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The Viking Ship and Pagan Burial Customs

In Scandinavia, Viking culture and pagan burial customswere inextricably linked with the longship which was

seen as the mode of conveyance from this world to thenext.1 Wealthy Vikings were buried in their ships with allthe supplies required for the journey. The less wealthywere interred in ship-settings made of stones embeddedupright in the ground following the outline of a ship2

which have been interpreted as symbols of the voyage toValhalla.3 Following the arrival of Christianity in the mid12th century, graffiti of longships began to appear on thewalls of Scandinavian churches.

Pagan Viking burial traditions appear to have beenimported during the period of the Viking invasions andsettlement of Ireland, between the 8th and 10th centuries.Despite the general lack of evidence of ship-related Vikingburials in Ireland, Eamonn P. Kelly, who is actively engagedin archaeological research into the presence of the Vikingson the west coast, believes he has identified a Viking shipburial at Knoxpark, Co. Sligo.4 Kelly also supports thetentative identification by Brendan Walsh of a Viking ship-setting at Treanbeg in the Clew Bay area.5 He believes thatthese sites can be connected to na Lochlainní,6 the firstgroup of Vikings to arrive on the west coast. This term isfound frequently from the 9th to the 11th centuries in TheAnnals of the Four Masters and is Irish for “Scandinavians”,“Norwegians” or “Vikings”.7

During the period of invasions, the sight of Viking long-ships struck terror into the Irish. One of the earliestdocumented raids took place in 795 AD at Inishbofin, offthe Connemara coast. In 807 AD, the Vikings sailed to theinner waters of Galway Bay and attacked Roscam nearOranmore. As land was scarce in Scandinavia, and fishtheir dietary staple, they soon began to settle on the westcoast. Kelly writes “the overall evidence seems to suggestthat there was a substantial Viking settlement in the coastalareas of Connemara”8 and Clare including the south side ofGalway Bay.9 They began to intermarry with the Irish and,by the mid 9th century, a generation of mixed parentagereferred to as the Gaill-Gaedhil (“foreigners”) emerged.Many native Irish took Norse personal names: one of theearliest is Lochlainn, derived from na Lochlainní.10 Greene11

and Kelly12 point out that the clan name Ó Lochlainn de-notes Viking ancestry.

As Viking power was based on maritime prowess, theVikings brought their shipbuilding technology to Ireland.Because their ships represented a radical developmentbeyond the native currach, they contributed many nauticalterms to the Irish language. They established a base withtwo longphorts (“ship camps”) at Dublin in 841 AD andmay have built one at Athlunkard, near the mouth of theShannon during the 9th or 10th century AD.13 By the 11thcentury, their fleet controlled the Shannon from Limerickto Lough Derg,14 and their longships, together with theircommercial skills, turned Limerick into a major tradingcentre. Viking presence would have extended up and downthe west coast as they needed a way to protect their searoutes as well as “a network of secure landing places” where

they could put in for repairs and shelter from storms.15

In addition to fighting their own battles, the Vikingsforged alliances with native Irish chieftains whose powerthey helped to bolster. Although the” Viking age” in Irelandended technically in 1014 after they were routed by thenative Irish at the Battle of Clontarf, the Scandinaviansmaintained a strong presence. In 1095 AD, Godfred Meren-agh, king of the Ostmen, had a naval force of “not fewerthan ninety ships in the harbour of Dublin.”16 During the11th century, Dublin remained “a powerful and warlike cityof which the inhabitants … are expert in the managementof fleets.”17

Ireland was not the only country where the Vikingssettled. In 911 AD, they found a home in northern Francewhere the “Norsemen” gave their name to Normandy andbecame known as “Normans.” They adopted Christianity,along with French culture and language, during the 10thcentury.18 In 1066 AD they invaded England where Williamthe Conqueror became the first Norman king. In 1169 AD.,now known as “Anglo-Normans”, they invaded Ireland inships that were “essentially still the Viking ships with whichtheir ancestors had landed in Normandy.” Norman shipswere virtually indistinguishable from Viking longships.19

Although the Vikings of Dublin, Limerick and Corkoffered powerful resistance to the Anglo-Normans,20 Dublinfell in 1170 AD. marking the end of Viking Dublin as apolitical entity.21 Nevertheless, the Scandinavians remaineda distinct presence there and in other Irish towns duringthe 12th century.22 Although King John built a castle inLimerick c. 1200-1212, and many Anglo-Normans movedthere during the 13th century, the town was divided intoseparate areas, one for the English and another for the Irishand Scandinavians.23 Thanks to the strong base establishedby the Vikings it continued to grow and flourish as a tradingcentre under Anglo-Norman rule.

By the beginning of the 10th century, many of the Vikingsin Ireland were bilingual, culturally Hibernicized, andChristian. They had their own churches and bishops, mon-asteries and convents,”24 A stone at St. Flannan’s Cathedralin Killaloe, County Clare, dated to the first half of the 11thcentury,25 indicates that the chief abbot, Thurgum, wasNorse.26 Limerick became a diocese with its own bishop in 1106/7, and both Erolph and his successor, Turgesius(Thorgils), bishops of Limerick from 1140- 1151 and 1151-1167, were of Viking stock.27

Interpreting the Viking Ship Symbol within a ChristianContext

The earliest graffiti (incised drawings) of longshipsfound in Scandinavia come from the Oseberg burial of 834AD. Later graffiti of longships on wood, stone and plastershow, for the most part, only the stems of ships. The mostfamous of these is the Norwegian Bryggen stick, dated1248-1322, which depicts a row of 48 longships.28 Thistradition was brought to Ireland with the Vikings. Three

Corcomroe Abbey Ship Graffito: A Sacred and Secular Symbol

Katharine Lochnan

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graffiti of longships on wood, dating to the late 11th orearly 12th century, were discovered in Viking Dublinduring the excavation of Winetavern St. and ChristchurchPlace.29

During the 12th-13th century, after paganism gave wayto Christianity in Scandinavia, ship graffiti began to appearon the walls of churches, most of them located near thecoast.30 In Denmark and Gotland (a Swedish island) theywere scratched “on the medieval limewash of the stonechurches … while the lime was still wet.” In Norway theywere carved or scratched into church walls, both insideand out, using the point of a knife.31 Although they tend toshow only the ships’ stems, in Fortun the “long, slenderprofile of a warship dominates the carvings on the inside ofthe north wall of the nave”.32

Attempts to interpret their significance and meaningrange from the ridiculous to the sublime. Arne Emil Christ-ensen wrote “In my opinion they should be interpreted asexpressions of men and probably boys who were living in amaritime society. They were interested in ships, they sawships as important tools for trade and warfare, and theymay well have accepted the ships of kings and nobles assymbols of power and glory, and they carved them asexpressions of preoccupation and strong interest, not assymbols.”33 Blindheim, in his study of the large numberfound in medieval Norwegian stave churches,34 dividedthem into three categories: chance, piety, and prophy-laxis.35 Jan Bill has come to the conclusion that “it is verylikely that many of the carvings have had a definite religiousor communicative intention.”36

The longship was not only emblematic of Viking cultureduring the medieval period, it remains so to the presentday. Liz le Bon sees early visual imagery as the product“not only of artistic and physical contexts, but of a verydifferent thought world from our own. Problems in identify-ing the use and meaning of symbols in ancient art mayprovide serious obstacles to reading an image’s deeper levelsof meaning … Reading the graffito, then, relies on under-standing the many contexts which influenced the artistwho created it.”37 When used as a symbol in a secular con-text, as on a coin, seal, or coat of arms,38 its meaning maybe sought in national, political, economic, professional,social or personal contexts. When found in a church, on acoffin or tombstone, while it may carry secular meaning, itmust also be considered in a spiritual context.

