The South Isles of Aran (County Galway)Burke, Oliver J. (Oliver Joseph)
History
The South Isles of Aran (County Galway)
Burke, Oliver J. (Oliver Joseph)
Aran Islands (Ireland); Galway (Ireland : County) -- History
Dun Conor, an oval fort on the middle island, is much larger than Dun
Ængus, of which we have just been speaking, the axis major of Dun Conor
measuring 227 feet. It also stands on a high cliff, and its dry and
mortarless walls are built also on the coat of the onion principle.
Inisheer, the eastern island, contains a circular Dun called
Creggan-keel. Furmena Castle, also on this island, was, in later times,
the stronghold of the O'Briens--lords of the islands of Aran--and upon
these islands are many more fortresses. There is, on the north side of
Inishmore, Dun Onaght, a circular Firbolgic fort, measuring 92 feet
across; and on the south-west side, _Dubh Cahn_, "the black fort," a Dun
or fortress of very rude masonry, of enormous thickness, and overlooking
the cliffs.
[Sidenote: ST. ENDA.]
The Christian remains of the islands are many, and many are the names of
the saints still remembered who congregated here in the early days of
Irish Christianity. Amongst those remarkable heroes of the Cross, none
appears to have been greater than St. Enda, who has left his name
everywhere in the islands. To him, indeed, is due much of the success
that followed the footsteps of those missionaries who won, in the course
of centuries, for Aran the appellation of "Aran of the Saints." Enda was
the only son of Conel, King of Oriel, whose territories included the
modern counties of Louth, Armagh, and Fermanagh. This Enda had, however,
several sisters, the elder being the wife of the King of Cashel, whose
death is chronicled in the annals of the Four Masters as of the year
489; the younger was Fancha, the abbess of an abbey, or nunnery, wherein
were educated ladies of the court, amongst whom was one remarkable for
her great mental and personal attractions. Enda loved her, and hoped
that she would one day share with him the glories, such as they were, of
the throne of his fathers. His love for his affianced bride amounted to
an idolatry, but his idolatry must end, and his idol must die an early
death. The abbess brought him weeping into the chamber where the corpse
of his loved one was laid. Fancha then reminded him of how favour is
deceitful and how beauty is vain, and how the day, dim and remote, would
still come when he would be as his affianced bride now was. "Love not
the world, nor the things that are in the world!" exclaimed the abbess
with a vehemence that her earnestness inspired. That world was then
abjured, and straightway he entered a religious order, that of the
Regular Canons of St. Augustine, and after years of study and probation,
was ordained priest in Rome. He thence returned to the kingdom of Oriel
in Ireland, where he built several churches. Having visited his sister
and her husband the King of Cashel, the latter was, after much
hesitation, persuaded to confer upon God and upon Enda the islands of
Aran. Possession of a place so retired and so suited to study and
contemplation being thus obtained, Enda introduced there a multitude of
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