Bill Petro

HISTORY OF REEK SUNDAY, Part 3

The Location

In County Mayo in Ireland, Cruach Phadraig — as it is known in Irish — is also called the Reek. It stands at 764 meters or 2510 feet elevation. It is located about 5 miles from the lovely town of Westport, an Irish Tidy Town. St. Patrick’s “Confessions” tells of his slavery in the wood of Fochluth. Evidence relating to the history of St. Patrick suggests that this location was actually on the west shore of Ireland in this area.

Westport is a popular tourist destination in County Mayo, not only as a launching point for the pilgrimage, but for its picture postcard beauty. In the center of the town is an octogon with a pillar featuring St. Patrick. On each of the eight sides is a panel illustrating something from his life.

The Book of Armagh, a vellum book on display alongside the fabled and ornately illustrated “Book of Kells” at the Trinity College Library in Dublin, is thought to have been written by the hand of Patrick himself and tells of him hearing of the Wood of Fochloth and agreeing to undertake a mission there because of the children crying with a loud voice saying “Come O Holy Patrick to save us.” Though Patrick began his evangelization of Ireland in 432 AD, it wasn’t until 9 years alter that he reached Croagh Patrick just before Easter of 441 AD, or more specifically before Lent.

Bill Petro, your friendly neighborhood historian
www.billpetro.com

HISTORY OF REEK SUNDAY, PART 2

The Pilgrimage

Pilgrims, nature lovers, archeologists, historians and hill climbers come from all over the world to climb the mountain. This pilgrimage has been going on for centuries, and an older one for millennia. More on that later.

The current one has been going on in an active way since 1905 with the dedication of the new St. Patricks Oratory. Pilgrimages had fallen off following the Great Hunger (Potato Famine) of the 1840s and efforts were made to revitalize it. On Sunday July 30, 1905 there were 10,000 pilgrims in attendance of the new church. Night pilgrimages were performed until 1973, but they are now held during the day, sometimes barefooted.

An older tradition goes back even further. Pre-Christian artifacts have been discovered by archeologists suggesting a Celtic hillfort that circled the top of the mountain. On the summit have been found amber, blue and black glass beads dating to the 3rd century BC. The mountain seems to have been revered long before Patrick, and was perhaps the reason he had his fast and contest there. It was believed to be the seat of the old Celtic fertility deity Crom Dubh, often translated as the Dark Stooped One. In pre-Roman times, Crom Dubh seems to have been considered a despotic deity with evil powers.

Throughout Ireland, the Festival of Lughnasa is celebrated at the end of July as the start of the harvest festival in honor of the deity Lugh, the ancient pagan god of the Tuatha De Danann, a people whose name is now encompassed in the Irish word for August — Lughnasa. Lugh, personified as both young and strong, grasped harvest riches from the hands of fate each year by defeating the older god Crom Dubh. Each year the ritual involved cutting the first of the harvest and taking the head of Crom Dubh from its sanctuary and temporarily burying it in a high place. This head (right) survived until it was recently stolen from the wall of a ruined church on the Dingle Peninsula, County Kerry, Ireland.

Locally in County Mayo the celebration is known as Domhnach Crom Dubh (Black Crom Sunday), but it is also known as Garland Sunday, Garlic Sunday, the last Sunday of Summer, and Domhnach na Cruaiche — Reek Sunday.

Bill Petro, your friendly neighborhood historian
www.billpetro.com

HISTORY OF REEK SUNDAY

This Sunday, the last Sunday in July every year, marks Reek Sunday, or Garland Sunday in Ireland. At this time between 25,000 and 40,000 people will walk the 3-hour round trip up the Reek Mountain, or Croagh Patrick in County Mayo, Ireland, the sacred mountain of St. Patrick in a popular pilgrimage in honor of the patron saint of Ireland, commemorating his driving the snakes from Ireland. Over 100,000 people a year visit Croagh Patrick.

In this history miniseries, we’ll look at the Tradition, the Pilgrimage, and the Location.

The Tradition

On the summit of this mountain it is believed that St. Patrick fasted and prayed for 40 days in 441 A.D. The story goes that at the end of this fast St. Patrick threw a bell down the mountain side and banished all the serpents from Ireland. The fact that snakes never were native to Ireland does not diminish the tradition. Some believe that the banishing of the snakes represents either certain pagan practices or outright evil. In any event, the pilgrimage in honor of St. Patrick goes back to this date. Radiocarbon dating of the remnants of a dry stone oratory is dated at between 430 and 890 AD. This oratory or place of worship is similar in design to the magnificently preserved Gallarus Oratory found on the Dingle Peninsula in County Kerry, Ireland. The bell we have now dates from 600 to 900 AD and is kept by the National Museum of Ireland.

As to the Saint’s bell, the so-called “Black Bell of St. Patrick” it remained a highly venerated relic with an old reference in O’Flaherty’s History of West Connaught dating back to 1098 AD. The tradition is that the bell was originally made of a shiny white metal though it became black from constant pelting at the demons in the form of black birds and venomous snakes who came after St. Patrick on the mountain. Patrick banished these powers into the hollow of Log na Deamhan (Lake of the Demons.) The devil’s mother, Corra (the fiery one,) escaped and flew into the lake south of the mountain, known since as Loch na Corra.

Bill Petro, your friendly neighborhood historian
www.billpetro.com

CROSBY, STILLS, NASH & YOUNG AT RED ROCKS IN DENVER

The show called “An Evening with Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young,” Freedom Of Speech ‘06 was one of three sold out events at the Denver Red Rocks open air amphitheatre. Their first tour since 2002 started in July in Philadelphia. Their 2000 reunion tour was their first since 1974.

