sign in sign up
<<
Home , Burren (barony), Corcomroe (barony), Corcomroe Abbey, Killaloe Cathedral

** NEW 1/8/11 11:18 PM Page 39

Corcomroe Abbey Ship Graffito: A Sacred and Secular Symbol

The Viking Ship and Pagan Burial Customs n Scandinavia, Viking culture and pagan burial customs Katharine Lochnan Iwere inextricably linked with the longship which was seen as the mode of conveyance from this world to the they could put in for repairs and shelter from storms.15 next.1 Wealthy Vikings were buried in their ships with all In addition to fighting their own battles, the Vikings the supplies required for the journey. The less wealthy forged alliances with native Irish chieftains whose power were interred in ship-settings made of stones embedded they helped to bolster. Although the” Viking age” in upright in the ground following the outline of a ship2 ended technically in 1014 after they were routed by the which have been interpreted as symbols of the voyage to native Irish at the Battle of Clontarf, the Scandinavians Valhalla.3 Following the arrival of Christianity in the mid maintained a strong presence. In 1095 AD, Godfred Meren- 12th century, graffiti of longships began to appear on the agh, king of the Ostmen, had a naval force of “not fewer walls of Scandinavian churches. than ninety ships in the harbour of Dublin.”16 During the Pagan Viking burial traditions appear to have been 11th century, Dublin remained “a powerful and warlike city imported during the period of the Viking invasions and of which the inhabitants … are expert in the management settlement of Ireland, between the 8th and 10th centuries. of fleets.”17 Despite the general lack of evidence of ship-related Viking Ireland was not the only country where the Vikings burials in Ireland, Eamonn P. Kelly, who is actively engaged settled. In 911 AD, they found a home in northern France in archaeological research into the presence of the Vikings where the “Norsemen” gave their name to Normandy and on the west coast, believes he has identified a Viking ship became known as “Normans.” They adopted Christianity, burial at Knoxpark, Co. Sligo.4 Kelly also supports the along with French culture and language, during the 10th tentative identification by Brendan Walsh of a Viking ship- century.18 In 1066 AD they invaded England where William setting at Treanbeg in the Clew Bay area.5 He believes that the Conqueror became the first Norman king. In 1169 AD., these sites can be connected to na Lochlainní,6 the first now known as “Anglo-Normans”, they invaded Ireland in group of Vikings to arrive on the west coast. This term is ships that were “essentially still the Viking ships with which found frequently from the 9th to the 11th centuries in The their ancestors had landed in Normandy.” Norman ships Annals of the Four Masters and is Irish for “Scandinavians”, were virtually indistinguishable from Viking longships.19 “Norwegians” or “Vikings”.7 Although the Vikings of Dublin, Limerick and Cork During the period of invasions, the sight of Viking long- offered powerful resistance to the Anglo-Normans,20 Dublin ships struck terror into the Irish. One of the earliest fell in 1170 AD. marking the end of Viking Dublin as a documented raids took place in 795 AD at Inishbofin, off political entity.21 Nevertheless, the Scandinavians remained the Connemara coast. In 807 AD, the Vikings sailed to the a distinct presence there and in other Irish towns during inner waters of Galway Bay and attacked Roscam near the 12th century.22 Although King John built a castle in Oranmore. As land was scarce in Scandinavia, and fish Limerick c. 1200-1212, and many Anglo-Normans moved their dietary staple, they soon began to settle on the west there during the 13th century, the town was divided into coast. Kelly writes “the overall evidence seems to suggest separate areas, one for the English and another for the Irish that there was a substantial Viking settlement in the coastal and Scandinavians.23 Thanks to the strong base established areas of Connemara”8 and Clare including the south side of by the Vikings it continued to grow and flourish as a trading Galway Bay.9 They began to intermarry with the Irish and, centre under Anglo-Norman rule. by the mid 9th century, a generation of mixed parentage By the beginning of the 10th century, many of the Vikings referred to as the Gaill-Gaedhil (“foreigners”) emerged. in Ireland were bilingual, culturally Hibernicized, and Many native Irish took Norse personal names: one of the Christian. They had their own churches and , mon- earliest is Lochlainn, derived from na Lochlainní.10 Greene11 asteries and convents,”24 A stone at St. Flannan’s Cathedral and Kelly12 point out that the clan name Ó Lochlainn de- in Killaloe, , dated to the first half of the 11th notes Viking ancestry. century,25 indicates that the chief abbot, Thurgum, was As Viking power was based on maritime prowess, the Norse.26 Limerick became a diocese with its own Vikings brought their shipbuilding technology to Ireland. in 1106/7, and both Erolph and his successor, Turgesius Because their ships represented a radical development (Thorgils), bishops of Limerick from 1140- 1151 and 1151- beyond the native currach, they contributed many nautical 1167, were of Viking stock.27 terms to the . They established a base with two longphorts (“ship camps”) at Dublin in 841 AD and Interpreting the Viking Ship Symbol within a Christian may have built one at Athlunkard, near the mouth of the Context Shannon during the 9th or 10th century AD.13 By the 11th The earliest graffiti (incised drawings) of longships century, their fleet controlled the Shannon from Limerick found in Scandinavia come from the Oseberg burial of 834 to ,14 and their longships, together with their AD. Later graffiti of longships on wood, stone and plaster commercial skills, turned Limerick into a major trading show, for the most part, only the stems of ships. The most centre. Viking presence would have extended up and down famous of these is the Norwegian Bryggen stick, dated the west coast as they needed a way to protect their sea 1248-1322, which depicts a row of 48 longships.28 This routes as well as “a network of secure landing places” where tradition was brought to Ireland with the Vikings. Three