Christianity was quick to appropriate pagan symbols,and the ship was one of them.39 Birgitte Munch Thye pointsout that, although it was the symbol of passage and meansof transportation to the next world in many ancientreligions, ships appear in the Bible on less than a dozenoccasions and the motif was not, therefore, very relevant toChristianity. While “Ships were an everyday necessity, andit must therefore have felt quite natural to incorporate theidea of ships into the new faith, it had to be done in adifferent way than in the old pagan religions. On the otherhand: ship symbols were tainted with paganism, and thefirst Christians had to be careful. They did not want sym-bols or parts of the new faith to remind people of anythingnon-Christian. So the Christian ship symbol had to signifylife and not death.”40

Ships were depicted in the Bible as safe havens duringstorms: in the Old Testament, Noah’s Ark ensured thesurvival of man and beast during the Great Flood41 and, inthe New Testament, Christ calmed the storm on the Lake ofGenesereth that terrified St. Peter and the Apostles. Basedon the traditional formula of Ecclesia est navis, Anne-MarieD’Arcy points out that the ship was interpreted as a figureof the Church in via migrationis.42 The body of the church

was called the “nave” (based on the latin world navismeaning ship) and the congregation saw itself as “the crewof St. Peter”.43

Zbigniew Kobylinski points out that although “all theoccurrences of boats and ships in spiritual culture shouldbe treated as fragments and versions of the same ‘text’, themeaning of which can be discovered by means of structuralanalysis” … “studies of the historical development of themeaning of a given symbol provide no assistance in identify-ing its specific meaning in a particular spatio-temporalcontext, since variability in the course of this developmentcan lead to a total change in the original meaning.”44 Forthis reason “the discovery of which aspect of the shipsymbol is culturally or socially meaningful in a particularsituation depends on a detailed study of its context.” Hence“the boat could be the central symbol for members of onegroup of the society while it was simultaneously only atechnico-utilitarian artifact for the others.”45

Kobylinski also pointed out that it is “equally importantand interesting to study how particular socio-culturalgroups added their own communications to this universalsymbol, how they stressed some of its aspects or modifiedits meaning” maintaining that “on the borders of Scandin-avian settlement, i.e. in situations where there was contactwith other peoples, as in the British isles … the ship sym-bol, particularly in the form of the boat-burial, could befirst of all a symbol of ethnicity.”46 By the 13th century, the“Viking type” ship motif may have become synonymouswith the concept of “ship” and as Viking and Norman shipswere indistinguishable, the motif had the potential to crosscultures. Ship graffiti could have been employed as secularor sacred emblems by those of Scandinavian descent,whether Gaill-Gaedhil or Anglo-Norman. Given the geo-graphical distribution of Viking settlements, one mightexpect to find similar ship graffiti in churches in Normandyand England, but to date no examples appear to haveturned up in Normandy, and only one possible example inEngland.47 In Ireland, however, ship graffiti dating from the13th-16th c. have been found scratched into the chancelwalls of churches, most of them monastic,48 suggesting alink between graffiti in Scandinavia and Ireland.

The “Viking-type” Ship Graffito at Corcomroe AbbeyThe earliest ship graffito found in an Irish monastic

setting was scratched into damp plaster on the north wallof the chancel of the Cistercian abbey church, Sancta Mariade Petra Fertilis, at Corcomroe (Plate 1). The Abbey issituated 1.5 km. south of Bell Harbour on the south side ofGalway Bay in northwest County Clare, and about 55 kmnorthwest of Limerick. Its picturesque ruins, nestled into avalley in the austere limestone hills of the Burren, havebeen exposed to the elements for centuries.

Given the erosion that has taken place over the past 40years, it is fortunate that Professor Etienne Rynne measured,traced and published it in 1968.49 His outline drawing, nowin the National Museum of Ireland, is of the utmost im-portance in reconstructing the original.50 (Plate 2) Rynnerecorded the dimensions of the ship as follows: “it meas-ures 58.5 cm from end to end; the hull averages about 5.7cm. in height, with the pointed ends rising about 12 cm.higher; the mast is 3 cm. wide at its base and can be tracedto a height of 29 cm. above the hull.” Rynne concluded thatit would be impossible to identify the boat “on typologicalgrounds” because “the schematic … nature of the graffitoprevent prow and stern from being distinguished one fromthe other”.

After comparing a photograph of the recently recon-structed Viking longship, “Sea Stallion”51 (Plate 3), Edward

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Plate 2 – Line drawing by Prof. Rynne of ship graffito, Corcomroe Abbey, 1968. Reproduced with the permission of the National Museum of Ireland.

Plate 1 – Ship graffito, Corcomroe Abbey, 2008).

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O’Loghlen and I wondered whether the ship depicted atCorcomroe could possibly be a Viking type ship. Thesilhouette, ratio of proportions and subtle rendition of theinside curves of prow and stern appeared to be virtuallyidentical to “Sea Stallion” which was modelled on “Skul-delev 2”, one of three Viking ships scuttled in RoskildeFjord in Denmark in the 1070s. Built c. 1042 AD of Irishoak from Glendalough, south of Dublin, “Skuldelev 2” wasa type of longship used for raiding and warfare known as a skei (“that which cuts through the water”). It “representsthe group of larger, if not the largest, warships built ineleventh-century Dublin for the fleets navigating along thecoasts of Ireland, Scotland and Wales.”52 These ships wereeight times as long as they were wide 53 and the masts wereso short they could be “lowered into the boat for manoeuv-erability – or for the low profile needed to make a sneakattack.”54 They moved swiftly and silently under sail or oar,required only a shallow draught, and were easily sailed up rivers and dragged onto sandy beaches. Being double-ended with prows of equal height, they did not have to beturned around before setting out to sea again.

Longships were built well beyond the end of the “Vikingage.” In Scandinavia “the large warships of the eleventhcentury were the precursors of even larger royal ships ofthe twelfth and thirteenth centuries.”55 The longest werebuilt by the Norwegian King Hákon who became monarchin 1217 and used his impressive fleet to intimidate theSwedes and Danes. The harshness of Norman rule led someIrish chiefs to offer him the Irish high kingship in 1263, aplan that ended with his untimely death.

Rynne helped to establish an architectural context forthe graffito at Corcomroe by citing other Irish ship graffitithat had been published before 1968. Only three examplesappear to pre-date Corcomroe. Graffiti consisting of “ships,coats of arms, two interlaced oval loops, and various orna-ments” were drawn into the “ancient plaster” while stilldamp of the chapel of the tower house of Barrymore Castlenear Cork built c. 1206.56 A line drawing of a ship, also

accompanied by interlaced ovals, was incised into theplaster wall and on the door jambs of the chapel of theround tower in Roscrea, south Tipperary built c. 1213.57

The third appears on a wedge-shaped tomb-slab at SelskarAbbey near Wexford accompanied by a disembodied head.58

When a “Viking type” ship appears on a coffin lid59 or on a chapel wall accompanied by the lemniscate (the “inter-laced ovals” or figure of eight which symbolizes eternity),60

the concept of journeying to the next world is implied. Thelist of ship graffiti in Ireland cited by Rynne has beenadded to by Karena Morton,61 Karl Brady, Chris Corlett andTracy Collins.62 Brady and Corlett, noting their preponder-ance in ecclesiastical settings, dubbed them “Holy Ships”All the later examples depict contemporary ship designs.

