Thin Places

Harry Clarke's Stained Glass in Dingle

2012-01-23T12:17:00.000-05:00

Harry Clarke Window - The Agony in the Garden

The Dingle Peninsula in Ireland's south west corner is a magical place. Everyone knows that. But apart from the well-known sites like Slea Head, Gallarus Oratory, the Blasket Island, bee hive huts, and Mount Brandon there are hidden jewels often undiscovered by the average traveler.

One such place is Chapel of the Sacred Heart located in the center of town in a Gothic style building next to St. Mary's Church. The building was formerly a convent for the Presentation Sisters. It is now part of the in the Díseart of Irish Spirituality and Culture, a place where students of Irish culture and spirituality can learn, grow, study and share.

The chapel is unique because it houses twelve lancet (or six two-glass) stained glass windows by the renowned Irish artist, Harry Clarke. In 1929, the Irish Statesman published an article by Irish Nationalist and mystical writer George Russell (aka AE). In the article, Russell stated:

Harry Clarke is one of the strangest geniuses of his time ... He might have incarnated from the dark side of the moon.

So many churches in Ireland will claim one Harry Clarke window as an element to attract visitors. (And viewing one window IS worth a visit anywhere). But to have six sets all together in one spot is a feast for both eyes and spirit.

Harry Clarke Window - Gift of the Magi

The windows in the Chapel of the Sacred Heart depict six scenes from the life of Christ - Visit of the Magi, Baptism by John the Baptist, Suffer the Little Children, Sermon on the Mount, Agony in the Garden, and Christ's Appearance to Mary Magdalene.

Visitors can stop in the Visitor Centre's office at St. Mary's Chapel and ask for a guided tour. A young woman conducted a personal tour from me explaining that this was once a convent and the chapel was solely for the nuns. The sisters were the only beneficiaries of this magnificent art except for on rare occasions.

Harry Clarke Window - Let the Little Children Come to Me

A tour takes about and hour, and there are beautiful walled gardens as well as a hidden tunnel that can be explored with a guide. If you're in Dingle, ask about the Clarke windows. Anyone can direct you to St. Mary's Catholic Church. The former convent / An Diseart Visitor Centre is next door.

Calling ahead would be prudent to insure someone will be there to guide a tour. For more complete information, contact the Díseart Institute of Irish Spirituality and Culture.

Where is Robert the Bruce's Heart?

2011-12-30T16:45:00.000-05:00

Marker placed over the site where Robert the Bruce's heart was buried

While living, Robert the Bruce made a request that his heart be buried in the Holy Land. He died in 1329 and was buried in Dumfernline. Per his request, a soldier carried his heart to the Holy Land but was killed on the trip. The heart was recovered and brought back to Scotland where Robert's son - then King David II asked that it be buried at Melrose.

The burial place of the heart was forgotten over the centuries, but rediscovered in 1996 during an archeological excavation. The Scots reburied the heart and held a contest for the design of the marker.

The marker has an X symbolizing St. Andrew's cross that appears on the Scottish flag, and a heart through which the X weaves. The inscription reads, "A noble heart may have nane ease, gif freedom failye." Translation- A noble heart cannot be at peace if freedom is lacking.

Newgrange - Be There on the Solstice

2011-12-22T10:31:00.000-05:00

Newgrange Passage Tomb Entrance - Boyne Valley - Ireland

According to Mary Gibbons, Newgrange is the oldest building in the world that is completely intact. True, this 5000 year old passage tomb is ancient, but more extraordinary is its archaeological design that allows light to pass through a lintel at the entrance and pour into the tomb once a year - during the winter solstice.

Actually, light passes into the tomb at Newgrange for about 5 days surrounding the actual solstice each year, while it remains completely dark the other 360 days.

During the daylight hours throughout the year, visitors can tour Newgrange - actually go inside the tomb on a guided tour of about 20 people at a time. The tour guide turns off the lights to leave visitors in total blackness - then a slight beam of tungsten light is gradually pushed through the lintel to give the visitors a hint of what the rising sun would do on the morning of the shortest day of the year.

That alone, is worth a trip to Ireland. But as the man-made light is flowing up the passageway, every visitor wonders .... "Wouldn't it be magnificent to be here on the actual solstice and see the sunrise for myself?"

Every year on the Solstice, the folks managing Newgrange allow 100 people to experience the solstice from inside the tomb. People are selected by lottery. Anyone can enter by submitting his or her name at the Bru Na Boinne Visitor Center. If you can't do this in person, you can email the staff and ask them to enter the lottery on your behalf.

The entrance passage at Newgrange

The drawing for the 2012 solstice will be held on September 28, 2012. Children from three local schools will choose the winning applicants and 50 winners will be notified by mid October. Each winning applicant will be allowed to bring one guest and the 100 lucky people will be assigned to attend one of the five days surrounding the winter solstice of 2012 (December 21st). The event is totally dependent on the weather, so if cloud cover obstructs the sunrise, there will be no light in the tomb.

In 2011 there were 31,531 entries for the Winter Solstice Draw for 2011. Odds of winning are slightly better than 1 in 600. That makes the Newgrange Solstice Lottery ten times easier to win than the Maryland Match 5 Lottery (matching 5).

Newgrange Passage Tomb - Boyne Valley - Ireland

I sent my application request to the staff at the Visitor Center, and got a nice email confirmation within 24 hours from Eleanor that my name had been entered.

From: Bru Na Boinne
Date: Thu, 01 Dec 2011 15:05:09 +0000
To: Mindie Burgoyne
Subject: Re: application for Winter Solstice Lottery at Newgrange 2012

Dear Mindie,Your name has been entered into the 2012 Solstice Lottery.Good Luck!Eleanor

I so hope I win. And if I don't I'll enter every year until I die.

Farewell, Kathleen O'Hagan and Padua House of Armagh.

2011-08-28T11:38:00.000-05:00

Padua House B&B - Cathedral Street, Armagh

On my first visit to Armagh - in fact, my first visit to Northern Ireland - my traveling companions and I searched a travel guide for B&Bs. It was 1998. Northern Ireland was an occupied country with British troops, rifled up with combat gear stationed on the streets and in the alley ways.

On the road to the North from the Republic, we paged through a guidebook entitled Bed and Breakfast Ireland by Elsie Dillard and Susan Causin. The book mentioned only four B&Bs in Armagh. One B&B stood out - Padua House on Cathedral Road. The text began...

Guests are made to feel like part of the family at Padua House. Mr and Mrs O'Hagan are a friendly, welcoming couple who thoroughly enjoy their visitors. The family lounge is shared with guests, who are encouraged to join the owners after a busy day's touring. A hot drink is almost always available.

I had an older version of the guide. Mr O'Hagan had passed away by the time we visited. But the authors could not have been more accurate about Mrs. O'Hagan. Staying with her was like staying as an invited guest in someone's home. There was no sterility or formality, just casual, genuine warmth. We were invited to have tea and treats when we arrived well after dark in April of 1998.

During the course of that stay, Kathleen and I chatted about both being widows. Her sympathy for my widowhood at such a young age was so strong. We talked endlessly about the Troubles in the North, and I was able to get a first hand interview with someone who had lived through the worst of it. We talked about coincidences and how people are brought together. We talked about the Trinity and the meaning of 3's and how the number 3 surfaces in our lives to remind us of God's presence.

The address of Padua House was "63" Cathedral Street. We discovered together that the "6" (the sum of two 3s) and the 3 = three 3s ... same as the Trinity. Kathleen reminded me that 7 was God's number, reserved only for him. A reminder of his divinity.

I believe Padua House was a thin place, and that Kathleen O'Hagan was a subtle messenger in my life.

I wrote and entire blog post about Padua House and Kathleen - Armagh: Twin Symbols of Conflict and Unity - where I detail coincidences and synchronicity that led me to the house and shaped my experience of Armagh and the North. Two years later I returned to Ireland with a new husband. We stayed at Padua House with Kathleen and her hospitality was just as rich as in 1998.

Dan and I always hoped we would return to Padua House and see Kathleen again. She had this motherly magnetism. I wanted to tell her about my writing and how it was coming along, how the kids were grown and the grandchildren arriving. I wanted to ask her about the shift in the conflicts between Catholics and Protestants since occupation ended. I wanted to chat with her about more thin places in the North. Unfortunately, a meeting with Kathleen and a return to Padua House will never happen.

Yesterday, I received a comment on the blog post about Armagh that mentioned Kathleen. A local Armagh resident who knew Kathleen mentioned that she has passed away earlier this year.

I looked up her obituary online and found two conflicting dates of death - March 7th and July 3rd. Evidently one of the posts transposed the numbers - 3/7 or 7/3. Kathleen's special numbers.

Rest in Peace, dear friend.

Related Posts - Armagh: Twin Symbols of Conflict and Unity

Two Great Books on County Mayo - by Michael Mullen

2011-08-21T13:31:00.001-05:00

My good friend Michael Mullen has published his second book on County Mayo. Well known as a writer of Children's Literature with books such as Mangus the Lollipop Man and Sea Wolves from the North (Wolfhound Press), Michael is also a great historian and story weaver who knows as much about his native County Mayo as any living person.

The Road Taken; a Guide to the Roads and Scenery of Mayo by Michael Mullen was published by Nonsuch Publishing in 2008. In this book, Mullen takes the reader on a journey through the Mayo landscape- from it rugged cliffs, it tortured sea, it craggy mountains, placid lakes, rolling farmland and thriving villages, Mullen describes the landscape mentioning details most visitors would miss. While describing the landscape, Mullen weaves into his commentary, the history of Mayo and the stories of the people in the West of Ireland. This is wonderful travel guide for those who want to learn of Mayo's geological, anthropological and spiritual history. Every major town or region in County Mayo is covered in this book that also includes 101 photographs.

The book reads like a geographic guide that goes in a wheel pattern with Castlebar (Mullen's hometown) as the hub of the wheel. Most of the roads are seldom taken by travelers that come through Mayo, yet have some of the most breathtaking and interesting sites along the way. For the traveler who wants to explore Mayo, or have a reference about the Mayo landscape, this book is will go beyond expectations.

Mayo - The Waters and the Wild published by Cottage Publications in 2004 is written by Michael and complemented with illustrations by Castlebar artist, John Peter McHugh. Images of McHugh's watercolors complete the mystical tone set by Mullen's writing. The book features the "wild" side of Mayo, or parts of Mayo connected to lakes and rivers. Some of the sites covered are Croagh Patrick, Ballintuber Abbey, Ballycroy, Delphi, Ballina, Lough Mask, Newport, Castlebar (the Mall), Kildavnet Castle, Achill Island, Doolough and Clew Bay.

Mullen covers the history of each site with a flare for story telling. History never sounded so interesting. For the traveler who may be going to Mayo, this book is invaluable as an easy to read historical perspective of prominent sites. For natives of Mayo, or lovers of that part of the West of Ireland, Mayo - the Waters and the Wild is an important addition to a collection of books on Ireland.

Tintern Abbey - the Other Tintern in Ireland

2011-07-13T07:19:00.000-05:00

Tintern Abbey - Co. Wexford, Ireland

It was on July 13th in 1798 that William Wordsworth began to write the poem, Tintern Abbey. He later wrote that "... No poem of mine was composed under circumstances more pleasant ..." He was, of course, writing about the famous Tintern Abbey in Wales on the River Wye, founded by the Cistercians in 1131. The ruins of that abbey in Wales remain, surrounded by parkland. It's a very thin place.

But there is another Tintern Abbey and it, too is a magical place. It is located in County Wexford, and was once the most powerful Cistercian house in the south east of Ireland. It also lay in ruins today, but there is a remarkable restoration effort going on to shore up walls and create a spiritual public place.

Tintern Abbey - Co. Wexford, Ireland

I stumbled onto to Tintern Abbey in Wexford simply because I saw it labeled on the road map. I had been to the one in Wales, and was curious. There was nothing about this Wexford Tintern Abbey in the guidebooks. So on a gloomy February day I drove onto the abbey property at dusk. The ruins rose out of the landscape with such glory, that it gave me chills.

The earth energy of Tintern is vibrant.

The abbey was founded by William Marshal, Earl of Pembroke (Wales). Marshal had been named Earl of Leinster and in 1200 he set out on his first visit to Ireland. His ship was wrecked. He cried out to God for rescue, and made a promise that he would found a monastery where ever he safely landed.

He washed up on Bannow Bay in Wexford and made good on his promise. He donated 9000 acres of land to the Cistercians for a monastery. He brought monks from Tintern Abbey in Wales (he was also a patron of that abbey) to colonize the monastic settlement. This new abbey in Ireland was named "Tintern" after the abbey in Wales.

It is sometimes referred to as Tintern de Voto which means "Tintern of the Vow."

These beauteous forms,
Through a long absence, have not been to me
As is a landscape to a blind man's eye:
But oft, in lonely rooms, and 'mid the din
Of towns and cities, I have owed to them
In hours of weariness, sensations sweet,
Felt in the blood, and felt along the heart;
And passing even into my purer mind,
With tranquil restoration: — feelings too
Of unremembered pleasure: such, perhaps,
As have no slight or trivial influence
On that best portion of a good man's life,
His little, nameless, unremembered, acts
Of kindness and of love

Tintern Abbey by William Wordsworth

Carol Cronin - Dingle Artist - on Thin Places Impacting Creativity

2011-06-23T09:06:00.000-05:00

Does the landscape impact creativity? Does where you are matter when you're trying to create? Does the earth energy in thin places affect the creative mind and spirit?

This is the first in a series of interviews with artists exploring this subject. I met Carol Cronin while in Dingle this past May. The Carol Cronin Gallery is located on Green Street between St. Mary's Church and Main Street. I asked Carol if being in Dingle - or anywhere for that matter - was important to her painting. She gave a resounding "yes" and we videotaped a short interview.

It's no small coincidence that certain landscapes attract artists, healers, and mystics. And when reviewing the fruits of their creativity, it's hard to separate the artist from the landscape. Think of Yeats without Ireland's landscape woven into his poetery. Max Ernst painted the Sedona desert long before he physically saw it.

And the great State of Maine ...It drew writers Margaret Wise Brown, E.B. White, Harriet Beecher Stowe, and countless others to its forests, towns and shoreline. Recently best-selling author, Terry Goodkind said this of Maine ...

I had to live this long, have the experiences I've had, to create what I do. I knew I wanted to write for years, but I had to be ready so I wouldn't blow it. The move to Maine was the final step.

Is it any small wonder that Paris attracted artists for generations. Is it really the light? Whether it's earth energy, the intersection of ley lines or some other ephemeral blessing ... the land or sense of place appears to matter to artists.

What Are Thin Places? Video of Sacred Sites

2011-04-25T10:23:00.000-05:00

Frequently, people ask me what thin places are. Typically I respond, "a thin place is a place where the veil between this world and the eternal world is thin. Here's a video with images of Ireland, that explains the thin places concept. Consider subscribing to our YouTube Channel so you can be notified when new travel videos appear.

The Celtic harp music in the background is by Anne Roos. The song is Craigieburn Wood from her Light in the Forest collection. I'm grateful to Ann and her publisher for allowing me to use this music in the video.

Video Image Listing
Several have asked so here is a listing of the 33 images in the video in order of appearance.

Sliabh na Caillí - This photo was taken from the top of Sliabh na Caillí - or "Hill of the Hag" in County Meath. I was standing just near Loughcrew tombs .. a very thin place
Glencolumbkille - County Donegal ... these stones are one of the final stations in the Glencolumbkille pilgrim walk.
Gallarus Oratory - Dingle
"The sleeping giant" - one of the Blasket Islands off the coast of Dingle
Beehive huts - Dingle
Ardmore, County Waterford - site of St. Declan's monastic community, the first Christian community in Ireland.
Uragh Stone Circle - on the Beara Peninsula, County (the Kingdom of) Kerry
Muckross Abbey, county Kerry - cloister walk ruins with giant yew tree in the center.
Statue of St. Patrick at Ballintubber Abbey (County Mayo) - marking the beginning of the pilgrim's walk up the holy mountain - Crough Patrick. The mountain can be faintly seen in the background.
Brandon Bay at the foot of Mount Brandon - Dingle (Mount Brandon is hidden in the clouds)
A view from Mount Brandon - Dingle
The Rock of Cashel taken from the Hoare Abbey runis, County Tipperary
Dolmen at Carrowmore megalithic burial ground - County Sligo
Benbulben - County Sligo
Tobar na Molt - "Well of the Wethers" - Inside of the chapel at this site, located in County Kerry near Ardfert. Believed to be the place where St. Brendan was baptized and where St. Ita is buried. Holy well outside. is adjacent.
The Well of the Wethers - holy well at Tobar na Molt (pilgrim is kneeling next to the well) - chapel is the stone building
Caldragh Cemetery, County Fermanagh - site of two janus figures seen here as the taller stones. This is both an ancient cemetery and present day cemetery.
Tobar Bride - St. Brigid's Holy Well in Kildare. Pilgrimage site with markings doing prayer "rounds"... near site where St. Brigid founded her monastery.
"Clooties" on tree adjacent to St. Brigid's Holy Well in Kildare - tokens of devotion.
Signpost for Castleruddery Stone Circle in County Wicklow. Near Glendalough
Stones from the Castleruddery Stone Circle
Lia Fáil - or "Stone of Destiny" or Coronation Stone of Tara - Hill of Tara, County Meath.
Clonfert Cathedral - site of St. Brendan's monastic community. St. Brendan is said to be buried outside the church doorway.
Kilmacduagh Monastery ruins in County Galway, near Gort. Monastery founded by St. Colman (son of Duagh). Famous for its leaning round tower. A magical place!
Knock shrine - County Mayo - More pilgrims travel to this site than any other in Ireland. Place where Virgin Mary, St. John and St. Joseph appeared to villagers in 1879. Apparition has been recreated in stone.
The "Autograph Tree" at Coole Park, home of Lady Gregory. Famous literary figures including W. B. Yeats, Bernard Shaw, J.M. Synge and Sean O'Casey carved their names or initials in this copper beach. The tree still stands.
Gougane Barra - smallest church in Ireland - County Cork. Built on the site of the monastic settlement founded by St. Finbar.
Thoor Ballylee - Castle in County Galway restored and lived in by W. B. Yeats. It was from this place that Yeats wrote The Tower and many of his later collections.
The Burren - meaning "great rock", this place in County Clare is a vast wasteland of rock - very mystical. .. like a moonscape. Visitors feel compelled to build "cairns" or small towers made of the rock scattered throughout the landscape. Ancient settlements can still be identified here.
Cairns built in the Burren by visitors. Hundreds of these are scattered across the landscape.
Poulnabrone dolmen - ancient tomb in the Burren, tall enough for a man to stand underneath the capstone.
Cashelkeelty stone circle, County Kerry - on the Old Green Road running down the Beara Peninsula. Seeing this circle requires a trek off the main road (about 2 miles).
View from the road up to Mount Brandon. This rainbow stayed in the sky a full 20 minutes.

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Croagh Patrick - Climbing the Reek - Part 3

2011-03-31T21:02:00.000-05:00

Guest blogger, Michael Mullen, well-known author in Ireland, presents Part III of his series of posts on Crough Patrick, the Holy Mountain in County Mayo.

Croagh Patrick is a singular mountain. Above all it is a spiritual place. Set about it are the remains of the Celtic Church. On Inisboffin to the south-west lies the remains on a small monastery. The window frames the great mountain. It was here that Bishop Colman of Lindisfarne came after the his defeat at the Synod of Whitby. He brought with him Irish and English monks. There was a dispute between the two groups, so he left the island with the English group and set up Mayo Abbey. Recent archaeological surveys indicate that Mayo Abbey was as important in its time as Clonmacnoise and that Saxon students were drawn to this place of learning.

One summer's day I sailed to this island. The waves were calm and a curious seal, well moustached, peered out at us from the tranquil water. We approached the island from the west for there is a small anchorage there, and the small hermitage, with its sacred slabs and crosses, is well protected from the south westerly gales.

St. Colman - Clare Island and Clew Bay

It is well called Cathair na Naomh or the enclosure of the saints. Many of the earliest Celtic ornaments are engraved on the slabs standing about the enclosure , particularly the Dolphin slab, which date it to the sixth and early part of the seventh century. Of these decorated stones Professor Herity writes,

It appears that the hermitages, both on the islands and the desert places of the mainland opposite, are foundations of the earliest centuries of Christianity, a fact demonstrated by the early dates of the cross-slabs. Further, many of these slabs demonstrate surprisingly direct contacts with centers of innovation in Ireland and the continent. Through them we can dimly perceive the presence in the west of early illuminated manuscripts and metalwork crosses which may have served to transmit some of the designs of the cross-carved slabs.

Saint Patrick's influence was firm and vital. All about the sacred mountain lie early churches, early symbols and early crosses. How can we catch the Celtic voice of that time? The most immediate voice is that of Saint Patrick's breastplate or Lorcia, which although not written by Saint Patrick catches the mind set of the time. It is a long poem and it is obvious that it is chanted like some incantation against evil. I quote and unfamiliar passage

I invoke to-day all these virtues
Against every hostile merciless power
Which may assail my body and my soul,
Against the incantations of false prophets,
Against the black laws of heathenism,
Against the false laws of heresy,
Against the deceits of idolatry,
Against the spells of women, and smiths, and druids,
Against every knowledge that binds the soul of man.

It possesses immediately spiritual strength and is the voice of the early church. Croagh Patrick, in a physical manner, dominated the Celtic Church. It possessed a simplicity and an intensity which a more formal church lacks. It possessed a joy and an awakening to a fresh and spiritual view of the world. It is a pastoral world, surrounded by the beauties of nature, where the saints can pray and meditate. It is a world where the natural is so close to the supernatural that the mind moves easily from one to the other.