39 **Corcomroe NEW 1/8/11 11:18 PM Page 40

graffiti of longships on wood, dating to the late 11th or was called the “nave” (based on the latin world navis early 12th century, were discovered in Viking Dublin meaning ship) and the congregation saw itself as “the crew during the excavation of Winetavern St. and Christchurch of St. Peter”.43 Place.29 Zbigniew Kobylinski points out that although “all the During the 12th-13th century, after paganism gave way occurrences of boats and ships in spiritual culture should to Christianity in Scandinavia, ship graffiti began to appear be treated as fragments and versions of the same ‘text’, the on the walls of churches, most of them located near the meaning of which can be discovered by means of structural coast.30 In Denmark and Gotland (a Swedish island) they analysis” … “studies of the historical development of the were scratched “on the medieval limewash of the stone meaning of a given symbol provide no assistance in identify- churches … while the lime was still wet.” In Norway they ing its specific meaning in a particular spatio-temporal were carved or scratched into church walls, both inside context, since variability in the course of this development and out, using the point of a knife.31 Although they tend to can lead to a total change in the original meaning.”44 For show only the ships’ stems, in Fortun the “long, slender this reason “the discovery of which aspect of the ship profile of a warship dominates the carvings on the inside of symbol is culturally or socially meaningful in a particular the north wall of the nave”.32 situation depends on a detailed study of its context.” Hence Attempts to interpret their significance and meaning “the boat could be the central symbol for members of one range from the ridiculous to the sublime. Arne Emil Christ- group of the society while it was simultaneously only a ensen wrote “In my opinion they should be interpreted as technico-utilitarian artifact for the others.”45 expressions of men and probably boys who were living in a Kobylinski also pointed out that it is “equally important maritime society. They were interested in ships, they saw and interesting to study how particular socio-cultural ships as important tools for trade and warfare, and they groups added their own communications to this universal may well have accepted the ships of kings and nobles as symbol, how they stressed some of its aspects or modified symbols of power and glory, and they carved them as its meaning” maintaining that “on the borders of Scandin- expressions of preoccupation and strong interest, not as avian settlement, i.e. in situations where there was contact symbols.”33 Blindheim, in his study of the large number with other peoples, as in the British isles … the ship sym- found in medieval Norwegian stave churches,34 divided bol, particularly in the form of the boat-burial, could be them into three categories: chance, piety, and prophy- first of all a symbol of ethnicity.”46 By the 13th century, the laxis.35 Jan Bill has come to the conclusion that “it is very “Viking type” ship motif may have become synonymous likely that many of the carvings have had a definite religious with the concept of “ship” and as Viking and Norman ships or communicative intention.”36 were indistinguishable, the motif had the potential to cross The longship was not only emblematic of Viking culture cultures. Ship graffiti could have been employed as secular during the medieval period, it remains so to the present or sacred emblems by those of Scandinavian descent, day. Liz le Bon sees early visual imagery as the product whether Gaill-Gaedhil or Anglo-Norman. Given the geo- “not only of artistic and physical contexts, but of a very graphical distribution of Viking settlements, one might different thought world from our own. Problems in identify- expect to find similar ship graffiti in churches in Normandy ing the use and meaning of symbols in ancient art may and England, but to date no examples appear to have provide serious obstacles to reading an image’s deeper levels turned up in Normandy, and only one possible example in of meaning … Reading the graffito, then, relies on under- England.47 In Ireland, however, ship graffiti dating from the standing the many contexts which influenced the artist 13th-16th c. have been found scratched into the chancel who created it.”37 When used as a symbol in a secular con- walls of churches, most of them monastic,48 suggesting a text, as on a coin, seal, or coat of arms,38 its meaning may link between graffiti in Scandinavia and Ireland. be sought in national, political, economic, professional, social or personal contexts. When found in a church, on a The “Viking-type” Ship Graffito at coffin or tombstone, while it may carry secular meaning, it The earliest ship graffito found in an Irish monastic must also be considered in a spiritual context. setting was scratched into damp plaster on the north wall Christianity was quick to appropriate pagan symbols, of the chancel of the Cistercian abbey church, Sancta Maria and the ship was one of them.39 Birgitte Munch Thye points de Petra Fertilis, at Corcomroe (Plate 1). The Abbey is out that, although it was the symbol of passage and means situated 1.5 km. south of Bell Harbour on the south side of of transportation to the next world in many ancient Galway Bay in northwest County Clare, and about 55 km religions, ships appear in the Bible on less than a dozen northwest of Limerick. Its picturesque ruins, nestled into a occasions and the motif was not, therefore, very relevant to valley in the austere limestone hills of the , have Christianity. While “Ships were an everyday necessity, and been exposed to the elements for centuries. it must therefore have felt quite natural to incorporate the Given the erosion that has taken place over the past 40 idea of ships into the new faith, it had to be done in a years, it is fortunate that Professor Etienne Rynne measured, different way than in the old pagan religions. On the other traced and published it in 1968.49 His outline drawing, now hand: ship symbols were tainted with paganism, and the in the National Museum of Ireland, is of the utmost im- first Christians had to be careful. They did not want sym- portance in reconstructing the original.50 (Plate 2) Rynne bols or parts of the new faith to remind people of anything recorded the dimensions of the ship as follows: “it meas- non-Christian. So the Christian ship symbol had to signify ures 58.5 cm from end to end; the hull averages about 5.7 life and not death.”40 cm. in height, with the pointed ends rising about 12 cm. Ships were depicted in the Bible as safe havens during higher; the mast is 3 cm. wide at its base and can be traced storms: in the Old Testament, Noah’s Ark ensured the to a height of 29 cm. above the hull.” Rynne concluded that survival of man and beast during the Great Flood41 and, in it would be impossible to identify the boat “on typological the New Testament, Christ calmed the storm on the Lake of grounds” because “the schematic … nature of the graffito Genesereth that terrified St. Peter and the Apostles. Based prevent prow and stern from being distinguished one from on the traditional formula of Ecclesia est navis, Anne-Marie the other”. D’Arcy points out that the ship was interpreted as a figure After comparing a photograph of the recently recon- of the Church in via migrationis.42 The body of the church structed Viking longship, “Sea Stallion”51 (Plate 3), Edward

40 **Corcomroe NEW 1/8/11 11:18 PM Page 41

Plate 1 – Ship graffito, Corcomroe Abbey, 2008).

Plate 2 – Line drawing by Prof. Rynne of ship graffito, Corcomroe Abbey, 1968. Reproduced with the permission of the National Museum of Ireland.

41 **Corcomroe NEW 1/8/11 11:18 PM Page 42

Plate 3 – Sea Stallion. Copyright: The Viking Ship Museum, Denmark. Photo: Werner Karrasch.

O’Loghlen and I wondered whether the ship depicted at accompanied by interlaced ovals, was incised into the Corcomroe could possibly be a Viking type ship. The plaster wall and on the door jambs of the chapel of the silhouette, ratio of proportions and subtle rendition of the round tower in Roscrea, south Tipperary built c. 1213.57 inside curves of prow and stern appeared to be virtually The third appears on a wedge-shaped tomb-slab at Selskar identical to “Sea Stallion” which was modelled on “Skul- Abbey near Wexford accompanied by a disembodied head.58 delev 2”, one of three Viking ships scuttled in Roskilde When a “Viking type” ship appears on a coffin lid59 or on Fjord in Denmark in the 1070s. Built c. 1042 AD of Irish a chapel wall accompanied by the lemniscate (the “inter- oak from Glendalough, south of Dublin, “Skuldelev 2” was laced ovals” or figure of eight which symbolizes eternity),60 a type of longship used for raiding and warfare known as the concept of journeying to the next world is implied. The a skei (“that which cuts through the water”). It “represents list of ship graffiti in Ireland cited by Rynne has been the group of larger, if not the largest, warships built in added to by Karena Morton,61 Karl Brady, Chris Corlett and eleventh-century Dublin for the fleets navigating along the Tracy Collins.62 Brady and Corlett, noting their preponder- coasts of Ireland, Scotland and Wales.”52 These ships were ance in ecclesiastical settings, dubbed them “Holy Ships” eight times as long as they were wide 53 and the masts were All the later examples depict contemporary ship designs. so short they could be “lowered into the boat for manoeuv- Although Corcomroe was built in the 13th century, erability – or for the low profile needed to make a sneak Rynne thought that the ship might have been incised attack.”54 They moved swiftly and silently under sail or oar, during 16th century renovations as “most Irish graffiti in required only a shallow draught, and were easily sailed monastic plasterwork” have been assigned to that period.63 up rivers and dragged onto sandy beaches. Being double- Since then, Stalley has published extensively on Corcomroe ended with prows of equal height, they did not have to be and dated the completion of the chancel to c. 1227.64 The turned around before setting out to sea again. last phase of construction involved the application of Longships were built well beyond the end of the “Viking plaster and limewash over the masonry. Stalley published age.” In Scandinavia “the large warships of the eleventh the architectural graffiti which he believes were intended century were the precursors of even larger royal ships of as guides to the masons.65 Since they were incised in the the twelfth and thirteenth centuries.”55 The longest were initial layer of limewash before it dried, and are gothic in built by the Norwegian King Hákon who became monarch style, they can be dated both on technical and stylistic in 1217 and used his impressive fleet to intimidate the grounds to c. 1226-7. Although he was aware of Rynne’s Swedes and Danes. The harshness of Norman rule led some 1968 article, he did not mention the ship graffito which Irish chiefs to offer him the Irish high kingship in 1263, a also appears to have been incised in the first layer of plan that ended with his untimely death. plaster.66 He observed, in conversation, that it must have Rynne helped to establish an architectural context for been incised before the scaffolding was removed since it is the graffito at Corcomroe by citing other Irish ship graffiti approximately 8 feet off the ground.67 It appears to have that had been published before 1968. Only three examples been deliberately placed there by an artisan working on the appear to pre-date Corcomroe. Graffiti consisting of “ships, chancel c. 1226-7.68 coats of arms, two interlaced oval loops, and various orna- After reviewing Rynne’s outline drawing, Kelly confirm- ments” were drawn into the “ancient plaster” while still ed that the ship is a “Viking-type” ship and pointed out that damp of the chapel of the tower house of Barrymore Castle they were derived directly from the Scandinavian clinker- near Cork built c. 1206.56 A line drawing of a ship, also built tradition, were used for long distance voyages, trading

