Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 22, 1911.djvu/368

 ^;^2 Collectanea.

A Folklore Survey of County Clare {continued from p. 213).

XVI. Patterns and Religious Rites.

The three c\\\t{ patter fis, (or religious rites at wells and holy places), were held on Iniscatha or Scattery Island in the Shannon, at Killone near Ennis, and on Iniscaltra in Lough Derg. To all three thousands of persons came from Clare, Kerry, and more distant counties, until by degrees dissipation crept in and the clergy suppressed the festivals, leaving only a purely devotional shadow.

The Scattery pattern was held at the beginning of March, and celebrated St. Senan's victory over the " Cata " monster.^ Its best record is a stone, which I last saw and sketched in 1875 in a garden at NabocHsh Lodge in Kilkee, to which it had been brought from Kilrush by the late Capt. Kennedy. It had been brought over from the island to Kilrush when the pattern was suppressed by Dean Kenny, — some say in 18 10 and others " before 1827," though the pattern was still celebrated in 1816. John Windele some sixty years ago thus copied it : —

" In the name of God, Amen | Bare head, bare feet, all pious Christians are to kneel | At every station say or read, five Paters, Aves and a Creed | Five times round each blessed place | singing hymns and partner (? pater) beads. | Round the altar is a first | And two noted stations on the strand annex (? are next). | Round the Island on the water's edge : | Fourth, the Nun's ^ tomb on the strand du [sic) west. | Whoever kneels and read (sic) a prayer will not meet a watery grave. | Bringing up a stone to Monument Hill "perform there and that's the fifth. | Sixth, N. East a place called Laoth^and at our Lady's church women stop. | Eighth, the large church. Ninth is the S" (? Saviour's). Tenth is the bed called St. Synan's grave." ] The well is eleventh finish and pray for ye souls of ye erectors of this blessed place."

^Cf. vol. xxi., p. 477.

^ St. Cannara, buried on the strand as the saint would not permit her to land on the island.


 * Knocknanangel to the south of the cathedral.


 * Lacht.

^ No woman dared approach, and still less enter, St. Senan's church, the most northern of the group. For a description and plan see The Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland, vol. xxvii. , pp. 276-89. " S. F. " says, {The Dublin University Magazine, vol. xviii., p. 547), that no woman dares to approach the Lady's Well.