick. Photo: Wikipedia

Place of Birth

Much controversy surrounds the details of St. Patrick's life. He is believed to have been British by birth, the son of a decurio or town councillor. His place of birth is said to have been somewhere in the west between the mouth of the Severn and the Clyde. He was born sometime between 385 and 389. Patrick himself tells us he was of Romano-British origin. The names of his parents were Calpurnius and Concessa.

Captured Slave

While still a youth he was captured by Irish pirates and reduced to slavery. For six years he herded swine or sheep in Co. Antrim or on the coast of Co. Mayo. During the period of Patrick's captivity in Ireland he learned the native language and got to know the pagan practices of the Druid priests.

Escape

St. Patrick eventually escaped and returned to his family. However, he was constantly troubled by visions of the pagan Irish imploring him to walk among them once more.

Ordained Bishop

Patrick was later ordained a bishop and in the year 432 AD he returned to Ireland. He knew very well that if he was to succeed in Ireland then he must first convert the kings and chieftains. Otherwise, the people would not be allowed to worship in peace. He faced many dangers including assassination, the military might of kings, and opposition of the powerful druids whose very existence he threatened.

First Church

It was the Chieftain Dichu who gave Patrick a plot of land on which to build his first church in Co. Down. St. Patrick spent many years in Ireland although exactly how long we do not know. During this time, he travelled extensively. He writes:

“I journeyed among you, and everywhere, for your sake, often in danger, even to the outermost parts beyond which there is nothing, places where no one had ever arrived to baptise or ordain clergy or confirm the people.”

Celtic Religion and Art

Ireland, in those days, was quite different from Britain in many ways: it had its own language, political structures, customs and laws. It had not been invaded by Roman legions. It was also located at the furthest reaches of the known world.

Decorated Grave Slab from Carrowntemple, Co. Sligo (Replica)

We can also see the merging of pagan and Christian art as Christianity gradually replaced paganism. Two of the grave slabs at Carrowntemple, Co. Sligo, bear art of the Early Christian period that is derived from the Celtic art of the preceding Pagan Iron Age. One of these is close to a design in the Book of Durrow and is datable to c. 650 AD. Several of the panels of the seventh century Moylough Belt-shrine, found only a few miles west of Carrowntemple, have this same mix of Pagan and Christian artwork.

Early Irish texts suggest that holy wells may have remained associated with non-Christian rituals and were even protected by the old religion. For example, it is believed that wells were used instead of baptisteries in Ireland, which may explain the substantial number of holy wells throughout the country.

In some respects, the nature of the Celtic religion helped in the development of Christianity. Their belief in the indestructibility of the souls of the dead helped in understanding the resurrection of Christ. The Celts also had their own sacrifices and ritual meals which, in a sense, mirrored aspects of Christian message.

Lough Gara formerly known as Loch Techet

Patrick Travels to the West

We know from ecclesiastical history that he travelled to the west of Ireland. After visiting Elphin and Croghan, he came around the north of Loch Techet, the ancient name for Lough Gara, through the present townlands of Cuppenagh and Templeronan. It is said that he went to Gregraidhe of Loch Techet. The Gregraidhe (horse people) or Gregory comprised the baronies of Coolavin in Sligo and Costello in Mayo. According to an entry in the Annals of Tigernach (AU 665) Cummeni, Abbot of Clonmacnoise, was of the Gregraige of Loch Techet.

When the tribe responded to the Gospel, an enclosure would be set aside, with boundaries and ‘termon’ crosses, sometimes with a ditch, sometimes with a wall, clearly marking out to everyone that the area was sacred. Within it a tiny church of wattle and daub would be built.

Monasteries

Many monasteries were built at tribal meeting places or on tribal boundaries. As monastic communities grew, they attracted a resident local community. The monasteries provided for the spiritual needs of local families and taught the children. The monastery and the village grew together. Monks undertook tasks such as the creating and copying of literature and highly specialised metalware.

According to Tirechan, the Bishop of North Mayo, Patrick came from the plain of Mirteach, between Castlerea and Ballaghaderreen, to a place called Drummut Cerrigi or Drumad of the Ciarraige. This is now the townland of Drumad in the Parish of Tibohine. It is said that he dug a well here and no stream went into it or came out of it, but it was always full. The well was named Bithlan (i.e. ever full).

Here, the saint found two brothers, Bibar and Lochru, the sons of Tamanchend, fighting about the division of their father's lands. St. Patrick reconciled them by a miracle, and he blessed them and made peace between them. The brothers gave their land to Patrick, and he founded a church there.