Saint Columcille writes,

How happy the son is of Dima! No sorrow
For him is designed,
He is having, this hour, round his own cell in Durrow
The wish of his mind:
The sound of the wind in the elms, like the strings of
A harp being played,
The note of the blackbird that claps with the wings of
Delight in the glade.
With him in Rosgrencha the cattle are lowing
At earliest dawn,
On the brink of the summer the pigeons are cooing
And doves on his lawn.

For the early Irish church was filled with poetry and music, a delicate delight in nature, a direct relationship with God, unburden by complicated theology. After the death of Saint Patrick, the church flourished. Ireland did become the Island of Saints and scholars, and the three great monuments to this golden period are The Book of Kells; the Ardagh Chalice and Muiredach's Cross at Monasterboice. Thus the great period is marked in vellum, silver and stone, each a masterpiece and each carrying the mystical circles of an earlier age.

Croagh Patrick then is the sacred mountain, perhaps as sacred now as it was in the early Christian Church. As the twentieth century, reels from materialism and all the wars which have ravaged the century, the Holocaust and the local wars and the soul looks for some definition, it will find it in high and thin places, remote and awesome. That is why pilgrims, sometimes in bare feet, make their way along the path worn out by the footsteps of their ancestors.

Doo Lough - County Mayo

This great mountain has dominated my life. I know it in all its moods. On a summer day it stands sharp and pristine against a blue sky. It shimmers like some Greek mountain upon which the gods take residence. It dominates the landscape with its imposing presence and the eye is drawn towards its and the mind is called towards its summit. In autumn, as the strength of the sun wanes, it carries deeper colors. In winter, it is the first mountain to bear a cap of snow and then it is almost inaccessible and private. Springs brings a renewal and the beginning of pilgrimage.

It is a mountain of many moods. On wet and on windy days is becomes opaque. When the mists roll in from the sea it is shrouded and inaccessible and dangerous to attempt the summit. It becomes a private and introspective place. When luminous clouds pass above it, it carries their shapes across its surface. When the sun shines firmly on its surfaces, it is light purple and in the hollows dark purple. It fits all our human moods the variety of our spiritual desires.

The grey path, etched by pilgrim feet draw the pilgrim towards the summit.

One night as a young man, I set off for the summit with the pilgrims in July. I joined the human chain which stretched from the base at Murrisk to the top of the mountain. The pilgrims were funneled on to the path at Owen Campbell's pub and we began the arduous ascent. At this level some small bushes and shrubs gains sustenance from the boggy soil, but soon the trace of vegetation, falls away. Moss and rough grass is barely sustained on the lower limits.

The path is tortuous and uneven. Rough stones break the surface and pilgrims sometimes balance precariously on the rocks. The accents are familiar and they mingle together. Small groups call out the rosary as they move up the slope. Others, with pilgrim staffs, search for purchase. Some walk on bare feet. The young push optimistically up the slope, those who are older plod onwards. The level land has fallen away and small lights on the flatlands mark individual habitations, clusters of lights mark the towns and the light house at the eastern end of the bay, flashes out its warning beam.

Now I join a human river of feeling. A sense of individuality falls away and I become part of a spiritual process, part of something which has gone on for a long time. There are no words to define the change within or the link I feel with all those bound to the surface of the mountain and to all the pilgrims who have taken this track for more years than the archaeologists can ascertain.

On the lower summit, it grows lonely and the pilgrims bend their backs towards the slope . There is greater silence now. On the hip of the mountain there is a small respite. The path runs level. It is time to prepare for the final ascent. The winds curve up the mountain from the south. Even on a summer night their is wind on the mountain. It grows colder and the mind grows bleak. There is no icon or image to sustain one on the final push. At this point the mountain slope rises sharply. It is covered by shards of rock, which run beneath the pilgrims feet. One bends forward and clings to the mountain. Nothing is easy now and the darkness does not reveal the summit.

Those returning call out words of encouragement. Finally there is a small tilt and the going gets easy. A few more meters brings the pilgrim to the summit. I had reached the highest level. A great circle of people bound closely together in a human wheel moved about the church calling out the pilgrims prayers, their voices raised in petition. I join the pilgrims, individuality shed.

I had reached the platform on the mountain. Here Patrick had lived and slept for forty days. On this spot he has tussled with demons and deepened his spirituality. In this bleak place he could come to terms with himself and his mission. No one is unmoved on this platform on the very edge of Europe and while the comfort is cold, the weather variable and the body weary the spirit takes heart. One looks evenly on life and eternity, at the ephemeral and that which is profound and fecund. The better part of ones nature is freed for a time and from time, soars for a shot time on the back of an eagle's wings.

You come face to face with your better nature and that is a frightening thing. Who wishes to look into the clear face of God particularly a sin sodden soul like myself. But these are moments or epiphanies when light flashes within the mind, when the spirits is illuminated and charged. It happened to Paul in a dramatic fashion on the way to Damascus and quietly to Augustine at Ostia, and surprisingly to Aquinas at the very end of his days, when the most rational of men had a mystical vision.

I had none of these experiences on Croagh Patrick, but I did climb up out of a normal habitat and a normal world until I could climb no further. I stood close to a thin place, a place of white light before it is fragmented into weaker color. There is no need for voice or complexity on this platform, for that splinters vision.

That was a long time ago and I need to return to this place again. I need to climb out of existence, its speed, its vast communication network, its cynical propaganda, its Babel of voices and particularly the Babel of philosophers who eschew wisdom which is damn tiresome and a thin pabulum for my soul. I will never cross over to the other side as the mystics have done for like Sancha Panza I ride upon a mule and I never had the idealism to tilt at a windmill.

As I recall the first experience, I remember how the dawn broke uncertainly in the east, then how the sky was suffused with light, how the landscape and seascape took dark form and then final form. The great bay lay beneath me, the drumlin islands, en échelon, as the geologists say. They set the direction from which the great glaciers came and point in the direction towards which they departed. A cairn of rounded stones lie about each island base. They say that there is an island in the bay for every year, but I have never counted them and I do not know if it is true. To the north lay the mountains of Mayo, to the south the Skeffrey hills and in a line west Ahagower where Saint Patrick celebrated Easter.

The descent from the mountain was rapid. The scree ran before us and soon we were on the saddle, then we took the broader path towards Murrisk. I was secure on the flat lands, safe in its intimate beauty. Every pilgrim had been moved in some way by the mountain. The physical challenge alone has its own value, the spiritual challenge is profound and not easily described. But it is deeply felt and sets deep roots.

I have traveled in many places since then. I have stood on the plateau of Massada and looked across the Dead Sea towards Moab, walked across Red Square and looked at the waxen face of Lenin, lay upon my back and studied the Sistine chapel, visited Tsarkoe Selo and prayed in the small chapel frequented by the Romanov family, before they were transported to Siberia and execution. I witnessed the White nights of Saint Petersburg and sailed upon the Sea of Galilee. I prayed at the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem and took a bus to Bethlehem. But I have never been in a thin place comparable to Croagh Patrick, where there was no image and no icon, little comfort and dawn a toss away. What happened there was profound and silent and I could never catch it in the net of words.

If you cross the road at Owen Campbell's pub and continue the path to the sea you will come upon one of my favorite places, Murrisk Abbey. I will neither describe its architecture, its history or its topography. It was founded in 1457 and its function failed somewhere at the beginning of the nineteenth century.

In 1730 Father William Bourke was transferred from the abbey and sent inland. He expresses the sadness of departure in this Irish poem which I translate freely.

Fare well to you Murrisk,
A most pleasant , most joyful place.
Farewell to the to the honey bearing mountains,
South of the Reek.
Most glorious to me
Was the oyster catcher wading on the sea margin
More glorious than the fairy music of the world.
-all the fairy music of the world.
Now when I rise in the morning
I see in the distance the Reek,
My heart within is in frenzy
And my mind burdened.
I am not accustomed to these inland people
They are not pleasant and lack joy.
They are images cut from a green oak
With an axe.
If I can endure this place
Until the cuckoo speaks
I will then return home
And visit my favored place.
Were it not for the submission and respect
I always have held for the order,
I would never have abandoned Murrisk
And the beauty of its harbors.
There is little more to say. The rest is monastic silence.

St. Patrick and His Holy Mountain - Part I by Michael Mullen
St. Patrick and His Holy Mountain Part II by Michael Mullen

Hit the Follow this Blog button on the right to be kept informed when new posts are added.

Guest author today is Michael Mullen of Castlebar, County Mayo. Michael is a well known Irish writer of Children's Literature, Historical Fiction and many works written in Gaeilge, the Irish native language. This is the final entry of a three part series of posts on St. Patrick and his holy mountain known as Croagh Patrick.

Text Copyright 2001, 2011 by Michael Mullen. All Rights Reserved. Used with permission.

Richard Rohr - The Celts Didn't Invent Thin Places

2011-03-21T11:10:00.000-05:00

Janus figure - Caldragh Cemetery, Boa Island

Richard Rohr is a Franciscan priest, author, speaker and spiritual leader I have long followed and respected. His insights into spirituality, prayer and contemplation are some of the best in today's world of faith leaders. However, his post, Life on the Edge: Understanding the Prophetic Position in the Huffington Post today disappoints me. He relates living on the "spiritual edge" as living in a thin place.

The post points out that thresholds, doorways, bridges and other entryways, have long been linked to guardians or helpers appointed to assist with crossing over. He then links the same concept to spiritual thresholds and calls them thin places.

I don't mind if he wants to use "thin place" as his personal, spiritual term for a threshold to a spiritual state state of contemplation.

However, in his post, Fr. Rohr links the term "thin places" to the the Celts. He states, "The edge is a holy place, or as the Celts called it, "a thin place" and you have to be taught how to live there."

The Celts were a culture of people that arrived in Ireland after 500 BC. The idea of thin places or doorways to the Otherworld were solidly a part of the Irish culture long before the Celts came. Newgrange passage tomb is 5200 years old and has entrance stones with large spirals carved into the surface, common symbols for the pre-Christian Irish - and linked to their concept of thin places.

Drombeg and other stone circles in Ireland date 800 - 1200 BC. Tombs on the Hill of Tara date back to 3000 BC. The Poulnabrone dolmen in the Burren dates back 5000 years. We know that sects of the pre-Christian Irish believed there was another world - and Underworld where a parallel civilization (often linked to enchantments) lived. They believed there were openings where the inhabitants of the other world came and went between worlds - thin places. Legends of fairy forts or nodes where passage between worlds was possible were known as thin places or enchanted places.

The Hill of Uisneach was believed to be a thin place, not so much because of its being an opening for passing between worlds, but for the strong energy that comes to the through the earth from below - supernatural power that humans could draw from.

The thin places concept was a part of the pre-Christian or pagan charism and these beliefs or sensitivities - existed prior to the Celts. The concept is rejected by many of the present day Christian communities, often being linked to "new age" heathenism.

Fr. Rohr also writes, "To take your position on the spiritual edge of things is to learn how to move safely in and out, back and forth, across and return. It is a prophetic position..." He uses this phrase not to relate that the place where you physically stand (on the edge) puts you in a prophetic position. He's writing about something ephemeral or of the consciousness or mind. The physical place doesn't appear to have any significance in his definition.

These pre-Christian Irish people believed the thin place itself had the mystical or spiritual power. One didn't create a thin place simply by moving into a state of contemplation or spiritual trance. The site itself was thin and that made spiritual contemplation more powerful.

I have no issue with people who want to give their own definitions to the term thin place. But I find it frustrating when writers recreate the pre-Christian Irish definition to suit whatever spiritual premise they happen to be writing about.

Considering Fr. Rohr is a scholar and has traveled much of the world, his "thin places" reference in this post appears to be reaching .... and sounds trite and sappy. It seems to be a feeble support to a lofty, contemplative concept.

Croagh Patrick - Climbing the Reek Part 2

2011-03-15T07:56:00.001-05:00

This is the second of a three part series of posts on St. Patrick and his holy mountain known as Croagh Patrick written by Irish author, Michael Mullen. Read first post in the series - St. Patrick and His Holy Mountain.

If one studies the movement of the sun On 18th of April and 24 August the setting sun rests on the summit of the mountain and then slides down the northern flank. So perhaps the mountain marked the movement of the sun across the heavens. How many other markings lie about the county aligned with this sacred mountain? To ascribe a low intelligence to our ancestors a lack of a deep religious instinct to diminish both them and us. The story of Saint Patrick has been well and often told. It is pivotal to the story of the Mountain. The outline of the story is familiar. As Daphne C. Pochin Mould says in her books The Irish Saints.

Patrick, apostle of Ireland, head of the belief of the Gaels, as he is styled in the Martyrology of Gormon, is a person of whom we know, as it were, everything and nothing.

He is the author to two works -his Confessions and Letter to the Soldiers of Coroticus. The Lorica or Breastplate of Saint Patrick, once attributed to him, is believed to be of later provenance. But let us see what is firmly established about the man.

St. Patrick the man
We cannot give a date for his birth but it is believed that he died in 493 and is buried in Armagh. He was born near the west coast of Roman Britain and was given the name Succat. His people were Christian and his father an official of some importance. He was taken captive by Irish raiders and brought to Ireland where he was sold to a pig farmer. Many associate him with Co. Antrim but there is equally strong evidence that he served out his time in County Mayo, perhaps in North Mayo. He spent six years herding swine on a mountain. In fact he must have been attracted to the loneliness of mountains. While herding swine he became prayerful.

So he became familiar with the solitude of the Irish hillsides and the Irish woods. He learned the Irish tongue and through his master Milchu, he became familiar with the rituals of Druidism. One the mountain of Slemish he was visited by visions and in one he was instructed to escape. There is a tradition that made his way to Mayo and sailed out of Clew Bay. He was taken aboard a the ship which carried Irish wolfhounds. If he did then one of the last things he saw as the coast receded was the great mountain of quartzite. His journey was eventful. They were shipwrecked and traveled through a strange and desolate landscape.

He gives us the following tentative information concerning his life.

I am Patrick, a sinner, most unlearned, the least of all the faithful, and utterly despised by many. My father was Calpornius, a deacon, son of Potitus, of the village of Bannaven Tuburniae; he had a country seat nearby and there I was taken captive. I was then about sixteen years of age. I did not know the true God. I was taken into captivity to Ireland with many thousands of people..

And I used to get up for prayer before daylight, through snow, through frost, through rain, and I felt no harm, and there was no sloth in me-as I now see, because the spirit within me was then fervent.

Eventually he reached home and would have stayed contentedly with his own people but he head the voice of the Irish, close to the Wood of Voclut near the Western Sea, which called him to come and walk with them. Had he been more accurate and was he familiar with modern autobiography we would have a much clearer knowledge of his life. Wishing to become a priest he went Saint Martin's Monastery at Tours, and again to the island sanctuary of Léirns. It is obvious from the life of Saint Germain that Patrick was a capable and suitable candidate to send to Ireland to convert the Irish. Others had failed. He arrived with a retinue of people knew exactly what he was about. He must have been familiar with the landscape of Ireland and the centre of power and culture. Contrary to the law of the high king he lit a Pascal fire on Slane hill, a hill within view of Tara. With that gesture he challenged the druidical power.

The following words are ascribed to the druids although there is no historical proof for this event as the Pascal fire goes back to the 8th century.

O King live for ever; this fire, which has been lighted in defiance of the royal edict, will blaze for ever in this land unless it be this very night extinguished.

So he took on their power of fire with the Pascal fire. It was a symbol of what was to come. With fire he dealt with fire. This was an affirmation and a moment which marks the firm beginning of conversion. His life as a missionary was not an easy one. In fact it was dangerous. He writes of "twelve dangers in which my life was at stake-not to mention numerous plots." This phrase alone opens up a whole field of speculation. What were the dangers and who were his enemies? No doubt he was engaged in a power struggle with kings and druids. He lived dangerously and his mind was singularly determined.

St. Patrick's Pilgrimage to Croagh Patrick
During all his travels and visitations he came to Croagh Patrick. He traveled to Aughagower in 440. He would have journey along the ancient path from Cruchan. Aughagower was an important location and the seat of a chieftain. When Patrick arrived he came with his house hold. We have a list in the life of Saint Patrick written in the seventh century by Tírechán. He arrived with his bishop, his priest, his judge, his chaplain, his psalmist, his chamberlain, his bell-ringer, his cook, his brewer, his charioteer, his masons, his woodsman, his cowherd and many others.

In other words he was equal to any chieftain. He was also well organized. Most likely he built a church there and set about appointing bishops. As he looked west he would note the high, quartzite cone of Mount Eagle as it was then known. He would have been curious about the mountain and known its importance to the ancient Irish. Here too he would leave the Christian mark, as he had left it on standing stones and in other places sacred to the druids.

And so he set out to climb Mons Aigli, the Mountain of the eagle, as it was then called. He passed along the path, worn by other visitors. As he mounted the minor flanks he would observe the breathtaking scenery about him; towards the south the Sheffery hills running directly towards Killery harbour; to the north, the lone shape of Neiphin Mountain and the mountains of Mayo. As he reached the base of the central cone, the myriad islands in Clew bay, with their humped backs would become more distinct.

Now the path rises steeply, and small, flinty rocks, sharp and jagged would have slipped beneath his feet as he arched forward and clung to the steep mountain. Finally he reached the summit, with its slight, platform. Now he could see the bulk of Clare island, stout and firm at the opening to the bay. Beyond that lay an unknown world, which Saint Brendan would later navigate. He would have looked all around him and observed every interesting, outcrop of rock and mountain. He stood above his kingdom. Indeed this moment was a watershed for the Celtic Church.

It is said that he remained on the mountain for forty days. He would have no doubt remembered the visit of Moses to Mount Sinai. It was on such a high pinnacle that Moses received and formulated the ten commandments He could also have been preparing for Easter and the Resurrection. But it was a remote time for him, a time for prayer and reflection and Saint Patrick and a period when he could be removed from the sea of trouble which washed around the base of the mountain. It was this time period which gives the mountain its vast spiritual significance and it is here that the old ends and the new begins. The pagan pilgrimage path would become a Christian pilgrimage path and the stone buildings on the mountain be supplanted by an oratory.

Excavations of Croagh Patrick
Recently excavations have discovered an oratory, not unlike the stone oratory at Gallaraus, which was made of dry stone, and shaped like the centre of an upturned boat. This is the moment of silence and reflection and since then every pilgrim has been drawn to the mountain by the same spiritual instinct. They say that he banished the snakes, but there never were snakes in Ireland. That he banished demons in another thing; the demons were the demons of paganism.

In the Tripartite Life of Saint Patrick the following strange image occurs.

Now at the end of those forty days and forty nights the mountain was filled with black birds, so that he knew not heaven nor earth. He strikes his bell at them, so that the men of Ireland heard its voice and he flung it at them, so that its gap broke out of it ... no demon came to the land of Erin after that.

Croagh Patrick - a thin place
A precipice to the south side of the mountain is known as the Hollow of the Demons. This makes Croagh Patrick relevant on many levels and it is the core reason why pilgrims have been drawn to the summit for seventeen hundred years.

Croagh Patrick with Famine Ship

On this arid summit, where the winds blow hard, where no root takes hold, where distance seems infinite and heaven close, the spirit is tested and replenished, for the pilgrim had reached a thin place, where one steps into the highest dimension of one's existence.

The deserts of Egypt drew the early fathers to is dry expanses. The summit of the mountain is a hard desert where only the spirit can flourish, where the ground is covered with sharp rocks, where the back drops to ordinary life are removed. It is here that the human spirit passes from the comfortable world into a spiritual world. That is why it is a significant place.

On this singular mountain, forty days before Easter, where Patrick faced came face to face with himself, perhaps where he was tested by temptation and visited with visions. It is from these forty days, or period of silence, prayer and penitence that Mount Aglie derives part of its intense spiritual energy and which set standards for the early Celtic Church. It became a symbol of Ireland's enduring faith.

St. Patrick after Croagh Patrick mission
Having finished this, the most intense spiritual period of his life, Patrick descended along the pilgrim path, energized and refreshed. He walked to Aghagower to his friend, Senach the bishop and Mathone the Nun and celebrated the Easter festival with them. This was a decisive moment for Saint Patrick and the early Christian church. It happened in the year 441.

Patrick had twenty more years of missionary activity. He developed a native clergy, fostered the growth of monasticism, established diocese, and held church councils. He was a man of action who lived a vigorous life, who intellectual ability and honesty had been questioned, whose suitability to the priesthood had been challenged and who had lead a life of hardship and danger. When he died his body was interred in Armagh.

Croagh Patrick is a singular mountain. Above all it is a spiritual place. Set about it are the remains of the Celtic Church. On Inisboffin to the south-west lies the remains on a small monastery. The window frames the great mountain. It was here that Bishop Colman of Lindisfarne came after the his defeat at the Synod of Whitby. He brought with him Irish and English monks. There was a dispute between the two groups, so he left the island with the English group and set up Mayo Abbey. Recent archaeological surveys indicate that Mayo Abbey was as important in its time as Clonmacnoise and that Saxon students were drawn to this place of learning.

Watch this blog for St. Patrick and His Holy Mountain - Part III
Read first post in the series - St. Patrick and His Holy Mountain.

Guest author today is Michael Mullen of Castlebar, County Mayo. Michael is a well known Irish writer of Children's Literature, Historical Fiction and many works written in Gaeilge, the Irish native language

Text Copyright 2001, 2011 by Michael Mullen. All Rights Reserved. Used with permission.

Armagh - Twin Symbols of Conflict and Unity

2011-03-08T21:30:00.002-05:00

St. Patrick's Cathedral - Armagh - Roman Catholic

Coming into Armagh from the Monaghan Road offers a dramatic view of the city skyline, especially after twilight. The view is dominated by two buildings on two hills - St. Patrick's Cathedral and St. Patrick's Cathedral (not a typo).