Although Corcomroe was built in the 13th century,Rynne thought that the ship might have been incisedduring 16th century renovations as “most Irish graffiti inmonastic plasterwork” have been assigned to that period.63

Since then, Stalley has published extensively on Corcomroeand dated the completion of the chancel to c. 1227.64 Thelast phase of construction involved the application ofplaster and limewash over the masonry. Stalley publishedthe architectural graffiti which he believes were intendedas guides to the masons.65 Since they were incised in theinitial layer of limewash before it dried, and are gothic instyle, they can be dated both on technical and stylisticgrounds to c. 1226-7. Although he was aware of Rynne’s1968 article, he did not mention the ship graffito whichalso appears to have been incised in the first layer ofplaster.66 He observed, in conversation, that it must havebeen incised before the scaffolding was removed since it isapproximately 8 feet off the ground.67 It appears to havebeen deliberately placed there by an artisan working on thechancel c. 1226-7.68

After reviewing Rynne’s outline drawing, Kelly confirm-ed that the ship is a “Viking-type” ship and pointed out thatthey were derived directly from the Scandinavian clinker-built tradition, were used for long distance voyages, trading

Plate 3 – Sea Stallion. Copyright: The Viking Ship Museum, Denmark. Photo: Werner Karrasch.

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and fishing, and would have been a familiar site aroundthe coast of Ireland” from the 10th to the 16th centuries.69

The longship graffito at Corcomroe is not a generic repres-entation like those at Roscrea and Wexford,70 it more closelyresembles a graffito found at Winetavern Street, Dublin.(Plate 4) It appears to be an accurate rendition made by aperson who must have known those ships in the original.71

Care was given to the ratio of proportions and the exactangle and curvature of stem and stern. After examiningdigital images of the Corcomroe ship, Ian Friel observedthat the curvature of the post on the right appears to begreater than the one on the left and is set at a steeperangle.” He concluded that “it may be an early depiction ofa double-ended ship designed to take a stern rudder.” Healso thought he could see traces of rigging and possibly ofmast bindings.72

The Decorative Scheme at CorcomroeWhile the architectural graffiti at Corcomroe had a

practical purpose, the ship graffito did not. As the graffitotechnique was also employed to create underdrawings forwall paintings, it is possible that the ship was related to adecorative scheme. If it can, indeed, be dated to c. 1227,and if it is the underdrawing for a wall painting, it is theearliest datable one in Ireland. As such, it would help to fillthe gap identified by James Mills who observed that “thestudent of Irish culture lacks one resource available to theContinental student: the Church frescoes from A.D. 900 toA.D. 1600.”73

The elegant abbey church, on which no expense appearsto have been spared, would have been expected to conformto the restrictions placed on interior decoration by theCistercian Order whose mother house was at Citeaux inFrance. In his Apologia of 1125, St. Bernard of Clairvaux(1090-1153), the most influential member of the order,tolerated painting, and sculpture, but not coloured stained-glass windows and figured tiles, maintaining that suchlavish church decoration as gold-covered relics, images ofsaints, chandeliers, candelabra, and floor mosaics were atodds with the poverty and aestheticism espoused by theOrder.74 In 1134 a decree banning figural art and colouredstained glass windows was issued, and again in 1159, 1182,and 1254. However, it was challenged: as early as 1151 itwas partly relaxed, permitting some decoration.75 By 1230architectural elements in Cistercian churches in Francewere being picked out in a restricted palette of red, ochreand black.76 Surviving samples of these colours can be seenon stones at Mellifont, the Irish Cistercian motherhousenear Drogheda, consecrated in 1157.77 Corcomroe was atodds with Citeaux at this time. While the presbytery wasunder construction a struggle took place between theAnglo-Norman and native Irish abbots which may havebrought building to a halt.78 The former supported theChapter General, the Order’s central organization, whilethe latter were largely opposed to it. In 1226 a papalmandate was addressed jointly to the diocesan Bishop ofKilfenora and the Abbot of Corcomroe de Petra Fertiliscomplaining about the absence of the abbot of Corcomroefrom meetings of the Chapter General at Citeaux.79 Thishad no effect for, in 1227, the abbot’s absence was notedagain with irritation. The clash of cultures between thenative Irish and the Anglo-Normans came to a head in the“conspiracy of Mellifont” of 1227 in which Irish monksrebelled against the Anglo-Irish abbot threatening the verysurvival of the Cistercian Order in Ireland.

The following year, in 1228, Stephen of Lexington,Abbot of Stanley in Wiltshire, England, was dispatched byCiteaux to find out what was going on in Ireland. The

decoration of the chancel at Corcomroe must have beencomplete by that time, as Stephen was informed that one of the two gravest offenders against the rule concerningsculpture and paintings in churches was the monastery ofCorcomroe. After one of his assistants was wounded in anambush prepared by the prior of Corcomroe’s mother-house,Inisloughnacht, Stephen decided not to visit Corcomroe butinstead had it transferred from the jurisdiction of Inis-loughnacht to the abbey of Furness at Barrow-in-Furness,Lancashire. When the abbot of Furness asked to visit in1231, his request was refused.

On his first visit to Corcomroe in 1878, the antiquarianThomas J.Westropp found “traces of fresco painting in thegroining (of the chancel) red, black, drab and perhapsgreen.”80 To-day traces of red pigment can still be found onthe O’Brien effigy and to the right of the tomb canopy, andtraces of both red and ochre can be seen in the lowestlayers of plaster on the wall to the right of the O’Brien tomband on the north wall of the south chapel and left side ofthe window surround.81 This suggests that the vault, wallsand stonework of the chancel, as well as the O’Brien effigy,were once painted. To-day the ship graffito is the onlyevidence of what may once have been a scheme of painteddecoration at Corcomroe.

In trying to determine the nature and purpose of thegraffito at Corcomroe it is helpful to look at the survivinginterior decoration in sister Cistercian abbey churches.Corcomroe belongs architecturally to the “School of theWest”, a small but distinctive group of churches west of theShannon. Stalley has noted that “in strictly architecturalterms, Corcomroe is closer to Abbeyknockmoy (Knock-moy) than any other building”.82 Traces of the same red andochre pigments found at Corcomroe can be seen on the

Plate 4 – Viking ship graffito carved on wood, Dublin,late 11th-early 12th c., E81:2839b.

Reproduced with the permission of the National Museum of Ireland.

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remains of the first layer of plaster on the north wall of thesouth chapel of Abbeyknockmoy. Although the entire northwall of its chancel was once covered with wall paintings,those that survive to-day appear to date to the 16th century.83

Of greater relevance to Corcomroe is Abbeyknockmoy’s13th-century daughter house on Clare Island in Clew Bay,County Mayo. The wall paintings in Clare Island Abbeywere the subject of a major study published by the RoyalIrish Academy in 2005, and the scientific examination,research, and conservation of the paintings have yieldedinformation that can be applied to understanding the natureand purpose of the ship graffito at Corcomroe.84 They havebeen divided into two chronological phases by “the clearstratigraphic distinction” created by superimposing “anoverlying plaster layer” on top of the first phase of decor-ation.85 The first phase corresponds more closely in date tothe chancel at Corcomroe than any other surviving exampleof wall painting on the west coast or, for that matter,elsewhere in Ireland.86

The graffito technique used in decorating the ClareIsland Abbey church is applicable to Corcomroe. Therubble walls were pointed with grey mortar which wascovered with finer, lighter grey mortar and then a layer oflimewash.87 The design was “mapped out by incising theplaster, which was still partly damp … using a sharpinstrument.”88 Colour was applied on top of the dry plaster(a secco)89 “either in bold outline strokes with the interiorof the image left unpainted, or the image was filled in withblock colours with a few additional details.”90 The pig-ments used in the first phase were carbon black, red,ochre, and lime white. The red and ochre tones found atCorcomroe appear to be the same as those found on thewalls at Abbeyknockmoy.