Patrick then went to Aileach Esrachta which was at Telach Liac or Telach na Cloch, which later became known as Tullaganrock in the Parish of Kilcolman. It is said that local people were afraid of the stranger and the eight or nine men accompanying him, so they decided to kill him. The crowd was restrained by a brave man named Hercait of the race of Nathi. Hercait and his son Feradach were babtised and Feradach joined St Patrick. Patrick gave Feradach a new name calling him Sachail. He eventually became bishop and was associated with a famous church called Basilica Sanctorum which is now known as Baslik - a parish between Castlerea and Tulsk.

Croagh Patrick, Co. Mayo. Photo: Wikipedia

Forty Days and Nights

Patrick spent forty days and nights fasting on the top of Croagh Patrick, Co. Mayo. Archaeologists have discovered the remains of a church/oratory dating from the early Christian period on the top of this mountain. The entire summit was enclosed by a stone wall which may have been the enclosing wall of an early monastic site.

Death

We are told that when the shadow of death came near, Patrick returned to the first church he had built at Soul, Co. Down and died on March 17th, 461. There is, however, some uncertainty as to the actual year of his death.

Legend has it that St. Patrick expelled snakes from Ireland, explained the Trinity using the shamrock, and accomplished single-handed great missionary tasks of conversion. Scholars doubt if there were ever snakes in Ireland.

St. Patrick remains the most popular of Irish saints. In art, he is usually depicted wearing the vestments of bishop treading on snakes. In the National Museum of Ireland shrines survive of his bell and his tooth (12th & 14th century). His fame has spread throughout the world, and we celebrate his feast day on 17th March.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DIphXep4nSQ

 

Ballaghaderreen to Kilfree Branch Line – A Brief History

 

Ballaghaderreen Railway Station

            Many excellent photographs of the now closed Ballaghaderreen to Kilfree Junction branch line have appeared on Facebook recently. I grew up close to Edmondstown Station and have happy memories of travelling on the line.

On Saturday, 6^th December 1862 the prospectus of the Sligo and Ballaghaderreen Junction Railway (S&BJR) was published. The following year plans for the proposed branch line were presented to the Parliament at Westminster. The bill became law when Queen Victoria affixed her signature to the relevant documents on the 13^th July 1863.

The Sligo & Ballaghaderreen Junction Railway was authorised to build a branch line connecting Ballaghaderreen to the newly opened extension of the Midland Great Western Railway (MGWR) from Longford to Sligo. On 31^st October 1874, an advertisement was issued by the MGWR announcing the opening of the branch line on 2nd November.

Opened in 1974

The new railway line opened as planned in 1874, just five years before the apparition at Knock, Co Mayo, in 1879 and was operated by the Midland and Great Western Railway. It cost £80,000 to build. The first train from Kilfree to Ballaghaderreen was driven by Ben Partridge, an English man from Kent, who married and settled down in the town.

However, after trading at a loss for two years, the S&BJR sold its interest in the line to the Midland Great Western Railway for £24,000 in 1877. The Sligo and Ballaghaderreen Junction Railway lost its identity and was absorbed into the Midland system.

Route

The distance from Ballaghaderreen to Kilfree Junction was nine miles. The speed restriction was 25mph and half an hour was the time allowed. There were two intermediate halts on the branch line - Edmondstown and Island Road. Excellent views of Lough Gara were visible between Island Road and Kilfree Junction.

Service

Dublin - Ballaghaderreen Railway Timetable

            The basic passenger service was three or four round trips per day apart from the “Emergency” when the service was reduced to one round trip. Between 1947 and the line’s closure in 1963, the service decreased to two round trips in the morning and early afternoon. Most services were mixed passenger and freight.

Ballaghaderreen Station

The stone-built station building at Ballaghaderreen still exists but is in a very derelict state. Part of the platform also survives. The goods shed, used by the GAA, remains complete with its typical long cattle bank platform.

Edmondstown Station

Edmondstown Station c1960

Opening in November 1874, Edmondstown Station had a single storey station building, complete with an attached waiting room. The station only had one platform and an adjacent level crossing.

 Island Road Station

Island Road Station

            Island Road railway station opened on 1 July 1909 and consisted of a station masters' house and small waiting room. The station was situated next to the gated level crossing on Island Road in the townland of Tawnymucklagh, and about 1/2 mile from the village of Monasteraden. The station is now in use as a private residence, with the waiting room, station house and platform largely intact.

Kilfree Junction

Kilfree Junction

            Kilfree Junction was located on the Sligo line in the townland of Cloontycarn between Boyle and Ballymote. The station was not located near any significant settlement, the nearest, Gorteen in County Sligo, being over 6km away. The station had three platforms: two served a passing loop on the main line and the third was used by the branch line. The station had sidings and turntable for turning round engines coming from the branch line. There was a signal box and a house for the station master.

