'I still get a thrill as I come over the hill on the way to Ballycastle, look down to Fairhead and over to Rathlin'

'I still get a thrill as I come over the hill on the way to Ballycastle, look down to Fairhead and over to Rathlin'

Mary reflects upon growing up in Co. Antrim and she refers to songs from her childhood which remind her of the beauty of the county in which she was born. In particular she notes how close Antrim is to Scotland and she refers to Rathlin Island in Scotland and notes how it can be seen from the Antrim coast.

Mary Dynan

Trinity College Dublin

1945

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Mary Dynan

Childhood and Early Life

Life Story

Rathlin Island, Scotland

1940's

I don't think, as a child, I would have been too surprised to 'meet a lochrey man' such as the one mentioned in Seosamh 0 Cathmhoill's song which was a favoriteMy father and mother were IrishAnd I am Irish too.I bought a wee fidil for ninepenceAnd it was Irish too .....One pleasant eve in June timeI met a lochry man:His hands and feet were weazenHis height was not a span.I know that after my father sang the following song about Rathlin to me I kept a weather eye out for mermaids on Ballycastle strand.And there I heard so sweet a tale I ofttimes wish it could be true.They say at at eve when rude winds sleep and hushed is every turbid swellA mermaid rises from the deep and sweetly tunes her magic shell.The mermaid even had a home. A cave underneath Dunluce Castle, where the great Atlantic waves rushed in and roared spectacularly on rough days, is known as the Mermaid's Cave. Some people say that the name Dunluce means the fort of the sea - spirit. She even had a name, Maev Roe, and she was regarded as the guardian spirit of the place.I have never actually got to Rathlin, but I still get a thrill as I come over the hill on the way to Ballycastle, look down to Fairhead and over to Rathlin, and to Scotland beyond. I am always surprised at how close Scotland can seem. On some days you can see the cars driving along the road in the Mull of Kintyre. It is only 13 miles away, and a lot of the history of North Antrim is linked with Scotland. There was coming and going, fighting and intermarrying, long before the dour, hard, but resourceful people, who now call themselves the Scots Irish, came. Getting back to Rathlin ... It was there that Robert Bruce, who was on the run and hiding in a cave from his enemies, saw the spider that gave him a lesson in perseverance and gave him hope to try again. He went back to Scotland and having conquered the English at the Battle of Bannockburn, became King of Scotland.Sorley Boy McDonnell is reputed to have been able to summon his sons from Rathlin to join in a battle by calling to them from Ballycastle. Using voice power, he beat Marconi by a few hundred years. Marconi sent his first wireless message from the White Lodge in Ballycastle to Rathlin, and this was the forerunner of all our modern telecommunications. Nowadays there is an interesting monument based on the Morse Code to commemorate the event down by Ballycastle Harbour. On a recent visit to Ballycastle I discovered that Marconi chose this site for his experiment because it was the best place to get information to Lloyd's of London regarding the first sightings of ships crossing the Atlantic.The magic of Rathlin's mermaid was also about near Lough Neagh.When the family purchased Massareene Park in Antrim and I had an opportunity to wander to my heart's content by the shore of Lough Neagh, the ostensible reason for going was to look for petrified branches - the effect of the water over the years was to calcify any branches that fell there and they looked like exotic carvings in limestone - but in reality I was hoping I'd be like the fisherman...On Lough Neagh's banks where the fisherman straysWhen the clear cold eve's decliningHe sees the round towers of other daysIn the waves beneath him shiningI have many happy memories of gathering bluebells and carefree wandering through the 'plantin' which bordered part of the lough shore, and of wading out far into the water, despite the warning that Lough Neagh demanded at least one 'hostage' a year. It seemed amazing that the lough didn't seem to get any deeper, but it was in fact quite dangerous - one could have suddenly encountered an unexpected deep bit. But I never saw any other round towers than the very obvious one that stood in Antrim town. But you could always live in hope! The midges were usually more prominent than mermaids.By the way there was a street cry about the petrified branchesLough Neagh honesPut them in wood, take them out stones.They were evidently once upon a time used for sharpening knives - that is why they were called hones. And there was also a yarn that fishermen having waded in the lough for a few years could sharpen knives on their shins.A little item of interest I found in O Laverty's History of the Diocese of Down and Connor was that at the time of the Cromwellian plantations the English tried to impose on Lough Neagh the name of Lough Sidney. They didn't succeed. That's maybe why the name was free for later use!

Irish Research Council for Arts, Humanities & Social Sciences (IRCHSS)

Dr Kathleen McTiernan (Trinity College Dublin)

Dr Deirdre O'Donnell (Trinity College Dublin)