Both are diocesan bishoprics, both built on holy ground and both tied to legends of St. Patrick. One is the Church of Ireland cathedral built on the ancient holy site where St. Patrick built his first stone church in the 5th century. The other is a stunning Gothic-style Roman Catholic Cathedral, its cornerstone laid on St. Patrick's Day 1840. It was completed in the early 20th century, with a serious halt to the construction during the Great Hunger.

St Patrick's Cathedral - Armagh - Church of Ireland

One view of that skyline speaks volumes. The twin pinnacles of the city bolstering two similar houses of worship whose congregations have withstood centuries of conflict and division. Some say they mirror the ancient story of the twins of Macha, birthed after an exhausting (and pointless) race. She cursed the land as her revenge.

I first entered Northern Ireland through Armagh in April of 1998. just a week after the signing of the Good Friday Agreement. I didn't know much about the conflict except for what I acquired listening to Irish ballads. I always wanted to see that movie with Daniel Day Lewis about the Northern Irish Catholic father and son, but never managed to get my hands on copy. I knew our relatives were from Derry, and we were a part of this genetic landscape. I had great interest in the culture, people and places here, but had little information. I entered Northern Ireland full of curiosity.

We checked into Padua House Bed and Breakfast, run by Kathleen O'Hagan. It's a brownstone, townhouse located on the main road at the base of St. Patrick's Roman Catholic Cathedral. Kathleen was (and is) one of the most hospitable hosts I've encountered in all my travels. Her home was simple and warm as was her sense of hospitality.

Notice the Details. Mark the Coincidences. Chart Synchronicity

If we are to grow spiritually from travel, noticing coincidences is part of the learning. I keep a log when I travel and jot down events, feelings and coincidences. Synchronicity is the language of the spirit. It's when unrelated events seem to come together in a common purpose that we know we are touching the otherworld. The events may not speak to us until long after the journey is over. Tracing the path in words and recollections can reveal wonders later.

Here's an excerpt from my travel log written the first night in Armagh.

April 19, 1998 - 11pm ~ Armagh
I write from a bedroom located in Padua House, a B&B in downtown Armagh. I am lying on a bed in front of a large window. I was startled when I pulled back the drapes. Consuming every inch of the glass is a spectacular view of St. Patrick’s Cathedral (Catholic) - a prominent sight in the Armagh skyline. If I turn off the incandescent light in my room I can still write by the lights coming off the Cathedral - and when I look up, I'm consumed by the awe of those twin spires and that Gothic face.

Three blocks from the Catholic Cathedral, skyline is the CI Cathedral, also named St. Patrick’s. It was from that hill that St. Patrick himself led the Irish Church in 5th century, and became noted for being one of the only leaders in history to spread Christianity throughout a nation without inflicting or creating bloodshed in the process. The bodies of Brian Boru and his eldest son rest in the ground here, noted by a plaque on the Cathedral wall.

The Armagh skyline with these two holy places climbing out of the landscape speaks volumes about the Irish people. Two separate groups reaching for the same prize, claiming the same name, but can't seem to reach each other.

Coincidences and events -

I'm arriving in Northern Ireland for the first time one week after the Good Friday Agreement was reached - a turning point in deescalation of violence between Catholics and Protestants. Also one week to the day from Easter Sunday.
I am staying at Padua House named for my close spiritual friend [Anthony of Padua] - a patron of the owner as well.
My room has is the smallest in the house, but has the magnificent view of the Cathedral and is the only room in the house with a view of the Cathedral. No one appreciates the view of a holy place like me.
Mrs. O’Hagan served us tea before we retired to our rooms. Larry and Sheila [my traveling companions] were exhausted but I was wound up. I was invited to watch television with the family and we watched In the Name of the Father, a film about the troubles in Northern Ireland. Seeing this movie with a Northern Ireland family who had their house - Padua House - destroyed by a bomb was strange - but strangley meaningful.
Just as I conclude writing these coincidences and events, the cathedral bells begin to chime marking the midnight hour.

What wonderful gifts .... Mrs. O’Hagan, Pauda House, In the Name of the Father, the view of the Cathedral, the sound of the bells.

This moment stands still in time. I figure I'll always remember it. Who knows for what?

The next day we saw the occupying forces crouching in doorways, carrying machine guns as they lingered in Portadown and Armagh. Ornate graffiti with militant images, razor wire around buildings, and IRA signage was a eerie shift from the loud tourist welcome we experienced in the Republic [of Ireland]. But I loved that visit to the north. I never felt unsafe. I knew the anger was not with tourists. My travel log entry from that day was more vivid than my memory.

April 20, 1998 - 9 pm
At breakfast, Mrs. O’Hagan shared the story of how her house was destroyed. Someone planted a car bomb outside her house and when it exploded she and her family were in the back yard. The windows were all blown out, the fireplaces destroyed. All wiring and lighting fixtures, and windows had to be replaced and the walls re-plastered. The bomb was a random act, not intended for anyone in particular. One of her grandchildren was sleeping near the stairwell, and while he was not hurt badly, he was terrified and covered with glass. They found the front window curtains in the back yard. Insurance covered none of the cost of restoration.

Mrs O'Hagan said there was a nice brick mason who came in to rebuild her fireplaces and chimneys and commented, “Pity, the poor man was shot and killed by a British soldier just weeks after he finished the work.” I asked why he was shot...was he a member of the IRA or targeted because of political ties. She replied “No. He was just a Catholic.” She then went on to say, "Everyone here has been touched by the Troubles.”

We went up the hill to attend 10:00 mass at St. Patrick’s Cathedral. The Cathedral is magnificent! It's the combination of the ancient and the modern all woven into a masterpiece that stirs the spirit and proclaims the greatness of God. I had two thoughts as I walked through. One - all the saints depicted are Irish, most with names I've never heard. It seems that the Irish are so into being Irish. Would a Cathedral in France or Spain or Italy only depict native saints? Does any country have this many saints? Two - not one square inch of this massive structure is blank or vacant. It is all covered with art. Even the paint on the walls is covered with Celtic designs. And all the art means something or is remembering something or someone. It’s almost impossible to take in that much meaning...

…On our way to Lurgan we went through Portadown. The British forces in uniform stood with grease paint on their faces and machine guns prepared for use. Their tanks blocked a section of the street. We ate lunch here and again experienced the cold apprehension of the people of the North. Two days after our visit here, a Catholic cab driver (father of 5) was gunned down randomly in a parking lot.

Armagh - a City Transformed

Since that visit thirteen years ago, a generation has come of age in Northern Ireland, and the people there have achieved success in mending divisions and unifying communities. It's a safe and comfortable place, still with differences, but tempered by common purposes. All in the North I've spoken to admit to wanting more united communities and less focus on differences. Tourism has flourished, the apprehensive facades have fallen away and been replaced by enthusiasm. Economic growth and a regional pride in one common heritage have laid a foundation for the visitor to have rich, meaningful, fun experiences.

One quality I love about the North is that tourism has not (yet) overwhelmed the country as it has in parts of the Republic. One can still visit "old Ireland" and connect with people that carry qualities of the ancient, mystical culture. Many of the rural landscapes seem more pristine, and less interrupted by development. I encourage all to visit Armagh and all parts of the North.

Visit Armgah's Thin Places
Both St. Patrick's Cathedrals in Armagh are rich in history and art and worth an hour visit each. Nearby are some remarkable thin places including Killevy, Emhain Macha, Slieve Gullion passage tomb, Clontygorra, and Kilnasaggart. The Ballykeel dolmen is also worth visiting and is very near Killevy.

Related Posts - Padua House and Kathleen O'Hagan of Armagh

Croagh Patrick - Climbing the Reek Part 1

2011-03-07T14:33:00.000-05:00

Guest author today is Michael Mullen of Castlebar, County Mayo. Michael is well known in Ireland as writer of Children's Literature, Historical Fiction and works in Gaeilge, the Irish native language. This post is the first of a series of three posts on the holy mountain, Croagh Patrick, and ancient mystical site where St. Patrick is said to have spent 40 days in contemplation.

Croagh Patrick - a Thin Place
Christian and pagan, this is a sacred mountain. Set at the western edge of Europe and standing above Clew Bay, it dominates the landscape and the sea scape. Its spine is franked with a gray path, traced out by pilgrim feet, for pilgrims have made their way to the summit of this majestic mountain for many thousands of years.
It is the quartz core of a much larger mountain, but time, and weather have worn it down and polished it into a pyramid. At its northern base, scree, lies about it, a testimony to the wear and tear upon ancient things.

Each day of year some pilgrim makes his her way to the sacred summit. Sometimes only a few pilgrims are strung out on the mountain path but during the great festivals, it becomes a living path. Day and night they come and go along the tortuous path, each linked together by some sacred purpose. On the important nights it is a river of living light. This has gone on for two millennia, perhaps three, and it will continue while the mountain holds and that will take it to the rim of forever.

Croagh Patrick - "It is a singular place, set in a primitive landscape, lonely and challenging"

For on this high and remote place one is close to the gate of heaven, close to the early Christian spirit and perhaps close to ones best aspirations. It is a singular place, set in a primitive landscape, lonely and challenging, like the sharp pinnacles of Schelig Mhicil in Kerry or Mont San Michel of the coast of France

Croagh Patrick - a thin place
The mystical and the pilgrim parts of our nature are attracted to such places. It is as natural as the air we breathe. In fact the first poem in Irish literature, written by Amergin has the following strange lines. It was composed well over two thousand years ago and possesses a haunting, magical quality. The poet stands at a point where he is in a thin place and passing towards some magical or spiritual plain.

I am the god who creates in the head of man the fire of thought.  Who is it who throws light into the meeting on the mountain?

These lines have the ring of spirituality. They represent something profound, and when Saint Patrick arrived in Ireland on his mission he knew something of the ancient rituals and the mind set of the druids and the kings. He was Roman and Celt and this gave him a singular advantage in his missionary work. He imposed a new spirituality on an old spirituality and there is a continuum in the thought patterns between the pagan and the Christian mind. On many of the pagan symbols he and his followers cut the firm cross of Christ. Perhaps we could say that the ancient Irish possessed minds that were naturally Christian.

The beginning of Tóchar Phádraig
at Ballintubber Abbey

St. Patrick imposed a new spirituality on an old spirituality
In recent years, through archaeology and historical research, our fragments of knowledge concerning this singular mountain are taking a more definite shape. The mountain is being restored to its important place in our archaeology, history, spirituality and culture.

The mountain is singular in its presence, not unlike the great central arch of a Gothic cathedral, supported by two lesser arches. It is clean cut against the sky and arrests the eye. No other mountain creates such an impression except perhaps Knocknarea in County Sligo, with its great megalithic cairn of stones. Knocknarea is set above Sligo bay and has a seminal influence on the poet W. B. Yeats.

What Jacqueline O Brien and Peter Harbison say of Knocknarea in their book Ancient Ireland is applicable to Croagh Patrick.

Strong religious beliefs and social circumstances must have motivated the creation of the eleven meter high megalithic monument on top of Knocnarea in County Sligo- and undertaking as difficult to achieve as trying to work out how many Stone Age man hours went into its undertaking.

This gives us a method of reading the sacred history of Croagh Patrick, for as I said it has always been sacred. It gives us also a method of reading ancient and Celtic spirituality, for the Irish Church was different to the Roman Church and this created much controversy at the time; many assemblies, many arguments and defeat in the end for the Irish. It came to a head at the Whiteby.

The Ancient History of the Mountain
One must place the Mountain in its archaeological context for it is part of the archaeological remains which stand on the mountain side and lie about the base and stretch far into the surrounding country. Man and women has left their mark upon the landscape from the very beginning. The date of the arrival of the first settlers in Mayo cannot be ascertained definitely, but we can say with some certainly that the arrived some seven and a half thousand years ago. They were Stone Age people and they were a highly organized and religious people.

We know this from the excavations at the Céide fields in North Mayo. Here Doctor Seamus Caulfield discovered a civilization beneath a vast blanket bog. It is all quite exciting how this discovery was made. For many years turf cutters had encountered wall places beneath the bogs. This argued that prior to the growth of the bog cover a system of fields had been built. Though archaeological excavations it was discovered that an extensive filed pattern covering some thousand acres lay beneath the blanket of bog. So a highly organized society lived here many thousands of years ago. It is the beginning of archaeology.

Linked to these fields were huge burial tombs, with their great orthostats, their stone caps and their orientation towards the east, the source of light. We can argue from the presence of these Iron age monuments that these first settlers followed rituals that we no longer understand, but they were the rituals of life and death; rituals that must have been related to the seasons and the harvests. They were a reasonable and intelligent people and the great and mysterious monument, Newgrange was built a thousand years before the pyramids. It remains a mathematical and mysterious puzzle. The markings the tomb have never been deciphered, but the building is linked to the movements of the sun and the stars.

Ancient Meanings Linked to Today
All this is central to the importance of Croagh Patrick. If ritual was part of the old world then there is no doubt that ritual was central to their great quartzite mountain. The path which the pilgrims take is very ancient and stretches far back into history and right to the centre of Ireland. The ancient route from Cruachan, to the summit of Croagh Patrick, is now call Tóchar Phádraig, which in translation means Patrick's Causeway. It led, we believe along a road which stretches from Roscommon to Mayo. Today this route is marked out by ruined churches, abbeys and settlements. Thus, we establish the first tentative link with the sacred mountain on the very edge of the Atlantic. We are more definite when we take up the pilgrim route at Ballintubber Abbey. A pilgrim can now take the route from the famous Abbey and travel through Aghagower on the way to Croagh Patrick. One is almost certain that this was Saint Patrick's route to the sacred mountain.

It is only now that we are coming to understand the great monuments of the ancient world; the pyramids of Egypt, Stonehenge, the Mexican temples, Newgrange, the ziggurats of Mesopotamia and many others. The were more than massive monuments, requiring great engineering skills. They were solar temples, celestial observation points, centers were the rhythm of the seasons and the passage of stars across the heavens were computed. Croagh Patrick seems to be locked into some understanding of the movements of the sun. There is a remarkable rock outcrop decorated with Prehistoric Art.

Watch this blog for St. Patrick and His Holy Mountain - Part II and Part III
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Text Copyright 2001, 2011 by Michael Mullen. All Rights Reserved. Used with permission.

Thin Places - Energy Lines and Earth Openings

2011-02-14T20:01:00.000-05:00

Carrowmore - County Sligo

A few weeks ago a friend of mine from the UK (who also happens to be a medium) offered me amazing insight into the thin places concept. Annie told me that there are veins or channels of energy that surge through the earth beneath its surface. There are also little "nodes" or areas where this energy pushes through.

These piercings of energy through the earth's surface offer immense spiritual power to those that are tuned into it. Ancient people knew this and gravitated to these places where the energy was the strongest. They buried their dead, practiced spiritual rituals, built temples, charted the seasons, and left behind architectural wonders that have us smart people still baffled today about how they managed it all.

We can see remnants of sacred gathering places, especially in the UK and Ireland, where old stone ruins still consecrate the landscape with their faithful benediction. They offer inspiration to the traveler who can only glance in awe while passing by, and silently call out to the seekers hungry for a taste of the eternal world.

Annie added that catastrophic events like war generate intense bad energy. The human anger, rage and violence brought forth in battle mingles with the earth's energy and contaminates it. Certain areas can be marked for centuries by the bad "karma" left from such a short concentration of ugliness.

And there's more ...

That same defiled energy can reenter the node and be absorbed in the veins of energy that surge through the earth. The earth carries that darkness to other nodes. It spreads.

The converse is also true. Love, joy, happiness also affects the energy and it, too spreads.

Annie said that she lives near a node, and there was once a terrible battle there. Many churches have sprung up in the area, and there seems to be a high concentration of people in the region who have healing powers. It's almost as if the wounded part of the earth is calling spiritual healers to itself.

Because of the wound ... that region of the earth becomes a magnet for healers.

The theory mirrors much of what we hear today about healing, energy and alternative health practices. The Reiki movement and acupuncture follow this tradition.

Visiting a thin place could be good for both the body and soul, if one is tuned in.

Thin Places Tour - May 15 - 24th

2011-01-25T11:01:00.001-05:00

View from Mount Brandon - Dingle

In May of 2011 I will be escorting a group of travelers to Ireland to visit some thin places. Our travels will include the Newgrange passage tombs, followed by a house party in Dublin. The next day we'll be off to Kildare to visit the old town and cathedral as well as St. Brigid's holy well. From there we'll travel Holy Cross Abbey where there is said to be a relic of the true cross. Then onto the Rock Cashel, one of Ireland's most thin places and Athassel Priory ruins at twilight (very mystical site). After a night in Cashel town we'll move on to Ardmore, a beautiful seaside town where St. Declan founded his monastery, then onto Cork city where the group will have a free day and be able to relax or take optional tours that inlcude Cobh, Kinsale and St. Gobnaits Holy Well.

After two nights in Cork we'll pass by Timoleague, Drombeg Stone Circle and Skibbereen, finally arriving in the Medieval city - Kenmare. The next day we'll explore the Beara peninsula and its stone circle, seaside views, mountain trails and mystical southern tip where Dursey Island accessed only by boat or cable car. Then on to Gouganne Barre, the smallest church in Ireland, sent in a valley on a site where St. Finbar once founded a monastery (one of the most scenic places in Ireland). After traveling through Gap of Dunloe, we'll arrive in the most mystical place of all - Dingle. One free day will allow for relaxation and exploring and we'll end the trip with a farewell party.

Please consider joining us. It will be one of the most memorable experiences. Traveling to Ireland is always wonderful, but 10 days of travel to mystical places charged with spiritual energy is life-changing.

Travel information including the daily itinerary, process for reservations and information about the mystical sacred sites we'll visit can be found at the Thin Places Mystical Tour of Ireland website. The land portion of the tour (lodging, breakfast, admissions, ground transportation and some dinners) is just $1999 per person.

Are you being called to join us?

Don't Rush Through Thin Places

2011-01-04T14:18:00.001-05:00

When I travel, I take my notes into a digital recorder. Then I transcribe them later into a travel journal. The following is a journal entry from 2007. I was standing at Cashelkeelty Stone Circle on the Beara Peninsula in Ireland. I don't remember writing this ... or even thinking this. But it's advise worth sharing.

Rushing is something one must not do when walking through thin places. It is better to see fewer thin places and not rush, than to see many and jam them into full days.

The journey is the important thing – not the destination.

It is also best to approach the site without snapping pictures. Feel the site, feel the moment, listen and watch for the signs. Time will stand still. You'll lose track.

When time becomes apparent again, that's when you take pictures... at the end of the journey. That's when you can sense what's important in that particular thin place. Approach each site with a sense of awe trying to feel the thinness and connect with the other world.

I believe that a prayer is much more powerful in a thin place, because in a way we are already closer to God. You don’t have to concentrate or try as hard to PUT yourself in the Divine Presence or the Other world.

You are already there.

Rushing loses all these effects, and isn’t helpful. If I rushed to get back because of the rain or the loss off time, I wouldn’t have seen or felt as much.

The goal is to enter INTO the thin place and experience it… not see from afar or just from the surface.

~Mindie Burgoyne - Cashelkeelty Stone Circle, Beara Peninsula, Ireland, 2-22-2007
Photo - the Beara Road near Ardgroom, taken by Mindie Burgoyne 2007 (c)

Remembering John O'Donohue

2011-01-03T22:09:00.000-05:00

It's been three years since the world lost the great poet and Celtic mystic, John O'Donohue. He had such insight to thin places, what they mean and how they affect the world. Certainly I've learned more from him - through his writing - than any other single person.

His books Anam Cara and Eternal Echoes should be read by all interested in Celtic Spirituality. Reading Divine Beauty changed my life... changed my spirit.

Some good resources online for getting better acquainted with John...

The John O'Donohue Website

A Remembrance of John O'Donohue on NPR

The Inner Landscape of Beauty - one of the last interview John gave before his death. (click on the listen now option)

Behind your image, below your words, above your thoughts, the silence of another world awaits. ~John O'Donohue

Why Visit Thin Places? - Answers? Healing? Wisdom? Maybe.

2010-12-12T13:23:00.000-05:00

What is the purpose of traveling to a thin place?

If thin places are those where the veil between this world and the Otherworld is thin... what, exactly is the draw? People say after visiting - "A sense of peace washes over you" or "I feel closer to God."

Personally, I can feel close to God in church, in my home, or driving to work; and I can have a peaceful feeling wash over me when I take a walk. So why are thin places any different that any other place where spirituality is exercised? And what is it about these sites that draw generation of pilgrims and visitors back over and over to the same sites?

Remarkable things happen when you visit a thin place and allow your spirit to communicate. Answers come to us, messages are relayed, strength is absorbed, healing happens. We go to thin places for answers to prayers, for wisdom, for energy, for power to overcome or endure, to be healed. We go there because thin places are inherently charged with the Divine, and like a great well filled to the brim, the spiritual gifts are ready to be drawn out by the faithful.

These days, I mostly go to thin places to listen.

Caitlin Matthew in Walkers Between the Worlds (co-authored with her husband John) states that these two worlds are one reality - one existence with two sides. We experience our physical world with our bodies and we communicate with our five senses. But our souls communicate with the other world. Every human being has a spiritual side. This spirit moves and shifts in a different way.

Looking for coincidences or signs of synchronicity can be indicators of the two worlds communicating. This happens all the time to me - and I don't always understand it. But sometimes later - like pieces of a vast jigsaw puzzle - the coincidences and events begin to speak. A journal is crucial for understanding what has happened, or trying to make sense of voices, the communications, the messages of the eternal world.

A few of my own experiences in thin places ....