42 **Corcomroe NEW 1/8/11 11:18 PM Page 43

and fishing, and would have been a familiar site around the coast of Ireland” from the 10th to the 16th centuries.69 The longship graffito at Corcomroe is not a generic repres- entation like those at Roscrea and Wexford,70 it more closely resembles a graffito found at Winetavern Street, Dublin. (Plate 4) It appears to be an accurate rendition made by a person who must have known those ships in the original.71 Care was given to the ratio of proportions and the exact angle and curvature of stem and stern. After examining digital images of the Corcomroe ship, Ian Friel observed that the curvature of the post on the right appears to be greater than the one on the left and is set at a steeper angle.” He concluded that “it may be an early depiction of a double-ended ship designed to take a stern rudder.” He also thought he could see traces of rigging and possibly of mast bindings.72

The Decorative Scheme at Corcomroe While the architectural graffiti at Corcomroe had a practical purpose, the ship graffito did not. As the graffito technique was also employed to create underdrawings for wall paintings, it is possible that the ship was related to a decorative scheme. If it can, indeed, be dated to c. 1227, and if it is the underdrawing for a wall painting, it is the earliest datable one in Ireland. As such, it would help to fill the gap identified by James Mills who observed that “the student of Irish culture lacks one resource available to the Continental student: the Church frescoes from A.D. 900 to A.D. 1600.”73 The elegant abbey church, on which no expense appears to have been spared, would have been expected to conform to the restrictions placed on interior decoration by the Plate 4 – Viking ship graffito carved on wood, Dublin, Cistercian Order whose mother house was at Citeaux in late 11th-early 12th c., E81:2839b. France. In his Apologia of 1125, St. Bernard of Clairvaux Reproduced with the permission of the National Museum of Ireland. (1090-1153), the most influential member of the order, tolerated painting, and sculpture, but not coloured stained- decoration of the chancel at Corcomroe must have been glass windows and figured tiles, maintaining that such complete by that time, as Stephen was informed that one lavish church decoration as gold-covered relics, images of of the two gravest offenders against the rule concerning saints, chandeliers, candelabra, and floor mosaics were at sculpture and paintings in churches was the monastery of odds with the poverty and aestheticism espoused by the Corcomroe. After one of his assistants was wounded in an Order.74 In 1134 a decree banning figural art and coloured ambush prepared by the prior of Corcomroe’s mother-house, stained glass windows was issued, and again in 1159, 1182, Inisloughnacht, Stephen decided not to visit Corcomroe but and 1254. However, it was challenged: as early as 1151 it instead had it transferred from the jurisdiction of Inis- was partly relaxed, permitting some decoration.75 By 1230 loughnacht to the abbey of Furness at Barrow-in-Furness, architectural elements in Cistercian churches in France Lancashire. When the abbot of Furness asked to visit in were being picked out in a restricted palette of red, ochre 1231, his request was refused. and black.76 Surviving samples of these colours can be seen On his first visit to Corcomroe in 1878, the antiquarian on stones at Mellifont, the Irish Cistercian motherhouse Thomas J.Westropp found “traces of fresco painting in the near Drogheda, consecrated in 1157.77 Corcomroe was at groining (of the chancel) red, black, drab and perhaps odds with Citeaux at this time. While the presbytery was green.”80 To-day traces of red pigment can still be found on under construction a struggle took place between the the O’Brien effigy and to the right of the tomb canopy, and Anglo-Norman and native Irish abbots which may have traces of both red and ochre can be seen in the lowest brought building to a halt.78 The former supported the layers of plaster on the wall to the right of the O’Brien tomb Chapter General, the Order’s central organization, while and on the north wall of the south chapel and left side of the latter were largely opposed to it. In 1226 a papal the window surround.81 This suggests that the vault, walls mandate was addressed jointly to the diocesan Bishop of and stonework of the chancel, as well as the O’Brien effigy, and the Abbot of Corcomroe de Petra Fertilis were once painted. To-day the ship graffito is the only complaining about the absence of the abbot of Corcomroe evidence of what may once have been a scheme of painted from meetings of the Chapter General at Citeaux.79 This decoration at Corcomroe. had no effect for, in 1227, the abbot’s absence was noted In trying to determine the nature and purpose of the again with irritation. The clash of cultures between the graffito at Corcomroe it is helpful to look at the surviving native Irish and the Anglo-Normans came to a head in the interior decoration in sister Cistercian abbey churches. “conspiracy of Mellifont” of 1227 in which Irish monks Corcomroe belongs architecturally to the “School of the rebelled against the Anglo-Irish abbot threatening the very West”, a small but distinctive group of churches west of the survival of the Cistercian Order in Ireland. Shannon. Stalley has noted that “in strictly architectural The following year, in 1228, Stephen of Lexington, terms, Corcomroe is closer to Abbeyknockmoy (Knock- Abbot of Stanley in Wiltshire, England, was dispatched by moy) than any other building”.82 Traces of the same red and Citeaux to find out what was going on in Ireland. The ochre pigments found at Corcomroe can be seen on the

