Feichin at Fore…

County Westmeath, Friday, 29th July 2022…

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That is St Feichin to you!

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Some of the Irish saints

are less holy men

and more your itinerant geomancers,

which some might argue is equally holy

but in a different way.

 

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Although, this seems

not to be the case here.

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There is no round tower, either,

which is usually the sign

of something much more ancient.

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The towers appear to act like the mounds

at the seats of learning on the ‘mainland’.

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We think particularly of Marlborough College,

with its Merlin’s Mound, and also of both Oxford

and Cambridge Universities,

although there may, yet, be many more.

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A pleasant enough spot though.

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Note on Celtic Saints:

These ancient savants seem of an entirely different cast to their Roman Catholic successors.

Like the Bards of old they travel the land far and wide, taking their entourage with them, seeming reluctant to ever settle…

St Samson, though born in Wales of ‘royal stock’, enjoys legendary status on Caldey, in Ireland, Cornwall and Brittany!

These places are all centres of stone.

The official hagiographies of the saints often seek to conceal much more than they reveal.

One charming account has both Samson and Arthur, as children, playing together in their eponymous Dolmen.

The notion of St Samson as Itinerant Pendragon is greatly appealing.

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Lands of Exile:

KITH ‘N’ KIN

Stuart France & Sue Vincent

The Beeley Stone, ‘liberated’ from the churchyard at Bakewell, stands proudly in the centre of its village green once more. While the locals enjoy the fruits of its restoration, Ben, who had led the daring raid against authority, still languishes in jail.

Don and Wen, arrested and released without explanation in Ireland, now plot an erratic course through the wild places of Wales, while Jaw-Dark and Kraas, seeking the legendary stone of Fergus Mac Roy, have been separated in the most uncanny of circumstances…

As the darkness closes around them, the Black Shade haunts the moors above Beeley and, in the shadowy rooms of the old tower, an ancient and even stranger story begins to unfold…

Available via Amazon UK, Amazon.com and worldwide,

for Kindle and in full colour illustrated paperback.