The man in the sand which I wrote about in a post last month about an experience I had in Dingle on Fermoyle Strand in the shadow of Mount Brandon. Just after a silent (if desperate prayer), I looked across the sand and noticed an image of a man.
The proposal of marriage I received at St Kieran's Cell in Clonmacnoise (skip down to the last long paragraph). It was strange how this old man appeared, and strange how he began speaking to me right away and within minutes asked to marry him. I wrote it down. Only after reading my journals years later did I discover that he proposed on the same day that I met my husband - in the same place where my husband and I celebrated our 10th wedding anniversary.
The rainbow over the lake on the Leenane Road - this happened while I was with two other people who were equally stunned.

There are so many more - the arrow on the stone at the Isle of Mull, the Mysterious Lady at Kincora, the sky opening at the Hill of Uisneach ... some day I'll write about all of these, but suffice it to say ... if you look for messages, listen for the voices, reach out for the signs - they will be there.

Many disbelievers will say it's all contrived. No evidence will ever be enough to persuade the folks that there is another world. But for those who are open, great spiritual growth awaits in thin places.

Consider going on our thin places tour of Ireland.. It will be a rewarding experience.

5 Must-See Thin Places in Ireland

2010-12-10T18:13:00.002-05:00

Thin places are specific sites with a mystical quality - where the veil between this world and the eternal world is thin. Ireland is littered with these places - some are very familiar to the traveler like the Hill of Tara, Newgrange, Drombeg stone circle, Glendalough and Carrowmore. But some are not so familiar and are a "must see" for the pilgrim traveler or those looking to connect with eternal world.

Here are 5 - not-so-well-known thin places in Ireland to include in your travel itinerary.

1. The Hill of Uisneach - County Westmeath

Believed to be at the geographic center of Ireland, the hill of Uisneach doesn't look much different from the other hills in Ireland. One could easily miss it save for the signage that now identifies the hill and shows the traveler where to park. From the crest of the Hill of Uisneach the views are magnificent. Some say you can see 20 of the 32 counties on a clear day. Ritual fires were lit on Uisneach that could be seen from all the neighboring counties in the Irish midlands - and those fires signaled other fires to be lit in the farther reaches until ritual fires were burning all across the island from sea to sea. According to Cary Meehan, there is a well on the southern slope that is the source of twelve rivers. All the energy lay lines of Ireland meet at Uisneach. The hill is said to be the burial site of the goddess, Eriu from which Eire - or Ireland - draws its name. She is buried beneath a capstone on the southwestern slope.

2. Boa Island - Caldragh Cemetery - County Fermanagh

In the scenic county known for its lakes (Fermanagh) lies an ancient cemetery on Boa Island. The cemetery is surrounded by hazelwood trees and well preserved. The lumpy ground covering graves dating back centuries takes the pilgrim back in time, but not so much as the two stone figures that dominate the cemetery, and seem to follow the visitor into every corner. The large statue stands about 3 feet tall and has a face and torso carved on both sides. Commonly referred to as the Janus figure - Janus being the "all seeing" two-faced god who saw all things from the rising to the setting of the sun - the stone figure has a mystical quality. It watches you. There is no point in the cemetery that one cannot look over and see the Janus figure "watching." A smaller figure known as the Lusty Man (because it was brought from Lusty Beg) isn't quite so imposing. A friend of mine told me that if you bring a pendulum and hold it above each of these figures, the Janus figure will cause the pendulum to rotate clockwise while the lusty man causes the pendulum to rotate counter-clockwise. Much history here. Read more about Caldragh Cemetery in Five Keys to Learning from Thin Places.

3. Coole Park - Home of Lady Gregory - County Galway

Though this 1000 acres which was formerly the estate of Lady Gregory is not associated with rituals, sacred rites or holy wells; it holds a mystical quality and a sense of time standing still. Lady Gregory was an Anglo-Irish born woman who was known for her significant contributions to the Irish Literary Revival. Her home here at Coole Park and the grounds were a magnet for writers, and they visited her often. It was here that William Butler Yeats, George Bernard Shaw, John Millington Synge and Sean O'Casey - and many others carved their initials on the famous "autograph tree." The tree still stands surrounded by acres of woodland and gardens. The traveler becomes an image in that artistic, literary landscape. It makes me wonder if the landscape itself and its mystical quality fostered the creativity that grew here - or if the creative people consecrated the land leaving an imprint behind that still affirms, fosters and draws out the artistic talent of visitors. Don't miss the museum. It lays a great foundation of the story behind the park.

4. Glencolumbkille - County Donegal

Glencolumbkille is a beautiful valley consecrated by St. Columcille (Columba) himself after he drove demons from this glen into the ocean. St. Columba (aka as Columcille) was born near this area. He began his holy ministry in Donegal and this valley, now known as Glencolumbkille is marked by spots of devotion known as "turas" where the pilgrim pauses, reflects and prays. For centuries, pilgrims have traveled to Glencolumbkille and through acts of devotion, prayer and fasting have continued to consecrate this already sacred land. An old poet wrote of Glencolumbkille...

"... echoes of the centuries' feet
That moved along the penitential stones
In all thy winds are sweet.
Here came my fathers in their life's high day
In barefoot sorrow, but God knows the whole:
Not for themselves they fasted, but to lay
Up riches for my soul."

5. The Stone Circles along the Beara Way - County Cork

The southwest of Ireland is littered with megalithic and neolithic reminders of sacred spaces. While many visitors take in the beauty of the Ring of Kerry and visit the Dingle Peninsula, few investigate the wonder of the Beara Peninsula. There is an ancient road - known as the Green Road or the Beara Way that follows the peninsula. It runs over mountains, through pastures and rocky fields and along the way are several stone circles - each set in a high clearing. My favorite of these is Cashelkeelty Stone Circle. Also along the way is Uragh stone circle and Ardgroom circle. The peacefulness of the setting and timelessness of each visit are things the pilgrim never forgets. Take a day and visit the stones along the Beara Way.

NOTE: The Stone Circles of Beara are on the Thin Places Mystical Tour to Ireland scheduled for May 15 - 24, 2011. Book your spot now.

Moorehall in County Mayo - Ghosts of Writers

2010-11-28T11:35:00.000-05:00

On a dreary winter day in February of 2007, my dear friend, author Michael Mullen of Castlebar took me on a day-long visit to thin places in County Mayo. We started early in the morning and ended the day at Moorehall. Pictured above, one can see the grand residence is but a shadow of its former self. The house was built by George Moore around 1795 on a hill overlooking Lough Carra. His son George II had a fondness for books and built a vast library at Moorehall that is said to have included a manuscript copy of the Annals of the Four Masters. The Moores were part of the Anglo Irish aristocracy and were later known locally as being sympathetic to the plight of the common man, and more benevolent to their Irish tenants during the Irish potato famine that others of their social stature.

George Henry (son of George II) oversaw the estate during the Great Hunger and spent much of his early life focued on horse racing. He used the fortune he won in a particular race to provide relief to his tenant families. Rents were commuted, and food distributed so that no family on the Moore estate was evicted, and no tenants died of hunger during the famine. George Henry entered Irish politics during his later life. He died of a stroke at Moorehall in 1870.

George Henry's son, George IV had the heart of an artist and went off to study painting in Paris after his father's death in 1970. He switched his focus to writing and became acquainted with many of the great European writers of the day. My friend, Michael told me that George Henry entertained many writers at Moorehall... that Moorehall itself was a tribute to great thinking - great thinkers.

On February 1, 1923 the house was set afire by - as the Steward of Moorehall stated "an ignorant mob that don't know what they are doing." All was lost including the grand library, including the copy of the Annals of the Four Masters. The mob apparently objected to the Moore family's stance on Irish liberation. Maurice Moore, brother of George IV hoped to restore the home one day, but died in 1939 before he could achieve any attempt and the estate was eventually given over to the government, who hold it today. It is now a park with beautifully forested walking trails.

Why did Michael take me to this place 84 years after its destruction? He explained that this was a place where beautiful thoughts led to creative concoctions in literature. Some places lend themselves to the freeing of the mind. This is one of them. It's funny that I've known Michael for years and read many of his books, my favorites being The Hungry Land and Kelly. Michael is known today for being a great writer of Irish children's literature and more currently books written in the Irish language. The piece of Michael's writing that most impressed me was Croagh Patrick, a Perspective where he produced my favorite quote about thin places.

On this arid summit, where the winds blow hard, where no root takes hold, where distance seems infinite and heaven close, the spirit is tested and replenished, for the pilgrim had reached a thin place, where one steps into the highest dimension of one's existence.

But for all I knew of Michael, I really knew nothing of his past. On our walk through the woods around Moorehall, Michael told me about his life. All the intimate details poured forth. What a wonderful story it was too.

I came to Moorehall with an old friend, unfamiliar with that particular landscape or the story of the family that once lived there. While there, Michael and I became images in the same landscape occupied by the Moore family, their tenants, their friends, their visitors and the mob that destroyed the place. The separation of time and space was minimal.

We left Moorehall, not as old friends - but as "soul friends" - Anam Caras. Thin Places are fertile ground for moving closer to those around you.

References used for this article include the commentary of Phillip O'Reilly, a descendant of the last Steward of Moorehall. Photos by Mindie Burgoyne - Copyright 2007, All Rights Reserved. Used only with permission.

The Man in the Sand - Dingle in the Shadow of Mount Brandon

2010-11-21T10:18:00.000-05:00

On February 20, 2007 I was traveling alone in Ireland, doing one final research trip for my book (still uncompleted) Thin Places; Celtic Doorways to the Otherworld. Most of this day was spent on St. Brendan the Navigator who was born near Dingle and is a local heroic figure. I visited Ardfert, his first monastery, then Mount Brandon - the holy mountain named for him.

I was in a bad place personally when I wrote this travel journal entry. I'd been working on completing this book for years and I couldn't move myself forward. No amount of research could push me to completion. Every time I started, I stopped mostly from fear that I wasn't a good enough writer to complete the project.

This was also a day of miracles - or coincidences. You decide based on my travel notes below. There's something different about praying in a thin place, though. If you listen hard enough, you just might hear an answer.

Travel Journal entry - February 20, 2009 - Ireland, Co. Kerry

Mount Brandon – coming from the north road into Dingle after passing the exits for Castlegregory, I came to Fermoyle strand. Mount Brandon dominates the landscape on all the north roads.

Mount Brandon is the second tallest mountain in Ireland and at its base, St. Brendan the Navigator is said to have launched his fleet of curraghs to set sail for the Promised Land as revealed to him in a vision. Prior to the voyage, he spent time on this holy mountain-top in reflection and prayer similar to St. Patrick’s retreat on Croagh Patrick.

To say the scenery here is breathtaking would understate. It's magical. The dismal sky and drizzle offered a blue-gray backdrop, but allowed just enough sunlight to illuminate the vivid green fields dotted by sheep at the base of the mountain. Down on the strand the wet sand at the shore is firm - almost like slate. The waves rush in and then Atlantic sucks the surf back out almost a half a mile - leaving various shapes in the flat sand. I was the only one on the strand. The only human image in that landscape.

As I walked the strand, I was thinking about what I had just read while sitting in the car waiting for the rain to subside. It was an article about thin places written by a well known, best-selling author. Though I loved this author's works of short fiction, I was disappointed in how sappy and trite this piece was. The writer didn't respect the reader's intelligence or sensitivity about mystery, and overtold the meaning. The work left me feeling the writer was trying more to project a sense of spiritual superiority than unfold the mystery of a thin place. Knowing that this writer's talent and capability was well respected in literary worlds, I allowed my lack of confidence to swell ... and my hope for finishing Thin Places to shrink.

So I continued my self-piteous walk on the strand in the shadow of Mount Brandon. I turned and noticed a pale light hanging over the reek. It was most likely cloud matter, but the reluctant sun reflected what little rays it could push through the clouds onto this whiteness, and the impression was amazing. I was moved to pray.

With a great sense of inadequacy I turned to God, there on the strand, beneath the lighted Mount Brandon and said aloud, "If that successful writer can publish schlock like that, surely I can write Thin Places. God grant me the gift of being able to write well enough to move people and courage enough to finish this book."

Just as the words escaped my mouth I looked down at the sand. There was an image created by the receding waves. It seemed to have a head, body, legs, and its right hand was extended with what looked like a flower or a box or something. It looked like a faceless man in a cloak. The figure startled me. I snapped photo after photo, wondering how much of this was real and how much was my imagination. What did that mean?

If the angelic cloud illuminating Mount Brandon followed by the man in sand wasn’t enough, I turned to find coming out of the northern sky over the Atlantic, a rainbow descending from the clouds into the sea. Rainbows are so ephemeral ... here one minute then gone the next. This rainbow didn’t fade. I went back to car and began to make the fifteen minute drive up to Brandon Point. The rainbow remained. At every turn, at every bend, the rainbow was there. It was even there when I made the wrong turn and went to Brandon Pier instead of Brandon Point. When I finally got to the Point it was more vivid then before had finally stretched across the entire sky framing The mountain and the point. Once I climbed the first station of the mountain, it faded away.

Caitlin and John Matthews remind us that we communicate with our five senses in the physical world, but we communicate with our spirit in the spirit - or eternal world. They also give us insight on how to perceive coincidences or that phenomenon Carl Jung called synchronicity - the simultaneous occurrence of events that appear significantly related but have no discernible causal connection. Here's a quote referencing this from their book, Walkers Between the Worlds.

"... synchronicity... is actually an instance of an exact match between the fabric of our world and that of the Otherworld. While we normally dismiss such an occurrence as coincidental, in looking more deeply we can see the exact correspondences between one world and the other."

The eternal world or spirit world or Otherworld is one side of reality while our physical world is the other. But together they show us one world, one reality. A thin place brings us face to face with these two sides of one reality, and our prayers - our conversations with the Creator are whole and enjoy a sense of completeness.

Fermoyle Strand and Mount Brandon are thin places. At the time I was experiencing the above mentioned synchronicity in Dingle I didn't understand what any of it meant. Thus the importance of journaling and taking photo images. As we grow in spirit, so does our understanding.

All Saints Day - My Top Ten Friends in Heaven

2010-11-01T14:12:00.001-05:00

You can't have too many friends. Earthy friends provide companionship, a listening ear, advocacy, advice and support. Heavenly friends can do the same - and today - All Saints Day - is the day we remember everyone in the Communion of Saints, or those who live in the Divine Presence of God.

Why Pray to the saints? The Church never meant for Christians to pray to the saints to use heavenly or godly powers to grant wishes. Prayer to the saints was meant to call on an advocate, gain spiritual support and provide spiritual companionship. The saints are sensitive advocates who pray with us making our prayers stronger.

Here are a few of my favorites:

Mary Mother of Jesus - Our Lady of Knock appeared to a group in the town of Knock in 1879 and remained there silently for hours. Message? Listen with your heart.
St. Anne - Jesus' grandma. Grandma is one of my favorite roles.& My grandma's name was Anne and so is mine.
St. Anthony of Padua- never fails me. My dearest buddy in heaven. Anthony was such a great orator and preacher that they say the fish in the sea used to come to the surface to listen. My favorite quote by Anthony, "Be like the sun. She light and warmth."
St. Therese of the Little Flower - another dear friend who was a reluctant writer. She was ordered to write her memoir and she did so with great angst because she loathed the process of writing. Her writing was published in book form after her death. The Story of Soul has sold millions and changed many a life.
St. Brigid of Ireland - One of the few women in the church to be ordained a bishop. Brigid is also the patron of hospitality and an open home.
St. Brendan on Clonfert - the Navigator, patron of travel, tourists and tour guides... please, I need him so badly. :)
St. Columba of Iona - love Columba because he was rich, used his power, was humiliated and then in disgrace, went into exile where he changed the world in his humble efforts.
Mother Teresa of Calcutta - my favorite quote by her ... and I heard this myself when I saw her at St. Bernard's Church in Riverdale - "I see more smiling faces in the poor streets of Calcutta than I do in America. Americans are rich in sorrow and despair."
St. Francis of Assisi - known to most for loving animals, known to many as seeing the great flaws in the church and rebuilding it through service and humility. Perhaps the greatest teacher since Jesus.
St. Aidan of Lindisfarne- the patron saint of communications - known for his humility. When a brother returned to Iona after narrowly escaping death when trying to convert the heathens of Northumberland to Christianity Aiden commented, "You offered them meat when they were only ready for milk." Then Aiden traveled the same path and built up the serving community at Lindisfarne.

Who are your favorite saints?

The image above is St. Anne, mother of Mary, grandmother of Jesus - painted by Quentin Massys c. 1507. The original art is now in Musées Royaux des Beaux-Arts, Brussels.

St. Ciaran's Clonmacnoise - Crosses, Tombs and Ruins on the Shannon

2010-09-10T17:02:00.004-05:00

I've been to Clonmacnoise three times. The visits spanned nineteen years, and were each marked by a milestone in my journey through thin places - where the eternal and physical worlds mingle. I received a marriage proposal at Temple Ciaran, and years later celebrated a wedding anniversary in the same place, though not with the man who offered the proposal. Clonmacnoise was my first thin place experience. I was brought there by an old mystic whom I'd known since childhood. Today, even with some age on him, this old bard named Howell McConnell still gives me insight into the places where the veil between this world and the next is thin. Howell set the stage for my first otherworldy experience before we ever got to the site, by telling me the stories of St. Ciaran, St. Finian, St. Enda, and St. Kevin.

Located between Meath and Connaught, Clonmacnoise (name means "meadow of the sons of Nos") is city of ancient monastic ruins resting on the banks of the River Shannon. The monastery was founded by St. Ciaran somewhere between 543 and 548. Ciaran is recognized as one of the Twelve Apostles of Ireland - 12 men (including St. Columba and St. Brendan) who studied under St. Finian of Clonard. The last High King of Ireland, Rory O'Connor is buried in the cathedral at Clonmacnoise (now ruins). The cathedral, built by one of the kings of Tara is known for its carving of Sts.Dominic, Patrick, and Francis of Assisi above one of the arched doorways.

Perhaps Clonmacnoise is most famous for the three high crosses. Known as the Cross of the Scriptures, the North Cross and the South Cross, these carved masterpieces, which date back to the 9th and 10th centuries, are safely secured away from the elements in the Clonmacnoise museum. Life-size replicas are strategically placed on the monastery grounds giving the visitor and pilgrim a feel for how the crosses may have appeared ten centuries ago. The high crosses are a common focal point in photographs taken by visiting tourists and pilgrims.

Castle ruins haunt the western landscape of Clonmacnoise, and just past the castle, down the road a bit is St. Ciaran's Holy Well, now renovated with a sturdy banister and stairway. Clooties have been left near the well and are tied to a nearby bush... signs of pilgrims who came to well to be filled, healed, renewed.

The tales of Clonmacnoise set the imagination in motion...Tales like St. Ciaran's vision of a large tree sprouting by a river in the center of Ireland, then growing so large that it shaded the entire country and offered abundant fruit, some of which was carried away by birds to foreign lands. I love the story of St. Ciaran crossing the River Shannon and claiming the Clonmacnoise grounds as a place of resurrections, where many souls will depart for heaven. Sadly, St. Ciaran himself left the world shortly after claiming the ground. At the age of 33, he died probably from the plague which was ravaging Ireland about that time and had already claimed the body of his mentor Finian of Clonard. Though Ciaran got the monastery started, he didn't live to see it in all of its glory as one of the largest monastic cities in Ireland - probably second only to Armagh, which was the original seat of the church - where St. Patrick himself sat as bishop.

There's a small church ruin near the cathedral with walls that lean inward and a very shallow curved doorway. This building is known as Temple Ciaran and is believed to be where the saint was buried. There's a tale that tells of Ciaran, knowing he was about to die, begged for his brothers to fetch his beloved friend Kevin from Glendalough (known now as St. Kevin). Kevin arrived three days after Ciaran had died. The brothers had locked Ciaran's dead body in the church. When Kevin entered Ciaran lifeless body revived itself long enough to have a visit with his soul friend. St. Kevin performed the burial ceremony, then left to return to the monastic community that he had founded in Wicklow - Glendalough. Ciaran went to heaven.

Clonmacnoise is a magical place. I came there the first time with a sense of wonder, hearing the stories of Ciaran and wondering why the place felt so magical. I was a young mother, successful in my career and looking at new ventures - and was strangely drawn to Ireland. Clonmacnoise was my doorway, my entry into mystical Ireland.

When I returned seven years later I was a widow. My husband died a little over a year after that first visit to Ireland. I was in a bad place emotionally raising three teenagers by myself. As I stood near Temple Ciaran, a man probably in his eighties approached me and began to talk. He said he was a farmer and lived nearby. He had never married and had a lot of land but no children to leave it to. I told him I had three children and had lost my husband five years earlier. The old man asked me to marry him. To him marriage seemed to be a beneficial arrangement. He'd get a wife, I'd get to live in Ireland, and my children would inherit his lands. Though I'd been single for more than five years and was struggling to raise three teenagers alone, I politely passed on the offer. The man, who told me his name was Patrick asked if I would take his picture. I did and I still have it in an album somewhere. He's leaning against the slanted walls of Temple Ciaran. I recall after he left looking out across the River Shannon feeling like God was having a little chuckle at my expense. I had been praying for the right man to come along... it was the prayer of my heart at that time. "Is that all you have to offer?" I said. In checking my journal notes, that day in Clonmacnoise was April 18, 1998.

On April 18, 1999 I met Dan Burgoyne. We were married exactly five months later.

My third trip to Clonmacnoise was September 18, 2010. I was with my husband on a trip to Ireland celebrating our tenth wedding anniversary. I stood with Dan in the same spot I had stood with Patrick eleven years earlier. This time my prayer was a little different, though the sense of the Divine Presence was just as strong.

Thin places are like that. The God you seek seems so much closer. Answers to prayers seem a little clearer, and conversations with the Divine, though the language may not be words, is ever richer.