43 **Corcomroe NEW 1/8/11 11:18 PM Page 44

remains of the first layer of plaster on the north wall of the seen where the arms intersect. While it is not clear what, if south chapel of Abbeyknockmoy. Although the entire north any, relationship this armature bears to the ship, similar wall of its chancel was once covered with wall paintings, underdrawings for circular bosses can be seen below the those that survive to-day appear to date to the 16th century.83 surviving painted decoration on the ceiling vaulting of the Of greater relevance to Corcomroe is Abbeyknockmoy’s chancel at Clare Island.91 13th-century daughter house on Clare Island in Clew Bay, The motifs that survive from the first phase of decor- County Mayo. The wall paintings in Clare Island Abbey ation at Clare Island Abbey are located in the lower register were the subject of a major study published by the Royal of the chancel walls, the zone in which symbolic devices Irish Academy in 2005, and the scientific examination, related to local nobility are found. On the north, a stag research, and conservation of the paintings have yielded hunt is depicted just to the right of the canopied tomb and, information that can be applied to understanding the nature above a doorway on the south, a mounted knight in arm- and purpose of the ship graffito at Corcomroe.84 They have our.92 (Plate 5) Morton points out that these are “in accord been divided into two chronological phases by “the clear with the role of the chancel as a place of lordly burial as stratigraphic distinction” created by superimposing “an reflected by the depiction of the activities of hunting and overlying plaster layer” on top of the first phase of decor- the dress of the horseman as a Gaelic lord.”93 ation.85 The first phase corresponds more closely in date to Although these motifs clearly have relevance in a secular the chancel at Corcomroe than any other surviving example context, Anne-Marie D’Arcy has pointed out that both the of wall painting on the west coast or, for that matter, hart (stag) hunt and the knight also have ‘Christological elsewhere in Ireland.86 associations in the Christian exegetical tradition. As a The graffito technique used in decorating the Clare symbol of rejuvenation, the stag was interpreted as a type Island Abbey church is applicable to Corcomroe. The of Christ, the homo cervus. Christ appears as a stag in the rubble walls were pointed with grey mortar which was hagiographic accounts of St. Herbert and St. Eustace, who covered with finer, lighter grey mortar and then a layer of pursues a stag while hunting, which turns out afterwards limewash.87 The design was “mapped out by incising the to be Christ. It also appears in the context of a knightly plaster, which was still partly damp … using a sharp hunt in the early thirteenth-century French text, La Quest instrument.”88 Colour was applied on top of the dry plaster del Saint Graal, which was written in a Cistercian milieu (a secco)89 “either in bold outline strokes with the interior and translated into Irish in the late fourteenth or early of the image left unpainted, or the image was filled in with fifteenth century as Lorgaieacht an tSoldhigh Naomhtha.94 block colours with a few additional details.”90 The pig- The ship motif at Corcomroe may be analogous to the ments used in the first phase were carbon black, red, stag hunt and gaelic knight at Clare Island in having both ochre, and lime white. The red and ochre tones found at secular and sacred meaning. Stalley has pointed out that it Corcomroe appear to be the same as those found on the was used a great deal in medieval Ireland to symbolize the walls at Abbeyknockmoy. voyage through life,95 D’Arcy notes its Christological associ- Below, and slightly to the right of the ship graffito at ations. Celtic Christianity was informed by the specifically Corcomroe, two ruled lines were drawn in the shape of a Irish concept of the immrám, as a peregrinatio pro Christo, cross in the damp plaster; a hole made by a compass can be which could take several forms: an actual voyage by ship

Plate 5 – Gaelic Lord wall painting at Clare Island Abbey.

44 **Corcomroe NEW 1/8/11 11:18 PM Page 45

beyond the bounds of the known world, a spiritual voyage in a rudderless boat across a sea of troubles, or a metaphor- ical voyage through this life and the journey to the next.96 Like the stag hunt and knight in the Clare Island Abbey, the ship motif may represent local nobility and encapsulate biblical associations and the Celtic concept of the immrám.

The O Lochlainns and Corcomroe Abbey: At Corcomroe abbey, two County Clare tribes with a symbiotic relationship came together: the Ruricians and . Ruricians are associated with the Corcomruad comprising the O’Lochlainns and O’Connors and looked northward to Fergus MacRoigh and the stories of the for inspiration and possible origins. The Dalcassian O’Briens looked south deriving inspiration from the heroic deeds associated with the Munster men from Cashel. In 925 AD, Dalcassian rule was imposed on Corcomroe: although weakened following the arrival of Viking raiders to , Mael Seachnaill, the Dalcassian first cousin of Brian Boru, was overlord until his death in 983 AD.97 At the end of the 10th century, the Irish upper classes began to borrow Norse names such as Lochlainn.98 As the chieftaincy of Corcomroe passed back and forth between the descendants of Mael Seachnaill’s son, Lochlainn, and his nephew, Conchobar, the surname Lochlainn began to appear among the chiefs of Corcomroe in the 10th century and Burren in the 11th century. 99 The Corcomruad tribe expanded their tribal territory until the 10th century when the O’Briens extended control over their territory. The O Lochlainns entered into an Plate 6 – North wall of chancel at Corcomroe indicating the alliance to secure independence within their own lands location of the ship graffito. Author, based on a and support when superior forces, such as the Connacht reconstruction by Prof. Rynne. O’Connors, arrived on cattle-raiding expeditions. At a time when ecclesiastical parishes were based on existing secular monks of Corcomroe resisted all attempts by the Anglo- 100 territories, the Corcomruad were still sufficiently power- Normans to assert control over them. Although the Kings 101 ful to carve out a separate diocese, Kilfenora, in 1152 AD. of Thomond ruled at the pleasure of the Anglo-Norman The O’Lochlainn “castle, town and quarter” of Turlough kings, some O’Briens, O’Lochlainns and other north Clare guarded the southern entrance to the valley and plain of clans combined successfully to keep the Normans out of 102 Glenamannagh where the Abbey was situated. O’Brien Clare at the battle of Dysert O’Dea in 1318, ensuring that named it after the Corcomruad rather than giving it a remained a gaelic controlled area. Dalcassian name. In the late 12th or early 13th century the Rynne correctly described the ship graffito as “heraldic Corcomruad split: the Uí Conchobar ruled Corcomroe West in nature”107 which suggests that it may have had a special and the Uí Lochlainn, Corcomroe East. symbolic function. MacMahon was the first to note its juxtaposition with the O’Lochlainn burials in the chancel Cistercian Rules Regarding Chancel Burials: floor and the long association of the O’Lochlainn clan with Strict rules governed eligibility for burial in the chancel ships and the sea.108 of a Cistercian Abbey during the 13th century. The honour Most of the early tombstones are illegible, however the was restricted to the founder, the founding abbot and “The “O’Loughlin King of Burren Family Tomb”, which 103 kings. At Corcomroe this would have included Donal appears to date from the late 18th or early 19th century,109 104 Mór O’Brien, the founding abbot and O’Lochlainn chief- is located in the floor directly beneath the graffito. (Plate 7) tains. Donal died, however, before construction began and Its neoclassical slab is incised with an inverted anchor, 105 he was buried in St. Mary’s Cathedral, Limerick in 1194. symbolic of death. The use of the anchor by the clan goes Later O’Brien tombs were placed close to Donal’s to the left back centuries. Keating described the “Bearings of O’Loch- of the high altar. lin, of Burren in Clare, as including “a Blue Anchor/With When Donal’s grandson, Conor Na Siudáine O’Brien, Gold Cable Bound.”110 When Sir Michael O’Loghlen regis- King of Thomond, was killed by Conor Carrach Ó Lochlainn tered his coat of arms in 1838 he chose, as its crest, an near Corcomroe in 1268, his body was retrieved from the anchor of oak with a cable and the personal motto “anchora battlefield by the monks and interred in the chancel of salutis” (anchor of safety). Corcomroe “in deference to his close kinship with the The most significant link between the O’Lochlainn clan 106 abbey’s founder and to his own royal status” Conor’s and nautical imagery is found in the poem by the 18th tomb canopy was situated as far to the left as possible in century poet Aodh Buí Mac Cruitín entitled “Bless the the space available perhaps to avoid encroaching on the Boat” in praise of the ship of O’Lochlainn of Burren.111 Its ship graffito and any surrounding decoration. (Plate 6) Epilogue could stand as a prayer beneath the graffito: Although the “Viking type” ship was also used by the Anglo-Normans, there is no reason to believe that the ship “O God of Grace, who saved the eight who lived at Corcomroe was placed there as a Norman emblem. There So Long on Ark so great until the Flood did give, is no history of Norman welcome either ecclesiastical or Bring safely home each day, I beg, unharmed or lost political in County Clare. On the contrary, the abbot and O’Lochlainn’s boat and crew by storm winds tossed.”112

45 **Corcomroe NEW 1/8/11 11:18 PM Page 46

Plate 7 – O’Loughlin King of Burren Family Tomb, Corcomroe Abbey, 2007.

