inishmore

Church of the Four Beautiful Ones

“St Fursey, Brendan of Birr, Conal and Bearchan are the 4 saints in question

The Church is 11-12C with modifications but their graves (and a 5th) are said to lie just outside the church behind the altar. There is also a Holy Well to which healings are attributed.”

OS: 51 852 102 marked

Also ‘Teampall an Ceathrar Álainn’
The adjacent Well of the four beauties was the inspiration for Synge’s Well of the Saints

TIMMY.
Did ever you hear tell of a place across a bit of the sea, where there is an island, and the grave of the four beautiful saints?

MARY DOUL.
I’ve heard people have walked round from the west and they speaking of that.

TIMMY.
[impressively.] — There’s a green ferny well, I’m told, behind of that place, and if you put a drop of the water out of it on the eyes of a blind man, you’ll make him see as well as any person is walking the world.

MARTIN DOUL.
[with excitement.] — Is that the truth, Timmy? I’m thinking you’re telling a lie.

TIMMY.
[gruffly.] — That’s the truth, Martin Doul, and you may believe it now, for you’re after believing a power of things weren’t as likely at all. ... ...

From - www.gutenberg.org/files/1241/1241-h/1241-h.htm

"THE WELL OF THE SAINTS was first produced in the Abbey Theatre in February, 1905, by the Irish National Theatre Society."

beachcomber australia And here's the poster for that "new play in three acts"...

Carol Maddock The NLI is always amazing!

What about the 'Dripping Well' ? And all those shells ? ... ...

Tonight's bedtime reading is A treatise on the theory of screws. Or perhaps the earlier work Theory of screws: a study in the dynamics of a rigid body

Worth 1,000 words ...

See - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Stawell_Ball

My favourite Robert Stawell Ball article is "Further development of the relations between impulsive screws and instantaneous screws..."

But all joking about impulsive screws aside, Ball was a fascinating man, and we're very lucky to have his photos at Library Towers:

Ball was a very talented amateur photographer. His membership until 1911 of the Commissioners of Irish Lights inspection committee that circumnavigated the Irish coast each year gave him the opportunity to capture many splendid images, not only of lighthouses and other navigational facilities, but also of everyday life in the more remote coastal areas. Many of these photographs are held in the National Photographic Archive (NLI).

(from Anne Dolan's life of Sir Robert Stawell Ball in the Dictionary of Irish Biography -- full life here)

Deirge Del I can't wait to read both!

From memory, that'd be the row of houses behind the pub in Kilronan, but I don't remember the church.

Edit: Hmm. They look different in Streetview: www.google.ie/maps/@53.118742,-9.66893,3a,19.6y,300.22h,9...

Yep. Google image search seems pretty clear that it's Kilronan

Here's the overhead view: www.google.ie/maps/@53.1219282,-9.6693247,644m/data=!3m1!1e3

www.flickr.com/photos/75556178@N05/8726346621/in/dateposted/

It's not very clear in the overhead, but there's another bit sticking out at the far end, so we're looking E-S-E here.

After 1893 !

It's overlooking Kilronan Harbour. Unfortunately streetview hasn't made to Inishmore yet... Carved by Patrick Pearse's father, no less, in memory of Rev. Michael O'Donoghue.

Erected by the islanders and a few friends in memory of the Rev. Michael O'Donoghue for 11 Years the beloved priest and benefactor of Aran 1893 R.I.P. [flickr won't let me put all caps - boo hoo]

beachcomber australia My link claimed 11 years...

www.flickr.com/photos/11061732@N07/15307546020/in/set-721... is a reverse view so it is just beside the harbour. here it is.