Below, and slightly to the right of the ship graffito atCorcomroe, two ruled lines were drawn in the shape of across in the damp plaster; a hole made by a compass can be

seen where the arms intersect. While it is not clear what, ifany, relationship this armature bears to the ship, similarunderdrawings for circular bosses can be seen below thesurviving painted decoration on the ceiling vaulting of thechancel at Clare Island.91

The motifs that survive from the first phase of decor-ation at Clare Island Abbey are located in the lower registerof the chancel walls, the zone in which symbolic devicesrelated to local nobility are found. On the north, a staghunt is depicted just to the right of the canopied tomb and,above a doorway on the south, a mounted knight in arm-our.92 (Plate 5) Morton points out that these are “in accordwith the role of the chancel as a place of lordly burial asreflected by the depiction of the activities of hunting andthe dress of the horseman as a Gaelic lord.”93

Although these motifs clearly have relevance in a secularcontext, Anne-Marie D’Arcy has pointed out that both thehart (stag) hunt and the knight also have ‘Christologicalassociations in the Christian exegetical tradition. As asymbol of rejuvenation, the stag was interpreted as a typeof Christ, the homo cervus. Christ appears as a stag in thehagiographic accounts of St. Herbert and St. Eustace, whopursues a stag while hunting, which turns out afterwardsto be Christ. It also appears in the context of a knightlyhunt in the early thirteenth-century French text, La Questdel Saint Graal, which was written in a Cistercian milieuand translated into Irish in the late fourteenth or earlyfifteenth century as Lorgaieacht an tSoldhigh Naomhtha.94

The ship motif at Corcomroe may be analogous to thestag hunt and gaelic knight at Clare Island in having bothsecular and sacred meaning. Stalley has pointed out that itwas used a great deal in medieval Ireland to symbolize thevoyage through life,95 D’Arcy notes its Christological associ-ations. Celtic Christianity was informed by the specificallyIrish concept of the immrám, as a peregrinatio pro Christo,which could take several forms: an actual voyage by ship

Plate 5 – Gaelic Lord wall painting at Clare Island Abbey.

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beyond the bounds of the known world, a spiritual voyagein a rudderless boat across a sea of troubles, or a metaphor-ical voyage through this life and the journey to the next.96

Like the stag hunt and knight in the Clare Island Abbey,the ship motif may represent local nobility and encapsulatebiblical associations and the Celtic concept of the immrám.

The O Lochlainns and Corcomroe Abbey:At Corcomroe abbey, two County Clare tribes with a

symbiotic relationship came together: the Ruricians andDalcassians. Ruricians are associated with the Corcomruadcomprising the O’Lochlainns and O’Connors and lookednorthward to Fergus MacRoigh and the stories of the UlsterCycle for inspiration and possible origins. The DalcassianO’Briens looked south deriving inspiration from the heroicdeeds associated with the Munster men from Cashel. In925 AD, Dalcassian rule was imposed on Corcomroe:although weakened following the arrival of Viking raidersto Thomond, Mael Seachnaill, the Dalcassian first cousin ofBrian Boru, was overlord until his death in 983 AD.97

At the end of the 10th century, the Irish upper classesbegan to borrow Norse names such as Lochlainn.98 As thechieftaincy of Corcomroe passed back and forth betweenthe descendants of Mael Seachnaill’s son, Lochlainn, andhis nephew, Conchobar, the surname Lochlainn began toappear among the chiefs of Corcomroe in the 10th centuryand Burren in the 11th century. 99

The Corcomruad tribe expanded their tribal territoryuntil the 10th century when the O’Briens extended controlover their territory. The O Lochlainns entered into analliance to secure independence within their own landsand support when superior forces, such as the ConnachtO’Connors, arrived on cattle-raiding expeditions. At a timewhen ecclesiastical parishes were based on existing secularterritories,100 the Corcomruad were still sufficiently power-ful to carve out a separate diocese, Kilfenora, in 1152 AD.101

The O’Lochlainn “castle, town and quarter” of Turloughguarded the southern entrance to the valley and plain ofGlenamannagh where the Abbey was situated.102 O’Briennamed it after the Corcomruad rather than giving it aDalcassian name. In the late 12th or early 13th century theCorcomruad split: the Uí Conchobar ruled Corcomroe Westand the Uí Lochlainn, Corcomroe East.

Cistercian Rules Regarding Chancel Burials:Strict rules governed eligibility for burial in the chancel

of a Cistercian Abbey during the 13th century. The honourwas restricted to the founder, the founding abbot andkings.103 At Corcomroe this would have included DonalMór O’Brien,104 the founding abbot and O’Lochlainn chief-tains. Donal died, however, before construction began andhe was buried in St. Mary’s Cathedral, Limerick in 1194.105

Later O’Brien tombs were placed close to Donal’s to the leftof the high altar.

When Donal’s grandson, Conor Na Siudáine O’Brien,King of Thomond, was killed by Conor Carrach Ó Lochlainnnear Corcomroe in 1268, his body was retrieved from thebattlefield by the monks and interred in the chancel ofCorcomroe “in deference to his close kinship with theabbey’s founder and to his own royal status”106 Conor’stomb canopy was situated as far to the left as possible inthe space available perhaps to avoid encroaching on theship graffito and any surrounding decoration. (Plate 6)

Although the “Viking type” ship was also used by theAnglo-Normans, there is no reason to believe that the shipat Corcomroe was placed there as a Norman emblem. Thereis no history of Norman welcome either ecclesiastical orpolitical in County Clare. On the contrary, the abbot and

monks of Corcomroe resisted all attempts by the Anglo-Normans to assert control over them. Although the Kingsof Thomond ruled at the pleasure of the Anglo-Normankings, some O’Briens, O’Lochlainns and other north Clareclans combined successfully to keep the Normans out ofClare at the battle of Dysert O’Dea in 1318, ensuring thatthe Burren remained a gaelic controlled area.

Rynne correctly described the ship graffito as “heraldicin nature”107 which suggests that it may have had a specialsymbolic function. MacMahon was the first to note itsjuxtaposition with the O’Lochlainn burials in the chancelfloor and the long association of the O’Lochlainn clan withships and the sea.108

Most of the early tombstones are illegible, however the“The “O’Loughlin King of Burren Family Tomb”, whichappears to date from the late 18th or early 19th century,109

is located in the floor directly beneath the graffito. (Plate 7)Its neoclassical slab is incised with an inverted anchor,symbolic of death. The use of the anchor by the clan goesback centuries. Keating described the “Bearings of O’Loch-lin, of Burren in Clare, as including “a Blue Anchor/WithGold Cable Bound.”110 When Sir Michael O’Loghlen regis-tered his coat of arms in 1838 he chose, as its crest, ananchor of oak with a cable and the personal motto “anchorasalutis” (anchor of safety).

The most significant link between the O’Lochlainn clanand nautical imagery is found in the poem by the 18thcentury poet Aodh Buí Mac Cruitín entitled “Bless theBoat” in praise of the ship of O’Lochlainn of Burren.111 ItsEpilogue could stand as a prayer beneath the graffito:

“O God of Grace, who saved the eight who livedSo Long on Ark so great until the Flood did give,Bring safely home each day, I beg, unharmed or lostO’Lochlainn’s boat and crew by storm winds tossed.”112

Plate 6 – North wall of chancel at Corcomroe indicating thelocation of the ship graffito. Author, based on a

reconstruction by Prof. Rynne.

