530 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. 



Croaglmakeela Island. The graveyards are — one for children and 

 strangers on Pinisli Island to the east of Mweenish Bay ; one on 

 Mweenish Island, or rather peninsula, for it is connected by causeways 

 and the islets of Carra, Joyce's Island and Eushenacholla to the main- 

 land ; Mason Island near the chapel, St. Macdara's Island and Moyruss 

 church. The weUs are TobergoUan, Killane, and the ""WeU of the 

 Seven Daughters " on Mweenish, Tobermacdara in St. llacdara's Island, 

 Toberkeela in Croaghnakeela, and Toberkenagh north from Moyruss 

 church. There are fortified islands at Lough Bola and Lough 

 Skannive, the site of a castle at Ard East, and a ruined late " telegraph 

 tower" on the ridge of CuiUen, between Ard and Cama. To this list 

 maybe added the following "leachts" and "stations": — Mason 

 Island ; three on Croaghmaedara ; and Lackshinnagh and the leacht of 

 St. (Sinnagh) Macdara on the shore of the beautiful bay north of 

 Moyruss church. 



Croaghmaedara or St. Macdara's Island has long attracted the 

 interest of archaeologists. Eoderick O'Flaherty, in "H'lar Connaught," 

 in 1 684, thus notes the spot — "Cruagh mhic Dara, a small high island and 

 harbour for ships. This island is an inviolable sanctuary, dedicated to 

 St. MacDara, a miraculous saint, whose chappell is within it, where his 

 statue of wood for many ages stood, till Malachias Queleus, the Arch- 

 bishope of Tuam^ (1631-1645), caused it to be buried imderground for 

 special weighty reasons." In face of the mention of such wooden 

 statues of the saintly founders of churches by Giraldus Cambrensis, 

 the existence of figiu^es of SS. Molaise and Brendan at Inishmurray 

 and Innisglora, and the figiu-e of that nameless saint, perhaps Senan or 

 Senach, brought fi'om county Clare to Xerry in the last century, it is 

 interesting to note that a wooden image, "many ages" old in 1631, 

 was reverenced, as it is a favoiuite theory that such images were 

 figureheads of the Spanish ships wrecked on this merciless coast in 

 1588. 



The " Chore grapher " then tells us of the "captives' stone," 

 where women gathered "duleasg, for a friend's sake in captivity," to 

 get the succour of the saint, and how mariners used to ' ' bow down 

 their sails three times as a mark of reverence when passing between 

 Mason Head and the island." He corroborates this statement by awe- 

 inspii'ing tales how a captain of the garrison of Galway, so late as 

 1672, neglected this salute, and met such a storm that he vowed never 

 to pass without paying his " obeysance." His tardy repentance did 



^ Malachi O'CadMa, a native of Co. Clare, Eoman Catholic Archbishop of Tuam. 