Conclusion References Having discussed the significance of the graffito in both 1 See George W. Stone, From Mist and Stone: The History and the sacred and secular contexts, I would like to propose Lore of the Celts and Vikings, Washington: National Geo- that the ship graffito at Corcomroe may function both as a graphic, n.d. [2005?], 92. Zbigniew Kobylinski “Ships, Society, Christian symbol and also as an emblem of the O’Loch- Symbols and Archaeologists”, 9-19 in Ole Crumlin-Pedersen and Birgitte Munch Thye, eds., The Ship as Symbol in Pre- lainn clan. It merges the Viking concept of the longship as historic and Medieval Scandinavia, Studies in Archaeology & a means of conveyance to the next world with the biblical History Vol. 1, Copenhagen: Publications from the National concept of the ship as a place of refuge during the storms of Museum, 1995, 11-14. life and the Irish notion of the immrám, a particular form 2 About 2,000 examples, dating from the 6th to the 11th cen- of spiritual journey. turies A.D., have been found in Scandinavia. Torsten Capelle, The long association of Viking longships with pagan “Bronze-Age Stone Ships”, 71-75 in Crumlin-Pedersen et al., burials in Scandinavia, the adoption by the Irish of various The Ship as Symbol, 71. Scandinavian customs and the presence of the Viking-type 3 Torsten Capelle, “Bronze-Age Stone Ships”, 71-75, in Crumlin- ship motif at Corcomroe, suggest that the genre of graffiti Pedersen et al., The Ship as Symbol, 71 and 75. I am grateful to Elizabeth Fitzpatrick for bringing these stone ships, and dubbed ‘Holy Ships’ may have travelled from Scandinavia this important publication, to my attention. to Ireland, where it was transformed by the 13th century 4 Interviews with Eamonn P. Kelly, June 16, 2008 and October into a symbol of that final journey, not to Valhalla, but to a 22, 2009. I am very grateful to E.P. Kelly, Keeper of Irish Christian heaven. Antiquities, National Museum of Ireland, for sharing his It would seem reasonable to propose that this graffito of wealth of information based on his own archaeological work a “Viking type” ship may have been placed on the wall by and that of his wife Erin Gibbons on Vikings on the West the O’Lochlainn clan to act in both a secular and sacred Coast of Ireland. See Gibbons, E.K. & Kelly, E.P., ‘A Viking capacity as a symbol of the clan name, a sign of its auth- Age Farmstead in Connemara’, Archaeology Ireland, vol. 17, ority, and to embody the concept of journeys terrestrial, no. 1 Spring 2003, 28-32. Kelly writes in an e-mail to Lochnan, biblical and spiritual. Jan. 12, 2010: “Erin and I are happy that the house and associated burials are Scandinavian. We now have the Carbon 14 dates for the house and burials that supports this inter- Katharine Lochnan pretation as well as isotope evidence suggesting that the Senior Curator, Special Exhibitions, and The R. Fraser burials are those of persons intrusive to the area.” Elliott Curator of Prints and Drawings, Art Gallery of 5 Brendan Walsh, “A Possible Viking Ship Setting at Treanbeg, Ontario, Toronto, Canada. Co. Mayo, Journal of the Galway Archaeological and Histor- ical Society, 59 (2007)158-167, 159. According to Brendan Acknowledgements: Walsh who published it, it has not been “the focus of wide- The results of this investigation are a tribute to the spread interest.” E.P. Kelly, M.S. “Re-Evaluation of a supposed inspiration, knowledge, research and insight of Edward inland promontory fort: Knoxspark, Co. Sligo – Iron Age Fortress or Viking Stronghold?”, 4 O’Loghlen of Loch Rasc, historian of the Úi Lochlainn, who 6 Telephone interview with E. P. Kelly, December 15, 2009. helped in the preparation of this paper. I would like to 7 It is spelt “Ua Laclainn” or “Ua Lachlainn”. Entry for 1150 acknowledge the late Prof. Peter Brieger (1898-1983) who A.D., John O’Donovan, ed. Annals of the Kingdom of Ireland shared his love and understanding of the spiritual prog- by the Four Masters, II (Dublin: Hodges, Smith, & Co., 1954 ramme encoded in gothic architecture with his students at repr. 1966) p. 1090. E.P. Kelly believes that this is the source the University of Toronto. I would like to thank, for their of the Ó Lochlainn clan name. He has identified a number of generous sharing of scholarly information Anne-Marie Irish surnames of Viking origin as well as tracked Viking D’Arcy, University of Leicester; Elizabeth Fitzpatrick, NUI settlements along the west and south coast of Ireland. Con- Galway; Ian Friel, F.S.A., Independent Historian, Chichester, versation with Katharine Lochnan, Dublin, June 16, 2008. 8 MS by E. P. Kelly, “The Vikings in Connemara”, The Viking England; Peter Harbison, R.I.A.; Eamonn P. Kelly and Age: Ireland and The West: Proceedings of the XVth Viking Eamonn McLoughlin, National Museum of Ireland; Karena Congress, Cork, 2005. (forthcoming). Morton, Sligo; Thomas O Loughlin, University of Notting- 9 Notes from conversation with E. P. Kelly, October 22, 2009. ham; Etienne Rynne, formerly of NUI Galway and Roger 10 David Greene, “The Influence of Scandinavian on Irish”, Stalley, Trinity College, Dublin. Proceedings of the Seventh Viking Congress, Dublin, 15-21