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ConclusionHaving discussed the significance of the graffito in both

the sacred and secular contexts, I would like to proposethat the ship graffito at Corcomroe may function both as aChristian symbol and also as an emblem of the O’Loch-lainn clan. It merges the Viking concept of the longship asa means of conveyance to the next world with the biblicalconcept of the ship as a place of refuge during the storms oflife and the Irish notion of the immrám, a particular formof spiritual journey.

The long association of Viking longships with paganburials in Scandinavia, the adoption by the Irish of variousScandinavian customs and the presence of the Viking-typeship motif at Corcomroe, suggest that the genre of graffitidubbed ‘Holy Ships’ may have travelled from Scandinaviato Ireland, where it was transformed by the 13th centuryinto a symbol of that final journey, not to Valhalla, but to aChristian heaven.

It would seem reasonable to propose that this graffito ofa “Viking type” ship may have been placed on the wall bythe O’Lochlainn clan to act in both a secular and sacredcapacity as a symbol of the clan name, a sign of its auth-ority, and to embody the concept of journeys terrestrial,biblical and spiritual.

Katharine LochnanSenior Curator, Special Exhibitions, and The R. Fraser

Elliott Curator of Prints and Drawings, Art Gallery ofOntario, Toronto, Canada.

Acknowledgements:The results of this investigation are a tribute to the

inspiration, knowledge, research and insight of EdwardO’Loghlen of Loch Rasc, historian of the Úi Lochlainn, whohelped in the preparation of this paper. I would like toacknowledge the late Prof. Peter Brieger (1898-1983) whoshared his love and understanding of the spiritual prog-ramme encoded in gothic architecture with his students atthe University of Toronto. I would like to thank, for theirgenerous sharing of scholarly information Anne-MarieD’Arcy, University of Leicester; Elizabeth Fitzpatrick, NUIGalway; Ian Friel, F.S.A., Independent Historian, Chichester,England; Peter Harbison, R.I.A.; Eamonn P. Kelly andEamonn McLoughlin, National Museum of Ireland; KarenaMorton, Sligo; Thomas O Loughlin, University of Notting-ham; Etienne Rynne, formerly of NUI Galway and RogerStalley, Trinity College, Dublin.

References1 See George W. Stone, From Mist and Stone: The History and

Lore of the Celts and Vikings, Washington: National Geo-graphic, n.d. [2005?], 92. Zbigniew Kobylinski “Ships, Society,Symbols and Archaeologists”, 9-19 in Ole Crumlin-Pedersenand Birgitte Munch Thye, eds., The Ship as Symbol in Pre-historic and Medieval Scandinavia, Studies in Archaeology &History Vol. 1, Copenhagen: Publications from the NationalMuseum, 1995, 11-14.

2 About 2,000 examples, dating from the 6th to the 11th cen-turies A.D., have been found in Scandinavia. Torsten Capelle,“Bronze-Age Stone Ships”, 71-75 in Crumlin-Pedersen et al.,The Ship as Symbol, 71.

3 Torsten Capelle, “Bronze-Age Stone Ships”, 71-75, in Crumlin-Pedersen et al., The Ship as Symbol, 71 and 75. I am gratefulto Elizabeth Fitzpatrick for bringing these stone ships, andthis important publication, to my attention.

4 Interviews with Eamonn P. Kelly, June 16, 2008 and October22, 2009. I am very grateful to E.P. Kelly, Keeper of IrishAntiquities, National Museum of Ireland, for sharing hiswealth of information based on his own archaeological workand that of his wife Erin Gibbons on Vikings on the WestCoast of Ireland. See Gibbons, E.K. & Kelly, E.P., ‘A VikingAge Farmstead in Connemara’, Archaeology Ireland, vol. 17,no. 1 Spring 2003, 28-32. Kelly writes in an e-mail to Lochnan,Jan. 12, 2010: “Erin and I are happy that the house andassociated burials are Scandinavian. We now have the Carbon14 dates for the house and burials that supports this inter-pretation as well as isotope evidence suggesting that theburials are those of persons intrusive to the area.”

5 Brendan Walsh, “A Possible Viking Ship Setting at Treanbeg,Co. Mayo, Journal of the Galway Archaeological and Histor-ical Society, 59 (2007)158-167, 159. According to BrendanWalsh who published it, it has not been “the focus of wide-spread interest.” E.P. Kelly, M.S. “Re-Evaluation of a supposedinland promontory fort: Knoxspark, Co. Sligo – Iron AgeFortress or Viking Stronghold?”, 4

6 Telephone interview with E. P. Kelly, December 15, 2009.7 It is spelt “Ua Laclainn” or “Ua Lachlainn”. Entry for 1150

A.D., John O’Donovan, ed. Annals of the Kingdom of Irelandby the Four Masters, II (Dublin: Hodges, Smith, & Co., 1954repr. 1966) p. 1090. E.P. Kelly believes that this is the sourceof the Ó Lochlainn clan name. He has identified a number ofIrish surnames of Viking origin as well as tracked Vikingsettlements along the west and south coast of Ireland. Con-versation with Katharine Lochnan, Dublin, June 16, 2008.

8 MS by E. P. Kelly, “The Vikings in Connemara”, The VikingAge: Ireland and The West: Proceedings of the XVth VikingCongress, Cork, 2005. (forthcoming).

9 Notes from conversation with E. P. Kelly, October 22, 2009.10 David Greene, “The Influence of Scandinavian on Irish”,

Proceedings of the Seventh Viking Congress, Dublin, 15-21

Plate 7 – O’Loughlin King of Burren Family Tomb, Corcomroe Abbey, 2007.

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August, 1973 (Dundalgan Press, 1976), 75-82, 78, writes“Lochlainn…is very common indeed, and is attested as thename of the royal heir of Corcu Modruad in the Annals ofInnisfallen in the year 983. This territory is in Co. Clare, andnot far from the Viking city of Limerick; it may have beenunder Norse cultural influence. However the name wasintroduced, it became very popular and is still in use inGaelic-speaking Ireland and Scotland, as well as forming thecommon surnames Ó Lochlainn, Mac Lochlainn.”

11 Greene, “The Influence of Scandinavian on Irish”, 77. Theearliest reference to “Lothlind, Laithlind, later Lochlann” is9th c. AD, however “none of the examples necessarily mean‘Norway’ or ‘Scandinavia’; all that we can extract from themis that they refer to some maritime centre of Viking power. itis not clear whether it means Norway or Scandinavia…It isthen open to us to consider the possibility of interferencefrom Rogaland, as well as a remoulding of the word underthe influence of the elements loch ‘lake’ and land ‘land’, andthe final identification with Norway which, however, is notcertainly attested until AD 1101: Maghnus ri Lochlainni, aboutwhose identity there can be no doubt.” 77. By the 11th c.“Lochlann” was the Irish word for Norway, 77.

12 I would like to thank Eamonn P. Kelly for confirming theViking origins of the Ó Lochlainn surname. Interviews ofJune 16, 2008 and October 23, 2009.

13 The identity of this site is not universally accepted. It wasfirst proposed by E.P. Kelly & E. O Donovan, ‘A Viking long-phort near Athlunkard, Co. Clare’, Archaeology Ireland., vol.12, no. 4, Winter, 13-16, and refuted by Michael Gibbons in“Athlunkard (Ath-an-Longphort): A Reassessment of the Pro-posed Viking Fortress” in The Other Clare, v. 29, no. 22-25.The identity of the site is accepted by John Sheehan, “TheLongphort in Viking Age Ireland”, Acta Archaeologia 79(2008) 282-295 and J. Maas, “Longphort Dún, and Dúnad inthe Irish Annals of the Viking Period”, Peritia 20(2008), 257-275. There has been ongoing scholarly debate regarding thepositive identification of this site.