Incidents

            During the Irish War of Independence (1919 – 1921) trains were regularly stopped on the branch line by the IRA, British soldiers, and the Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC). In May 1921, a train was hi-jacked and used to shoot at the RIC Barracks in Ballaghaderreen

Blizzard

The blizzard of 1947 was one of the most memorable episodes of the history of the Branch Line. The Railway system north and west of the Longford was snowbound. Ballaghaderreen town and district was isolated, with snow piled up to ten feet high on the roads. After several days and the threat of a food shortage, a snow clearance committee was organised. A group of 150 men boarded the train at Ballaghaderreen and working in relays proceeded to clear the snow from the line.

Post War

After the Second World War, better main roads, and an increase in road transport for transporting goods led to financial problems for the Railway system. Eventually, the Railway Company was obliged to reduce spending and resorted to a reduction of its service on uneconomic routes. The tragic news of the looming closure of the Ballaghaderreen to Kilfree line was delivered to the people of Ballaghaderreen. Organised protest against the closure was unsuccessful and the line finally closed on 2^nd February 1963.

Closed in 1963

Train about to depart Ballaghaderreen Station for Kilfree Junction

            The last return passenger trip departed Ballaghaderreen at 11:50 on 2^nd February and was hauled by 0-6-0 steam locomotive 574. I joined the 160 children and 30 adults who made the journey marking the sad end of an era. The train was seen off by as many spectators. The return journey from Kilfree Junction started with the bang of detonators and a local band played a farewell tribute. The last train was a special cattle train hauled by Locomotive B133 leaving Ballaghaderreen at 15:22.

A Line Less Travelled - Ballaghaderreen to Kilfree Branch Line

Ballaghaderreen Station with train facing towards Edmondstown

The Ballaghaderreen to Kilfree Junction branch line opened in 1874 and closed on Saturday 2 February 1963. The distance from Ballaghaderreen to Kilfree was 9 miles. The speed restriction was 25mph and half an hour was the time allowed for the journey. The basic passenger service was three or four round trips per day until 1947 when it decreased to two round trips in the morning and early afternoon.

I grew up a few hundred yards from Edmondstown Railway Station and travelled on the train to Ballaghaderreen regularly. One of my enduring memories as a child is running with my mother to catch the train and being late. I can still see the guard, Christy Plunkett, or Joe Dorrington, I think, gesturing to us to hurry up! The guard was kind enough to hold the train for us.   

It was exciting to travel on the train with its sounds and smells of a time now long gone. I loved to open and close the windows which were held in position by a brown leather strap. Strangely, the compartment light fitting was filled with water probably because of a leaky roof.

No trip to the town was complete without calling into Nonny and Tess O’Donnell’s for a cup of coffee and a cake before catching the train home. I also remember going there after I made my confirmation. Life was simple in those days. Sadly, the premises were burned down some time later.

There was no need for a watch to tell the time when we worked on the bog all those years ago. The sound and sight of the steam train signalled lunchtime. I was enthralled by the sight of the old locomotive puffing out clouds of white steam against a blue sky. Sometimes the engine would proudly blow its whistle as if saying “Look at me!” If, by chance, the train was running late, my mother would wave something bright or colourful to attract our attention and let us know that lunch was ready.

Edmondstown Station

The railway line ran alongside our land near Edmondstown Station. When haymaking, it was always a thrill to watch the train as it passed, and I was guaranteed a ‘front seat’ view. On the other side of the track was Kelly’s field which had a spring well where we could get water to quench our thirst. Further up in the woods, and behind The Four Altars, was Taaffe’s well where the water was ice-cold even on the hottest of summer days.

One of the highlights of the year was the ‘excursion’ train to Strandhill. Local people, adults and children, gathered on the platform at Edmondstown to catch the train which took us to Sligo via Kilfree Junction. We were then transferred by bus to Strandhill for a day on the beach.

In the evening, there was time to visit Woolworth’s in Sligo before taking the train home. The store was noted for its collection of cellophane-wrapped chocolate rabbits and Guinness bottles which were always popular with the children.

The railway crossing at Edmondstown Station, with its large wooden gates, was a popular meeting point for local youngsters in the evening. Looking along the railway line towards Ballaghaderren, you could see the tall trees that marked the children’s burial ground at Caltragh. In the other direction was Island Road Station and Lough Gara. The line ran close to the shore giving an excellent view of the lake.

Kilfree Junction

On Saturday 2^nd February 1963, the train made its last return trip from Ballaghaderreen to Kilfree Junction, hauled by 0-6-0 steam locomotive 574, departing at 11:50am. I joined the 160 children and 30 adults who made the journey marking the sad end of an era. On the return from Kilfree Junction a local band played a farewell. The last train was a special cattle train which left Ballaghaderreen at 3:22pm.

Many years later I met an old lady who, together with her son, had a farm on the border between Oxfordshire and Warwickshire. When she heard that I came from Co Roscommon she told me that her late husband travelled to Ballaghaderreen to buy cattle which were then sent to England by cattle train. What a small world, indeed. 

