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Blogs by Mary Cecil
'The Last Place to be Free' 1/23/2013 2:05:38 PM
Excerpts from my life's journey The island has been occupied from Mesolithic times until today and there are various examples of the wonderful’ porcellanite’ fine blue polished stone tools from Rathlin in the Ulster Museum and elsewhere, and as a result of extensive studies, it’s been established that by about 2500BC they were exported throughout Europe . Life must have been prosperous for the folks on the island until a new age began with the arrival of copper about 1800BC and their thriving trade died.
Interesting to think of Rathlin being involved in a world wide arm’s race at that time, however I can’t describe well enough, how it feels to find and hold in your hand, something that was laboured over, perhaps by a fireside, for many hours and the skill required to do this, by an islander, so many thousands of years ago, and the bond you would feel and the admiration, as many are true works of art. This is the best feeling in the world, to touch history and feel that connection across the millennium, it’s truly awesome, to try to understand and appreciate the immense difficulties they must have endured to survive with so little, when we have so much, and the honour and the privilege to hold one so painstakingly fashioned.
The island has many ancient burial grounds and Bronze Age graves were discovered near the island’s pub during excavations for the harbour in the late seventies when I lived there and was expecting my son Douglas. I found this so poignant and in a way, a terrible intrusion, as one of them was a child’s grave, with a child sized decorated pot, placed there with great reverence, perhaps with the mother and father standing by. How easy it was for me to feel their grief.
The island had been ravaged by the Danes and as you come to the harbour you will see the field with the ‘Standing Stone’ located just above the pub in a prominent position. At the stone a Viking Grave was unearthed which included a sword which crumbled to nothing when exposed to the air. The occupant must have been a significant figure of some importance at the time. Nearer the harbour a ‘Monk’s Seat’ carved into a niche in a wall can be found. St Columba resided on Rathlin and the island Church St Thomas’s was built on the site of an ancient monastic settlement founded by St Comgall about the year 580.
One can easily imagine that the remoteness, peace and tranquillity in a place so close to the sea would be a fine environment to pray and contemplate the spiritual aspects of this world and today one can find one’s thoughts, when spending time on the island, with nature’s magnificence all around, turning to the meaning of life, so Rathlin was occupied by persons of peaceful intentions as well as the more warlike, a bit of the sacred and the profane, both leaving their mark on the island
In earlier times, an island in many regards, would have been a desirable place to be, with abundant food in fish, elk, shellfish, birds and eggs also more accessible than travel by roads if one had a suitable boat and the skills to sail it, however the shores around the island are littered with numerous shipwrecks, as the ferocious tides which pour through the narrow channel between the island and the mainland are some of the strongest around the Irish or British coast.
There’s nothing like a turbulent crossing to engender a healthy respect for the sea, as I’ve experienced at first hand, like many islanders. It’s at moments like that, you wonder if this is to be your final journey and if so, can you barter for your life with God himself, whilst clinging for dear life to a piece of wood and being swept over by almighty seas and this with the benefit of modern communications and powerful engines. What could it have been like with sails, certainly no place for a novice, so a lot of skill would be required.