14 F.J. Byrne, “The Viking Age”, 37-38. In 928 AD the LimerickVikings put a fleet on Lough Neagh, in 929 AD on LoughCorrib and Lough Ree, and on the Erne waterways in 933and 936. They raided Connacht repeatedly. “Its forces were amenace to the whole of the west and north of Ireland, and aserious threat to Dublin”, 29, (check references)

15 E. P. Kelly. E-mail to Katharine Lochnan, December 22, 2009.Byrne, “The Viking Age”, 38-40.

16 David Henry, Viking Ireland, Jens Wraac’s Accounts of hisVisits to Ireland, 1846-7, Angus, Scotland: Pinkfood Press,1995, 73.

17 Charles Plummer, “Vita Sancti Coemgeni” (Life of St. Kevin),in Vita Sanctorum Hiberniae, Vol I, Oxford: Clarendon Press,1910, 234-7, 249.

18 Stone, From Mist to Stone, 163.19 Meike Blackwell, Ships in Early Irish History, Whitegate, Co.

Clare, Ireland: Ballinakella Press, 1992, She points out thatthese are depicted on the Bayeux tapestry, 39. The latter wasprobably executed between 1066 and 1077 AD when it appearsto have adorned the nave during the ceremonies surroundingthe dedication of the cathedral of Bayeux. Simone Bertrand,The Bayeux Tapestry Ouest France: Rennes, 1978,8.

20 F.J. Byrne, “The Viking Age” 36 in Dáibhí Ó Crómín, A NewHistory of Ireland, v. 1, Prehistoric and Early Ireland.

21 Henry, Viking Ireland, 74-75. After Dublin was taken by theEnglish, so many Vikings (the term “Ostman” is used by thisauthor) remained that the “Galls of Dublin” continued tohave a separate army. Giraldus Cambrensis speaks of theVikings after the conquest of Ireland as ‘a peculiar anddecidedly separate people, who carried on trade and navig-ation.’ Even more than a century afterwards we can still tracemany ostman in the chief cities of Ireland, where it seems,they continued to preserve those Scandinavian characteristicswhich distinguished them from the Irish and English. In theyear 1201 a verdict was pronounced by twelve Irishmen,twelve Englishmen, and twelve Ostmen in Limerick, concern-ing the lands, churches, and other property belonging to thechurch of Limerick; which shows that the Ostmen were

sufficiently numerous there to be placed on an equal footingwith the English and Irish.” In 1263 the Irish applied to theNorwegian King Hakon for assistance against the British andoffering him the Irish high kingship.

22 Henry, Viking Ireland, 74, points out that in 1167 at a meet-ing of the Irish people at Athboy (Tlachtga) “thousands ofthe first ostmen in Dublin were present”. 1.

23 Tim Lambert “A Short History of Limerick”, 1-4, www.localhistories.org/limerick.html, 2008 points out that “Many Eng-lish settlers came to Limerick. They settled on Kings Islandin Englishtown while the native Irish were moved across the Abbey River to Irishtown. In the 13th century a stonewall was erected around Englishtown. Later they extendedIrishtown.”

24 Henry, Viking Ireland, 72. C.D. Morris, “The Vikings andIrish Monasteries”, Durham University Journal (June 1979),175-185,183. Byrne, “The Viking Age”, 43.

25 R.A.S. Macalister “A Runic Inscription at Killaloe Cathedral”,Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy, Section C v.XXXIII(1916-17), 493-498,497. Stone, From Mist and Stone, 110,points out that by 1066 Roman script had nearly replacedrunes.

26 “St. Flannan’s Cathedral, Killaloe: Places of Interest, ClareCounty Library website, 2. It is described as “a unique stonewith a Viking runic inscription which reads ‘Thorgam carvedthis stone’ and an ogham inscription which reads ‘a blessingon Thorgam”.

27 Diocese of Limerick Bishops. Limerick Diocese Heritage Pro-ject. www.limerickdioceseheritage.org

28 Repr. Angus Konstam, Historical Atlas of the Celtic World,Mercury Books, 2004, 154-5. For dating see Bill, “ShipGraffiti”, 1.

29 “Ship carved on plank”, Winetavern Street, Dublin, late 11th-early 12th century, acc. no. E81:2839b; “Ships carved onwooden plank”, Winetavern Street, late 11th- early 12th cen-tury, acc. no. E. 81:2838 b, and “Carved Plank”, ChristchurchPlace, Dublin, 11th c., acc. no. E122:16078. see Seán McGrail,Medieval Boat and Ship Timbers from Dublin, MedievalDublin Excavations 1962-81, National Museum of Ireland,Ser. B, vol. 3 (1993), Royal Irish Academy, Dublin 1993.

30 Arne Emil Christensen, “Ship Graffiti”, 181-185, in OleCrumlin-Pedersen and Birgitte Munch Thye, The Ship asSymbol in Prehistoric and Medieval Scandinavia, Copen-hagen: Publications from the National Museum Studies inArchaeology & History, Vol. 1, 1995, 172-179.

31 Christensen, “Ship Graffiti”, 182.32 Repr. Trans. Gillian Fellows-Jensen, Ship Graffiti, Viking Ship

Museum, Roskilde, Denmark, www.vikingeskibsmuseet.dk.3.

33 Christensen, “Ship Graffiti”, 184.34 Martin Blindheim, “Viking Ship Vanes” in R.T.F. Farrell, The

Vikings. London, 1982, pp. 116-127.35 Liz le Bon, “Ancient Ship Graffiti: Symbol and Context”, in

Ole Crumlin-Pedersen, The Ship as Symbol, 172-178, 176.36 Bill, “Ship Graffiti”, 1.37 Liz le Bon, “Ancient Ship Graffiti”, 173.38 For the interpretation of ships on town seals see Thye, “Early

Christian Symbols”, 192.39 This can be seen carved into the sarcophagi of some of the

earliest Christians in Catacombs on the outskirts of Romeand the necropolis below St. Peter’s Basilica.

40 Thye, “Early Christian Symbols”, 186. She points out withreference to Scandinavian church wall paintings: “When welook at the seals of ports it is remarkable how much theyresemble the wall-paintings in style and details.”

41 Karl Brady and Chris Corlett, “Holy Ships – Ships on Plasterat Medieval Ecclesiastical Sites in Ireland”, ArchaeologyIreland, vol. 18, no. 2, no. 68, Summer, 2004, 28-31, 31. I am grateful to Prof. Rynne for drawing this article to ourattention.

42 On the Ship of Faith cf. G.R. Owst, Literature and Pulpit inMedieval England: A Neglected Chapter in the History ofEnglish Letters and of the English People, 2nd rev.ed. (Ox-ford, 1966) pp. 68-72; V.A. Kolve, Chaucer and the Imageryof Narrative: The First Five Canterbury Tales (London, 1984),

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pp. 308-17. I am grateful to Anne-Marie D’Arcy for supplyingthis information.

43 Birgitte Munch Thye, “Early Christian Ship Symbols”, 186-194 in Pedersen et. al., The Ship as Symbol, 187.

44 Kobylinski, “Ships”,13.45 Kobylinski, “Ships”, 14.46 Koblynsky , “Ships”, 18.47 On the chancel wall of St. Mary, Stow in Lindsey, Lincoln-

shire, there is a rough scratching of an oared Viking ship,probably dating from the 10th century, and allegedly theearliest known example of Viking graffiti in England. At thattime, Lincolnshire was under Viking control, and the Danelawwas in force.