Neolithic crannogs - New Scottish Discoveries

Lough Gara

Introduction

In earlier posts I discussed the crannogs of Lough Gara on the border between Co Sligo and Co Roscommon in Ireland. Crannogs are partially or entirely artificial island, usually built in lakes, rivers, and estuarine waters of Ireland, Scotland and Wales. They are commonly made of timber and stone and are occasionally built on existing rocky structures. They are widespread in Ireland, with an estimated 1,200 examples while Scotland has 347 sites officially listed. 

It had been thought that these artificial islands dated from the Iron Age. We now know that crannogs were used for over five thousand years from the European Neolithic Period to as late as the 17th/early 18th century. Four Western Isles sites in Scotland have recently been radiocarbon dated to about 3640-3360 BC in the Neolithic period - before the erection of Stonehenge's stone circle.

Aerial View of crannog in Loch Langabhat, Scotland
BBC News Scotland, Highlands and Islands

Crannogs, or at least platforms, may have been built on Lough Gara in the Late Mesolithic (5500 to 4000 BC). However, the practice of building on the shallow shores increased during the Late Bronze Age (1200–800 BC) and again in the Early Medieval period around 600 AD. Some crannogs were used as late as the 17th century. The recent research in Scotland points to some crannogs there being much older than previously thought prompting a reappraisal of dates for these structures.

Fredengren’s survey of Lough Gara found piling, timbers and brushwood stretching over a 40m area of white marl along the north-east shore of Inch Island. The wood deposit formed three groups, 3-4 m apart. A small number of posts could be seen in the water. One of the vertical timbers produced a radiocarbon date of 4230–3970 BC, indicating activity in the latest phases of the Mesolithic, while a brushwood piece indicated a date in the early Mesolithic, showing that there was human activity on Inch Island around 7330-7050 BC (Fredengren, 2002).

A diver holds a Neoilithic (c 3,500 BC) Ustan vessel
found near a crannog in Loch Arnish, Scotland.
BBC News Scotland, Highlands and Islands

Isle of Lewis

 Archaeologists Dr Duncan Garrow, of University of Reading, and Dr Fraser Sturt, from the University of Southampton, investigated four crannog artificial islands in the Isle of Lewis in the Western Isles. At one of the sites well-preserved Neolithic pottery had previously been found on the loch bed. The archaeologists said the crannogs represented "a monumental effort" through the piling up of boulders on the loch bed, and in the case of a site in Loch Bhorgastail, the building of a stone causeway. The archaeologists believe it is possible other Scottish crannogs, and similar sites in Ireland, were also Neolithic.

Eight radiocarbon dates were recorded from the structural timbers used in the building of the four crannogs on the Isle of Lewis and six of these fell within the Neolithic era.  The research also shows for the first time that the pots were likely to have been intentionally placed in the water around the crannogs.

The condition of the nearly intact Neolithic ceramic vessels found in the water around the crannogs was described as “amazing” by Duncan Garrow, who co-authored the paper. “I’ve never seen anything like it in British archaeology,” he says. “People seem to have been chucking this stuff in the water.”

Neolithic crannog of Eilean Domhnuill,
North Uist, Scotland

Loch Tay

Since 1980 archaeologists have explored the waters of Loch Tay for crannogs and have excavated one at Oakbank, just off the village of Fearnan. Preserved in the loch's cold, peaty waters were structural timbers, food, utensils and 2600-year-old clothing. They even discovered a butter dish with butter still clinging to the inside of it.

In 1994 experimental archaeologists from the Scottish Trust for Underwater Archaeology reconstructed a crannog on Loch Tay using the same material as the original at Oakbank. The reconstruction at Kenmore involved building a thatched roundhouse on a timber platform 15m across, which was connected to the shore by a timber causeway 20m long. The whole structure is supported on 168 timber piles.

Considerable skill is required to build a crannog. The first stage was to create an artificial island out of timber piles. Alder trees, 8-10m long, were used for the piles. Considerable work would have been required to pull the alder piles into a vertical position. The original crannog builders then faced the task of how to drive the alder piles up to 2m into the loch bed using only Iron Age technology. Archaeologists think that a crosspole would have been lashed to the upright pile and twisted back and forth to create enough force to drive it two metres into the loch bed.

Rathtinaun crannog (Late Bronze Age),
Lough Gara, Co Sligo, Ireland.

Conclusion

Whilst it had been thought that crannogs dated from the Iron Age, we now know that they were used for over five thousand years from the Neolithic Period to as late as the 17th/early 18th century. Dating crannogs is complicated by multi-periods of occupancy as noted, for example, in the case of Rathtinaun crannog, Lough Gara, where the foundations date from the Late Bronze Age with evidence of reuse in the Early Medieval Period.

