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Cill Dara
Kildare, one of Ireland's oldest towns
One of the oldest towns in Ireland, if not the oldest of all, Kildare's history spans at least 1500 years.
Until the Vikings established coastal towns such as Dublin and Wexford, Ireland had no actual towns. Instead there were the large monastic communities like Armagh, Clonmacnois and Kildare, which fulfilled the same function as towns. Monastic communities owned large tracts of land which took in rent from the surrounding countryside from the monks' land-tenants, usually in the form of surplus food production. Artisans, craftspeople and merchants were drawn to the community as well, for trading of their wares. A golden age of Irish art, crafts and general prosperity flourished around centers such as Kildare. In the 7th century, Cogitosus, a monk of Kildare, described Kildare as "a vast metropolitan city." Even before the monastery of St. Brigid was founded in 484, there was a shrine to the Celtic goddess Brigid at Kildare, probably on the same site where the cathedral stands today. A group of young women dedicated to Brigid tended a sacred fire on that site. No one knows the exact location of this ancient shrine but it was probably near a large oak tree where St. Brigid later chose to establish her church. Kildare is a name that is derived from "cill dara" or "church of the oak." The names and many of the attributes of pre-Christian Irish deities were maintained after the Christian faith arrived in Ireland, even if many of the gods and goddesses were reduced to "fairies." The ones that could not be shrunk down to size were absorbed into Christian tradition as local "saints" with the older pagan rituals surviving as folk customs. This is clearly the case with Brigid, a goddess rooted too deeply in the hearts of the people to be driven underground like the rest of the Tuatha de Danaan. This goddess of the sacred flame, whose shrine is still the gem of Kildare, has been converted into the beloved "Mary of the Gaels" while retaining most of her pre-Christian attributes. Unfortunately the prosperity and treasures of the monastic centers not only attracted traders and craftspeople but also drew Vikings, beginning in the late 8th century. Over the next 300 years, Kildare was continuously raided, plundered and burned. A restored Norman style round tower and cathedral now stand on the site of the ancient shrine of the goddess and the original monastery of St. Brigid. |
Courtyard
~ Table of Contents ~
Ynys Môn ( Isle of Anglesey)
Winter Solstice - Rebirth of the Sun Temair Luachra Brú na Bóinne LUGHNASADH: FEAST OF FIRST FRUITS Maes Howe Reflections on Cnoc Áine Samhain: The Last Feast of Summer Clonycavan Man Lough Derg Changelings The Origins of Celtic Christianity and St. Patrick in Ireland In Search of the Real Myrddin, Mad Prophet and Poet Myth and Celtic Culture by Draoi-man Brigantes (David Drew) |
