EXCERPT FROM SARA'S
JOURNAL
October 25, 1998
Near Ballyferriter
Dingle Peninsula
In Search of Antiquities
The remains of Kilmore Church are a little hard to find because
they are behind a field of bulls. Between us and the bulls is another field and this one
looks like quicksand. Don’t go looking for a few rocks in a muddy bull-occupied
field after a Great Storm. We jump the stone wall and squish into the liquid mud. We slosh
into the field until we make eye contact with the bulls. Or are they castrated, and
therefore steer? (Or are they udderless cows?) We can’t tell but they are staring and
this causes anxiety and my boots are filling with brown water. Rich has his heart
set on seeing this church, which is really not a church but the remains of one. It
is a cluster of rocks. I look back and around for another route to the site.
It’s no use…there is no way but through those bulls. We tiptoe in the mud back
to Alfi and drive around the field behind where we think the site might be. Rich
hops out with unwavering determination and returns a few minutes later with no success.
A little further down the road, The Papal Taxation Lists have a church
at the site of Dun Urlain Fort. The 1302 church is also listed in the Papal
Enquiry in 1495 because of allegations of fornication against the Canon. The Canon?
The Blasket Island Centre in a modern museum on the west coast of the
peninsula. It was built with panoramic window that look out to the islands.
The islands sleep, about 3 kilometres offshore, black and blue on the
surface of the choppy sea, with and opening and closing sky above. There are four
large islands and three smaller ones. Great Blasket is the largest at 6 by 1.2
kilometres. Here there are the remains of an old church and a dilapidated village
where a thriving community sustained itself until 1953. The islands are desolate,
lonely and windswept. Islanders were self-sufficient and never reached numbers more than
150. They fished and farmed, built a school and church and were often visited by
English writers, artists and explorers who were fascinated by their lonely way of life.
These intellectuals encouraged the Islanders to record their lyrical stories and
even to learn to write so they could pen their history and unique experiences. In the
twentieth century the number of inhabitants on great Blasket dwindled to a level where it
was difficult to sustain the community. Frequent storms prevented travel to the
mainland for medical help and emergency supplies. In 1953 the Islanders were
evacuated to the mainland.
A rich legacy of stories remains, in particular the English translation
of Thomas O'Crohan's The Islandman, Maurice O'Sullivan's Twenty Years
A-Growing and Peig Sayer, and oral storyteller's Peig. In fair
weather, one can take a small ferry out to Great Blasket and explore the island on foot.
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