"Ireland:
Myth and Magic"
A sermon by Rev. Judy Tomlinson
August 5, 2007
OPENING WORDS by Wendell Berry
We clasp the hands of those that go before us, and the hands of
those who come after us.
We enter the little circle of each other's arms and the larger circle
of lovers,
whose hands are joined in a dance,
and the larger circle of all, creatures, passing in and out of life,
who move also in a dance,
to a music so subtle and vast that no ear hears it except in fragments.
OFFERING
The was once an Irishman who was seeking a job in construction.
The foreman said to him,
"You must have an intelligence test before I can hire you."
All right says the Irishman.
So the foreman asked, "What is the difference between joist
and girder?"
And the Irishman says, "Joyce wrote Ulysses and Goethe wrote
Faust."
READINGS
Invocation to Brigid Celtic Goddess of poetry, smithcraft and healing
Holy maiden Brigid
Radiant flame of gold,
Brigid of the mantles
Brigid of the twining hair
Brigid of calmness
Brigid of the augury
Each day and each night
That we raise voice to Brigid
We shall not be killed, We shall not be harried,
We shall not be put in cell, We shall not be worried,
We shall not be anguished, We shall not be down-trodden.
No fire, no sun, no moon shall burn us
No lake, no water, no sea shall drown us,
Nor seed of fairy host shall lift us,
Nor seed of airy host shall lift us,
Nor earthly being destroy us.
So may it be.
Modern Reading by Brendan Behan:
Silent save for bird's wings clipping the foam,
Heads on breast, they rest content, grateful to be home.
The wind lifts lightly, setting the half-door aslope
On a famished hearth without heat, without protection,
without hope.
SERMON
Two weeks ago, I found myself on a plane bound from Dublin, Ireland
back to Newark. I had just spent the previous 17 days driving, walking
and hiking across the land of my ancestors. My paternal grandmother's
name was Cullen and my mother's maiden name is Conley so I'm at
least half Irish. I had gone with a longing for an overt mystical
experience and a heart burning for justice. I had gone with a hope
that I would connect to the divine, to family history and to the
land. It was to be a journey of self-exploration into the mystical
and the magical, into family pride and feminism. What I learned
was how complicated history is. It is born of a complex mixture
of myth and reality that stereotypes can't do justice.
The first Irish myth I'd like to tell you comes from a movie I
saw several years ago called The Secret of Roan Inish. It is the
story of a family who live on a lonely island, or inish. At the
outset of the story, the mother of the family disappears without
a trace. Soon thereafter the entire island is evacuated.
While the father and his daughter are packing their boat to leave,
the family's infant boy is placed nearby in his wooden cradle on
the beach. As the tide slowly comes in, the cradle is washed out
to sea. The father frantically chases after his son, but the cradle
moves swiftly through the water. The child is lost.
The father departs to find work in the city and leaves his young
daughter with her grandparents. When the weather is clear, the little
girl can see the island from her grandparents' home which is on
the mainland. She longs to explore the mystery of her mother and
her brother. Eventually, she discovers that her mother was a silkie,
a mythical creature who is both seal and woman. Years ago, when
her mother was in human form, the father fell in love with her and
hid her sealskin.
As long as it was hidden she was unable to take the form of a seal,
but the mother finds the sealskin and she is compelled to return
to the sea. She is the one who took the infant boy, cared for him
until he outgrew his cradle and then returned him to the island.
The daughter learns all this and is able to reunite her father and
brother. Together they re-inhabit the island.
In the movie, the family's name was Connelly. My mother's name,
Conley, is one of many derivatives of that name. So I felt a natural
connection while watching the movie. But there was a stronger connection.
I have always loved to be in the water and, from earliest childhood,
I've been fascinated by mermaids and myths of creatures who bridge
the gap between human and aquatic. This movie stirred a longing
in me to visit the place where some of those myths were born.
There was something else too. Throughout my life, I've had the
feeling that I didn't fully know where I come from, who my ancestors
really are. I've heard the anguishing stories about Africans who
were brought to this country as slaves and had their names stripped
from them. For many of today's African-Americans, their family history
dead-ends in a ship's cargo records. I realized how lucky I was
- that I, with a bit of detective work, could probably trace my
lineage all the way back to my family's place of origin. This felt
like something I needed to do. I told my two sisters about my plans
and they decided it was an opportunity they couldn't resist. So,
in early July, the three of us boarded a plane in Newark and took
a five-hour ride across the Atlantic. It was a trip that would have
taken our ancestors a month in harrowing conditions.