46 **Corcomroe NEW 1/8/11 11:18 PM Page 47

August, 1973 (Dundalgan Press, 1976), 75-82, 78, writes sufficiently numerous there to be placed on an equal footing “Lochlainn…is very common indeed, and is attested as the with the English and Irish.” In 1263 the Irish applied to the name of the royal heir of Corcu Modruad in the Annals of Norwegian King Hakon for assistance against the British and Innisfallen in the year 983. This territory is in Co. Clare, and offering him the Irish high kingship. not far from the Viking city of Limerick; it may have been 22 Henry, Viking Ireland, 74, points out that in 1167 at a meet- under Norse cultural influence. However the name was ing of the Irish people at Athboy (Tlachtga) “thousands of introduced, it became very popular and is still in use in the first ostmen in Dublin were present”. 1. Gaelic-speaking Ireland and Scotland, as well as forming the 23 Tim Lambert “A Short History of Limerick”, 1-4, www.local common surnames Ó Lochlainn, Mac Lochlainn.” histories.org/limerick.html, 2008 points out that “Many Eng- 11 Greene, “The Influence of Scandinavian on Irish”, 77. The lish settlers came to Limerick. They settled on Kings Island earliest reference to “Lothlind, Laithlind, later Lochlann” is in Englishtown while the native Irish were moved across 9th c. AD, however “none of the examples necessarily mean the Abbey River to Irishtown. In the 13th century a stone ‘Norway’ or ‘Scandinavia’; all that we can extract from them wall was erected around Englishtown. Later they extended is that they refer to some maritime centre of Viking power. it Irishtown.” is not clear whether it means Norway or Scandinavia…It is 24 Henry, Viking Ireland, 72. C.D. Morris, “The Vikings and then open to us to consider the possibility of interference Irish Monasteries”, Durham University Journal (June 1979), from Rogaland, as well as a remoulding of the word under 175-185,183. Byrne, “The Viking Age”, 43. the influence of the elements loch ‘lake’ and land ‘land’, and 25 R.A.S. Macalister “A Runic Inscription at ”, the final identification with Norway which, however, is not Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy, Section C v.XXXIII certainly attested until AD 1101: Maghnus ri Lochlainni, about (1916-17), 493-498,497. Stone, From Mist and Stone, 110, whose identity there can be no doubt.” 77. By the 11th c. points out that by 1066 Roman script had nearly replaced “Lochlann” was the Irish word for Norway, 77. runes. 12 I would like to thank Eamonn P. Kelly for confirming the 26 “St. Flannan’s Cathedral, Killaloe: Places of Interest, Clare Viking origins of the Ó Lochlainn surname. Interviews of County Library website, 2. It is described as “a unique stone June 16, 2008 and October 23, 2009. with a Viking runic inscription which reads ‘Thorgam carved 13 The identity of this site is not universally accepted. It was this stone’ and an ogham inscription which reads ‘a blessing first proposed by E.P. Kelly & E. O Donovan, ‘A Viking long- on Thorgam”. phort near Athlunkard, Co. Clare’, Archaeology Ireland., vol. 27 Diocese of Limerick Bishops. Limerick Diocese Heritage Pro- 12, no. 4, Winter, 13-16, and refuted by Michael Gibbons in ject. www.limerickdioceseheritage.org “Athlunkard (Ath-an-Longphort): A Reassessment of the Pro- 28 Repr. Angus Konstam, Historical Atlas of the Celtic World, posed Viking Fortress” in The Other Clare, v. 29, no. 22-25. Mercury Books, 2004, 154-5. For dating see Bill, “Ship The identity of the site is accepted by John Sheehan, “The Graffiti”, 1. Longphort in Viking Age Ireland”, Acta Archaeologia 79 29 “Ship carved on plank”, Winetavern Street, Dublin, late 11th- (2008) 282-295 and J. Maas, “Longphort Dún, and Dúnad in early 12th century, acc. no. E81:2839b; “Ships carved on the Irish Annals of the Viking Period”, Peritia 20(2008), 257- wooden plank”, Winetavern Street, late 11th- early 12th cen- 275. There has been ongoing scholarly debate regarding the tury, acc. no. E. 81:2838 b, and “Carved Plank”, Christchurch positive identification of this site. Place, Dublin, 11th c., acc. no. E122:16078. see Seán McGrail, 14 F.J. Byrne, “The Viking Age”, 37-38. In 928 AD the Limerick Medieval Boat and Ship Timbers from Dublin, Medieval Vikings put a fleet on Lough Neagh, in 929 AD on Lough Dublin Excavations 1962-81, National Museum of Ireland, Corrib and Lough Ree, and on the Erne waterways in 933 Ser. B, vol. 3 (1993), Royal Irish Academy, Dublin 1993. and 936. They raided Connacht repeatedly. “Its forces were a 30 Arne Emil Christensen, “Ship Graffiti”, 181-185, in Ole menace to the whole of the west and north of Ireland, and a Crumlin-Pedersen and Birgitte Munch Thye, The Ship as serious threat to Dublin”, 29, (check references) Symbol in Prehistoric and Medieval Scandinavia, Copen- 15 E. P. Kelly. E-mail to Katharine Lochnan, December 22, 2009. hagen: Publications from the National Museum Studies in Byrne, “The Viking Age”, 38-40. Archaeology & History, Vol. 1, 1995, 172-179. 16 David Henry, Viking Ireland, Jens Wraac’s Accounts of his 31 Christensen, “Ship Graffiti”, 182. Visits to Ireland, 1846-7, Angus, Scotland: Pinkfood Press, 32 Repr. Trans. Gillian Fellows-Jensen, Ship Graffiti, Viking Ship 1995, 73. Museum, Roskilde, Denmark, www.vikingeskibsmuseet.dk. 17 Charles Plummer, “Vita Sancti Coemgeni” (Life of St. Kevin), 3. in Vita Sanctorum Hiberniae, Vol I, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 33 Christensen, “Ship Graffiti”, 184. 1910, 234-7, 249. 34 Martin Blindheim, “Viking Ship Vanes” in R.T.F. Farrell, The 18 Stone, From Mist to Stone, 163. Vikings. London, 1982, pp. 116-127. 19 Meike Blackwell, Ships in Early Irish History, Whitegate, Co. 35 Liz le Bon, “Ancient Ship Graffiti: Symbol and Context”, in Clare, Ireland: Ballinakella Press, 1992, She points out that Ole Crumlin-Pedersen, The Ship as Symbol, 172-178, 176. these are depicted on the Bayeux tapestry, 39. The latter was 36 Bill, “Ship Graffiti”, 1. probably executed between 1066 and 1077 AD when it appears 37 Liz le Bon, “Ancient Ship Graffiti”, 173. to have adorned the nave during the ceremonies surrounding 38 For the interpretation of ships on town seals see Thye, “Early the dedication of the cathedral of Bayeux. Simone Bertrand, Christian Symbols”, 192. The Bayeux Tapestry Ouest France: Rennes, 1978,8. 39 This can be seen carved into the sarcophagi of some of the 20 F.J. Byrne, “The Viking Age” 36 in Dáibhí Ó Crómín, A New earliest Christians in Catacombs on the outskirts of Rome History of Ireland, v. 1, Prehistoric and Early Ireland. and the necropolis below St. Peter’s Basilica. 21 Henry, Viking Ireland, 74-75. After Dublin was taken by the 40 Thye, “Early Christian Symbols”, 186. She points out with English, so many Vikings (the term “Ostman” is used by this reference to Scandinavian church wall paintings: “When we author) remained that the “Galls of Dublin” continued to look at the seals of ports it is remarkable how much they have a separate army. Giraldus Cambrensis speaks of the resemble the wall-paintings in style and details.” Vikings after the conquest of Ireland as ‘a peculiar and 41 Karl Brady and Chris Corlett, “Holy Ships – Ships on Plaster decidedly separate people, who carried on trade and navig- at Medieval Ecclesiastical Sites in Ireland”, Archaeology ation.’ Even more than a century afterwards we can still trace Ireland, vol. 18, no. 2, no. 68, Summer, 2004, 28-31, 31. I many ostman in the chief cities of Ireland, where it seems, am grateful to Prof. Rynne for drawing this article to our they continued to preserve those Scandinavian characteristics attention. which distinguished them from the Irish and English. In the 42 On the Ship of Faith cf. G.R. Owst, Literature and Pulpit in year 1201 a verdict was pronounced by twelve Irishmen, Medieval England: A Neglected Chapter in the History of twelve Englishmen, and twelve Ostmen in Limerick, concern- English Letters and of the English People, 2nd rev.ed. (Ox- ing the lands, churches, and other property belonging to the ford, 1966) pp. 68-72; V.A. Kolve, Chaucer and the Imagery church of Limerick; which shows that the Ostmen were of Narrative: The First Five Canterbury Tales (London, 1984),

