J.M.J.

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 Hello, my Friend! Nannie here !

Imaginatin’ lends a whole new fun way of thinkin’, when you begin to think of it as drawing from “mem’ries that go back…far…and deep…”  or “…delvin’ deep in memory.”

“Perhaps the beauty that we see

       Strikes a deep chord of memory…”

  

Seems to me that many of us would be quick to say that a lovely sunset, or a starry night, or gazing at the ocean is something that moves us in a way that’s different and powerful…Could be possible that our reaction is one of being moved and stirred inside to something that is within us and not just outside of ourselves? Hmmm…sounds vague, but still I feel that many of you may have a thought of what I mean. Even these beautiful sights of Ireland…it’s like they reach right inside you and find a familiar home…and give you a great and deep comfort or joy.

 …the western sea

 …view from the Black Fort on Inis Mór

 …Galway Bay

 …the western sea

 …the ancient ruins of Dun Aengus on Inis Mór of the Aran Islands

Dun Aengus on Inis Mór of the Aran Islands

The ancient ruins of Black Fort on Inis Mór of the Aran Islands

Inis Mór

 …the Cliffs of Moher

The ancient sites in Ireland speak for themselves with a mystical language all their own.

                   The Giant’s Causeway on the north coast of Ireland

    Newgrange, a structure from the Stone Age in the Boyne Valley of Ireland, estimated to be over 5,000 years old.

   …The Hill of Tara was once “the ancient seat of  the high kings of Ireland.”  (www.mythicalireland.com)

So much of their stories are left to our “imaginatin’!” Which brings us to the amazin’ story of Tir na n’Og…there’s a beautiful poem written by Gerald Griffin…”Hy-Brasail — The Isle of the Blest”…

“Men thought it a region of sunshine and rest.

And they called it Hy-Brysail, the isle of the blest.”

Mr. Griffin goes on to say it “looked like an Eden, away, far away!”

Another poem by Ethna Carbery (who is Anna MacManus, wife of Seumas MacManus of Donegal) is named “I-Breasil.” Ethna speaks of “the mystical land” with all the wonderful and beautiful things found there.

“Forgotten of men, in a rose-rim set,

I’Breasil shines like a beckoning star.”

Michael Dames in his Mythic Ireland, simply says, “It was believed to lie off the south-west of Connacht, and was named after Bres, the son of Ériu…Consequently ‘Bresil” was a magic realm, neither sea nor land, yet both.” And…”Brazil, South America, was named after it!…In the early twentieth century Aran Islanders in Galway Bay continued to believe that their Brazil was visible once every seven years. They called it The Great Land…To earlier generation the Brazil mirage was also know as the Isle of the Living, the Isle of Truth, of Joy, of Fair Women, and of Apples.”

Seumas Mac Manus in The Story of the Irish Race, tells us that “The Irish scholar O’Flaherty in 1684 in his ‘Iar Connacht’ says ‘There is now living Morrogh O’Ley, who imagines he was himself personally in O’Brazil (Tir na n’Og).”

Black’s Guide to Ireland tells us…”The poet Moore wrote…

…when the western wave grews bright,

With daylight’s parting wing.

Have sought that Eden in its light,

Which dreaming poet’s sing.”

It goes on to tell us that ” – Beaufort, in his ancient topography of Ireland, writes       – ‘The inhabitants of (Inis Mór) are still persuaded that, in a clear day, they can see from this coast Hy-Brysail (Tir na nOg), or… the Enchanted Island’…”

Seumas MacManus tell us the same… “For that enchanted land (the Land of Promise, the Isle of the Blessed, or the Land of Perpetual Youth) did not fade away before the light of Christianity. Even to many of the spiritual-minded, present-day dwellers on the Western margin of Ireland, Tir na n’Og or I-Breasil, exists under the sea, just at the horizon’s rim. Some rarely blessed people still alive, have, on occasion, seen it on a beautiful summer’s eve rise over the sea, in all its intoxicating, indescribable, beauty.”

The New Advent Catholic Encyclopedia tells us that “..he (St. Albert the Great) alluded to the commonly received idea that another island…existed in the Western Ocean…”

Seumas MacManus also tells us that “The voyage of St. Brendan, too, was in search of this Land of Promise.” (The Story of the Irish Race)

 .Map-Abraham Ortelius, 1592  Copyright:  Public Domain

Going back to Michael Dames Mythic Ireland saying …”Brazil, South America, was named after it!…  There is an article at http://www.historyireland.com, “An Island Called Brazil,” written by Geraldo Cantarino, a Brazilian journalist, which stands up for the possibility that the name of the county of Brazil is Irish in origin.

 Our last fun fact leads us to http://www.libraryireland.com!  If you would like to read more about the belief in Tir na n’Og, go to the libraryireland website and look for the work of James Bostwick, Irish Druids and Old Irish religions (1894)…”The Future Life or Land of the West.”  This is a wonderful article and it’s jammed with comparisons to other stories that speak of a place similar to our Tir na n’Og.

God bless you and thank you for visiting Finney and me!