Archaeologists can only speculate as to why the Scottish crannogs were built, how they were used, and why they became places for pottery disposal. Vicki Cummings, an expert in Neolithic monuments from the University of Central Lancashire suggests the sites’ isolation, and the pottery that surrounds them, could point to rituals that marked life transitions like the passage from childhood to adulthood.

Paper co-author Duncan Garrow admits the research is only just beginning. His team plans to conduct a broader survey to date more crannogs in the Outer Hebrides. In the meantime, the Scottish findings provides support for the earlier Mesolithic and Neolithic dates recorded by Fredengren for some of Lough Gara’s sites.

Christina Fredengren (2002) Crannogs: A study of people's interaction with lakes, with particular reference to Lough Gara in the north-west of Ireland

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-highlands-islands-48625734

https://www.nationalgeographic.co.uk/culture-history/2019/06/artificial-islands-older-stonehenge-stump-scientists

https://letterfromballinloughane.blogspot.com/2014/08/lough-gara-why-is-this-lake-important.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RtEObzvwo4Y

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i931HbTN9z4  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z1teGofZCk4  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=461QhIFau6g  

Gold Rings from Lough Gara, Co. Sligo

Lough Gara, Co. Sligo

In prehistoric Ireland highly skilled craftsmen used large quantities of gold to make single objects such as torcs, bracelets and dress-fasteners or very small amounts beaten into sheet for lunulae or foil to cover base metal rings. Many years of training, practice and experience would have been required to produce work of such quality.

Lough Gara-type Rings

Gold Ring ornaments (c) National Museum of Ireland

Mary Cahill, in her paper Prehistoric Gold from Co. Sligo (2013), describes a number of gold rings from Lough Gara, known as penannular rings. All but one of the rings are made of base metal covered with gold foil and are referred to as ’Lough Gara-type’ rings. Seventeen such rings are recorded from Ireland of which five are from Co. Sligo. These rings included three from the hoard found at Rathtinaun, Lough Gara, in 1954 and two from the townland of Annaghbeg or Monasteraden on the opposite side of the lake found in the 1960s.

The Annaghbeg Hoard

In 1988 the National Museum of Ireland was contacted by the Curator of the County Museum and Art Gallery, Truro, Cornwall. He had recently seen a small hoard consisting of a pottery vessel and two decorated gold foil-covered rings said to have been found either on the shore or close to the shore of Lough Gara.

After negotiations the hoard was acquired by the National Museum of Ireland and returned to Ireland. This hoard is a rare example of the discovery of prehistoric gold objects in a container and the only surviving example of the use of a ceramic vessel to contain gold or metal objects. It is also recorded that the Rathtinaun hoard was found in a wooden box with two upright wooden pegs beside it which may have been markers.

Mary Cahill describes the Annaghbeg ceramic vessel as:

 … a small coarse-ware pot with thick walls narrowing towards the rim, rounded in form and roughly U-shaped in profile but slightly waisted at the centre of the vessel. The vessel is undecorated. The outer fabric surface is buff coloured, smooth and slightly burnished but quite pitted, perhaps as a result of soil conditions since deposition. Internally the fabric varies from black to buff from base to rim. The base is slightly rounded.

Both foil-covered composite rings were made from a solid led core which is crescent shaped. Each ring is broadly U-shaped in cross-section. The rectangular strip of gold foil used to cover the ring had to be carefully fitted and stretched over the outer surface of the ring.

The rings are decorated with a simple pattern of lines and dots which have been lightly incised on the surface of the led core before wrapping the ring in the gold foil. Each face of the rings has been scored with a series of radial lines drawn across the surface. 

Very little gold was required to wrap the rings but considerable goldsmithing skills were essential to beat an ingot into an extremely thin foil and to complete the application of the foil cover. Both rings are the same size, weight and similarly decorated and were clearly intended to be a pair.

The Rathtinaun Hoard

Amber Necklace from Rathtinaun Hoard, Lough Gara, Co. Sligo
(c) National Museum of Ireland

Another gold ring was found during the excavation of Crannog 61, Rathtinaun, Lough Gara, by Joseph Raftery in 1954. It is a very small sold gold ring which narrows towards the terminals and is slightly thickened at the ends (Fig. 5). The ring is 1.3cm in maximum diameter and weighs just 5g.

A further three penannular rings in the Rathtinaun hoard are of the same type as those from Annaghbeg but with some important differences in terms of size, weight and the quality of craftsmanship. The Rathtinaun specimens show a much higher degree of workmanship. For example, the decoration on these rings is more complex and more skilfully executed. Two of the three rings from Rathtinaun form a pair and resemble the Annaghbeg rings closely in form.

The Rathtinaun hoard is rare because of the mixture of metals and organic material, the type of objects in the hoard and the exotic nature of some artefacts. It also includes objects made of tin which is very rarely used on its own as a metal, boars’ tusks, amber beads and an unusual bronze pin.

