09/04/2024

Today’s ramble in Donegal takes us down to Inver, and to the scenic old church ruins lodged between the pier, the ocean and the Eany river. Inver is another of those tiny Donegal townlands with an abundance of scenery, tradition and folklore, and on this spring day, the addition of frolicking lambs, and a bright red fishing boat lending a pop of colour to the misty day was almost an overload of beauty.
Inver’s old monastery is named after Naul (or Naille or Natillus) - he goes back to the time of Colm Cille, that’s sixth century ~ and the available information on these older saints always comes with either an overload of wondrous achievements (if written by later Christian scholars)- or some connection to the dark arts ( if written by our colonizers). According to one story, Naul arrived at Inver to meet Colm Cille, and Colm was embarrassed that he didn’t have food to offer the visitor. So the two men went to the ocean, blessed it- and suddenly, fish leapt out of the waves, begging to be gobbled up. But much later, Gerald of Wales tells a story of two wolves, who turn out to be humans who bear a curse cast by Naul. Gerald, who had little good to say about the native Irish, begins a trend in tagging the native Irish with epithets such as savage and subhuman - a trend continued by Messrs. Spencer, Shakespeare and Cromwell. Hmmm…
It is very interesting to read the lives of the early Christian saints ( although none were canonized) - it’s a really entertaining mixture of snippets of history with gloriously bombastic achievements- many very similar to the miracles of the Bible. Brigid turns a bath full of water into beer, for example, and Patrick famously drives the snakes away~ so the stories go - but what’s lovely is that these old stories survived, and embedded themselves into the folklore and traditions of townland such as Inver, so a few old stones can easily conjure up all kind of past magic.
Enjoy the ramble!
#donegal #studyabroadireland