48 Brady and Corlett, “Holy Ships”,29.49 Etienne Rynne, “Boat Graffito in Corcomroe Abbey”, North

Munster Antiquarian Journal, XI (1968),76.50 Prof. Rynne gave it to the National Museum of Ireland. I am

very grateful to Eamonn P. Kelly for retrieving it and dis-cussing it with me.

51 Edward O’ Loghlen, Senior Research Assistant, MedicalLibrary, James Hardiman Library, NUI Galway, historian ofthe Ó Lochlainn clan, gave me the press release announcingthe arrival of “Sea Stallion” in Dublin in August, 2007. Afterreviewing the visual material, he urged me to pursue thisresearch. Mr O’Loghlen’s publications include Bráthair M.F.Ó Conchúir and Éamonn Ó Lochlainn, A Short History of the Ó Lochlainn Clan, Loch Rasc, Co. Clare, 1995, EdwardO’Loghlen, Muintir Uí Lochlainn: Second International Re-union, Baile Uí Bheacháin, 2005, and Muintir Uí Lochlainn:Third International Reunion”, Baile Uí Bheacháin, 2010.

52 Ole Crumlin-Pedersen, The Skuldelev Ships I. Topography,Archaeology, History, Conservation and Display. Roskilde:Viking Ship Museum, 2002, 168-173; 326-332, 326.

53 “Skuldelev 2” was 30 metres long and 3.8 metres wide, had56-60 oars and held 60-100 men. See Keith Durham, VikingLongship, Oxford: Osprey, 2002, 38, repr. Also Crumlin-Pedersen, “Skuldelev Ships”, 168-173; 326-332. See alsoJudith Tesch, Ships and Men in the Late Viking Age, BoydellPress, 2001, 269.

54 Stone, ”From Mist to Stone”, 102.55 Tesch, Ships and Men, 270.56 R.A.S. Macalister, “Miscellanea”, Journal of the Royal Society

of Antiquaries of Ireland, LXII:I (1932) 223. They are accom-panied by two lines of Ogham writing loosely translated“Amen Fidelis”. This was presumably executed when thecastle was built in 1206 by Philip de Barry, nephew of RobertFitzstephen who came to Ireland with Strongbow. The pro-perty was given to Strongbow by Henry II. It is not illustrated.

57 Macalister, “On Graffiti Representing Ships, on the Wall ofMoyne Priory, Co. Mayo”, JRSAI, LXXIII:IC (1943), 117. TheO’Carrolls were the chieftains of the district which includeda “sept” of the Ó Lochlainn clan known as O’ Loughnane ofEly O’ Carroll (Offaly, Tipperarry).

58 Patrick O’Reilly, “The Christian Sepulchral Leacs and Free-Standing Crosses of The Dublin Half-Barony in Rathdown”,JRSAI, XXXI:31 (1901) 394, figs. 10 A and B.

59 Ships were also found on coffins in Scandinavia, a continu-ation of the association of the ship with the voyage to thenext world.

60 Interview with Anne-Marie D’Arcy, Dublin, June 16, 2008.See also Friedrich Moll, Das Schiff in der bildenden Kunstvom Alterum bis zum Ausgang des Mittelalters (Bonn, 1929);Georg Sthlfauth, “Das Schiff als Symbol der altchristlichenKunst”. Rivista di archaeologia crisitiana 19 (1942), pp.111-41. I am grateful to Anne-Marie D’Arcy for supplying thesereferences.

61 Karena Morton, “Irish Medieval Wall Painting”, BarryscourtLectures I-X, The Barryscourt Trust in association with CorkCounty Council and Gandon Editions, 2004, 335

62 Brady and Corlett, “Holy Ships”, 28-31; Tracy Collins, “Missingthe Boat”, Archaeology Ireland (winter 2010), 9-11. Collinsdiscusses the remains of a ship graffito found in the latemedieval nunnery of St. Catherine d’Conyl in Old Abbeytownland near Shanagolden, Co. Limerick, thought to date tothe 15thc.

63 Citing the incised drawings at Moyne, Co. Mayo, and Abbey-knockmoy, Co. Galway.

64 Roger Stalley, The Cistercian Monasteries of Ireland: AnAccount of the History, Art and Architecture of the WhiteMonks in Ireland from 1142 to 1540, London: Yale UniversityPress, 1987. Prof. Stalley revisited his earlier conclusions in “Petra Fertilis: The Uncertain History of the CistercianChurch at Corcomroe” in Colum Hourihane, ed., Irish His-torical Studies in Honour of Peter Harbison, Princeton andFour Courts, 2004, 175-188.

65 In interviews with Prof. Roger Stalley, Dublin, June 16, 2008and February 27, 2009 he pointed out that more and more ofthese architectural graffiti have been turning up in Frenchcathedrals.

66 The incised line is overlapped in places by a later layer ofplaster.

67 Interview with Prof. Stalley, Dublin, February 27, 2009.68 Christensen, “Ship Graffiti”, 182, quoting Martin Blindheim,

Graffiti in Norwegian Stave Churches, Oslo, 1985, advancesthe theory that these carvings were made by artisans whilethe church was under construction.

69 Kelly points out in an e-mail to Lochnan, Jan. 12, 2010, that“the clinker-built boat tradition continued up to the 16thcentury (and beyond) and while there are differencesthrough time the basic tradition appears to have been onethat demonstrated considerable continuity.”

70 I have not yet found a reproduction of the graffito in Barrys-court Castle in Cork so am unable to comment on it.

71 Acc. No. E81:2839b.72 E-mail from Ian Friel to Katharine Lochnan, Feb. 4, 2010. A

stern rudder “was set in the sternpost itself, mounted onhinges that allowed it to rotate from side to side. This wouldmake the depiction unusual as “medieval double-ended shipsare often depicted with side rudders, but not exclusively so.The earliest-known image of a stern rudder is on a late 11thcentury Flemish carved font in Winchester Cathedral, andthere are 15th/16th c. West Highland (Scotland) tombstonesthat show broadly “Viking-type” ships with stern rudders.The Winchester font ship has a curved sternpost, whilst theHighland ones tend to be straight”. He also thought he coulddetect “a few short, transverse lines running across the mast”which “could represent rigging or even mast-bindings orwooldings” and “shadows of lines running down from a pointjust below the visible top of the mast, on both sides” whichwas “a typical medieval method of representing standingrigging, the fixed ropes that supported the mast from theback, sides and front. This “would suggest a ‘made’ mast, i.e.one made up of several pieces of wood the same length,rather than a mast made from a single trunk: however, suchmasts do not appear to be documented in N. Europe beforethe 1400s and were typical of very big ships only.” He alsodetected “some vertical lines that appear to rise from the topof the hull (the gunwhale), which could represent eitherrigging or perhaps human figures.” Dr. Ian Friel is an inde-pendent historian and museum consultant, based in the UK,and has been publishing research in maritime history andiconography for 30 years.See Ian Friel, The Good Ship. ShipsShipbuilding and Technology in England 1200-1500, London,1995, 81-83, L.V. Mott, The Development of the Rudder. ATechnological Tale, London, 1997, passim, and G. Hutchinson,Medievel Ships and Shipping, Leicester, London, 1994, 50-55.

73 James Mills, “Danish Church Frescoes: A Clue to MedievalIrish Art”, Eire-Ireland, 14(1979) 47. He speculated on thepossibility that Irish church “frescoes” may have been similarto those that survive in churches in Scandinavia, an intriguingpossibility.

