Skerries, St Patrick and Early Christianity

Published in Issue 3 (Autumn 2000), News, News, St Patrick, Volume 8

http://www.historyireland.com/st-patrick/skerries-st-patrick-and-early-christianity/

The Skerries Patrician Millennium Project hosted a conference of major international

significance last May at the local Community School. Skerries and its islands were an important
centre of the ancient Gaelic kingdom of Brega, which from the late Iron Age to the Norman
intervention of 1169, approximately covered the same area of modern Fingal bounded by the
Rivers Tolka (to the south) and Delvin (to the north). Such are St Patrick’s links to the area in
local tradition that Skerries people proudly point out his ‘footprint’ in stone near the Captain’s
Rock but less frequently to the legend of the saint devouring his pet goat!
Skerries and Church Island (Inis Pádraic) can justifiably lay claim to a central role in the history
and archaeology of early Christianity in Ireland. There are several important written sources,
some dating back as the sixth and seventh centuries, which suggest the areas as the location of St
Patrick’s first landfall. In the eighth century, Church Island and its monastery had attracted the
attention of Norse raiders and later important religious foundations grew and evolved until the
early thirteenth century. As the site developed, it attracted the attention of local Irish chiefs and
ecclesiastical rulers so that it became an important political focal point for the kingdom of Brega.
The ecclesiastical site on Church Island had become so nationally significant that in 1127 it
hosted a synod which preceded the reorganisation of Irish dioceses. It was here (Holmpatrick)
that decisions were made to change from a largely Celtic style church to a Roman one
encompassing administrative structures which have survived to the present day.
Opening the conference, Dean Robert McCarthy of St Patrick’s Cathedral remarked that as
national attitudes harden towards asylum- seekers it is worthwhile to remember that St Patrick
himself was a poor immigrant slave to Ireland. Keynote speaker Charles Thomas, Director of
the Institute of Cornish Studies, spoke on Palladius and the introduction of Christianity to
Ireland. Palladius was a bishop sent by the pope to Ireland before St Patrick in the early fifth
century. He had established Christian settlements along the east coast and Palladian Christianity
was well established in Brega before the arrival of Patrick. Later, however the church at Armagh,
the dominant one in pre-Norman Ireland, strongly identified with the cult of St Patrick so much
so that the contribution of the original missionary work of Palladius was depreciated and
ignored.
Edel Bhreathnach (Tara Research Fellow) lectured on the geographical location of the kingdom
of Brega, followed by a visual tour by slides of the remains of early Christian sites in Brega
presented by Leo Swan (Archtech Archaeological Technology). Catherine Swift (University of
Liverpool) cautioned that the study of accounts of St Patrick’s missionary work in Brega from
ancient manuscripts and faulty translations demonstrated little to show that he had any
connection with Brega during the fifth and sixth centuries. Cormac Bourke (Ulster Museum)
delivered a fascinating paper on Irish pan-nationalism in the twentieth century and how its
perceptions related to Irish ethnology during the early medieval period. Ireland in the early Celtic
period was not just the island of Ireland in the Irish nationalist republican sense but an Ireland
which included the ancient Scottish kingdom of Delriada, now the Scottish Western Isles; a
concept which is now embodied in the new Article 2 of the Irish Constitution and in the Council
of the Isles as defined in the Good Friday Agreement (1998).
Peter Harbison (Royal Irish Academy) presented an illustrated account of the pictorial
representations of St Patrick found in stained glass, tapestries and manuscripts throughout
Europe from early Christian times to the modern day. Michael Ryan (Chester Beatty Library)
outlined the progress on surveys carried out on behalf of the Committee on Inis Pádraic and
remarked that it had come as a surprise just how extensive the earthworks were on the island. He
presented a large map which outlined the detailed surveys carried out to date and hoped that in
the future further geophysical studies (which are very costly) would be carried out prior to any
archaeological activities. Donnchadh Ó Corráin (UCC) analysed the linguistic interpretations of
ancient texts dealing with Brega, Tara and St Patrick.
Alan McGovern (Maynooth) spoke about the political background of Church Island and its
relationship with Lusk. Howard Clarke (UCD) discussed the influence of Norse Dublin on the
the development of Brega. He noted that the survey of Church Island which showed extensive
earthworks may in time reveal a Norse settlement. Martin Holland (TCD) discussed the political
and clerical ramifications for the Irish Church of the 1127 synod of Holmpatrick.
The conference closed with a tour of historical sites at Lusk, Swords and St Dulough’s,
Malahide, conducted by Peter Harbison. In the evening an interdenominational service was held
at Holmpatrick church in celebration of St Patrick and the Millennium.

Skerries Patrician Millennium Project homepage: http://gofree.indigo.ie/~ecoyle

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