The Other Side

On the side of Mt Brandon in Kerry I had come across a homestead/fort named  Cathair na bhFionnurach from the 6^th century.  Brendan the Navigator, a local, would have probably known it and hailed it as he passed by.

Less than ten miles away, on a Ballyferriter hillside, I came across a place Brendan might never have visited but in which he would have immediately felt at home. His adult life was spent in places like that.

That place was Reask, meaning ‘Marsh’.  For centuries no one showed interest in it until archaeologists noted an unusual pillar stone sticking out of the ground. Excavations there in the 1990s led to unearthing a 5^th or 6^th century monastic settlement sunk in the marsh but, as a result,  in remarkably good condition.

No one knows who founded a monastic community there, there is only a vague memory of it as a ’holy place’.

What struck me was its resemblance to the fort/homestead I had seen at Cathair na bhFionnurach though on a larger scale, three or four time bigger. Both were circled by high stone walls with steps inside to the parapet. Both had a raised stone path from the gate to the main building (the ground would have been muddy much of the year in both places!).

Cathair had only one structure (two inter-connected beehive huts) while Reask had several similarly joined-huts as well as other small buildings. Both were self-sufficient communities, producing what they need in the line of food, clothing and implements.   

The difference was that at the centre and oldest part of Reask there was a boat-shaped oratory like those at nearby Gallarus and Skelligs. Ten stone pillars with crosses and Celtic spirals were also found in Reask. The images were etched, not carved, an early step in the development of Celtic stone crosses. 

The ‘Reask Pillar’ itself is decorated with a Maltese cross inscribed in a circle and with scrolled patterns.  On one side are three incised letters, DNE, which stand for ‘Domine’. Other stones, including a Greek cross, were removed to museums.

I thought of the grape seeds that has been excavated at nearby Cathair and the contact that meant with the south-west coasts of the continent. Was this corner of Ireland an entry point for European influence such as the wave of monastic Christianity sweeping across Celtic Europe? That form of ‘Desert Fathers’ spirituality had come also to the east coast of Ireland via Wales and Scotland and would have developed local differences.

I was left with an impression and a question.

Reask was a simple community with no library to produce an artistic ‘Book of Reask’ yet it marked an equally important moment for Irish history.

Second, it would be interesting to trace the origin of the images on the Reask pillar stones to find where the inspiration came from. Was it direct from France, Spain or further afield?