47 **Corcomroe NEW 1/8/11 11:18 PM Page 48

pp. 308-17. I am grateful to Anne-Marie D’Arcy for supplying 63 Citing the incised drawings at Moyne, Co. Mayo, and Abbey- this information. knockmoy, Co. Galway. 43 Birgitte Munch Thye, “Early Christian Ship Symbols”, 186- 64 Roger Stalley, The Cistercian Monasteries of Ireland: An 194 in Pedersen et. al., The Ship as Symbol, 187. Account of the History, Art and Architecture of the White 44 Kobylinski, “Ships”,13. Monks in Ireland from 1142 to 1540, London: Yale University 45 Kobylinski, “Ships”, 14. Press, 1987. Prof. Stalley revisited his earlier conclusions 46 Koblynsky , “Ships”, 18. in “Petra Fertilis: The Uncertain History of the Cistercian 47 On the chancel wall of St. Mary, Stow in Lindsey, Lincoln- Church at Corcomroe” in Colum Hourihane, ed., Irish His- shire, there is a rough scratching of an oared Viking ship, torical Studies in Honour of Peter Harbison, Princeton and probably dating from the 10th century, and allegedly the Four Courts, 2004, 175-188. earliest known example of Viking graffiti in England. At that 65 In interviews with Prof. Roger Stalley, Dublin, June 16, 2008 time, Lincolnshire was under Viking control, and the Danelaw and February 27, 2009 he pointed out that more and more of was in force. these architectural graffiti have been turning up in French 48 Brady and Corlett, “Holy Ships”,29. cathedrals. 49 Etienne Rynne, “Boat Graffito in Corcomroe Abbey”, North 66 The incised line is overlapped in places by a later layer of Munster Antiquarian Journal, XI (1968),76. plaster. 50 Prof. Rynne gave it to the National Museum of Ireland. I am 67 Interview with Prof. Stalley, Dublin, February 27, 2009. very grateful to Eamonn P. Kelly for retrieving it and dis- 68 Christensen, “Ship Graffiti”, 182, quoting Martin Blindheim, cussing it with me. Graffiti in Norwegian Stave Churches, Oslo, 1985, advances 51 Edward O’ Loghlen, Senior Research Assistant, Medical the theory that these carvings were made by artisans while Library, James Hardiman Library, NUI Galway, historian of the church was under construction. the Ó Lochlainn clan, gave me the press release announcing 69 Kelly points out in an e-mail to Lochnan, Jan. 12, 2010, that the arrival of “Sea Stallion” in Dublin in August, 2007. After “the clinker-built boat tradition continued up to the 16th reviewing the visual material, he urged me to pursue this century (and beyond) and while there are differences research. Mr O’Loghlen’s publications include Bráthair M.F. through time the basic tradition appears to have been one Ó Conchúir and Éamonn Ó Lochlainn, A Short History of that demonstrated considerable continuity.” the Ó Lochlainn Clan, Loch Rasc, Co. Clare, 1995, Edward 70 I have not yet found a reproduction of the graffito in Barrys- O’Loghlen, Muintir Uí Lochlainn: Second International Re- court Castle in Cork so am unable to comment on it. union, Baile Uí Bheacháin, 2005, and Muintir Uí Lochlainn: 71 Acc. No. E81:2839b. Third International Reunion”, Baile Uí Bheacháin, 2010. 72 E-mail from Ian Friel to Katharine Lochnan, Feb. 4, 2010. A 52 Ole Crumlin-Pedersen, The Skuldelev Ships I. Topography, stern rudder “was set in the sternpost itself, mounted on Archaeology, History, Conservation and Display. Roskilde: hinges that allowed it to rotate from side to side. This would Viking Ship Museum, 2002, 168-173; 326-332, 326. make the depiction unusual as “medieval double-ended ships 53 “Skuldelev 2” was 30 metres long and 3.8 metres wide, had are often depicted with side rudders, but not exclusively so. 56-60 oars and held 60-100 men. See Keith Durham, Viking The earliest-known image of a stern rudder is on a late 11th Longship, Oxford: Osprey, 2002, 38, repr. Also Crumlin- century Flemish carved font in Winchester Cathedral, and Pedersen, “Skuldelev Ships”, 168-173; 326-332. See also there are 15th/16th c. West Highland (Scotland) tombstones Judith Tesch, Ships and Men in the Late Viking Age, Boydell that show broadly “Viking-type” ships with stern rudders. Press, 2001, 269. The Winchester font ship has a curved sternpost, whilst the 54 Stone, ”From Mist to Stone”, 102. Highland ones tend to be straight”. He also thought he could 55 Tesch, Ships and Men, 270. detect “a few short, transverse lines running across the mast” 56 R.A.S. Macalister, “Miscellanea”, Journal of the Royal Society which “could represent rigging or even mast-bindings or of Antiquaries of Ireland, LXII:I (1932) 223. They are accom- wooldings” and “shadows of lines running down from a point panied by two lines of Ogham writing loosely translated just below the visible top of the mast, on both sides” which “Amen Fidelis”. This was presumably executed when the was “a typical medieval method of representing standing castle was built in 1206 by Philip de Barry, nephew of Robert rigging, the fixed ropes that supported the mast from the Fitzstephen who came to Ireland with Strongbow. The pro- back, sides and front. This “would suggest a ‘made’ mast, i.e. perty was given to Strongbow by Henry II. It is not illustrated. one made up of several pieces of wood the same length, 57 Macalister, “On Graffiti Representing Ships, on the Wall of rather than a mast made from a single trunk: however, such Moyne Priory, Co. Mayo”, JRSAI, LXXIII:IC (1943), 117. The masts do not appear to be documented in N. Europe before O’Carrolls were the chieftains of the district which included the 1400s and were typical of very big ships only.” He also a “sept” of the Ó Lochlainn clan known as O’ Loughnane of detected “some vertical lines that appear to rise from the top Ely O’ Carroll (Offaly, Tipperarry). of the hull (the gunwhale), which could represent either 58 Patrick O’Reilly, “The Christian Sepulchral Leacs and Free- rigging or perhaps human figures.” Dr. Ian Friel is an inde- Standing Crosses of The Dublin Half- in Rathdown”, pendent historian and museum consultant, based in the UK, JRSAI, XXXI:31 (1901) 394, figs. 10 A and B. and has been publishing research in maritime history and 59 Ships were also found on coffins in Scandinavia, a continu- iconography for 30 years.See Ian Friel, The Good Ship. Ships ation of the association of the ship with the voyage to the Shipbuilding and Technology in England 1200-1500, London, next world. 1995, 81-83, L.V. Mott, The Development of the Rudder. A 60 Interview with Anne-Marie D’Arcy, Dublin, June 16, 2008. Technological Tale, London, 1997, passim, and G. Hutchinson, See also Friedrich Moll, Das Schiff in der bildenden Kunst Medievel Ships and Shipping, Leicester, London, 1994, 50-55. vom Alterum bis zum Ausgang des Mittelalters (Bonn, 1929); 73 James Mills, “Danish Church Frescoes: A Clue to Medieval Georg Sthlfauth, “Das Schiff als Symbol der altchristlichen Irish Art”, Eire-Ireland, 14(1979) 47. He speculated on the Kunst”. Rivista di archaeologia crisitiana 19 (1942), pp.111- possibility that Irish church “frescoes” may have been similar 41. I am grateful to Anne-Marie D’Arcy for supplying these to those that survive in churches in Scandinavia, an intriguing references. possibility. 61 Karena Morton, “Irish Medieval Wall Painting”, Barryscourt 74 See Conrad Rudolph, The Things of Greater Importance: Lectures I-X, The Barryscourt Trust in association with Cork Bernard of Clairvaux’s ‘Apologia” and the Medieval Attitude County Council and Gandon Editions, 2004, 335 toward Art (Philadelphia, 1990). I am grateful to Anne- 62 Brady and Corlett, “Holy Ships”, 28-31; Tracy Collins, “Missing Marie D’Arcy for this information. the Boat”, Archaeology Ireland (winter 2010), 9-11. Collins 75 See Marcel Aubert, l’Architecture cistercienne en France, 2nd discusses the remains of a ship graffito found in the late ed., 2 vols (Paris, 1947), and François Bucher, “Cistercian medieval nunnery of St. Catherine d’Conyl in Old Abbey Architectural Purism”, Comparative Studies in Society and townland near Shanagolden, Co. Limerick, thought to date to History 3 (1960), 89-105. I am grateful to Anne- Marie the 15thc. D’Arcy for information about the latter.