Flickr photo stream of Clonmacnoise photos

Excellent Article Ciaran's Clonmacnoise - by Edward Sellner

What are thin places?

2010-08-20T10:13:00.001-05:00

The most commonly asked question by visitors to my Thin Places blog or my Who Cares What I Think blog is "what are thin places?" or "how do you identify a thin place?" Thin Places are places where the eternal world and our physical world meet and mingle.

I didn't coin the term, and it is widely used by mystics and those who write about Celtic Spirituality. The term thin place comes from the pre-Christian culture in western Europe - particularly Ireland - and refers to a place where the veil between this world the "other world" or the "eternal world" is thin. Old tales tell of people and beings of the other world being able to pass back and forth between worlds in thin places.

Every person will identify a thin place differently. I can only share my own way. A thin place is sensed differently that our present world - you cannot see it, touch it, hear it, smell it, or taste it. Our sense of a thin place transcends the physical limitations of our five senses.

I sense a thin place in two ways.

I feel a strong sense of the past still present in the place.
I can hear God more clearly than in any other place - the sense of Divine Presence is very strong to me.

To me thinness has degrees - yes, some places are thinner than others.
Among the thinnest I've experienced

Why would anyone want to visit a thin place? Because it exercises your spirit, makes you more in tune with your own spirituality. Prayer seems more powerful. Answers come more readily. The sense of peace is overwhelming.

My article Walking through Thin Places goes into greater depth on spotting and sensing thin places.
Are there thin places in America? Sure, but I find them here and there scattered over large land masses. In Ireland, Scotland, Wales and England, the very ground cries out with them at every turn - every town.

St. Gobnait and a Place of Resurrection

2010-02-11T19:28:00.005-05:00

In the early 6th century when Gobnait fled her home in County Clare, she went to Inis Oírr. We don’t know why she fled, only that she believed she would find refuge in the Aran Islands. Legend states that an angel appeared to her there and told her that her place was not on Inis Oírr, and instructed Gobnait to go on a journey – to seek her true place of resurrection. “Go until you find nine white deer grazing” the angel told her. “It is there that you will find your place of resurrection.” So Gobnait wandered about the southern coastal counties of Ireland – Waterford, Cork and Kerry – searching.

She saw three white deer in Clondrohid and followed them to Ballymakeera where she saw six more. But it wasn’t until she came to Ballyvourney to a small rise overlooking the River Sullane that she saw the nine white deer all together - grazing … just as the angel from Inis Oírr had prophesied. She crossed the river and settled there. She founded a religious community for women, performed memorable – some say miraculous works, and it was there she died and was buried.

February 11th is St. Gobnait’s feast day -the day her memorable life is celebrated. She is one of the few Irish saints that is not only remembered in her native region, but has been proclaimed by the Irish bishops to be a national saint. There are shrines and places of devotion to St. Gobnait in all the places she is believed to have stopped on her journey - including Inis Oírr. But Ballyvourney, where she carried out most of her ministry, is the place that draws the greatest number of pilgrims devoted to this saint.

Today there is an active church on the former monastic site. St. Gobnait’s grave and marked spots around the churchyard are places where pilgrims pause for devotion and reflection. It is here that they can do the “rounds” or turas, always moving in a clockwise direction – a tradition that has pagan roots. One of the strongest mystical draws on this site is St. Gobnait’s Holy Well, with its arched entryway that takes the pilgrim into a deeply shaded path. Just next to the well is a sturdy tree, and hanging from it are hundreds of tokens or clooties that have been placed there by pilgrims hoping to leave behind a part of themselves or loved on in need of healing. There are taps and cups available for drinking from the well or for pouring into personal vessels to take holy well water home.

St. Gobnait was best known for her care of the sick. There is a legend that tells of her staving off the plague from Ballyvourney by drawing a line in sand with a stick and declaring the village “consecrated ground.” Inside the church today, there is a medieval (possibly 13th century) figure of St. Gobnait which is kept in a drawer. Every year on her feast day, the parish priest brings out the figure to celebrate a devotional tradition. He holds up the ancient figure and the faithful each step forward with a piece of ribbon. They hold the ribbon up and measure it against the length and around the circumference of the figure, then take it home as a blessed relic used for healing or further devotion.

A tall statue of St. Gobnait that was erected in the 1950s stands near the monastic site. She appears with a nun’s habit standing on a bee hive surrounded by bees. Gobnait is the patron saint of bee keepers, and there are several legends recalling Gobnait forcing invaders out of Ballyvourney by setting swarms of bees upon them. It’s probable that Gobnait had a close relationship with bees and used honey in healing efforts.

PLACE OF RESURRECTION

Dan and I visited St. Gobnait’s monastic site many years ago. It is indeed, a thin place. The stories of St. Gobnait specifically mention a “place of resurrection.” I heard Dara Molloy use this phrase when referring to his home on Inis Mór and have seen a few authors reference the phrase. But regarding thin places … a place of resurrection is the pinnacle – that place where one’s spirit is totally whole, at home, with no longing or yearning to be anywhere else. A place of resurrection is not only the place where one’s spirit will resurrect from its lifeless body upon death, but also the place where that spirit is most alive inside the living body. And I believe that a place of resurrection is the spiritual home where one is most completely alive and able to create, to discern, to prophesy … to be wise.

The connection between the eternal world and the physical is nearly unidentifiable in a place of resurrection – as they are knitted together in an inextricable pattern where neither can be separated from the other. The place of resurrection then is unto itself the combination of both worlds particularly suited to that specific spirit. … and Ballyvourney was St. Gobnait’s place.

What is yours?

Image of St. Gobnait courtesy of Patricia Banker; Copyright by Patricia Banker, All Rights Reserved. Used With Permission.

Thin Places Mystical Tour of Ireland

2010-02-04T13:42:00.003-05:00

I'm planning a 9 day trip to Thin Places in the South of Ireland this May. It will be an intimate group of 20 people. All accommodations will be arranged, and we will travel to over 20 sites on a small tour bus. There tentative itinerary is below.

Stops will center around places associated with Celtic spirituality and mysticism, but will include other activities and time on your own for exploring the towns.

Sites include Newgrange and Knowth, Dublin sites, Kildare, the Rock of Cashel Ardmore, Cork sites, Drombeg Stone Circle, Gouganne Barre, Kenmare, Beara Peninsula and Dingle.

TOUR DATES - MAY 16 - 24, 2010 - 8 Nights

If you have an interest in attending or want more information please visit the Thin Places Tour webpage and view the itinerary. Land package is $1920 per person (based on double occupancy).

Your Trip Includes- thin places tour

8 nights in premiere town-center hotell

Double, Triple & Single Occupancy available

All hotel taxes/fees
Airport Transfers to/from city centers while in Ireland
Transportation via luxury coach between towns & for daily touring
Traditional full Irish breakfast every morning
5 Dinners (4 Dinners d’hote, 1 Dinner Show- Irish House Party)
Full time host & guide – Mindie Burgoyne & Private Driver
Emergency Tenon Tours Contact available 24/7
Complete offering of optional tours for purchase in Dublin
Welcome party in Dublin & Farewell evening in Ennis
Daily Private Tours of Thin Places to include sights such as:

Newgrange
Knowth
Kildare Cathedral
St. Brigid’s Holy Well
Holy Cross Abbey
Hore Abbey
Rock of Cashel
Ardmore
St. Declan’s Cathedral & Holy Well
Skibbereen
Drombeg Stone Circle
Kinsale
Beara Peninsula
Dingle Peninsula
Gouganne Bara
Gap of Dunloe

PRICING AND HOW TO BOOK

Land Price = $1,920 per person*, double occupancy – Save $50 if you deposit by February 12th!

$50 Group Discount once group reaches 14 travelers

Tour Limited to 20 spots. Enrollment deadline is March 15th

Payment Terms = $250 deposit** required per person to lock in current rate, balance/full payment due 60 days prior to departure.

For full itinerary and booking instructions visit the Thin Places Mystical Tour Website.

*

Five Steps for Travel to Thin Places

2009-12-08T14:12:00.003-05:00

The ancient graveyard on Boa Island in County Fermanagh is known as Caldragh Cemetery. Few visit Caldragh and leave unchanged. It is a thin place.

Traveling to places that are sacred, holy or mystical can evoke change and growth in the human spirit. Here are five keys I keep in mind when traveling to Thin Places. Each key unlocks an insight.

1. Trace the Route that Brought You to the Thin Place
Part of the "changing" or learning process comes in tracing the route that brought you to that place. Your mind is opened to possibilities ... why were you drawn to this thin place? What were you called to learn?

My route to Caldragh began in my local church in Howard County, Maryland when a a priest-friend gave me a small souvenir he'd brought back from a recent trip to Ireland. Prior to his departing I had called him "two-faced" in a not-so-friendly conversation. So while in Ireland, he picked up a desk top version of the Janus figure of Boa Island. This pagan figure has two faces - one in the front and one in the back. Some say it represented an "all seeing" god that could view everything that occurred from the rising of the sun to the setting of the sun. Locals later dubbed the figure "Janus" after the Roman god of two faces - the same god after which the Romans name the first month "January" in their calendar.

When my friend gave me the little version of the Caldragh Janus figure, he didn't know what it was or where the figure originated. He said, "I picked this up in Ireland for you. It has two faces ... like me."

The next year I attended an Irish Festival and met a vendor from Bethlehem, PA that made casts of ancient Celtic or pagan stone figures. She had a much larger table-top version of the Boa Island Janus figure on her vendor table, and above it a poster-sized photo of herself at Caldragh graveyard taking rubbings from the actual figure in order to make the mold. I was amazed at how large it seemed in the poster... almost half the artist's size. The figure was haunting and captivating. I asked her about the graveyard and the figure, and she became so animated saying the figure had power ... she felt it... she carried it home and believed her replicas carry some of the same power.

I bought one of her statues... now I had two. I made the decision to visit Caldragh graveyard on my next trip to Ireland and see about that power.

2. Notice the Signs as You Enter
Sometimes, things that you see or encounter as you enter a thin place can have meaning later.

The graveyard is on Boa Island on the north shore of Lough Erne in one of the northern counties in Ireland. The island is very damp with water and shorelines everywhere. Rain showers, clouds, bright sun, dull shade all mark the landscape of Boa Island. The light is constantly changing as are the colors of the lough, the sky, the fields, the trees. Rainbows are common in Fermanagh. It is undoubtedly one of the most mystical places in Ireland.

My first visit to Caldragh was in the late fall of 1995, back before it was designated as heritage site. The cemetery was not developed for visitors, and one had to park on the road and climb over a fence to access the path to the graveyard. I wanted to arrive exactly at sunrise to be able to photograph the site in that light. As I neared the graveyard, I could hear a pounding ... like a drum .. with a rhythm similar to a heartbeat. It got louder as I got closer. I pushed passed a very thorny tree into the cemetery gateway ... and there atop the lumpy, rocky old graves was the 3 foot high Janus figure. Just in front of him was a woman thumping away on a bohdran (Irish drum).

I wanted to go in and photograph the site, but felt like I was intruding on some ritual. Finally, I entered and started to take photos. The woman voluntarily moved away from the figure. Later I spoke with her. She was French Canadian and spoke little English. I asked her what brought her to Caldragh and she reached inside the neckline of her shirt and pulled out a small pendant. It was the Caldragh Janus figure. A friend from Chicago had given it to her as a gift. The figure, its meaning, curiosity, and I believe some heavy personal burdens had compelled her to make a pilgrimage to Caldragh. She traveled from Canada specifically to this site ... to sit here ... in front of this figure ... drawn by a gift ~ just like me. A bus brought her from the airport to a Fermanagh bed and breakfast, and kind farmers offered to drive her to Caldragh graveyard. She was to spend a week on Boa Island. I can't remember her name, but I photographed her and her benevolent farmer friends.

3. Take in the Details of the Thin Place
That which lies outside a thin place or how the place is naturally framed can lend meaning to your reflection of the experience as a whole. We only notice details when we stand still and focus all senses on what surrounds us. These details of the surroundings can bring insight that accelerates the growth process.

As I surveyed the cemetery, I noticed it was ringed hazlewoods....a wood commonly used for divining rods (finding water sources) and known to be sacred in ancient times. The mist was still rising from the lumpy mounds of ancient graves, some marked but only by a random rock. The Janus figure stood prominent in the center. It was so dominant, rising above every other thing. It had two faces .. one on each side of a phallic figure. It watched me - followed me - as I moved around the graveyard. From any point, one of his two faces was on me. Next to him was a smaller figure with a face known as the "Lusty Man" because he was found on Lustymore Island nearby and brought to Caldragh in 1939. The time spend in the graveyard was suspended. I have no idea how long I was there. My memories of the visit can't define the length of time I spent there.

I later found a passage from a poem by Seamus Heaney about this place called "January God."

“In the wet gap of the year,
Daubed with fresh lake mud,
I faltered near his power -
January God.”

4. Record Your Memories Soon After the Visit
Whether in writing or by audio recording devise, put down your thoughts and experiences soon after the thin place visit. Though certain things will stand out in your memory, some things won't. They'll only appear in your notes and offer some meaning, and possibly be agents of spiritual change at a later time.

It was after reviewing my notes on that Caldragh visit that I recalled an old castle ruin that was nearby - Castle Caldwell. It was not open to the public. My notes revealed how badly I wanted to explore it, but not being one to defy posted warnings I left the castle unexplored, wondering what the story was behind the castle ... and what the ruins told the explorer. Notes of my second visit to Caldragh had recollections of my husband's first impressions of the graveyard. The notes also contained my reflections on entering, albeit illegally, the Castle Caldwell ruin, led my rebellious husband who had little respect for posted warnings. My notes also jogged my memory of the Drumskinny stone circle that was nearby and our visit there. These recollections brought my entire Caldragh experience into perspective, giving a broader map of signs, insights and meaning.

5. Build Your Internal Gateway at Home ... Store your Notes, Photos and Recordings Together for each Thin Place
This is the most powerful of the keys, because this key renders purpose. When you go back to reflect on a Thin Place, and you have all the information, your photos, your journal notes, transcripts from an audio reflection, perhaps a stone or memento ... the place comes alive again, and new insights develop. You learn new things each time you "revisit." It's as if you open and enter a gateway to a the place all over again. It's during these times you ask yourself, "What did this mean?" and "What did I learn?" Sometimes there are answers ... sometimes not. But the common thread in visiting all the thin places is the Divine Presence. It's so strong in these sites. That alone, makes the visit worth while.

I can't say why, but Caldragh graveyard has one of the most powerful spiritual memories for me. The feeling I got when I was there was like I'd been there before ... and would return again... sort of like a far away home place. Perhaps, in coming years as I enter my Fermanagh Internal Gateway ... when I open the box where I've stored all the photos, reflections and mementos of my visits there, new revelations will appear and I'll learn new things. But for now, the re-experience of the Divine Presence in that particular thin place, is enough of an end result in itself.

Use These Five Steps to Discover Internal Paths
People always ask me about thin places, why I visit them, what's the value, what's the draw. I could spend a lifetime answering. But, to put it simply ... visiting the edge of the other world opens up insights to the present world, insights into the self, insights to the the soul. These insights help us resolve problems, answer nagging questions, make tough decisions, and bring us peace.

Sometimes I link together bits from all the keys to see if a pattern emerges ... in this thin place I have these bits.....

a priest ... a friend ... two-faced ...a vendor from Bethlehem ...a drum - a heartbeat draws ...difficult access ...the Janus figure is the draw ... another led to the site by a friend ...sacred woods surround ... the kindness of strangers ... water, light, rainbows ... entering a forbidden ruin ... all seeing, all knowing, eye on me ... feeling of home away from home ... memory of being where I never was.

Any one of these bits could be an anchor for meditation, and what I learn from that is only for me.

It's up to the journey(wo)man to complete the work that accompanies the visit that will reveal the insight. These five keys - Trace the Route, Notice the Signs, Take in the Details, Record the Memories, and Build the Internal Gateway - are what I follow. I hope they can be of help to you.

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Traveler- Are You a Tourist or Pilgrm?

2009-11-21T12:53:00.003-05:00

It's much more rewarding to travel as a pilgrim rather than a tourist. A tourist goes to see the sites, eat the food and experience the culture .... all worthy initiatives. A pilgrim does the same thing, but travels within the context of a story.

A tourist might visit Dingle and see Mount Brandon (above) on the tip of the peninsula and be stunned by the beauty, take many photos and readily share descriptions of the landscape with friends at home. But a pilgrim would travel to Mount Brandon knowing the story of the mountain ... that St. Brendan the Navigator launched his small fleet of curraghs toting his loyal followers from the foot of Mount Brandon in search of the promised land. And the pilgrim would come with his or her own story. Upon seeing the Holy Mountain, the pilgrim would knowingly become an image in the same landscape where St. Brendan, his followers and all the subsequent pilgrims appear - with Mount Brandon as the anchoring force holding all the memories of pilgrims past. The pilgrim might bring questions on the journey, or bear certain worries, or be looking to achieve a specific personal goal, and traveling to the place within the context of the story makes the pilgrim a living character. Thus, the purpose of the trip has a deeper meaning.

I traveled as a pilgrim to Mount Brandon. I knew the story of Brendan, that he was seeking greater gifts away from his homeland, that he was a leader and one that started many communities of learning and prayer. I knew he was a mystic and that Mount Brandon had been believed to be a sacred site in his time - and before his time. It is still known as a site of great spiritual power today. I knew all these things.

When I walked out onto the strand (beach) just below Mount Brandon, the weather was dismal, but nothing could overcome the stunning glory of that mountain rising out of the Atlantic. As I started to reflect, I thought of how desperately I wanted to write about thin places. But, as often happens when I dream of the book I will eventually write, I was overcome by the fear that I wasn't a good enough writer... that I'd never be able to write words worth reading. I imagined all the great writers whose shadow I'm not worthy to walk in. Angst crept into my prayer there at the foot of Mount Brandon and the desire to write began to wane. I stood for awhile on the strand hoping to have the fear quelled, to be encouraged ... but nothing happened. It began to rain. I hung my head and slunk back to my car to get out of the rain.... but ... in my path I noticed an image in the sand. It looked like a man, handing me something with his right hand.

You may not be able to see the image well in this photo, but I'll never forget it. My worries washed away just as the waves washed him away. I was encouraged, and as a pilgrim, I could feel part of that ancient landscape.

As I drove up the road that leads to the Mount, the clouds broke and rainbow appeared. It was there for 15 full minutes. I snapped several pictures. One of them appears below.

Stones Hold the Memories - the Stones in my Window

2009-11-16T12:40:00.004-05:00

The great Celtic mystic, John O'Donohue writes in Anam Cara that stones and mountains carry memories of the place where they stand. That concept grips me. I love surveying the landscape and imagining what the stones and hills have seen, especially in an ancient place that has changed little in thousands of years.

In Western Europe and in my own country, I have visited many thin places...places I want to remember ... places from which I'd like a memento to carry home. Instead of finding a local gift shop and purchasing a trinket to keep the place alive in my mind and spirit, I find the perfect stone to be the best memento. Then I have a "piece of the place" to hold at home - a piece, that according to O'Donohue holds the memories of the place. Stones from thin places are all around my house clustered on end tables, mantles, sideboards, our wrap around porch - even in the garden. I give each stone a marking so I can identify its origin and elaborate on where I found it when someone asks. My four year old granddaughter Grace recently found a cluster on the table and asked me about each one. She was so fascinated. She wanted to remember the location for each stone in that cluster. It was cute watching her try to pronounce names like Castleruddery Stone Circle and Thoor Ballylee.

My desk (where I write and spend long stretches of time) sits in front of two windows that allow me to look out over my yard. My office is on the second story of our house and there are many large trees - maples, magnolia, crepe myrtles, lombardy poplars, and pines - outside these two windows. I feel like I'm in the trees looking out from the tree tops. The view always inspires me... and it's never quite the same from day to day. On the window sill I have some of my favorite stones from memorable thin places I have visited. They appear in the photo above.

To the far left of my window sill of stones are two heart-shaped red sandstones from a beach on Prince Edward Island. The island earth has been rendered red by the abundance of this soft stone. When hunting for "memento stones" Dan and I decided to specifically look for stones that were heart shaped to bring back to our friends from Dorchester County as gifts from our trip (cheap!). Dorchester County is a heart-shaped land mass known as the "Heart of Chesapeake Country." So it seemed fitting to find a gift - in this case a stone in the shape of a heart - that linked the thin place of our travels to the homeland of our friends. Looking for stones that have a particular shape or theme is always fun. These two heart-shaped PEI stones on my window sill were two I kept for myself.

The pointed stone to the right of my pink hearts is one I got from the shores of Lake Pend Oreille in Idaho. We camped there for a few days and the campsite - the whole lake was magical. This stone reminds me of a nativity figure of the Virgin Mary kneeling at the side of the manger.

Next to the Pend Oreille stone is a round red stone from the beaches of Lindisfarne, also known as Holy Island located in Northumberland - England. I spent a few days there a about twelve years ago and picked up this stone when walking with a special friend, Geoff Porter who was giving me a tour of the island. While walking on the rocky shore near the Lindisfarne Castle, Geoff and I discussed communing with the saints (particularly St Cuthbert) and receiving messages and signs. During that conversation I slipped and nearly fell. As I gained my balance I picked up this stone. It had a perfect cross etched across the surface. Geoff and I marveled at that for a few minutes. It was one of those moments when words weren't necessary and time seemed to freeze. I've always had the Lindisfarne stone near my work desk since.