Living With War, Neil Young’s new, highly political and stridently anti-Bush album was featured prominently (and seemingly entirely) during the first part of the show, including a 3-letter LWW logo over film clips from Iraq that was intended to look like the CNN logo. Some were tributes to veterans but others called for the impeachment of the President, which encouraged the inebriated behind me to chime in on the chant. Initially it seemed that the set was an indulgence to Young, but there’s more to it. Most of the big hits got pushed to the end of the second set of the show and past the 11 pm bedtime of not a few attendees who left early. Young’s new album was a late addition to the show, as the concert had long been planned before the release of his new work. Graham Nash is quoted as saying,

“We wanted to provide a balance, too. We didn’t wanna just be there as four raving madmen against this administration,” he says. “People come to see us because they fell in love to CSNY music. We didn’t want to make it just about how (screwed up) things appear to be in certain respects.”

In this respect they failed. Those who came to listen to classic CSN&Y were hijacked with a “solo” album they hadn’t come to hear.

The new Young songs were written about current events were clearly topical, including Living With War and Families. “Strange weather we’re having,” Young observed after noting how the band’s tour buses ran on bio-diesel. He didn’t mention that these were half a dozen luxury buses parked down the mountain with pop-outs like fifth-wheelers, including one tricked out with chopped classic 40s cars as their skylights.

Let’s look at the concert chronologically. The walk up to the venue was greeted, in an unusual way for Red Rocks, by numerous booths, including environmental and political issues like Progressive Democrats for America (and the other Democrats are…?)

The show started late due to heavy winds. A significant thunder storm was passing over the Denver area though Red Rocks was spared the heavy rain and hail during the event. However, the dark grey glowering sky with repeated lightning over Denver was far more impressive than the feeble on-stage light show.

The first thing you were struck with was how old the band looked. Steven Crosby, the first spotlighted looked like a long-haired version of the actor Wilford Brimley. This is a band that has been performing publicly since Woodstock, though one wondered how many in the audience knew that. One particular hyper-active 20-something in front of me shared with her neighbors that her mother had seen them at Woodstock in 1969.

Almost immediately the air smelled of dope… and onions from the bratwurst. It was a veritable reefer-o-rama, I had not smelled that much burning herb since I saw the Grateful Dead in the late 70s.

Their early song, “Carry On” was marred by bad microphone work that left out the melody track. A real shame. This was followed by “Wooden Ships” and “(It Appears To Be) A Long Time.”

This was followed by “Military Madness Is Killing My Country (No More War)” and “After the War Is Done.” This was not just the recycling of old Vietnam anti-war protest songs, though they were mining the same vein. Nevertheless, the “Power to the People” flame did not ignite.

Did I mention they looked old? They’re all in their early to mid-60s. Neil Young wore a hat for the show, and the jumbotron showed a face that made the Rolling Stones look young. By the time that Young got to “Living With War In My heart” you felt that there were too many Neil Young songs during the evening. The song “The Restless Consumer” with it’s repeated rant of “Don’t Need No More Lies” made it seem like a Country Joe and the Fish political pep rally in Berkeley.

The “We the People” preamble to the Constitution was visible on the stage, which was flanked by a curtains of horizontal red and white stripes. Just so you know, this was tour is called the “Freedom of Speech” tour. Young called out to the crowd “Muchas gracias” as they went into the song “Immigration Man.”

Crosby, Stills and Nash, formerly with The Byrds, Buffalo Springfield and the Hollies remind one of fabulous harmonies. And while they didn’t measure up to studio perfection, they showed that they could still do it. In a flood of Baby Boomer revival tours, there are so many who can’t. Paul Simon is reaching for the high notes, the group Chicago just can’t any longer.

They took a break at 8:40 to return “with some of our acoustic stuff” but the break lasted over 35 minutes as the stage crew fumbled with faulty sets. Nevertheless, the second half was rewarding. They started with “Helplessly Hoping” as they sang

…they are one person, they are two alone, they are three together, they are four each other…

proving that they could do the great harmonizing that still works.

Graham Nash took to the keyboard for “Our House” that caused most of the crowd to sing along. This is my favorite song of theirs and took me back to college days sitting in the courtyard of my university residence hall on a sunny Sunday afternoon.

But it was Neil Young’s keyboard and lead for “Only Love Can Break Your Heart” that got the rest of the audience on their feet.

However, the crowd was unrestrained as Crosby began the guitar introduction to “Guinevere.” Nash’s vocal pairing was haunting.

Nash then introduced the next song by saying “You people in Boulder and Red Rocks have it over everyone else. You’re closer to the Milky Way than anyone!” …which led into them singing “The Milky Way Tonight.” Stephen Stills and Neil Young then played “Treetop Flyer,” a favorite with this crowd.

By 11 pm, they still hadn’t played their favorites though. They’d overstayed their welcome with some concert goers who were beginning to leave, before they played “Teach Your Children” following the shout from the stage “Teachers should be paid three times what they’re paid now.” Next was “Southern Cross” nicely done, followed by a Jimi Hendrix-style “Star Spangled Banner” which could only introduce “Woodstock”.

I can only assume they saved “Love The One You’re With” for the encore. But I didn’t wait for it.

Photos of this concert can be found on their website here.

Bill Petro, your friendly neighborhood culture vulture
www.billpetro.com