Finding Sacred Ireland

Sacred stones in Old Leck Cemetery

Many Irish towns have a old burial ground like the Old Leck Cemetery in Letterkenny. You see mostly 20th and 19th-century gravestones, with a few in the oldest families in town from the 21st. If you look closer you see the low stones with soft edges marking graves from three, four hundred years ago, maybe earlier. I had long wanted to visit this sacred ground, but never had, so a few days ago I invited my friend Sinead to join me.

See that notch in the wall? An invitation. Beyond I found a brook, merrily burbling on its way to the river Swilly (An tSúileach). I stood in the shade, taking in that bright green sunny field, listening; remembering that time many years ago on an early holiday in Ireland I sat near a similar brook in Sligo, listening, getting back into my body after the disassociating flight from California.

In those days I was seeking “Sacred Ireland.” I met teachers and writers and artists. I read books and followed incomprehensible instructions to locate sacred sites. I climbed mountains and entered caves.

Here’s the secret to finding sacred Ireland: just come here and sit down.

The secret works anywhere, but you may want to begin by sitting down an old cemetery like Old Leck.

As I turned away from the brook to rejoin Sinead, I saw this:

Look at that. A sacred well. The kind of well created from a bullaun stone, which is a rock with a circular depression in it. Because this is Ireland, if you leave it outside, it fills with water, and the water becomes magic. People say this bullaun stone at Old Leck holds a cure for warts.

(Some people say we don’t know the original purpose for a bullaun stone, but I like the theory described by Brian Dolan, in “Mysterious Waifs of Time,” a scholarly paper about bullaun stones. I think these stones were once used to grind ore in preparation for smelting. The technology of Bronze Age metalwork is always associated with magic. The story of the boy pulling a sword from a stone is simply the final product of a technical process that begins with grinding ore to powder in a bullaun stone. Long after people no longer needed to ask a magical king make them a shiny blade, the cast off tools retained their magic.)

Finding sacred Ireland is as easy as stepping through a notch in a wall… or gathering with good people, like I will tomorrow. Tomorrow is Bealtaine, the fire holiday marking the first day of summer. Sinead and her Himalayan House Band will host Teach na Sean-Ghaeilge (Old Irish House). Dinner, music, poetry, songs, chat, friends, special guests and open mic. I try never to miss it. All I need to do is sit down.