The stone to the farthest right is from a lake on the Hill of Uisneach in Ireland. The geographic center of Ireland is said to be on this hill. It is a very thin place. A long oral tradition tells that the Hill of Uisneach is sacred. It has special energy, and is a place where many lines of energy meet. I'd heard there was enchanted lake on the hill, and when I traveled there three years ago, I spent hours ... just taking in the landscape, which was magnificent. I found several lakes (more like ponds really), and at the largest lake I scooped up this stone from the mucky lake shore. I imagined how long it had been there hiding in mud at the shore of a possibly enchanted lake on the Hill of Uisneach. I wondered what memories it held. This stone looks remarkably like a bunny... but upon closer examination, it looks like it was once used as some kind of working implement - hammer or grinding stone. A human thumb fits perfectly in the cleft (between the bunny ears and bunny back).

Every day when I look out my windows past my sacred stones, I can't help but feel their energy and memories. Sometimes I pick up a stone and imagine I'm transported back to the thin place where I collected it. These contemplative moments do transcend time and space. I gather strength in holding the stones and remembering. Sometimes I wonder if there isn't some kind of mystical connection between the stone and its prior home in that thin place.

I also have a fifty pound stone I heisted from the Rock of Cashel. It sits near the pond in our front garden. How did I transport it home? That's another story .... another post.

Below are photos of the thin places where I gathered the stones in my window.

Prince Edward Island - North Rustico.

Lake Pend Oreille in Idaho. This photo was taken from our campsite at sunset. The stone was found just at the shore in front of where we were camping.

Lindisfarne Castle

The lake on the Hill of Uisneach.

Six Perfect Days in Ireland - an trip of celebration

2009-09-27T08:41:00.005-05:00

My husband and I were married on September 18th in 1999. Shortly after our wedding, we took a three week trip touring Scotland, Wales, and England with the final 10 days in Ireland. For our ten year anniversary we decided to take a short trip to the country we love so much - Ireland - and to find the perfect place, the perfect thin place, to renew our vows.

Ireland holds a specific charm for us, but we seldom find ourselves where most of the tourists go. Many visitors enthusiastically pace themselves for visits to pubs, breweries, the Waterford factory, the occasional museum, a furious jaunt around the Ring of Kerry, kissing the Blarney Stone, and endless shopping. But we prefer the thin places, those places where the eternal world and the present world seem to mix, often hidden behind the tourists' landscape. Usually marked by some kind of stone or ruin, thin places have been thin forever, and for centuries have drawn the human spirit to rest in their benediction and unfold in their comfortable, nonjudgmental presence.

Of the sites we chose to visit this trip ... some were old familiar friends like the Burren, and others were new to us, with enchanting surprises, always welcoming. But the visit isn't the draw for us. While the sites are interesting and in many cases relaxing due to the unparalleled beauty of the Irish landscape, it's how we are changed by the visit that continues to draw us. Thin places do that. They facilitate a change within, sometimes subtle, sometimes not.

It is the travel and the visit to the thin place that evokes the change, especially when one travels as a pilgrim, that is - travels within the context of a story. A pilgrim learns the story of the destination and also carries his or her own story. The pilgrim travels humbly with full consciousness of personal vulnerabilities, whatever weighs heavy on the heart. For in thin places, one gains comfort, and sometimes answers. Creativity flows, friendships deepen, faith is strengthened. Thin places are the perfect garden where the gifts of the spirit thrive and are cultivated.

Dingle, Glendalough, Clonmacnoise, Clonfert, Castleruddery Stone Circle, Luggala, Thoor Ballylee, Coole Park and Kildare were all stops on this trip, as were visits with new friends and remembrances of old friends. On day five we experienced the warm welcome of Maya Hanley, someone I'd met via Twitter and Facebook. Prior to meeting her I felt I had known her for years from her social media entries... a great writer, Maya. She introduced us to Guinness heir, Garech Browne and Chieftain's musician, Paddy Moloney. On day two we spent the day in literary thin places. Day four was to be a non-thin place day. Dan had never seen Dublin City with Trinity College and the National Museum. But when it came to carving out the time for it he said, "Let's just do what we always do." And we did. We went instead to Glendalough, the ancient monastic city. And each day thereafter we were led to and discovered new places - new thin places. We became images in the most sacred landscape, and found each other again and again.

When we left for Ireland, I had no official plans for our renewal of vows. I figured it would all work itself out ... and it did - perfectly, on day three. To prepare I printed out three copies of our 1999 wedding service, packed a bag with some clothes, maps and several guide books and headed off to Philadelphia Airport for a 9:30pm flight across the Atlantic. We arrived at Shannon Airport early Wednesday morning... and began day one of our six perfect days in Ireland.

Skibbereen - Remembering the Great Hunger

2009-05-17T12:19:00.017-05:00

Famine graves ~ Skibbereen, West Cork

The town of Skibbereen in West Cork was at the center of the horrors of the Great Famine that ravaged Ireland between 1845 and 1850. Over one million Irish natives died of starvation or starvation related diseases. Sadly ... many believe the deaths were unnecessary because the ruling Aglo-Irish were shipping grain and food out of the country for profit while the lower class Irish starved. Some benevolent land owners tried to help their starving Irish tenants, but not enough to stave off the blanket of death that covered the hungry land when the potato crop failed.

Today, May 17, 2009, victims of the Great Famine were remembered at a ceremony in Skibbereen marking the first National Famine Memorial Day. Children from seven local schools lit candles in memory of the victims of the Famine and planted a Rowan tree.

Skibbereen was one of the worst affected areas of Ireland during the Famine, with 28,000 dead and a further 8,000 lost to emigration. It was on the grounds of a Franciscan Priory (referred to as "the abbey") in Skibbereen that between 8000 and 10,000 coffinless bodies were piled into mass graves. The sick were dying too fast to get coffins made, and sparse numbers of healthy people made proper burials impossible. The dying were burying the dead.

The Skibbereen town website tells of some Irish that succumbed to consequences of the needless famine.

On 24th October, 1846 Denis McKennedy dropped dead while working on the Caheragh road. At the Inquest, held at the Abbey graveyard, it was proved that, for the week in question, Mrs McKennedy, for her family of 5, had only 21lbs of potatoes (given by a neighbour), 2 pints of flour and one cabbage. Deceased's wages were 8d. per day, and same were in arrear for two weeks, owing to an official error. The Jury found that deceased died of starvation, owing to the gross negligence of the Board of Works, and, unfortunately, this was not the only case of its kind in the Skibbereen district...

... People crawled into Skibbereen from the country, in the hope of finding some food, and died there. The Workhouse became overcrowded, and though built to hold only 800 people, eventually it had 1449 inmates, and then had to be closed against any more. The mortality there was frightful, 140 having died in December 1846 and, early in 1847 (which was worse year for deaths), there were as many as 65 deaths in one week.

Today, the mass graves and surrounding cemetery and abbey grounds have been transformed into a living memorial for the victims of the Great Famine.

The visitor entering the gateway going into to the Skibbereen Famine cemetery first enters a kind of covered vestibule with the following word carved into the walls:

Ireland’s worse single disaster – the Great Famine 1845-1850
Resulted in the deaths of over a million of its people
With more than another million consigned to the immigrant ships.
Skibbereen at the the centerof the horror suffered more than other places and here
In the famine burial pits of this cemetery were placed the coffinless remains of 9000 victims… a chilling reminder of man’s inhumanity to man. Happier were the victims of the sword than the victims of hunger who pined away , stricken by want of the fruits of the field.

The visitor leaves that area and walks into the open cemetery where he or she is met by four standing stones engraved with the following words:

Stone 1
A million a decade of human wrecks
Corpses lying in fever sheds
Corpses huddled on foundering decks
And shroudless dead on their rocky beds
Nerve and muscle and heart and brain
Lost to Ireland. Lost in vain.

Stone 2
Pause and you can almost hear the sound echo down the ages.
The creak of the burial cart
The rattle of the hinged coffin door
The sigh of spade on earth
Now and again
All day long

Stone 3
Here in humiliation and sorrow not unmixed with indignation
One is driven to exclaim, “O God, that bread should be so dear and human flesh so cheap."

Stone 4
1845 – 1850 To the nameless dead victims of famine and fever who lie here in the abbey and in other cemeteries in wayside graves.

Just behind these stones is an expansive, lumpy grass-covered knoll ~ the mass graves of the famine victims. A small white stone rests at the edge carved with the following:

IN MEMORY
OF THE VICTIMS OF
THE FAMINE 1845-48
WHOSE COFFINLESS BODIES
WERE BURIED IN THIS PLOT

It's overwhelming to walk the cemetery grounds and try to grasp the magnitude of 10,000 individuals ... all dead ... all discarded here, abandoned by the government that should have cared for them ... with no names, no ritual, no loving tributes. The place is heavy with sorrow, yet is a testimony to the Irish capacity to weave tender art into miserable recollections. Here tihe artistic interpretation is to remember, lest we repeat the horrible action.

The ruins of the old abbey are in the center of the cemetery, which is on an incline. They are moss and ivy covered and barely discernible. At first, the famine dead were buried in unmarked graves beside the abbey. Lumpy, grass covered areas flank the ruins, some marked by a rock or makeshift nameless marker. The juxtaposition of these unmarked graves with those that have ornate headstones and carved crosses reveal the disparity in means of those who mourned. But there is a strange sense of equality among the dead.

Across the street from the cemetery is the Skibbereen Heritage Center housed in a restored old gasworks building. There are state-of-the-art interpretive displays and multi-media presentations that give a close view of the Great Famine and how it effected Skibbereen particularly. There is also a Famine Trail that begins at the town square and passes by many of the same buildings that were in use at the time of the Famine.

When I visited Skibbereen in February 2007, I spent about an hour in the Heritage Center and then another hour in the cemetery with constant reflection on the human tragedies and unnecessary sufferings and deaths of these Irish people. This was my fifth day in Ireland, and I had already covered over 900 miles in my rental car.

My next stop was to be Drombeg Stone Circle. My mind was still racing with thoughts of death and the Famine when I exited the car park. I unthinkingly pulled my car into the "right" lane (as we do in America), and began driving down the motorway in a lane meant for on-coming traffic. I had never had this type of "directional memory lapse" in all my years (and thousands of miles) driving in Ireland and the UK.

A car came around the bend and met me head-on. It stopped quickly as I did. We did not collide, but I will never forget his face and the look of shock on it.

The driver just waited there holding back the traffic behind him. He waited for me to get my composure and right myself. After a moment I pulled into the proper lane, gave a nod of anguished thanks that driver, and proceeded out of town.

Strange happening, that.

Apart from the austerity of the Great Famine memories, Skibbereen (Irish for "little boat harbor") is large, bustling town with a small town feel. It has many attractions that include beaches, woodlands, lakes, sports recreation, shopping and dining. The Skibbereen town Website has more information.

Thoor Ballylee - Yeats' Thin Place

2009-04-05T16:44:00.037-05:00

There was no part of Ireland I did not travel, from the rivers to the tops of the mountains. I saw no beauty what was behind hers ~ W.B. Yeats

Thoor Ballylee
Castle Restored by William Butler Yeats

In County Galway near the town of Gort, lies a 16th century Norman castle with a small cottage attached. The Irish Literary Revival began near this castle - in Coole Park, an estate owned by Lady Gregory where she hosted the likes of George Bernard Shaw, W. B. Yeats and J. M. Synge. It was a haven - a place of retreat for William Butler Yeats.

Yeats was aging - nearly 50 - when he opined to his dear friend Lady Gregory that he wanted to settle down; to have a home - a family. For years his heart belonged to Maude Gonne, but his love was unrequited. He was alone. Lady Gregory discovered an old castle with attached cottage for sale near Coole Park. In 1917 Yeats purchased it for 35 pounds, and left for France to propose to Maude Gonne one last time. She refused. Shortly after, he traveled to England where he met and married Georgina Hyde-Lees. No longer single, Yeats labored to restore the old Castle for his new bride "George."

In naming the property Yeats dropped the term "castle" and replaced it with "Thoor" - the Irish word for tower, and the place became known as Thoor Ballylee. Yeats and his wife and their children enjoyed this country retreat, and used it as their summer home for 12 years. He is quoted in a letter to friend regarding Thoor Ballylee "everything is so beautiful that to go elsewhere is to leave beauty behind."

And what a fair setting, on the banks of the River Cloon snaking through a landscape shaded with large trees and flowering shrubs. The traveler entering the property from the main road turns onto a winding lane that connects to an old stone bridge just before the tower. The lane continues past the cottage, through the trees, and becomes a river walk that eventually leads to an old mill. The seclusion, even today, wraps the estate in a presence that shuns the outside world, carving out a protected niche where good things - love, peace and creativity - can flourish. It's no wonder a poet was compelled to create here. It was at Thoor Ballylee that Yeats wrote "The Tower" poem collection.

An Ancient Bridge, and a more ancient tower,

A farm-house that is sheltered by its wall,

An acre of stony ground,

Where the symbolic rose can break in flower,

Old ragged elms, old thorns innumerable,

The sound of the rain or sound

Of every wind that blows,

The stilted water-hen

That plunged in stream again

Scarred by the splashing of a hundred cows.

From the battlements atop the tower one gets a panoramic view of the grounds, the river, the trees and the cleared area where the bones of an old garden lay in wait to be resurrected. Further out in the distance lay the soft hills and plains of the Galway landscape.

On the first floor of the tower a steep spiral staircase hewn from stone, winds to the upper floors.

I declare this tower is my symbol; I declare
This winding, gyring, spiring treadmill of a stair is my ancestral stair;

Time spirals like the winding stair at Thoor Ballylee. The turning of years is noted by symbols marking each era.... Like the old castle - once home to Irish warriors, sleeping in ruins behind weeds and underbrush, crumbling and forgotten. Centuries later a poet resurrects the castle. He makes it his home, his fortress, his writing place. He makes the castle live again, like the symbolic rose that broke in flower despite the stony ground. As the poet thrives in his restored castle, he senses the turning of time - both past and future.

The poet looks to his ancestors, to those that laid stone upon stone erecting the tower and cottage on this particular tract of land. And he writes of his reflections.

He looks forward and in his mind forecasts his graceful tower falling into ruin after he and his family are long gone. He yearns to be remembered... to be known as the poet, as the restorer of Thoor Ballylee, as someone with a significant spot in the legacy of this place.

As part of the restoration, Yeats had a slate slab carved with a short verse. The slate was embedded into the tower wall under his direction. All who pass can read the words and trace the letters with their fingers ...

I, the poet William Yeats,
With old mill boards and sea-green slates,
And smithy work from the Gort forge,
Restored this tower for my wife George;
And may these characters remain
When all is ruin once again.

I traced those letters one February as I stood in the rain by the deserted tower. Empty as it was, the old place still breathed and the surrounding landscape echoed the life force that was Thoor Ballylee. I recalled a passage Mark Twain wrote about the Victorian mansion he built for his family in Connecticut ... "Our house was not insentient matter -- it had a heart, and a soul, and eyes to see us with ... it was of us, and we were in the peace of its benediction. We never came home from an absence that its face did not light up and speak out its eloquent welcome -- and we could not enter it unmoved. "

The sketch above is a work by Lady Gregory, Yeats' dear friend. It is her interpretation of Thoor Ballylee. The shadowy phantom dolmen in the sky hints at the mystical charism of the place.

I concur. It's a thin place.

There in the February damp I assumed my place in the time spiral - looking back at Yeats, at those who came before him. I feel the presence of Lady Gregory, the writers, the poets and masses who passed here over the centuries. Now I'm a part of that collection - ascending ancestral winding stair.

And what of the future? Perhaps Thoor Ballylee will crumble into ruins again. And perhaps some artist, poet, or warrior of the time will collect the fallen remnants and craft them into a grand home and protective shelter that nurtures creativity and repels the white noise of outside world. He or she will assume a position on the winding stair and continue the legacy of Thoor Ballylee. And time will keep circling. And we, who have been here will be with them.

Benighted travellers
From markets and from fairs
Have seen his midnight candle glimmering.
The river rises and sinks again;
One hears the rumble of far below
Under its rocky hole.
What Median, Persian, Babylonian
In reverie, or in vision, saw
Symbols of the soul.

verses from The Tower by W. B. Yeats.

10 Tips for Travel to Ireland

2009-03-29T08:22:00.031-05:00

Ten Tips for Getting the Most Out of Your Ireland Vacation

1. RENT A CAR IF POSSIBLE: Many first-time American visitors will use a tour bus for the land portion of their trip because they are fearful of driving in a foreign country, on the wrong side of the road on the wrong side of the car. If you are a good driver, you will be able to handle driving in Ireland. If you're a little nervous, rent a car with an automatic transmission. It costs more, but shifting is one less thing to think about while driving.

That said, a group tour traveling by tour bus can be a wonderful experience. But if you choose to go with a group choose one that will offer some level of flexibility and will visit some of the "hidden Ireland."

The flexibility of having your own car is twice or three times the value of being dependent on a second party. Also, it's often cheaper to make your car rental reservations on line when you book your airfare. I use Orbitz and Travel Zoo. You can specify the size of the car, insurance choices and standard vs. automatic, and it will be ready for you when you arrive at the airport.

2. GET A GOOD ROAD MAP OR TWO: - I always use two different maps - one that has more details in ROADS, and one that has more details with SITE MARKINGS. Roads in Ireland, especially off the beaten path can be confusing. A detailed road map (I use Michelin - can be purchased at Barnes and Noble)will be beneficial for keeping you on your course and excellent if you happen to get lost (you will get lost). Choose a second one that marks many sites of interest, such as "Ballintober Abbey" in Mayo or "the Hill of Slane" in Meath. Then you can see where your destination lies in relation to crossroads and you can see what you are traveling past that you may not want to miss. (Actually, the map published by the Irish Tourist Board, usually given free at the Airport is very good for site markings.)

3. HAVE THREE GOOD GUIDEBOOKS: Guidebooks are written from different perspectives and not all are equal. Most focus on accommodations, attractions and dining. Some will have more details than others. Many are out of date because things change so quickly in Ireland, and it's too expensive to publish a guidebook every year. I have recommended 3 guidebooks that I use to get a comprehensive and up-to-date view of Ireland, but search around and pick three that you like. Look for up-to-date information, comprehensive coverage of sites, and a specialty guidebook suited for your interests (nature, history, golf, literary, pubs, etc).

You can read about these 3 books in greater detail in my Top 3 Ireland Guidebooks post.

Ireland 2009, by Rick Steves has the most up-to-date information. Rick Steves is the number 1 selling guidebook author in America and he updates his guidebooks every year - so admission prices, accommodation costs, and local information is the most accurate you can get. Rick was a history major and it shows in his writings. He adds interesting historical tidbits. His section on Ireland Past and Present gives a concise view of Ireland's evolving history - a perfect primer for the traveler.
The Ireland Country Guide, by Lonely Planet has the most comprehensive list of sites, attractions and accommodations, as well as tons of photographs and historic background. I love the "voice" of this guide - very casual, very personal. This is the best comprehensive guide I've found for planning and I carry it my car when traveling in Ireland.
The Traveler's Guide to Sacred Ireland, by Cary Meehan is my favorite guidebook because my particular interest in Ireland is the country's heritage, culture and links to Celtic Spirituality. Meehan lists hundreds of sites across Ireland that are sacred or mystical or tied to legend offering historical information, location, directions. In her own unobtrusive, humble way she reveals some of the mystical aura of each site. Every guidebook will have Newgrange, Hill of Tara, Drombeg Stone Circle, and the beehive huts in Dingle. But Meehan's book contains ancient sacred sites never listed in the major guidebooks, and it's laid out geographically so you can pick it up at any time during your travels and see what's near. NOTE: This is my guidebook pick for my particular interest. If your interest is pubs, genealogy, castles, horses, golf, whatever - get a guidebook specifically suited to your interest

GUIDEBOOK COST: A guide book costs about $20. Consider this an investment in your trip. If you're spending hundreds or thousands of dollars on a vacation, money you spend on guidebooks will deliver 10 times that amount in travel experience.

4. PLAN, PLAN, PLAN: Planning before you leave home will make the difference between your being a tourist with limited experiences, or a savvy traveler - or better yet, being a pilgrim. (Pilgrim definition - A "pilgrim" is someone who travels within the context of a story - kind of a "theme traveler" - more on this in another post). Use your maps and guidebooks and make a list of sites that interest you well in advance. Then map out your course (read steps 5 and 6 before mapping out). Reserve your accommodations in advance (most will reserve via the Internet). Check with a travel agent to assist you with possible special deals concerning airfare, hotel, b&b and admission to attractions.

5. STICK TO ONE REGION (OR TWO): Because Ireland is small country (about the size of West Virginia) visitors often cram too much into one visit trying to navigate the entire country. If your trip is one - two weeks long, try to see more sites in less miles of travel. Your experience will be richer as you will be less tired and will have more time to hook into the Irish culture. Don't rush. The typical Ireland tour has 40-50 visitors on a large tour bus traveling for 10 days seeing Dublin (Trinity College), Blarney Castle, Ring of Kerry, Cliffs of Moher, Newgrange, Bunratty Castle, Waterford Factory, Guinness Brewery, W.B. Yeats' grave, and maybe (if you're lucky) Glendaolough or the Giant's Causeway - with various pubs along the way.

All of these are very worthy sites to visit - but if these sites are crammed into one ten-day tour, you'll pass by much of Ireland. You'll also experience less of the local culture.

