Newgrange, the five-thousand-year-old passage tomb built so that light floods into the chamber on only one day of the year-- today, the winter solstice. It's one of the things that makes me most proud to be Irish.
I've been to Newgrange twice-- once alone, once with Michelle. It was a very moving experience both times. Even though I recently posted a horror story where Newgrange was the setting for the return of demonic old gods, that was the opposite of the atmosphere I felt there. In truth, felt a strong sense of man's immemorial and primordial orientation towards the transcendent and the divine. It's no surprise, when you stand on a site like Newgrange, to learn that Ireland was converted to Christianity without the need for any martyrdoms.
It also made me feel that it's our age of space-shuttles and television that is the truly barbaric age, since we have lost our awareness of the most important reality of all, one that was so overwhelming to our ancient forebears that it moved them to build a monument which still has us scratching our heads over how on earth they managed it.
Speaking of being proud to be Irish, it's the lack of bloodshed during Ireland's conversion that makes me proud to be Irish. When you consider Ireland had quite the reputation for being a wild place, and yet the Old Irish saw something in the Christian truths. I wish I could ask how things changed so dramatically, but I probably don't want to know.
ReplyDeleteOh, that makes me proud to be Irish, too. Lots of things make me proud to be Irish. And I undoubtedly share your sense of shame and depression that fifteen glorious centuries of Christian heritage in Ireland have come to an end in our time. (Or, if not an end, at least a hiatus.)
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