Saints and Scholars

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There is, of course, an abundance of books out there about ‘Celtic spirituality’ that owe rather more to the ‘New Age’ beliefs and practices than the historical Church in these islands, but Fr Ó Ríordáin says it’s important to focus on the Christian character of the Irish saints. Focus Renowned for her generosity and care for the poor, Saint Brigid famously converted a dying man by making up a cross with rushes she found on the ground to bless him with, something children in Ireland learn to make in school on her feast day 1st February. After decades of industrial peat-cutting to fuel Ireland's stoves, the bog was no longer nature's healthy blanket of saturated spongy moss it once was. But, several years since harvesting ended (due to green policies), it was encouraging to see flora gaining confidence over a largely drab landscape. The third member of Ireland’s trio of patron saints is, of course, St Colmcille, sometimes known as Columba, who Fr Ó Ríordáin describes as “one of those magnetic figures that kind of transcends time”.

But what's especially interesting about Derrynaflan is the priceless buried treasure likely left here by the monks. Discovered just a few decades ago, it changed Irish law and turned out to be one of the most exciting archaeological finds in the history of Irish art. Certainly Irish texts on Computus were lodged in Irish monasteries abroad and in the libraries of Germany, France and other countries. But our success in the field, which involved complex mathematics, is not recognised today. I think that’s important – when you reflect on that it makes total sense, because you’re establishing a new tradition,” he says, recalling Chesterton’s line that pagans were wiser than paganism, which was why they became Christian. It strikes him as plausible too, he adds, that Brigid may have deliberately Christianised an earlier pagan shrine, as St Gregory the Great would later advise St Augustine to do in his mission to the English.The Celtic Prayer Garden is Ireland’s only such garden and is set in six acres of natural bog land, approximately 10 minutes out of the city centre of Derry. This abbey (officially a friary but always referred to as an abbey) is in pretty Quin Village, a remote hamlet lost in a maze of country lanes. A three-arch bridge and narrow streets curve around the abbey ruin, church and a crumbling chapel, as if to keep watch on the comings and goings along the meadow path to the abbey. The trail closely follows the gushing Rine River through bumpy terrain, where an ancient town settlement has lain buried beneath the tufts of grass for centuries. The abbey started life in 1278 as a giant fortress, built by Thomas de Clare. He was an Anglo Norman peer who spectacularly failed to subdue the local chieftains – decades before, his castle was almost completely razed by the O’Brien clan. To the right of the nave is the grave of Fireball McNamara, while in another vault lie the notorious Blood clan, connected to the Tower of London crown jewel thief They were popularly canonised in the early church, where a person who was recognised as walking with God was a saint, but that kind of transferred in the later Middle Ages into being a more formal thing, namely something that had to go to the bishop or go to the Pope,” he says.

The Irish never took too much to that, in the sense that even as I sit here in the monastery garden now I’m looking down at the graveyard and I know several fellows who I pray to as saints but there’d be no question of them ever being canonised,” Fr Ó Ríordáin says, before adding with a laugh: “Whereas if they were in Italy they’d probably be universally known at this stage!” The seventh miracle occurred, apparently, when St Féichín raised a two-tonne stone doorway lintel into place by the power of prayer in the 10 th century – when he had been dead some time. Despite the time travel issues, the lintel remains in place to this day. Other idiosyncratic features include a hermit’s cell and a fine cloister arcade built later as part of a Benedictine priory by landlord Hugh De Lacy, who also constructed Trim Castle (a setting for the movie Braveheart) about 20 miles away. A marked trail around Fore covers most of the sights, and it is a remarkably beautiful setting. In Fore village is something else that hasn’t changed in a while – the Seven Wonders Pub. Christianity first came to Ireland between the 3rd and 5th Centuries and while much of Europe was plunging into the Dark Ages, Ireland provided a beacon of light.During your visit you can visit our reconstructed Irish Celtic round tower. You will walk into and experience early Celtic monastic life, simple and solitary, given to prayer and contemplation by visiting our reconstructed Celtic ‘bee-hive’ cell as well as an early monastic cave dwelling. You always have to keep a focus on where does Christ fit into the picture, and the Christian way of life, so I would be looking out for anything that would be pointing in that direction, from whatever century is might be,” he says. “The ‘New Age’ stuff doesn’t do a lot for me, and I don’t pay a whole lot of attention to it. I know it goes on and it’s available and so on, but I don’t delve much into that world.” After the 8th Century the Church here went into a period of decline that lasted up to about the 12th Century, which was a natural decline because if you have the early Irish Church pumping energy for hundreds of years, you’re bound to run out of steam sooner or later,” Fr Ó Ríordáin says. Whereas, what is your relationship with someone like Jesus? Some of the martyrs in Egypt who were beheaded last year, and one of them muttering the name Jesus as they were about to take the head off him: he had relationship there.” Music and the Stars : Mathematics in Medieval Ireland is in book shops or available from fourcourtspress.ie