Bronze Age and Iron Age Gold

Gold Lunula from Coggalbeg Hoard - Early Bronze Age
(c) National Museum of Ireland

It remains unclear why lead was used in the making of these rings. Lead has been in use since the Middle Bronze Age as an additive to the usual copper/tin alloy, bronze, because it improves the ductility of the metal. Like tin, lead was rarely used on its own.

Although these objects are small, they are very heavy because their cores are made from lead. From the seventeen examples known to date, eight form matching pair being of similar size, weight and decorative style. It is possible that these rings are ear ornaments or ear weights. These items might also have been used as hair rings but when used as a pendant form of ear ornament the rings would be seen to their best advantage. The single rings may not have been used in pairs raising the possibility of their use as nose ornaments.

 Scholars have noted the difference between gold used in the Bronze Age and Iron Age. Consequently, at least sixty items of goldwork from Late Bronze Age have been reassigned to the Iron Age period. Mary Cahill states:

During the Bronze Age the amount of silver present varies but is never greater than 15% whereas during the Iron Age the silver content is much higher and can be as high as 25% to 30%.

 A resurgent gold-working tradition can be seen in the Iron Age when, for example, ribbon torcs were produced in significant quantities. Ribbon torcs have been recorded mainly from counties in the northern half of Ireland – Antrim, Cavan, Derry, Donegal, Mayo, Roscommon and Sligo – although some have been recorded in other counties also. They date mainly from the third century BC to the 2^nd Century AD.

Given the quantity and range of artefacts from Lough Gara it is hardly surprising to find evidence of goldworking.

Based on an article by Mary Cahill Prehistoric Gold from Co. Sligo in ‘Dedicated to Sligo: Thirty-four Essays on Sligo’s Past’. Editor: Martin A Timoney (2013)
For more information see:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s2p_v_g1zl8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6HvPRGNPxss

The Scythians

Territory occupied by the Scythians

The exhibition entitled Scythians: warriors of ancient Siberia, at the British Museum in London, brought back memories for me of a people who lived around Lough Gara in the 5^th Century. It is said that St. Patrick went to the Gregraidhe of Loch Techet, now known as Loch Gara. The Gregraidhe (‘horse people’) or Gregory, occupied the baronies of Coolavin in Sligo and Costello in Mayo. Perhaps, the Gregraidhe owed their prowess as horse people to the Scythians - just a thought?

Who were the Scythians

The Scythians were a group of ancient tribes of nomadic warriors who originally lived in what is now southern Siberia. Their culture thrived from around 900 BC to around 200 BC, by which time they had extended their influence all over Central Asia from China to the northern Black Sea.  These people did not leave any written record of their lives. According to accounts written by the Greeks, Assyrians and Persians, they were terrified but also impressed by the Scythians. The Greek historian Herodotus, wrote:

‘None who attacks them can escape, and none can catch them if they desire not to be found.’

In the New Testament, a letter ascribed to St. Paul refers to the Scythians:

‘Here there is no Greek or Jew. There is no difference between those who are circumcised and those who are not. There is no rude outsider, or even a Scythian. There is no slave or free person. But Christ is everything. And he is in everything.’ (Colossians 3:11)

Early modern English writers on Ireland often resorted to comparisons with Scythians to confirm that the native population of Ireland descended from these ancient people and showed themselves as barbaric as their alleged ancestors.

 As the Scythians were nomads, their personal possessions had to be portable and durable, generally light, and small or collapsible. As well as objects made of leather, cloth, felt and wood, professional metalworkers also manufactured tools, weapons, and small personal ornaments.

Highly skilled horsemen

The Scythians were the first of many waves of warriors on horses who swept westward over the vast Eurasian steppes, which extend from Mongolia more than four thousand miles to the Carpathian Mountains in Europe. They would be followed over the centuries by the Huns, the Magyars (who settled in Hungary), the Bulgars (who settled in Bulgaria), and the Mongols.

Scythian Warrior

They developed more efficient ways of riding horses which meant they could move bigger herds to new grazing grounds over larger distances. They were skilled riders and their horse gear (saddles, bridles, bits etc) was also highly developed and functional, durable, and light.

Their horses were buried with very elaborate costumes including headgear with griffins or antlers, saddle covers decorated with combat scenes, and long dangling pendants. As well as providing milk, meat and hide, horses were the main means of transport and the driving force behind the Scythians’ military strength.

Battle tactics and weaponry

The Scythians were among the earliest peoples to master mounted warfare. They kept herds of horses, cattle, and sheep, lived in tent-covered wagons, and fought with bows and arrows on horseback.