Ireland is a land of myths and legends. One ancient tale relates
that the first people to settle there were a small group led by
a queen named Cessair. The story goes that Cessair was a daughter
of Noah whom he wouldn't allow into the Ark. So she built her own
ship and sailed to Ireland with 50 women and three men. Unfortunately,
two of the men soon died and the third transformed himself into
an eagle to escape. The remaining women were then drowned by the
flood. Not an auspicious beginning.
Another legend says that the Tuatha de Danaan, or the people of
the Goddess Danaan, were a group who invaded Ireland at some later
date. The Tua reigned there for millennia until the Celts arrived
around 300 BCE. The Celts defeated the Tua and, according to myth,
they allowed the Tua to continue inhabiting the island as long as
they stayed underground with Celts living on the land above. The
Tua were only allowed to emerge for special ceremonies like weddings
and other rituals. They became known as the fairy folk.
The Celts held the island for almost 1000 years. It was ignored
by the Romans, who had conquered Britain but called Ireland the
Hebrides, or "land of constant winter". And so, Celtic
culture held sway for a long time. The Celts did not trust the written
word, so we have only the vestiges of their myths and religion.
In fact, much of what we know was preserved by Christian monks after
the people of Ireland were converted to Christianity in 433 of the
Common Era. Even so Irish Catholicism had a certain Celtic independence.
So, while the monks were the first to transcribe many of the ancient
tales, they wove their Christian morality into them.
If you know many Irish women, it won't surprise you to learn that
Celtic law enforced equality between the sexes and even encouraged
female assertiveness. But the Celtic myths, as transcribed by the
Christians, presented women as greedy, lusty or vain, conniving
and manipulative. The monks were making Eves out of the fiery Celtic
goddesses. However, the men didn't fare very well either. In the
myths, they weren't very bright. They were easily seduced and prone
to fighting at the drop of a hat.
It's interesting that one Celtic goddess, Brigit, Goddess of poetry,
smithcraft and healing, was so well loved that rather than demonizing
her, the Christians canonized her, making her Saint Bridget.
Under the Celts, Ireland was a feudal land, not a unified country.
At one point, it was ruled by 150 kings. In 1169 one of those kings,
Dermot MacMurrough, the king of Leinster, who had been run out of
the country by rival forces, asked Henry II of England to ally with
him to regain his seat. Henry gained approval from the Pope to invade
on the pretext that he would clean up the impure Celtic Catholicism
and make it more Catholic. Even though they were fierce fighters,
without unity the Celts were defeated.
Wars with England occurred regularly over the following centuries
as the Irish fought to regain their independence. England, which
became a Protestant country under Henry VIII, tried to break the
spirit of the Irish by outlawing Catholicism. They prohibited Catholics
from owning land or entering professional occupations and they outlawed
the Irish language. Catholics were forced to carry on Mass in secret
locations with children posted as lookouts for British soldiers
who would come and disrupt the Mass and arrest the congregants.
Of course, the best way to create a fierce loyalty to a way of life
is to outlaw it.
By 1845, the population of Ireland was about six million people.
During the next six years, a time known as the Potato Famine, three
million people either starved or emigrated. Many of those fled on
what were known as coffin ships, So called because so many people
died aboard. There was actually plenty of food available on the
island at this time, but the British landowners preferred to export
grain and cattle for profit, rather than feed the poor and hungry
peasants. The Irish Diaspora lasted for the next 100 years. The
population today, about 5 and a half million and growing mostly
from European, Asian and African immigrants, still has not reached
pre-Famine levels.
It wasn't until 1921 that the Irish won their independence from
England through a partition negotiated by the Irish patriot Michael
Collins. The 26 counties in the south were called the Irish Free
State. The 6 counties in the northeast were known as Northern Ireland.
Those fighting for complete independence were livid. Collins had
negotiated the best deal he could, but when he signed it knew he'd
signed his own death warrant. Within a year the former hero was
assassinated by his own people.
It wasn't until 1948 that the Irish Free State became the Republic
of Ireland. And as we all know the conflict did not stop there.
For 25 years the Troubles between the Catholics and the Protestants
in Northern Ireland caused great loss of life and suffering. Finally
in the 1990s people grew tired of the violence and negotiations
began again. On April 10, 1998, only nine years ago, the Good Friday
Agreement was signed. Then, on Wednesday of this past week, British
troops finally withdrew from Northern Ireland.
What kind of a people has this history produced? Let me read a
letter written by the Clancy Brothers in the voice of Paddy, a worker
to his boss. . .