48 **Corcomroe NEW 1/8/11 11:18 PM Page 49

76 Clarisse Renaud, L’Abbeye Cistercienne en France, Éditions world Voyage in Early Irish Literature, ed. Jonathan Wooding Gaud, 2002, 88. (Dublin, 2000), pp. 94-19. Otherworlds feature in several 77 In the museum at Mellifont stones bearing a black and white medieval literary genres, defined in the twelfth century Book diaper pattern are on display. of Leinster as fessa (feasts), echtrai (adventures) and imm- 78 Roger Stalley, “Corcomroe Abbey, Some Observations on its rama (navigations): cf. David N. Dumnille, ‘Echtrae and Achitectural History”, J.R.S.A.I. v. 105 (1975), 21-46, 32. Immram: Some Problems of Definition’, Eriu 27 (1976), 73- 79 In 1227, 1280 and 1282 Citeaux complained that the abbot of 94. I am grateful to D’Arcy for providing this information. Corcomroe had not attended the Chapter General for a long 97 Edward O Loghlen, e-mails of May 3, 4, and 5, 2011 to time. Michael MacMahon, On a Fertile Rock: The Cistercian Katharine Lochnan, points out that M.F. Ó Conchúir played a Abbey of Corcomroe, Kincora Books: Corofin, County Clare, pivotal role in linking the Corcomruad to the Rurician clan. 2000, repr. 5. This booklet was based on his paper “On a The Clanna Ruari were driven into the eastern part of Ulster Fertile Rock: The Cistercian Abbey of Corcomroe” in The during 332 AD. The Corcomruad controlled about one third Other Clare, vol. 21, Shannon Archaeological & Historical of Clare during the 7th and 8th centuries including the Aran Society, County Clare, 1997,13. See Aubrey Gwynn and R. . During this period they equaled the Dal gCas but Neville Hadcock, Medieval Religious Houses in Ireland, later ceded much of this territory, including the Aran Islands, London: Longmans, 1970, 130. to it. M.F. Ó Conchúir in Ó Conchúir agus Éamonn Ó Loch- 80 Thomas J. Westropp, “Corcomroe Abbey”, J.R.S.A.I, XXX lainn, “A Short History of the Ó Lochlainn Clan”, 1995, 7-10. (1900) 302. This and the three paragraphs that follow were composed by 81 The pigments were matched to Benjamin Moore paint colour Edward O Loghlen. samples and correspond most closely to CC 188 (Butter Rum), 98 Byrne, “The Viking Age”, 39-40. pink: CC 156 (Tofino Sunset), CC 158 (Apple Blossom), 99 “Excursions of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland, ochre: CC-210 (Dijon) and CC-190 (Summer Harvest). These Summer Meeting, 1900: Second Excursion, Burren”, J.R.S.A.I., correspond to the colours of the pigments found at Abbey- 30 (1900), 294-5, f.n.2. The earliest mention is of the Chief knockmoy and Clare Island Abbey. of Corcomroe, “Lochlan, slain 965, in Brian Boru’s army in 82 “Monasternenagh, Abbeyknockmoy and Corcomroe are “a Connaught, and his son, Conor, was mortally wounded 985 regional group easily distinguished from others.” Roger (f.). 983. Lochlan (whence O’Loughlin)”. Seán Spellissy, A Stalley, “Corcomroe Abbey: Some Observations on its Archi- History of County Clare, Gill & Macmillan, 2003, 20. tectural History”, Reprinted from the J.R.S.A.I. vol. 105, 100 M.S. by Michelle Comber and Graham Hull (accepted) “Excav- 1975, 44. ations at Caherconnell Cashel, Burren, Co. Clare: Implications 83 I would like to thank Christian Kralik, Ph.D. candidate, for Cashel Chronology and Gaelic Settlement”, Proceedings University of Toronto, who is writing her dissertation on the of the R.I.A., Section C, 4. motif of “four living, four dead” for confirming the 16th c. 101 Comber and Hull, M.S. “Excavations”, 3. Conchuir and his date of these wall paintings. sons held power until 1015 with Uí Lochlainn kings taking 84 See Conleth Manning, Paul Gosling and John Waddell, New over until at least 1060. An Uí Conchuir followed, until 1104 Survey of Clare Island, v. 4 The Abbey, Dublin: Royal Irish when another Uí Lochlainn regained control. After his death Academy, 2005. in 1149, power reverted to the Uí Conchobar line. 85 See Christoph Oldenbourg, “Conservation of the Wall Paint- 102 MacMahon, Fertile Rock, 2. ings”, 49-60, in Manning et al, New Survey, 49-61, 50. 103 Xavier Dectot, “Abbayes cisterciennes et monumentd funér- 86 The church was built in the 13th century, and it would seem aires”, in Dossiers Archéologie et Sciences des Origines, No. likely that the first phase of wall painting could date from 311 mars. 2006, 38-41,38: “les évêques, les fondateurs de that time. However Stalley pointed out in our interview of l’abbeye, et les souverains. Ceux-ci, en effet, pouvaient être Feb. 27, 2009 that the wall paintings on Clare Island have not enterés dans l’église abbatiale”. yet been dated. 104 MacMahon, Fertile Rock, 5, writes that Donal Mór ÓBrien 87 Oldenbourg, “Conservation of the Wall Paintings”, in Manning probably founded it but that it is possible that it was founded et al., New Survey, 49-60, 50. by his successor, Donough Cairbreach ÓBrien. 88 Oldenbourg, “Conservation”, 51. 105 The Ó Brien tombs in St. Mary’s Cathedral, Limerick, are 89 Oldenbourg “Conservation”, 51. prominently situated to the left of the high altar. 90 Karena Morton, “Iconography and Dating of the Wall Paint- 106 MacMahon, On a Fertile Rock, 2000, 14-15. ings”, 97-122, in Manning et al., New Survey, 97-8. 107 Rynne, “Boat Graffito”, 76. 91 Karena Morton and Christoph Oldenbourg, “Catalogue of the 108 MacMahon, On a Fertile Rock, 76. Lord Walter Fitzgerald, Wall Paintings” in Manning, New Survey, 61-96, 70, Pl.XIII “Corcomroe Abbey”, vol II (2) 1893, Association for the Pre- Boss J. servation of the Memorials of the Dead, Ireland, 2 Available 92 Morton and Oldenbourg, “Catalogue”, 65, fig. 2 and 66 pl. IV. online from www.clarelibrary.ie. 93 Morton “Iconography”, 101. 109 The inscription and inverted anchor are executed in the 94 The image finds its origins in Physiologus, a didactic text neoclassical style which would suggest that the tombstone written or completed in Greek by an unknown author in dates from the late 18th or early 19th century. Alexandria between the 2nd and 4th c. A.D. It was a major 110 Geoffrey Keating, History of Ireland, 1570-1644, (1866 ed.), source of Cistercian imagery, where the stag comes back to 472. life. Interview with Anne-Marie D’Arcy, Dublin, June 16, 2008. 111 MacMahon, Fertile Rock, p. 26 f.n. 71. Prof. D’Arcy interpreted the iconographical programme of the 112 “Beannaigh an Bárc” translated by. M.F.Ó Conchúir. In Ó Clare Island Abbey ceiling vault in light of Cistercian texts. Conchúir and Ó Lochlainn, 12 –13. Trans. M.F. Ó Conchúir. 95 Roger Stalley, “Sailing to Santiago di Compostella and its An Ceangal A Athair na ngrás thárrthaigh an t-ochtar do bhí artistic influence in Ireland”, in Bradley, ed., Settlement and Sealad san Áirc ábhail gur sochtadh an díl, Tabhair gach Society in Medieval Ireland, Kilkenny, 1988, 409. tráth, áilim, gan dochar gan díth Chun calaithe slán árthach 96 See the collection of pivotal articles reprinted in The Other- Uí Lochlainn ‘s a buíon.

49