The Scythians battle tactics included using large numbers of highly mobile archers who could shower hundreds of deadly arrows on the enemies within a few minutes. Some classical writers state that the Scythians dipped their arrows in poison! When the Scythians fought on foot, their weapon of choice was a battle-axe with a long narrow pointed blade like a narrow pick-axe. The weapons’ tell-tale puncture marks have been found on the heads of excavated human remains.

Another writer wrote that:

‘The Scythians have no houses but live in wagons. These are very small with four wheels. Others with six wheels are covered with felt; such wagons are employed like houses, in twos or threes and provide shelter from rain and wind.’

The Scythians played a leading role in the destruction of the Assyrian Empire, including the destruction of Nineveh in 612 BC, which was at that time, the greatest city in the world.

Burial customs

In the high Altai mountain region near the borders of Russia, Kazakhstan, China and Mongolia, the frozen subsoil has meant that the organic remains of Scythians buried in tombs have been remarkably well preserved in permafrost. The Scythians preserved the appearance of the dead using a form of mummification. They removed the brain matter through holes cut in the head, sliced the bodies, and removed as much soft tissue as possible before replacing both with dry grass and sewing up the skin.

Log trunk coffin

When the Scythians buried their dead, they took care to equip the corpse with the necessities needed for the perpetual rides of the afterlife. They usually dug a deep hole and built a wooden structure at the bottom. Inside the tomb chamber, the body was placed in a log trunk coffin, accompanied by some of their prized possessions and other objects. Outside the tomb chamber but still inside the grave shaft, they placed slaughtered horses, facing east.

Skilled metalworkers

Excavations of burial mounds in Siberia have revealed a wealth of Scythian objects. Scythian craftsmen were good at casting metal and worked with gold, bronze, and iron, using a combination of techniques like casting, forging, and inlaying with other materials. Many beautiful examples of Scythian metalwork survive today.

Collapsible table. Mound 2, Pazyryk, Altai mountains, southern Siberia, late 4th–early 3rd century BC. © The State Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg, 2017. Photo: V Terebenin.

Collapsible table. Mound 2, Pazyryk, Altai mountains, southern Siberia, late 4th–early 3rd century BC. © The State Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg, 2017. Photo: V Terebenin.

Collapsible tables were common finds in the Pazyryk tombs. They vary in height from 18–47cm but share the same feature of a tray-like oval top and four lathe-turned or hand-carved legs).

  

Gold plaque - 300 BC

This beautiful gold plaque was made by nomads in Siberia about 2,300 years ago. One half of a symmetrical belt buckle, it would certainly have belonged to Scythian nobility, perhaps royalty. Gold was associated with the sun and royal power.

The scene shows a deceased man, a female deity with a high ponytail (left), a tree of life in which a quiver hangs, and a man holding two horses’ reins. When a Scythian man wanted to marry, he hung his quiver before the woman’s wagon. The scene may refer to a symbolic marriage between the deceased and the ‘Great Mother’ – a giver of life who is also associated with underworld powers.

Leisure time

Herodotus also describes how the Scythians had a ritual which involved getting high on hemp in a kind of mobile ‘weed sauna’:

‘They anoint and wash their heads; as for their bodies, they set up three poles leaning together to a point and cover these over with woollen mats; then, in the place so enclosed to the best of their power, they make a pit in the centre beneath the poles and the mats and throw red-hot stones into it… The Scythians then take the seed of this hemp and, creeping under the mats, they throw it on the red-hot stones; and, being so thrown, it smoulders and sends forth so much steam that no Greek vapour-bath could surpass it. The Scythians howl in their joy at the vapour-bath. This serves them instead of bathing, for they never wash their bodies with water.

Reading Herodotus’s description of this ritual, involving a pit and hot stones, I wonder if, perhaps, the early Irish used their fulacht fiadh for a similar purpose?

Many of the customs of the Scythians struck the Greeks as bizarre. For example, Herodotus reports that the Scythians drank their wine neat, that is, undiluted with water, contrary to the custom among the Greeks, who diluted their wine with water. The Scythians had a reputation for drinking to excess and getting high. Like the ancient Irish, feasting was an important part of Scythian funeral ceremonies and helped social bonding between individuals and tribes.

The BP exhibition Scythians: warriors of ancient Siberia is on at the British Museum from 14 September 2017 to 14 January 2018. 

For further information see:

https://blog.britishmuseum.org/introducing-the-scythians/

https://blog.britishmuseum.org/what-do-nomads-leave-behind/

http://hebrewnations.com/articles/ov1/ovscyth.html

Roscommon Ringfort Gives up its Secrets

An aerial view of excavations at the medieval ringfort at Ranelagh near Roscommon Town. 

Picture: Irish Archaeological Consultancy Ltd

The recent discovery outside Roscommon Town of a Medieval ringfort that included a jewellery workshop, evidence of extensive farming and a cemetery containing almost 800 bodies, has provided a window into our past. A year-long excavation of the site has provided a picture of the settlement that was probably occupied between the sixth and 11th centuries. It is thought that in its later years it may have served as an administrative and industrial hub for a community living in a series of ringforts in the surrounding area.