Dublin and the East: If you love history, architecture and culture, then visit Dublin with Trinity College, the Irish History Museum, the restaurants, theater and shopping. Also in this region is the Hill of Tara, Newgrange passage tombs, and the Boine valley. The Wicklow mountains are near with the ancient monastic city of Glendalough. Kildare is a close ride and is famous for the thoroughbred horses, the curragh, the Japanese Gardens, and the holy wells and monastic sites of St. Brigid.
The West: If you love a wild landscape relatively untouched by development with archaeological wonders - visit the West. The Burren with the ancient Poulnabrone dolmen, the hills and bogs of Connemara - some of the rarest "light" in Ireland, Galway, Westport, the Literary paths of W. B. Yeats and Lady Gregory, the Aran Islands, the sheer cliffs of Achill Island, the Shrine of Our Lady of Knock, and pubs full of traditional Irish music.
The South has beautiful coastlines, castles, formal gardens, and the second largest city- Cork, as well as Cobh famous for its port, Wexford the medieval city, and Kinsale which is becoming known for gourmet restaurants. The south is famous for its beautiful, scenic fingers - The Beara Peninsula, The Dingle Peninsula and the Iveragh Peninsula (Ring of Kerry) landscapes that rival any in Western Europe for beauty.
The North has the hills of Donegal (one could spend a week here and never run out of things to see) and the wonderful counties of Northern Ireland - Fermanagh with its scenic lakes and megalithic monuments, Belfast - a historic, vibrant city, Derry - the only completely walled city in Western Europe, the Glens of Antrim, the Giant's Causeway, the oldest continually operational distillery in the world - Bushmills, and the home of St. Patrick - Armagh.

6. STAY AT LEAST TWO NIGHTS IN A LOCATION: There's nothing that tires a traveler more than schlepping their gear in and out of the car and hotel room, checking in and checking out. When you plan your trip, pick "hubs" where you will stay for a few days, then make day trips from there spanning out like the spokes of a wheel. You can travel 40 to 50 miles in an hour which covers a lot of territory in Ireland. Staying in one place also helps you get to know the people of that locale, especially if you're staying in a B&B thus getting maximum exposure to Irish hospitality - one of the country's greatest tourist assets.

Choose your "hubs" or central locations, then decide if you want to stay at a B&B or Hotel. B&Bs are pretty modern these days, offering private bathrooms (en suite) and televisions. Some even have phones for guests, dinners upon request, family rooms, and high speed Internet access. The benefit to a B&B is expense (they run cheaper than hotels) and the friendship guests gain with the host family. You experience hospitality up-close and personal. Hotels and Country houses are another option.
Once you've identified your "hubs" choose accommodations and make reservations before you leave. The Irish Tourist Board has good listings for B&Bs, hotels, country houses, hostels, camping sites and self catering on its website. They will also send you free booklets that have comprehensive lists of these types of accommodations.

7. PUB FOOD VS. RESTAURANT: Most pubs serve food, so consider them for lunch and dinner. If you're entering a restaurant, take notice whether or not there is a pub attached to it. In many cases the pub offers the same food at a cheaper price. At a pub you can usually pick a table and sit away from the bar (if you want privacy and don't want conversation). I always go right up to the bar and sit down. I ask if they serve food (the answer is almost always yes), then I order and eat at the bar. Invariably someone will speak to me / us. The visit is much more pleasant, and I spend less money for the meal.

8. RENT A CELL PHONE IN IRELAND: On my last trip to Ireland I used my personal cell phone, stayed 10 days and my cell phone bill was $358. I did speak to my husband each day for a few minutes, but we paid overseas long distance charges at both ends. Additionally I made many calls in Ireland - phoning the B&Bs, calling ahead to attractions to check hours, calling to local tourism offices to find out where the nearest Wi-Fi cafes were. I discovered later that you can rent a phone and pay by minutes of use and it's much cheaper. In most cases you can find a vendor near the airport.

9. USE THE ATM (CASH POINT) TO GET EUROS: Exchange rates vary and if you're wanting to get your Euros before you leave home - don't. It costs you to use those exchange stations. Once you're at the airport ask where the nearest "cash point" machine is. You insert your VISA or VISA Debit Card and withdraw however much you want. Only take as much as you need for a few days, as these machines are in every City. The exchange rate is lowest this way and you don't have to worry about carrying lots of cash to get you through the vacation. Check with local bank before you leave to see if they impose an additional fee for these withdrawals.

10. VISIT THE ROCK OF CASHEL: Every person should visit the Rock of Cashel at least once in his or her life. To me, this is the most amazing site in Ireland with the most rich history - both legendary and mystical. The rock itself is geographic wonder. The fact that civilizations living in the Golden Vale of County Tipperary have held it sacred for centuries and marked it with various monuments is also a wonder. This was where the Kings of Munster ruled - including Brian Boru, the High King of Ireland. Ruins of Cathedral are atop the Rock today. I visit Cashel every time I go to Ireland. It is a thin place.

Check out our Thin Places Mystical Tour of Ireland this September.

For more information on Ireland and sites to visit, please scan the other posts on this blog. Additionally, you may want to visit these links:

Thin Places - Photographs of thin places in Ireland and UK
Discover Ireland - Irish Tourist Board site
Browse Ireland
Fishing in Ireland
Irish Literature, Mythology, Folklore and Drama
Irish Weather
Bernd Biege's About.com - Travel Ireland

When God is Silent

2009-03-15T11:21:00.014-05:00

When God is silent, move to a thin place.

When prayer is stale and seems rote and weak, uncharged with that cosmic-mystical quality that is beyond our power to bring forth ... what's a soul to do?

Not too long ago, I found myself stuck with the "silence." It was frightening. But I found a way to hear the voice again.

This way does not mirror the typical ways taught in catechism training or Sunday school. I couldn't break the silence by going to Mass, reading scripture, taking long nature walks, sitting silent by the ocean, praying with other people, or practicing devotions (novenas). None of these brought back that communion with the Divine Presence I had known all my life; that same communion that was always accessible and allowed me to hear the voice, the message, the "touch" from the Other side; that communion that I could not create or summon - but had always been there.

Coming from a large Catholic family, with icons in every room and statues on bureaus, shelves and window sills complimented by 12 years of Catholic school - God was ever present in my life ... God was a way of life. The concept of a silent God was foreign to me.

Actually, for most of my life - God was loud!

God was in every place, in every human, in music, in poetry, in art, in pain, in joy, in the past, in the present. God waited to be spoken to, prayed to, worshiped. And we his (or her) faithful followers did what we were told - according to what was written in the Gospels. God's voice told us what to do. "Love your God with all your heart and your neighbor as yourself."

Then, unexpectedly, God went silent.

The Gospels never said what to do when you stopped feeling the presence .. or hearing the voice. When art, people, nature and music no longer moved you deeper into the Divine Presence, how do you find him again?

Move to a thin place.

A thin place is a place on earth where the veil between this physical world we experience with our five senses and the eternal world is "thin." The eternal world is more near.These thin places are not made thin by you or me - or anyone else. They are inherently thin, which is a mystery. There is a cosmic, mystical quality to the place itself that transcends the senses. The physical world and the Otherworld (the world of Divine Presence) are knitted together.

Ireland is full of these thin places. They have been marked for centuries by inhabitants of many faiths and religious practices. Their "thinness" is unexplainable, but if you are lucky enough to visit one of these many sites or find one close to home - and on your journey to the thin place you carry your hunger, yearnings and questions to God in hopes of an encounter- you will be changed.

I can always hear His voice in a thin place.

Though I cannot visit Ireland easily as I live 3000 away, I can always visit in my mind. I visualize the spot, and imagine the feel of the ground, the sound of the wind, the reflection of the sunlight - or moonlight, the ripples on the water, or the smell of the bog. I try in my imagination to use all five senses - then I wait in stillness. The human spirit can transcend the boundaries of the body. Imagination is the vehicle.

God's silence is broken. He always speaks to me in thin places.

Music is Transportation into the Divine

2009-03-09T07:08:00.011-05:00

St. Cecilia by John Melhuish Strudwick (1849-1935)

Music is transportation into the Divine Presence.

Trying to move into a state of deep prayer can be daunting for an obsessive compulsive adult like me with Attention Deficit Disorder. I try to pray, but as I begin my prayer I'm often distracted by what I have to do in 30 minutes.

I pray for my son, then think... "Doesn't he have a doctor's appointment next week? I better call him." or I pray for my sick relative and then remember that his daughter's birthday is coming up and I should send a card.

Staying focused in prayer long enough to feel it change me is difficult. Not getting focused results in vapid prayer that seems rote and stale.

What's the cure for getting and staying focused? How does one move from distraction to devotion?

Music is the vehicle.... use it to transport you to a level that goes deeper than the distractions. It will deliver you through the doorway that opens into the Otherworld.

Not all music is created equal. I find clear melodies played with smooth instruments - piano, flute, harp, classical guitar are the best. Just listening in silence moves me directly into the Divine Presence.

My favorites are listed below. If you click on the link you will be taken to a web page where you can sample the melody online.

Gabriel's Oboe by Ennio Morricone
The Water is Wide by Phil Coulter
Land of Forever by 2002
Song from a Secret Garden by Secret Garden
Celtic Mediation Music by Aine Minogue

"Music gives a soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination, and life to everything."
~Plato

"God is the Supreme Musician. It is He who is playing with us, on us and in us. We cannot separate God from His music. The universal Consciousness is constantly being played by the Supreme Himself, and is constantly growing into the Supreme Music."
~Sri Chimnoy

"The finest emotion of which we are capable is the mystic emotion. Herein lies the germ of all art and all true science. Anyone to whom this feeling is alien, who is no longer capable of wonderment and lives in a state of fear is a dead man"
~Albert Einstein

Kildare and St. Brigid of Ireland

2009-02-01T16:25:00.018-05:00

Legend tells us that St Brigid was born near Kildare to a slave mother who was a Christian and very sickly. As a child, Brigid persuaded the Druid master to free her mother which in turn freed Brigid to enter religious life.

Since there were no convents in Ireland, Brigid began one in Kildare. The sisters of St. Brigid prayed simply and deeply and served the poor. We know that Brigid was a contemporary of St. Patrick and a strong legend states that she was ordained a bishop because of her superior knowledge and closeness to God.

Brigid is now one of Ireland's patron saints, and is often linked in patronage to farmers and poor pastoral workers. On the place where she founded her first convent in Kildare stands the Kildare Cathedral - now Church of Ireland. Nearby is St. Brigid's Holy Well.

"A holy well is very special. To watch water springing from the earth is to witness creation in the act of pure, unconditional generosity. At a holy well, my own interior holy well has an opportunity to make itself known to me." - Gay Barbizon, Brigid's Kildare; The Fire, the Well and the Oak.

Pictured here is St. Brigid's Holy Well in Kildare. It is a public space with marked stations. At each station the pilgrim recites particular devotional prayers to St. Brigid.

This is a very Thin Place.

Top 3 Ireland Guidebooks

2008-05-20T10:49:00.028-05:00

Don't travel to Ireland without a few good guidebooks. Leave the stacks of free brochures and pamphlets you acquired ahead of time at home.

I have over seventy books about Ireland and about twenty of those are specifically guidebooks - or guides for the traveler offering information on sites, attractions, accommodations, dining and shopping. Some have maps. Most have photos, but all guidebooks tend to become out of date as prices change and businesses come and go.

Travel guru, Rick Steves makes a good point when he says people are often reluctant to pay the typical cost for a guidebook ($20) when they can get brochures and visitor guides for free. A good guidebook pays for itself over and over by saving the traveler time and money through offering advice and tips on good deals, the best bargains and choices according to budget. (Steves' is one of - if not - THE world's top guidebook writer.)

All good guidebooks will have information about culture, language, transportation, accommodations, shopping, dining, a glossary, maps, directions, and historical facts - with price suggestions based on the traveler's budget. I read extensively in advance when planning my trips, and I include guidebooks in my research. But I take three guidebooks with me on my trips to Ireland. These three have all the qualities mentioned above for good guidebooks, but each of these has something unique that no other guidebook has.

My top three picks for Ireland guidebooks are:

NUMBER 1

Ireland (Country Guide)
by Lonely Planet

I've been a Lonely Planet guidebook fan for years. My primary reason for choosing this as my top pick in COMPREHENSIVENESS. The sites I hit in Ireland aren't always the most popular or famous, so I want a guidebook that will have more of the out-of-the-way sites included. Lonely Planet seldom fails me. This guidebook follows all 32 Counties (includes Northern Ireland), so it completely covers the Island. Additionally, nothing compares to the liberal, easy-going, entertaining style of the Lonely Planet writers. One of my favorite features of this book are the unique sidebars with interesting facts, trivia or food for thought - like "Top Five Ways to Ruin Your Day at Dusk" or "Did St. Brendan really discover America" and "Shameless Sheilas or Symbolic Shamanesses?". This guidebook is comprehensive, informative and entertaining. When I want to look something up, this is the first guidebook I reach for.

NUMBER 2

Rick Steves' Ireland 2012
Steves is the only guidebook writer that updates his books every year, so the prices and information are the most accurate that can be found. I carry this book along with me in Ireland since the history of the sites I visit is important to me, and Rick Steves (who holds a degree in European History) is a master at briefly framing a site with a historical perspective. Rick writes his guidebooks himself, rather than have a team of writers compile information, and he spent many years as a travel guide. His guidebooks give you the sense that he's is right there with you, leading the way. He'll often direct the reader step-by-step - "turn your back on St. Patrick's Cross, and walk about 100 feet slightly uphill along the gravel path beside the cathedral... you will find yourself at the entrance of ..."

NUMBER 3
The Traveller's Guide to Sacred Ireland: A Guide to the Sacred Places of Ireland, Her Legends, Folklore and People
By Cary Meehan
Sacred Ireland focuses on the hidden sites frequently missed in Ireland that are also the sites that give Ireland its mystical charism, which is the very charm that attracts the traveler. Stone circles, passage tombs, ancient carved stones, dolmens, holy wells, enchanted lakes, ancient ring forts and archaeological ruins are what this book features. Another benefit is the 18 page inclusion about the origins of the sacred landscape of Ireland. This chapter puts history and myth in perspective, and helps the traveler understand the Irish historical timeline. The author is a bit of a mystic herself, and her insights and interpretations make this guidebook a great read for anyone interested in the sacred sites or ancient history of Ireland. This book is a MUST for all those interested in Thin Places.

HONORABLE MENTION

Bord Failte Ireland Guide, 4th Edition
Put out by the Irish Tourist Board, this guide is written from the Irish perspective, welcoming the visitor to Ireland. Rather than giving specifics on prices and listings, this is an in-depth view of the sites and attractions that are constant in Ireland, complimented with endless color photographs. There's background information on Irish music, ancient Ireland, horse racing, the Irish language, Irish flora and fauna, and Irish sports. All 32 counties are included. The book is divided regionally with color coded tabs making it easy to use as a reference. It also details some of the lesser traveled areas such as Laois, Westmeath, Cavan and Moneghan. It is chocked full of photos and insider information for understanding the sites and attractions in Ireland as well as the Irish culture, lifestyle, environment, economy and heritage.

The Rock of Cashel - the thinnest place in Ireland

2008-05-01T03:31:00.013-05:00

Every time I visit Ireland - no matter where I'm scheduled to be - I visit the Rock of Cashel. For me it is the quintessential thin place, always drawing me, calling me, awakening me.

The Pre-Christian and Celtic people of Ireland, Scotland, Wales and England had a keen sense for thin places. The landscape in these countries is littered with man-made markings and ruins that remind the passer-by that this is holy ground. The rocks, trees and landscape seem to contain the memories of spiritual exercises here long ago and present.

Cashel is a thin place.

The very ground itself seems to call out, "Come here and be transformed." In a quiet moment, the pilgrim today can sense a connection with the souls that have marked these spots with their spirits. Cashel is a vivid reminder that we are all joined inside and outside of time.I will never forget the first time I saw the Rock of Cashel.

At 10:00 a.m. we came down the Tipperary Road into Cashel. Seeing the Rock emerge from the landscape stirred childhood memories of seeing Emerald City rise up at the end of the yellow brick road in the Wizard of Oz. It was a moment when time stood still, burned in my memory like a trauma or birth.

That day we climbed the Rock of Cashel and wandered through the Cathedral ruins and cemetery. I knew nothing then about the history, who lived there, who ruled from there, what events took place there, but I knew it was a thin place. There was something exhilarating about Cashel, an excitement, a sense of power.

Cashel has long been linked with power. Warriors, chieftains, kings, princes, saints and bishops have all come here to mark the Rock as the seat of power, and blood has been spilled in that struggle for power. The Rock is not a peaceful place - as its legacy is riddled with memories of those who founght for power, stole power, ran to take refuge under the mantle of the powerful, and those who gloriously won the power.
The thinness is palpable. Your spirit is awake at Cashel.
I have returned to the Rock of Cashel with every visit to Ireland. I have seen the Rock lit up at night, covered in rain and mist, set against the frigid winter landscape and lingering through the long days of summer where the sun barely sets before rising again.
The Rock of Cashel, though in ruin, has a constancy; a historic brilliance that defies the modernization that grows around it with new homes, buildings and roadways. Cashel boldly claims her history, memories of kings, chieftains, warriors, bards, and holy men - thrusting them before us, urging us to enter in to her ancient legacy - and to return, and return and return.
So many people ask me, "What should I see on my visit to Ireland?"I always say, "Don't miss the Rock of Cashel." Sadly, only a few follow my advice.
What a pity.
They'll never know what I know... that Cashel will seduce you like a lover and cling to your spirit, planting some small charm that draws you back to her, creating a hunger for reunion. With each visit your are strengthened and sustained ... until the next time. Cashel is like a first love. Though time, distance and life experience may stand between you - you never forget her, and you will return to her over and over in your imagination. You are changed forever for having known her.

For the complete article on The Rock of Cashel, by Mindie Burgoyne, please visit http://writingthevision.com/rockofcashel.htm

Walking in Thin Places

2008-04-30T03:16:00.003-05:00

What is a thin place? To discern the difference between an ordinary place and a thin place, one must use a spiritual perspective. In simple terms a ‘thin place’ is a place where the veil between this world and the Other world is thin, the Other world is more near.

This meaning assumes the perceiver senses the existence of a world beyond what we know through our five senses. Since the times of ancient civilization the fascination with the "Other world" has occupied human minds. To some it is heaven, the kingdom, paradise. To others it may be hell, an abyss, the unknown. Whatever you perceive the Other world to be, a thin place is a place where connection to that world seems effortless, and ephemeral signs of its existence are almost palpable.

Mahatma Ghandi in his Spiritual Message to the World in 1931, speaks of this.

There is an indefinable, mysterious power that pervades everything. I feel it, though I do not see it. It is this unseen power that makes itself felt and yet defies all proof, because it is so unlike all that I perceive through my senses. It transcends the senses.

Truth abides in thin places; naked, raw, hard to face truth. Yet the comfort, safety and strength to face that truth also abides there. Thin places captivate our imagination, yet diminish our existence. We become very small, yet we gain connection and become part of something larger than we can perceive.

The human spirit is awakened and will grow if the body and mind allow it. Simply put, a thin place is a place where one feels that indefinable mysterious power Ghandi refers to. Ghandi believed (and stated later in the same speech), that the mysterious power was God.

Thin places should not be confused with thin moments, those being times when that mysterious power is felt during a particular experience or synchronistic course of events such as the birth of a child, the return of a loved one, reconciliation with an enemy or spiritual awakening. A thin place is simply that – a PLACE where the veil is thin. The place itself calls you, draws you into itself, transports you into the presence of the world beyond this world. The thinness of place moves you into the presence of the mysterious power. There, all things you perceive through your senses are charged, electrified, illuminated with the presence of that power.

Describing the meaning of thin place is like describing love, fear, the feeling of holding your newborn child, the existence of God. All attempts are feeble and all talk is cheap. Understanding marries experience and full understanding is almost never achieved.

In truth, however, once you’ve been in a thin place and allowed your spirit to absorb that which transcends the senses, all need for definition ceases. Our spirits learn differently than our minds. All through our lives we walk through these places. Some people notice the thinness. Some do not. Yet the idea of "thin places" is not new. Memorials - made by humans - have been marking thin places for thousands of years. Ancient people, especially in Ireland and Britain were forever marking spaces as sacred and worth remembering, as if to say, "something special happened here."

You can look for thin places, but frequently they will find you. Most of the sites on this web site, though they are only a handful of the thin places I have visited and photographed, were recommended to me by others in casual conversation or a short note in a letter. Once you set your spirit on finding them - they will actually find you. There is an intrinsic, mystical spirit woven into the fabric of nature, landscape and sky that calls out to every human heart - if only the heart is willing to listen.

Thin Places are ports in the storm of life, where the pilgrims can move closer to the God they seek, where one leaves that which is familiar and journeys into the Divine Presence. They are stopping places where men and women are given pause to wonder about what lies beyond the mundane rituals, the grief, trials and boredom of our day-to-day life. They probe to the core of the human heart and open the pathway that leads to satisfying the familiar hungers and yearnings common to all people on earth, the hunger to be connected, to be a part of something greater, to be loved, to find peace.

May your spirit soar as you begin your journey into Thin Places.

St. Davids - a Thin Place in Wales

2008-03-04T15:54:00.008-05:00

In the southeastern part of Wales lies the St. David's peninsula, and on it the town of St. David's, known to be one of the holiest places in in Wales. Named for St. David (FEAST DAY MARCH 1st) who was born around 520 and founded a dozen or so monasteries, this town of pilgrimage has been the destination of people searching for spiritual renewal since before the middle ages.

It is believed that St. David was born to his mother, St. Non not far from the town of St. Davids. Legend states that St. Non used supported herself on a nearby stone during the birthing of her son David. Afterwards, imprints of her fingers remained on the stone. Additionally, a well sprang forth from the spot where David was born, and runs still today possessing healing, sanctifying powers according to centuries of pilgrim testimony.

Today, the holy well can be visited and the birthing stone can be viewed. One can even place his or her fingers into the ancient imprints of St. Non.

In the town of St. David's, a Norman cathedral sits on the site, that David's original monastic settlement occupied. The cathedral houses the relics of St. David and many other artifacts of Christianity and local history. Edmund Tudor, grandfather of Henry VIII is buried in this twelfth century cathedral.