Dear Boss I write this note to you to tell you of my plight
And at the time of writing I am not a pretty sight
Me body is all black and blue and me face a deadly gray
And I hope you'll understand why Paddy's not at work today
I was workin' on the 14th floor; some bricks I had to clear
And throwin' 'em down from such a height was not a good idea
The foreman wasn't very pleased, he bein' an awful sod
And he said I'd have to take them down the ladder in me hod
Now shiftin' all those bricks by hand it seemed so awful slow
So I hoisted up a barrel and secured a rope below
But in my haste to do the job I was too blind to see
That a barrel full of buildin' bricks was heavier than me
Now when I came down I cut the rope and the barrel fell like lead
And clinging tightly to the rope I started up instead
I shot up like a rocket and to my dismay I found
That halfways up I met the bloody barrel comin' down
Now the barrel broke me shoulder as to the ground it sped
And when I reached the top I struck the pulley with me head
I still clung on though numbed and shocked from this almighty blow
And the barrel spilled out half the bricks 14 floors below
Now when the bricks had fallen from the barrel to the floor
I then outweighed the barrel and I started down once more
Still clinging tightly to the rope I headed for the ground
And I fell among the broken bricks that were all scatter'd 'round
As I lay there moaning on the floor sure I thought I'd passed the
worst
Then the barrel struck the pulley wheel and didn't the bottom burst
A shower of bricks came down on me sure I haven't got a hope
And as I was losing consciousness . . . I let go the bloody rope
Now the barrel it being heavier it started down once more
And it landed right across me as I lay there on the floor
I broke three ribs and my left arm and I can only say
That I hope you'll understand why Paddy's not at work today
A people with an admixture of tragedy and hilarity. The Ireland
of today is an amazing and optimistic place. Literally thousands
of Iron Age ring forts, Norman castles and Stone Age tombs litter
the countryside.
I felt a sense of mortality mixed with eternity as I walked through
the ruins of castles; abbeys and monasteries populated with old
gravestones with no names, along side new, modern monuments to those
who had passed more recently.
My sisters and I explored all these things together. While I didn't
find my ancestors, the ancestors and the land drew the living together.
Our 30-something Dublin walking-tour guide, Edward, said that when
he was a boy Ireland was the equivalent of a third world country.
Now, and for the last 15 years, because of peace and its membership
in the European Union, Ireland is booming. It offers a highly educated,
English-speaking workforce and high tech corporations like Dell
have moved in. In fact, the economy is growing so quickly that Ireland
has been dubbed the Celtic Tiger.
Social changes are also happening, albeit more slowly than we might
hope. Because of wide- spread clergy sexual abuse scandals, the
iron grip of Catholic authority has been broken, leaving a deeply
felt sense of betrayal. Though abortion is still illegal except
to save the life of the mother, divorce has been legalized and current
President Mary McAleese, publicly visited a gay, lesbian, transgender
community in a show of support. Ireland has now had two women Presidents
in a row. By the time President McAleese's term is over in 2011,
Ireland will have had a woman in the President's office for 21 years.
The magic of peace, education and unity is bearing much fruit.
Ireland is a country of bustling cities and many small towns. You
only need 10 houses gathered together, and preferably a pub (or
two), to have a place name. Everywhere the people are friendly.
If you ask directions they will stand in the rain thinking of the
easiest route so you won't get lost. We met a man who invited us
into his garden green house just to talk and sent us away with plants
so we could grow our own organic vegetables.
The land is a rich mixture of farms, cities, lush valleys flowing
with clean water and dramatic shoreline cliffs dropping 600 feet
to the sea. The bucolic farms are dotted with colorfully marked
sheep so that their owners, who share common pastures with other
farmers, can identify them. These farmers let hikers like us walk
freely through their land. Why? Now that the Irish are finally free,
they believe that the land belongs to everyone.
On a hike through a beautiful valley with mountains rising 1500
feet above and a rushing stream that emptied into a crystal lake,
I touched a Mass stone where centuries ago secret Catholic services
were held.
And so did I experience the divine, the mystical, and the connection
to my ancestors? I found the divine in the people and their history,
I found the mystical and the magic in the intimate fairy forests
and majestic landscapes I hiked through. I found the roots of my
father's generous and gregarious personality, the watery connection
with my mother's and her fierce protection of her family and a fun
and loving connection with my sisters. May your journeys be as rich
and fulfilling.
PRAYER AND MEDITATION
Spirit of Life, the one who joins us in the dance and to the vast
and subtle music.
Keep us ever longing for the experiences that connects us to one
another and to you.
Help us recognize that the search for deeper meaning lies before
us like jewels upon the shore.
Help us acknowledge that the rainbow arc of history bends toward
justice if we but join our hands and raise our voices. . .
Amen and so may it be.
CLOSING WORDS
Our Closing Words are from James Joyce
Welcome, O life! I go to encounter for the millionth time the reality
of experience and to forge in the smithy of my soul the uncreated
conscience of my race. . .
Stand me now and ever in good stead.
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