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Croagh
St. Phadrig
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A
LEGEND OF MAYO [From the Irish
Rosary]
- There's a bell,
they say, on a mountain high
- That looks,
alone, to the distant sky.
- Centuries gone -
when the Lord above,
- Bent down at the
voice of Patrick's love
- The peace of God
on our Island fell
- At the first
clear tones of St. Patrick's Bell.
- They say that a
hand of mystic power
- Was laid on the
sacred bell that hour,
- While the young,
bright hope and the young, bright faith
- Spring up,
defiant of change or death,
- Sweet and far
through the land should swell
- The joyous tones
of St. Patrick's Bell.
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- But if ever the
shades of haunting pain;
- If ever the
stranger's fevered reign,
- Should shroud
our Isle with the mists of tears,
- Of lengthened
mourning and helpless fears,
- In that day of
gloom a restless spell
- Would hush the
tones of St.Patrick's BelL
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- Long has the
Bell been silent now,
- In its saddened
rest on the mountain's brow.
- Never may mortal
touch be laid
- On its
rock-built shrine in the chill, deep shade;
- But the angels
guard it, and guard it well,
- For they loved
the tones of St. Patrick's Bell.
-
- Oh! when that
bell, from shore to shore,
- Rings through
our Island home once more,
- May the olden
faith and the olden love
- Spring forth
unchanged - as the choir above
- The grand, and
glorious welcome toll
- To the joyous
tones of St. Patrick's Bell.
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Clog
Dubh Phadrig - Black Bell of St. Patrick
From "Croagh Patrick: An
Ancient Mountain Pilgrimage," By Harry Hughes
The Black Bell of St. Patrick,
made from iron and now in the possession of the National Museum in
Dublin, was a highly venerated relic on Croagh Patrick for many years.
The oldest reference to this relic is in O'Flaherty's history of West
Connaught (1098) and it states 'Mac Bealon of Killower is the erenagh of
the black bell of St. Patrick.' An erenagh is a lay holder of an abbacy
or some ecclesiastical property.
The next reference to the Clog
Dubh is in a manuscript at the Royal Library in Brussels by Father James
O'Mahony O.S.A. writing about Murrisk Abbey on 9 October 1652: 'In the
aforesaid convent (Murrisk Abbey) we had very famous relics of the Holy
Patrick, namely the teeth of St. Patrick and the bell of the same saint
commonly called the Black Bell of St. Patrick.'
The "Clog Dubh" is
mentioned by De Latocnaye in his Frenchman's Walk through Ireland (1797
). 'On the summit there is a little chapel at which Mass is celebrated
on the Fete day and in it is a black bell for which the inhabitants have
a peculiar veneration. It is used as a thing to swear on in legal
matters, and no one will dare to perjure himself on it. They have
strange ideas on the subject of this bell, and believe that the devil
will carry them off immediately if they dare to affirm on it anything
that is not true.'
O'Donovan writing from Ballinrobe
in 1838 states: 'at Lavally in this parish lives Hugh Geraghty,
the present mayor (steward) of the relic called "Clog dubh." According
to the traditional story, as narrated by Hugh, the bell was originally
of white metal, but from constant pelting at the demons who came to
molest the saint on the reek, it became quite black.' This traditional
story linked the bell directly to St. Patrick.
The bell was later acquired for
the Royal Irish Academy by Sir William Wilde (circa 1840) who in his
book Lough Corrib (1867) states: 'It had long been in the possession of
the Geraghty family, near Ballinrobe, who brought it every year to the
pattern held on the top of Croagh Patrick on Garland Sunday and where in
the little oratory there the pious pilgrims were allowed to kiss it for
a penny; and, if he had been affected by rheumatism pains, he might put
it three times around his body for two pence.' The money Hugh Geraghty
received from Sir William Wilde was used to pay his passage to America.
Colm O'Lochlainn states in 1961
that 'the correct custom was to pass the bell three times around the
body right hand wise (deiseal) in honour of the Father, Son and Holy
Ghost.' An extensive study of early Irish bells by Cormac Bourke, Ulster
Museum, put the Clog Dubh into class one category. These are bronze
coated, single sheet, iron bells of quadrangular form with a hooked
handle transversely fixed on the crown. It dates from 600 - 900.
The Clog Dubh was also known as 'Bearnan
Bhrighde', (Tripartite Life) that is the "gapped bell of Brigid"
due to its broken state. It is also referred to as 'Clog Geal' (Bright
Bell).
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