St. David's was the largest and most important diocese in medieval Wales. An episcopal residence was built near the cathedral and eventually expanding by Bishop Henry Gower in the early 14th century. This became known as The Bishop's Palace. It was an imposing structure, suitable for receiving high-ranking guests and dignitaries.

After Gower's death, the palace began to fall into disrepair. Eventually, the palace became obsolete, with the chief episcopal residence moving to Carmarthan, and it fell into ruin.

The ruins of Bishop's Palace quietly haunt the grounds near the cathedral.

Author, Brendan O'Malley writes, "To enter the land of David is to enter in the 'David Stream', that process of consciousness, which connects with the presence of otherness."

St. David's with its majestic Norman cathedral, its ruined Bishop's Palace, and its nearby holy wells, standing stones and high crosses is a testimony to continuing presence of the Divine - spanning the ages - always constant. This site, which predates all the other great monastic sites in Britain including Iona, Lindisfarne and Canterbury, has drawn holy men and women to it - and sanctified them connecting them to that which is on the other side - in the eternal world.

St. David died on March 1st around 589 - relatively old for his day.

The site where he built his largest monastery, in the town of St. David's and the surrounding Pembroke country-side dotted with holy wells and chapels are a remarkable cluster of thin places.

St. Declan's Ardmore - Ireland's First Christian Community

2008-02-25T10:08:00.013-05:00

Ardmore is a fishing village in the Southeast of Ireland in just over the border from County Cork in County Waterford. It is the legendary home of St. Declan who is said to have come to Ardmore, bringing Christianity before St. Patrick somewhere between 350 and 420 AD.

St. Declan built a monastery in a high place overlooking Ardmore Bay. Ardmore from the Irish Aird Mhor means Great Height. The ruins of a 13 century church and 8th century oratory as well as a well preserved round tower dominate the hillside where St. Declan first settled and built his monastery.

As you drive up the hillside, the round tower - which stands over 90 feet high - roars up from the landscape. It's quite overwhelming at first. Just near the tower are the ruins of St. Declan's Church (12th century), and below that is the 9th century oratory where St. Declan is believed to be buried. These three architectural relics rise out of a sea of graves, occupying nearly every available ground space. Some markers are new, shiny granite, some old limestone with faded inscription, and some merely a jagged stone set atop a lump.

Faith - centuries old perhaps - pervades the space around St. Declans Church and oratory. Religious scenes carved in stone during the 9th century were preserved and moved to this church when it was built in the 12th century. The scenes - Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, the Judgment of Solomon, the Visit of the Magi, and more - were used to help teach the local community about the Christian faith. The oratory, still standing after 1200 years has been a place of private prayer and reflection. One needs only to be still in this religious compound and look out over the land and sea to sense the faith of men and women that has been nurtured and grown here.

The remnants of by-gone faith and human spirituality are not only in these buildings. There are unseen remnants - felt only in prayer here. All the elements here - the sky, the wind, the sea - seem brighter, somehow more vivid.

Ardmore is a thin place.

Adare - Ancient City in Limerick

2008-02-23T20:51:00.008-05:00

Adare is a perfect "first town" to visit when arriving in Ireland not only because of its proximity not only to Shannon Airport, but to many sites of interest in Muenster and Leinster.

Adare is an estate village developed by the Earl of Dunraven in the mid-19th century. Its anchor was Adare Manor (home of the earl) which still stands - now a luxury hotel surrounded by a golf course with miles of walking trails. The town is well known for its thatched-roofed cottages, upscale dining and public park.

I went to mass at Holy Trinity Abbey, a former Trinitarian monastery (the only Trinitarian monastery in Ireland). The Trinitarians served here in the early 13th century. Their mission was to raise money for ransoms to free hostages captured by the Moors during the Crusades. The Abbey has a stain glass window depicting a monk with a purse, trading the purse for the chains of a prisoner.

On the grounds of Adare Manor - in the middle of the golf course are the ruins of a Franciscan Friary, founded for the Franciscans in 1464 by the Thomas, the Earl of Kildare. This magnificent ruin still has the remains of a cloister walk which traces a path around a giant yew tree.

I ate an exquisite meal at The Blue Door Restaurant on the Main Street, housed in one of the thatched cottages. I stayed two nights just outside of town at Elm House, a Bed and Breakfast run by Mrs Pauline Heddeman.

Thin Place?
Adare is a homey place - a hospitable place. The ruins of the Franciscan Friary I found to be thin. Tracing the steps of medieval friars around the cloister walk and up the stone spiral stairway was moving. There is a dry holy water font, relatively unchanged over the past five hundred years.

The Friary is is thin place.

Our Lady of Knock - Pilgrimage Site in Mayo

2007-08-21T09:10:00.001-05:00

Of the better known apparitions of the Virgin Mary, the Knock apparition in 1879 in County Mayo reveals the Mother of Jesus a little differently. Mary typically appears to humble people, living the simple life with few riches, and the appearance at Knock follows this pattern though there were 15 people who saw her. And at Knock, Mary appeared with others – St. Joseph and St. John the Evangelist.

Mexico City (Guadalupe) in 1531, Paris (Miraculous Medal) in 1830, Lourdes in 1858, Fatima in 1917 and Medjugorje in 1981 were places where Mary appeared solo and gave a message to those who saw her. Sometimes the message was lengthy and continued on for years as in Medjugorje. All the messages encourage us to pray and take steps to move closer to Christ.

In Knock, Mary said nothing. Her silence perplexed those trying to gain meaning from the apparition because without words, there seems to be no message. No message can be interpreted as no purpose or reason for the apparition.

THE APPARITION AT KNOCK

On a rainy Thursday evening, August 21, 1879 the apparition occurred in the small town of Knock, located in the Northwestern part of Ireland in County Mayo. The vision was first seen by Mary McLoughlin who was serving as a housekeeper to the parish priest. Mary saw a light at the end of the church wall which appeared to be three standing figures. When she looked closer, she saw the Virgin Mary with her eyes lifted heavenward, St. Joseph and St. John the Evangelist who was holding a book in one hand. There was also a lamb on an altar with angels hovering over it.

Mary left the scene frightened but word spread throughout the village about the light and figures behind the church. Eventually fifteen people – men, women and children – gathered at the church wall and saw the same vision. Statements came later from other villagers that they could see a “light” hovering over the church from a distance, through the rain. More on this story ...

Once word of the Knock apparition spread, people from all over Ireland began came to the site to pray and ask for healing. Eventually those numbers climbed into the thousands and in 1976 a new church had to be built. Today visitors and pilgrims to Knock exceed one million each year. Life-size statues of the Virgin, St. Joseph, St. John and the lamb with angels were commissioned and placed near the old church wall to recreate the apparition based on descriptions given by the visionaries.

Today the area of the apparition with the statues is enclosed to offer pilgrims a quiet place to sit before the apparition site in a protected environment. A glass ceiling and walls around the statues connect the new chapel to the old church allowing natural light to pour in. From the outside the old church is still easily seen. There have been several additions and the extension to the rear where the apparition was seen is identified by glass, so pilgrims can view the apparition from the inside or outside.

KNOCK TODAY

I visited Knock on my first trip to Ireland in the early nineteen nineties. I knew the story from song “Lady of Knock” recorded by Dana. We visited on the feast of the Assumption – August 15th – and we attended Mass there. My second visit was this past February (2007), and though I was there, mid-week in the lowest season for tourists in Ireland, the place was had a good number of pilgrims. It’s obvious that the site gets thousands of tourists weekly, just looking at the amenities available.

There is a large, high cross now erected in the Knock church complex. It marks a visit to Knock by Pope John Paul II in September of 1979 – 100 years after the apparition.

A sign on the high cross reads:

This is the cross of the altar on which our Holy Father, Pope John Paul II celebrated Mass on the occasion of his visit to the Knock Shrine.

The cross itself, modeled on the ancient Celtic Cross of Ahenny, remains in grateful remembrance of the greatest event in Irish history since the coming of St. Patrick.

Standing at the foot of this cross, the Holy Father as “a pilgrim” addressed 450,000 other pilgrims and said, “Here I am at the goal of my journey to Ireland – the shrine of Our Lady of Knock.”

A THIN PLACE

I almost didn’t make it to Knock this last visit. I had only a few hours of daylight to get back to Shannon from Castlebar on my last day in Ireland. It was a rainy, gloomy day…. good weather for reflection. I didn’t get a real sense of thinness when I first approached. The site is like Disney World. There’s now a huge church that hold 2000 people, a complex for walking and meditation, spigots that will provide holy water from Knock for taking home, and even a rest area with bathrooms and areas for washing up.

Once I got in the chapel in front of the statues and sat awhile, the thinness washed over me. I have wondered for years why she was silent when she appeared in Knock. What is the meaning of her silence?

Mother Teresa spoke about silence …

“God is the friend of silence. See how nature - trees, flowers, grass - grows in silence; see the stars, the moon and the sun, how they move in silence...we need silence to be able to touch souls.”

Perhaps the Virgin Mary was silent because she listening. The statue reminds us that she’s still there … and may be listening.

Castle of Dromore - made famous in folk song

2007-06-01T15:54:00.002-05:00

I used to sing The Castle of Dromore to little Bridget as I rocked her. She was a child that Dan and I fostered who was just ten months old when we got her. Her birth mother was a 16 year old, addicted and unable to care for the child.

It was so easy to fall in love with Bridget. She was bright and understandably tentative. But soon she began to trust us and was especially receptive to being rocked and sung to. Over and over I sang The Castle of Dromore as I rocked her in our living room. The song has verses that tell of a castle with gardens that a child is encouraged to play in ... to thrive in ... The verses end with ...

Hush a bye loo, lo loo, lo lie;
Hush a bye loo, lo loo.

The song sustains some haunting themes as it describes the October winds lamenting around the castle with its lofty halls. It also speaks of dread spirits over the Black Water with a banshee (profit of death) screaming, and a mother (father) begging the Virgin Mary for pity and protection letting no harm come to "my helpless babe and me." In the end, the verses tell the child to take time to thrive in the gardens of Dromore for now is the time to rest. Later there will be plenty of work to do.

The lyrics are said to be written by Harold Boulton, (lyric writer of Skye Boat Song) who visited the Castle of Dromore in the first years o the twentieth century. He was evidently a friend of Harold Mahony, Olympic silver medalist and Wimbledon Champion and the last Mahony male to own the Castle of Dromore. After his untimely death in a bicycle accident in 1905, the castle passed into the hands of various relations, none of whom cared much for the castle.
The October winds lament around the castle of Dromore
Yet peace lies in her lofty halls, my loving treasure store
Though autumn leaves may droop and die, the bud of spring are you
Sing hushabye loo, low loo, low lie. Hushabye loo, low loo

Dread spirits over the of black water, Clan Owen's wild banshee
Bring no ill wind to him nor us, my helpless babe and me
And Holy Mary pitying us to Heaven for grace doth sue
Sing hushabye loo, low loo, low lie. Hushabye loo, low loo

Take time to thrive, my ray of hope, in the gardens of Dromore
Take heed, young eaglet, till thy wings are feathered fit to soar
A little rest and then the world is full of work to do
A little rest and then the world is full of work to do

Bridget's mother consented to adoption and our large family looked forward to adding a seventh child to our clan. Bridget continued to grow and develop and I continued to sing to her. The Castle of Dromore was a favorite.

On June 1, 2000, just before we were to secure the adoption, Bridget's mother withdrew her consent and drove unexpectedly to our home and took the child away with the help of the local police department. Evidently, the mother needed to prove that she had the responsibility of a child to take care of in order to skip being sent to jail on a prostitution and drug charge in Florida. Once they took Bridget across state lines, she was lost to us forever.

I couldn't bear to hear the song anymore. But I was still touched by it. The visuals my imagination created as I sang it to Bridget still hung with me and fascinated me.

When preparing for this year's trip to Ireland, I knew I'd be travelling to Kerry near the real Castle of Dromore. Though it isn't known as a "thin place" and not on the agenda for my visit, I was curious and hoped I'd be able to see it. I did a little research and found that it was privately owned and being restored. The castle was designed by Cork architect, Sir Thomas Dean and built in 1839 for Denis Mahony, grandfather of Harold (tennis player). Denis was a minister for the Church of Ireland who operated a soup kitchen at the castle during the potato famine.

I found information on the location of the Castle on the Internet and tucked it away in case I had time for a short visit while I was in the Kerry / West Cork region. It wasn't too far out of my way. I turned off the main road at the castle gatehouse - also designed by Sir Thomas Dean - and followed the roads to the Castle. The signage warned that it was private property so I was reluctant to approach. I decided to offer the owner or resident my business card with my outline of the Thin Places project and ask permission to view the grounds - in hope of including the Castle in the book.

The owner wasn't on site, but the superintendent overseeing the renovations was present and agreed to allow me to look around and take a few pictures once I presented my card and outline. I was grateful. The renovations being done are remarkable and extensive. The castle sits high on a hill overlooking the Kenmare river with a terraced lawn and stone steps leading down to the river. An arched window dominates the south face of the castle.

The gardens of Dromore are behind the castle. The bones of an orchard, terraced gardens and stone buildings still remain within the garden walls. It's easy to see why Boulton would write - take time to thrive, my ray of hope, in the gardens of Dromore. You can imagine theses gardens in their day of walled protection being a safe haven, always ripe with new discoveries for children.

When I made my last round of the property, I noticed the old tennis court. I had read in my Internet research that Harold Mahony's tennis court was in the area of the gardens - but it isn't. The old tennis court (now unused for 100 years) overlooks the Kenmare river. It's ever so subtle - grown over with grass blending into the rolling, terraced lawn. A great sadness came over me as I past it. I felt tears come into my eyes and I couldn't understand why ... I still don't know really, but I know I was close to something... something sad.

The Castle of Dromore is a thin place - though a privately owned one, and I don't recommend others trespass or intrude upon the owner's private quarters. The castle can be seen well from the Kenmare River, and I hope the owner isn't offended by my discussing his property publicly in this blog.

On June 1, 2005 I witnesses the births of my twin granddaughters Mia and Grace. They were born exactly five years (to the day) after Bridget left us. I'm back to singing and rocking - this time twice as much - and yes, I'm singing The Castle of Dromore to these little girls. It doesn't hurt anymore. I'll never forget Bridget or stop loving her, but Mia and Grace have made remembering her easier.

I'm glad Harold Boulton visited Harold Mahony at the Castle of Dromore - and glad he wrote those lyrics. I wonder if he imagined how far his simple verses would reach or how many he would touch - children, mothers, lovers of Irish music? I'm glad that Bridget made the song come alive for me, and glad that images the song burned in my imagination led me to visit the Castle and led me to write about it here. The pictures will be something I can show Mia and Grace when they get a little older and tell them how I've been to the real Castle of Dromore.

Changes in Ireland

2007-04-20T13:47:00.001-05:00

My trip to Ireland gave me a shock. I knew the economy was booming and money was flowing, but I had no idea that sprawl had changed so much of the Irish landscape. The small towns are clogged with traffic and new construction. Stores and houses (all pastel colored) have sprung up everywhere. The first time visitor would never notice these signs of growth, especially an American visitor, but for one who has gone back and forth over the last twelve years and driven some 12,000 miles of Irish roads in all 32 counties, the difference economic development has made rings out.

I spent the better part of my life living in the middle of suburban sprawl. My full time job is offering economic development assistance to rural Maryland, so I'm all too familiar with the impact of unplanned growth on communities. I fear for Ireland but trust that she'll gather herself together during this surge in the economy, preserve what is worth holding on to, and nix the exploitation of her unique charism, her wild and untidy countryside, her symbols of heritage and the open hearts of her people.

While the Ireland I knew as recently as three years ago was quaint and attractive to tourists, signs of want and need were visible in communities. Most families only had one automobile. Young people were wanting for employment opportunities and many couldn't go on to college. Amenities like shopping and medical facilities were limited as were access to avenues into the world beyond Ireland. Today, farmers are accessing the Internet for information on animal vaccines, property rights and the weather. Islanders are buying goods online, every town has an Internet cafe, and EVERYONE has a website.

Amenities flourish, the job market is booming and houses, houses, houses, are dotting the Irish countryside in yellow, white, pink and pale blue. The pictures below of Hore Abbey in County Tipperary illustrate this. The first image is one I took five years ago. The second one I took on my February visit. The crane, construction sites and newly built homes are a common scene in almost every Irish town.

Amazing - isn't it?
ROADS
The roads were full of cars and seemed challenged to handle the traffic. The roads in rural Ireland seem the same to me - primarily two land roads that wind and twist with little or no shoulder. The directional signs have improved but the slender ribbons of asphalt often don't accommodate the vast numbers of vehicles that pound them day and evening.
While listening to the Irish radio stations during my 1800 miles of driving this past February I learned that the Irish know of this gridlock problem on their roadways. While they are quickly improving the rail system and expanding service in airports, the highways and bi-ways are suffering. One radio talk show host stated that there are in excess of 100,000 Irish citizens on a waiting list to obtain an Irish drivers license.
However, the Garda does seem to have a greater presence and I understand the a "point" system has begun for traffic offenders so the Irish are making strides in catching up to their growth.
By and large Ireland is still a magnificent country to visit. Surprisingly, I saw a large number of historic building ruins that are in the process of renovation or preservation. It is apparent that the Irish are investing heavily into properly preserving their heritage. This has been evident for years in the Irish signage. All place signs have both English and Irish written... but then there's Dingle which has only Irish. Signs to Dingle say Daingean Uí Chúis or simply Daingean.
I had an unpleasant experience in Dingle this trip. I was sitting in a cafe, eating a fish sandwich in the town of Dingle. I looked up from my lunch and a local teenager walked in wearing a T-shirt with two side-by-side photos - one of Osama bin Laden and the other George Bush. The caption above the photos was written in bold red TWIN TERRORS.
I felt a little sad seeing that. Young people always hold so much promise. I love talking to teenagers, feeling their zest and enthusiasm - even when it is sometimes misguides or not fully informed. I wondered if that young man had any clue regarding the scope of the US / Iraq conflict. How could he?
As a visiting American I was privately stung, but silent. I left the cafe quickly. I noticed the same contempt for America and our President when I visited a friend in Mayo. All I could say was that their media didn't give the full picture. I considered this political discussion not worth having - and I'm always up for a good debate.
Though Ireland has changed, her sons and daughters have not. The characters are still the same and the thin places - though sometimes hidden from view - are still there and still powerful.
I'm thinking about putting together a Thin Places tour perhaps including the sites in the west. The whole country is too much to do at once. April will be a good time.
More Anon.

Off to Ireland - Caldragh Cemetery

2007-02-06T12:23:00.001-05:00

I've been working on a book Thin Places - a Pilgrimage through Celtic Holy Ground for more than seven years now. I've made the decision to finish the book this year focusing only on Ireland and will make one final trip to finish the research. I leave next Wednesday.

One of the sites I'll be visiting is Caldragh Cemetery on Boa Island in County Fermanagh (Northern Ireland). It is there that the two-faced Janus figure has been watching the rising and setting of the sun for more than 2000 years.

My journey with this Janus figure is complex. I once told an Irish priest that he was two-faced. I think he was amused by my insult because he gave me a miniature version of the Janus figure that he'd purchased in Ireland shortly after I made the comment. It had two fronts - that is each side of the figure had a face.

I was intrigued by the figure and did a little research on it. The actual Janus figure is between 2000 and 3000 years old and stands about 4 feet high in Caldragh Cemetery, an anciet burial ground on Boa Island in Northern Ireland. The figure stands so that one side faces East and the other West. Some say the figure represents an all seeing - all knowing God that sees everything from the rising to the setting of the sun.

My Visit to Caldragh Cemetery - 2007
The first time I went to Caldragh Cemetery I arrived alone at approximately 6:30 am hoping to photograph the figure during sunrise. This was more than ten years ago, when the cemetery was not well marked and one had to climb a fence and walk across private property to find the entrance. I was a little uneasy about trespassing, but found the path and continued towards the cemetery. I heard this odd sound - like a thumping - something beating. Just before the gate to the cemetery is a massive thorn tree which spills over the path, threatening the visitor who doesn't enter carefully.

Coming into the cemetery at dawn was was surreal. The mist was rising off the lumpy, ancient, unmarked graves. Old stones that appeared to have once been grave markers were scattered across the yard. In the center of the cemetery, the Janus figure dominated. In front of the figure was a woman, seated, thumping an Irish bohdran (drum). I felt I was intruding on her spiritual exercise.

After awhile I simply walked into the cemetery and proceeded to shoot some photos during her ritual, hoping not to distract her too much. She eventually stopped and we talked for awhile. She was from France but lived in Chicago. Through her thick accent she told me that a friend of hers had given her a necklace (which she displayed from around her neck). It was silver with a small charm which was the Janus figure. She said after receiving the necklace, she became more curious about the Janus figure, found out where the actual figure was located and traveled here from Chicago for a real life encounter.

Hmmm... similar reason to why I was there.
Years later I returned to Caldragh with my husband. By then the cemetery was clearly marked with a public road and pathway making it easier for visitor access. Next week I'll be going for a third time... a third encounter with the Janus figure.

Thin Places

2007-01-13T15:25:00.001-05:00

If you are expecting to view the writing of a scholar or spiritual authority here, read no further. I am no acedemic though I have gathered much from them. I have no expertise on archeology or anthropology, and have a limited understanding of Celtic history.

Here you will find the writings of a common person - reflections on a spiritual journey that I reluctantly took when I walked through these places and felt their pull. Here you will find writings about seeking, looking, waiting, changing and moving.

A thin place is one where the veil that seperates our world from the next in noticable thin. These places are what I write about.