Page 213 - Guerin Media | The Wild Atlantic Way
P. 213
were cast from their lands. In Irelands’ Dinnsheanchas – the “Lore of the High Places”, Strongholds or hallowed spots:
we see history (or Time) and Place as indivisible. The Lore of the famous places in all of Ireland was an essential study
of Irelands famous schools, written in the learned poetic meters of old. Such was the loss once these schools lost their
power that today, the Irish(as with many nations of western humanity) are quite broken from the land itself. To know the
land through it’s meaning, the history and connection it brings us, is to experience continuity and character. We are not
merely pawns upon a blank canvas chessboard called planet earth. There is meaning in every stone and plant; a story and
a purpose. Do pay attention to the Irish place names written on every sign and you can see that the words are pointing to
a greater reality and possibility. One can appreciate the Irish language as a kind of code or portal for connecting with the
land of Ireland at a deeper level . We can begin to connect to a sense of place, to locate our place within the landscape as
we echo words once spoken by ancestors of Ireland.
Corkery notes that in 1300, both Latin, French and Irish was used by Irelands’ nobles in their records. In England, French
began to lose ground to the English language at this time as it moved up from the streets and into the courts of Anglo-
Norman nobles.
In 1366, the Statutes of Kilkenny stated that subjects were to lose their lands unless they gave up their Irish customs.
Despite this edict – the truth was that among many leading families in Ireland, the English language was unknown. The
Bishop of Clonfert, a de Burgo, could neither understand it nor speak it! At that time, English law ran no longer than the
Pale, which ran sixty miles long and thirty wide – a stretch along Ireland’s east coast. Most interestingly however is that
records tell us that as late as 1541, the Earl of Ormond had to translate the speaker’s address into Irish before the Lords
and Commons could follow it, although these were all of Old English that is to say of Norman origin. However while in
the countryside, Norman settlers were changing from English or French to Irish, in the cities and towns it was another
story. There were about forty-three walled towns in Ireland– each of them a satellite fragment of the Pale. Each of these
cities remained a “little republic” a walled-in trading station traditionless and rootless. Only Galway city bore out it’s Irish
roots – there Classical education continued alongside Irish learning at late as the 16th century.
Above: Writing a manuscript
Right: A manuscript
211
we see history (or Time) and Place as indivisible. The Lore of the famous places in all of Ireland was an essential study
of Irelands famous schools, written in the learned poetic meters of old. Such was the loss once these schools lost their
power that today, the Irish(as with many nations of western humanity) are quite broken from the land itself. To know the
land through it’s meaning, the history and connection it brings us, is to experience continuity and character. We are not
merely pawns upon a blank canvas chessboard called planet earth. There is meaning in every stone and plant; a story and
a purpose. Do pay attention to the Irish place names written on every sign and you can see that the words are pointing to
a greater reality and possibility. One can appreciate the Irish language as a kind of code or portal for connecting with the
land of Ireland at a deeper level . We can begin to connect to a sense of place, to locate our place within the landscape as
we echo words once spoken by ancestors of Ireland.
Corkery notes that in 1300, both Latin, French and Irish was used by Irelands’ nobles in their records. In England, French
began to lose ground to the English language at this time as it moved up from the streets and into the courts of Anglo-
Norman nobles.
In 1366, the Statutes of Kilkenny stated that subjects were to lose their lands unless they gave up their Irish customs.
Despite this edict – the truth was that among many leading families in Ireland, the English language was unknown. The
Bishop of Clonfert, a de Burgo, could neither understand it nor speak it! At that time, English law ran no longer than the
Pale, which ran sixty miles long and thirty wide – a stretch along Ireland’s east coast. Most interestingly however is that
records tell us that as late as 1541, the Earl of Ormond had to translate the speaker’s address into Irish before the Lords
and Commons could follow it, although these were all of Old English that is to say of Norman origin. However while in
the countryside, Norman settlers were changing from English or French to Irish, in the cities and towns it was another
story. There were about forty-three walled towns in Ireland– each of them a satellite fragment of the Pale. Each of these
cities remained a “little republic” a walled-in trading station traditionless and rootless. Only Galway city bore out it’s Irish
roots – there Classical education continued alongside Irish learning at late as the 16th century.
Above: Writing a manuscript
Right: A manuscript
211