There was no evidence on any maps or in local folklore to suggest the existence of a ringfort and cemetery before the site was examined by archaeologists. The ringfort may have been levelled by centuries of ploughing for agriculture, or cleared during the landscaping of an area of parkland for the nearby Ranelagh House in the early 1700s. The main enclosure continued to be used for burials and appears to have been occupied during early Christianity period. A monastery was founded in Roscommon by St Comán in the early sixth century and had become quite important by the eighth century.

Reconstruction of a ringfort at Curraheen, Co Cork, the kind of enclosure that would have been first built at the ringfort in Ranelagh, Co Roscommon. Picture: Courtesy of Transport Infrastructure Ireland

Ringforts are Ireland’s most common field monument, with about 45,000 recorded examples. Recent archaeological evidence suggests that they may have fulfilled a variety of functions such as craftmanship and manufacture, as evidenced by the presence of furnaces. Archaeologists believe that all ringforts in a region were probably occupied at the same time. Should one ringfort be attacked, help would possibly come from a neighbouring one.

Our current understanding of these structures is that they date to the Early Medieval Period, with a peak in construction between AD 600 and AD 900. They represent the enclosed homesteads of the upper echelons of Irish Early Medieval society.

According to Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII) project archaeologist Martin Jones, overseeing the work as part of a road realignment on the N61, there were at least three other ringforts within 500 metres. It is thought that this ringfort was originally inhabited by a family that rose in prominence in the area. They may have then constructed a number of other ringforts around this one, which became a centre for industrial activity.

Amber Necklace from Lough Gara, County Sligo
dated from 800-700 BC

The amount of unfinished jewellery pieces found by the archaeologists indicates they were being made in a workshop at the site. The jewellery items found include amber and jet beads, a lignite bracelet, and a brooch panel with enamel stud. A fragment of a copper alloy bracelet has been dated by its decoration to around AD350 to 550. A necklace of amber beads and lignite bracelets were found during the excavation of crannog sites on Lough Gara, County Sligo.

The substantial number of bones found across the site point to a move from human settlement to raising and slaughtering animals. The discovery of a set of iron shears of different sizes indicates processing of animal wools.

The remains of 793 people were found of which three-quarters were intact. Archaeologists believe that several of the 470 juveniles and infants whose remains were unearthed may have been placed there during the later use of the site as a children’s burial ground. A small number of crouched burials were found, with their knees pushed up to their chest, which may suggest that these were non-locals being buried according to their own traditions. Other burials showed signs of punishment or disrespect, including at least two in which feet and hands may have been bound, one of them buried face down. Two of those buried at the Ranelagh excavation site were decapitated, and several children or adolescents were placed in the ground in embracing positions.

The custom of setting apart a special place for the burial of very young or unbaptised children was common practice from early medieval times until very recently. Many of these are situated in forts or early ecclesiastical sites.

In the fifth century AD, Augustine of Hippo declared that all unbaptised people were guilty of original sin. This prompted a debate in the Church which was to last for several centuries. From the sixth century, the burial of unbaptised individuals in consecrated ground was forbidden. In 2004, Pope John Paul 11 appointed a Commission to study Limbo and it reported its findings in 2007. The report, signed by Pope Benedict XV1, stated that it reflected a ‘restrictive view of salvation’ and that it was reasonable to hope that the souls of unbaptised infants are admitted to Heaven by a merciful God.

Although children’s burial grounds are normally associated with stillborn and unbaptised children, others were buried there including people who committed suicide, mentally disabled, the shipwrecked, criminals, famine victims, strangers and even women who had not been ‘churched’ after childbirth.

A notable feature in some of graves in the burial ground excavated was the placement of items with the body. The artefacts were frequently hidden under the hair and included beads, blades, a bracelet fragment, and copper and bone pins. This may have been a hangover from pre-Christian burial practices. One young adolescent was buried with a worked antler, one of a handful of such burials recorded in Ireland.

Scholars believe that the nature of the Celtic religion itself helped in the development of Christianity. For example, a belief in the indestructibility of the souls of the dead helped in understanding the resurrection of Christ.

Some non-Christian funerary customs continued to be practiced, including burial in cemeteries not obviously associated with a church. Burned grain, antler tine and pig bones have been found in pre-Christian graves signifying some form of rite. Christian cemeteries or ‘holy ground’, in which most of the population were buried, developed from the late seventh century onwards.

For further information about ringforts and childrens’ burial grounds see:

http://letterfromballinloughane.blogspot.co.uk/2014/10/irelands-ringforts-not-just-home-for.html

http://letterfromballinloughane.blogspot.co.uk/2013/10/childrens-burial-ground-creggan-co.html