Searching for Senan: The Places

South Co Clare is Senan Country – there are churches, wells, shrines, and men, all called after him. Most importantly, there is Scattery Island – I told you how he came to be associated with Scattery in the last post, Searching for Senan: The Life.

Amanda and I were searching individually and jointly – she for holy wells, and I for churches and stained glass, and both of us for Scattery. We also found St Immy, Senan’s sister, pronounced EYE-mee, after whom Killimer (Kill-EYE-mer) is named. Our go-to encyclopaedia of Irish Saints, A Dictionary of Irish Saints by Padraig O Riain is silent on Immy but she is venerated all over south Clare and to prove it, above is one of her shrines.

We also found her birthplace – she and Senan were both born here “on a slab”. 

The well, devoted to Senan, was a trek across a field (can you see it below in the distance?

When we reached it we found that an enthusiastic painter had brightened up the gate with such an amount of thick red paint that it could no longer be opened. Undaunted, Amanda climbed over and she provided this image of the well for me.

And why haven’t I provided my own image of the well? Perhaps this photo (also by Amanda) will answer that question – with the best will in the world, I was unable to surmount the obstacle, unlike the gazelle-like leap modelled by Amanda. All I can say in my defense is that when you are trying to climb over a gate, it is fatal to start laughing.

We had other wells – Amanda is an absolutist when it comes to hunting them down. On one occasion, while I sat in the car and ate chocolate, she disappeared for a long time in search of an obscure reference on a map. When she came back she was soaked, muddied, scratched, bleeding (she had literally been through hedge backwards) – and still grinning. She had found it! At the next one, I don’t know if you can see the rain blowing across the landscape in horizontal sheets in this photo?

That rain – it was the reason our trip to Scattery Island was cancelled on the Friday. We were rescheduled on another one for Saturday. First, though on Friday night, which happened to be Culture Night all across Ireland, we attended a marvellous event in Kilrush. 

I have mentioned John Glynnn, the photographer, in previous posts. He has been generous about sharing photographs with me, including Senan, from the previous post, Brigid, for this one, and Brian Boru for this one. John lives in Kilrush, and he had organised a slideshow for Friday night – but not just any slide show. He had hired a high-powered projector and from an upstairs room in one building, he projected images of Clare’s stained glass windows across the street and onto the facade of the old, disused, cinema. He had a good turnout and a very enthusiastic audience. To see the kind of images he was projecting (all his own photography) take a browse through Clare’s Stained Glass Archives

Despite the howling gales of Friday, Saturday dawned sunny and fresh and we bounced across to Scattery Island with the local tour organisers. As you can see, we had the whole boat to ourselves – kudos to Scattery Island Tours for looking after us so well.

Unlike the short shrift given to Immy (above), O Riain spends several pages on Senan. After going through the scholarship of his hagiography, and the various versions of his Life, he gets Senan to Scattery. 

Here the Saint spent the remainder of his life, contesting his rights with various local dynasts, receiving respectful visits from Bréanainn [Brendan],  Ciarán, Féichín, and Laichtín, trading gifts with Diarmuid of Inchcleraun,  insisting to Canner Cráibhtheach that his island was off-limits to females, and finally preparing for death at Caiseadhan’s grave, ironically among women, in nearby Ceall nagCailleach Gallagh, ‘Church of the nuns’…

Pádraig Ó Riain, A Dictionary of Irish Saints

Four Courts, 2011

The island became a large monastic settlement and eventually a place of pilgrimage. Here are the directions to pilgrims – can you imagine! You would be in shreds afterwards. But no – apparently afterwards you engaged in feats of drinking and courting and fighting – the kind of revelries that led to the pilgrimage being eventually shut down by the priests.

There are the remains of 6 churches (one vestigial) on the island, but the legend of course is that there were seven.

Of particular interesting (to me) is the one beside the round tower, which has antae – one of the hallmarks of the earliest kinds of Irish churches – see my post on the Skeams church for an explanation.

The round tower is unusual in having a ground entry – and a funny bulge in the middle.

There is also a medieval church, probably 15th century, with impressive windows and a surrounding graveyard with interesting grave slabs. 

The church at the highest point on the island, cnocnanaingeal (Hill of the Angel) marks the spot when the Archangel took Senan to battle with the monster. 

From this spot there is a good view of the north end of the island, which has a battery dating to Napoleonic times and a lighthouse, once manned, now automated. 

And of course there is a holy well.

Scattery was home to many clerics and finally to several families. The men made their living as Shannon River Pilots. When a large ship came up the estuary, heading to Limerick, they would guide it through the hazards of the river, up to the port. They did this by rowing in Curraghs! If you are not familiar with a curragh, here is a good page of information. Eventually, of course, this method became obsolete and this spelled the end of a way of life on Scattery. The last couple left the island in the 1970s.

If you get a chance to go to Scattery, run, don’t walk, to make the booking. I can’t speak highly enough about the professional service we received, the knowledge and skill of the guides – ours was Pierce and he was excellent – and the altogether marvellous morning we had on Scattery.