74 See Conrad Rudolph, The Things of Greater Importance:Bernard of Clairvaux’s ‘Apologia” and the Medieval Attitudetoward Art (Philadelphia, 1990). I am grateful to Anne-Marie D’Arcy for this information.

75 See Marcel Aubert, l’Architecture cistercienne en France, 2nded., 2 vols (Paris, 1947), and François Bucher, “CistercianArchitectural Purism”, Comparative Studies in Society andHistory 3 (1960), 89-105. I am grateful to Anne- MarieD’Arcy for information about the latter.

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76 Clarisse Renaud, L’Abbeye Cistercienne en France, ÉditionsGaud, 2002, 88.

77 In the museum at Mellifont stones bearing a black and whitediaper pattern are on display.

78 Roger Stalley, “Corcomroe Abbey, Some Observations on itsAchitectural History”, J.R.S.A.I. v. 105 (1975), 21-46, 32.

79 In 1227, 1280 and 1282 Citeaux complained that the abbot ofCorcomroe had not attended the Chapter General for a longtime. Michael MacMahon, On a Fertile Rock: The CistercianAbbey of Corcomroe, Kincora Books: Corofin, County Clare,2000, repr. 5. This booklet was based on his paper “On aFertile Rock: The Cistercian Abbey of Corcomroe” in TheOther Clare, vol. 21, Shannon Archaeological & HistoricalSociety, County Clare, 1997,13. See Aubrey Gwynn and R.Neville Hadcock, Medieval Religious Houses in Ireland,London: Longmans, 1970, 130.

80 Thomas J. Westropp, “Corcomroe Abbey”, J.R.S.A.I, XXX(1900) 302.

81 The pigments were matched to Benjamin Moore paint coloursamples and correspond most closely to CC 188 (Butter Rum),pink: CC 156 (Tofino Sunset), CC 158 (Apple Blossom),ochre: CC-210 (Dijon) and CC-190 (Summer Harvest). Thesecorrespond to the colours of the pigments found at Abbey-knockmoy and Clare Island Abbey.

82 “Monasternenagh, Abbeyknockmoy and Corcomroe are “aregional group easily distinguished from others.” RogerStalley, “Corcomroe Abbey: Some Observations on its Archi-tectural History”, Reprinted from the J.R.S.A.I. vol. 105,1975, 44.

83 I would like to thank Christian Kralik, Ph.D. candidate,University of Toronto, who is writing her dissertation on themotif of “four living, four dead” for confirming the 16th c.date of these wall paintings.

84 See Conleth Manning, Paul Gosling and John Waddell, NewSurvey of Clare Island, v. 4 The Abbey, Dublin: Royal IrishAcademy, 2005.

85 See Christoph Oldenbourg, “Conservation of the Wall Paint-ings”, 49-60, in Manning et al, New Survey, 49-61, 50.

86 The church was built in the 13th century, and it would seemlikely that the first phase of wall painting could date fromthat time. However Stalley pointed out in our interview ofFeb. 27, 2009 that the wall paintings on Clare Island have notyet been dated.

87 Oldenbourg, “Conservation of the Wall Paintings”, in Manninget al., New Survey, 49-60, 50.

88 Oldenbourg, “Conservation”, 51.89 Oldenbourg “Conservation”, 51.90 Karena Morton, “Iconography and Dating of the Wall Paint-

ings”, 97-122, in Manning et al., New Survey, 97-8.91 Karena Morton and Christoph Oldenbourg, “Catalogue of the

Wall Paintings” in Manning, New Survey, 61-96, 70, Pl.XIIIBoss J.

92 Morton and Oldenbourg, “Catalogue”, 65, fig. 2 and 66 pl. IV.93 Morton “Iconography”, 101.94 The image finds its origins in Physiologus, a didactic text

written or completed in Greek by an unknown author inAlexandria between the 2nd and 4th c. A.D. It was a majorsource of Cistercian imagery, where the stag comes back tolife. Interview with Anne-Marie D’Arcy, Dublin, June 16, 2008.Prof. D’Arcy interpreted the iconographical programme of theClare Island Abbey ceiling vault in light of Cistercian texts.

95 Roger Stalley, “Sailing to Santiago di Compostella and itsartistic influence in Ireland”, in Bradley, ed., Settlement andSociety in Medieval Ireland, Kilkenny, 1988, 409.

96 See the collection of pivotal articles reprinted in The Other-

world Voyage in Early Irish Literature, ed. Jonathan Wooding(Dublin, 2000), pp. 94-19. Otherworlds feature in severalmedieval literary genres, defined in the twelfth century Bookof Leinster as fessa (feasts), echtrai (adventures) and imm-rama (navigations): cf. David N. Dumnille, ‘Echtrae andImmram: Some Problems of Definition’, Eriu 27 (1976), 73-94. I am grateful to D’Arcy for providing this information.

97 Edward O Loghlen, e-mails of May 3, 4, and 5, 2011 toKatharine Lochnan, points out that M.F. Ó Conchúir played apivotal role in linking the Corcomruad to the Rurician clan.The Clanna Ruari were driven into the eastern part of Ulsterduring 332 AD. The Corcomruad controlled about one thirdof Clare during the 7th and 8th centuries including the AranIslands. During this period they equaled the Dal gCas butlater ceded much of this territory, including the Aran Islands,to it. M.F. Ó Conchúir in Ó Conchúir agus Éamonn Ó Loch-lainn, “A Short History of the Ó Lochlainn Clan”, 1995, 7-10.This and the three paragraphs that follow were composed byEdward O Loghlen.

98 Byrne, “The Viking Age”, 39-40.99 “Excursions of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland,

Summer Meeting, 1900: Second Excursion, Burren”, J.R.S.A.I.,30 (1900), 294-5, f.n.2. The earliest mention is of the Chief of Corcomroe, “Lochlan, slain 965, in Brian Boru’s army inConnaught, and his son, Conor, was mortally wounded 985(f.). 983. Lochlan (whence O’Loughlin)”. Seán Spellissy, AHistory of County Clare, Gill & Macmillan, 2003, 20.

100 M.S. by Michelle Comber and Graham Hull (accepted) “Excav-ations at Caherconnell Cashel, Burren, Co. Clare: Implicationsfor Cashel Chronology and Gaelic Settlement”, Proceedingsof the R.I.A., Section C, 4.

101 Comber and Hull, M.S. “Excavations”, 3. Conchuir and hissons held power until 1015 with Uí Lochlainn kings takingover until at least 1060. An Uí Conchuir followed, until 1104when another Uí Lochlainn regained control. After his deathin 1149, power reverted to the Uí Conchobar line.

102 MacMahon, Fertile Rock, 2.103 Xavier Dectot, “Abbayes cisterciennes et monumentd funér-

aires”, in Dossiers Archéologie et Sciences des Origines, No.311 mars. 2006, 38-41,38: “les évêques, les fondateurs del’abbeye, et les souverains. Ceux-ci, en effet, pouvaient êtreenterés dans l’église abbatiale”.

104 MacMahon, Fertile Rock, 5, writes that Donal Mór ÓBrienprobably founded it but that it is possible that it was foundedby his successor, Donough Cairbreach ÓBrien.

105 The Ó Brien tombs in St. Mary’s Cathedral, Limerick, areprominently situated to the left of the high altar.

106 MacMahon, On a Fertile Rock, 2000, 14-15.107 Rynne, “Boat Graffito”, 76.108 MacMahon, On a Fertile Rock, 76. Lord Walter Fitzgerald,

“Corcomroe Abbey”, vol II (2) 1893, Association for the Pre-servation of the Memorials of the Dead, Ireland, 2 Availableonline from www.clarelibrary.ie.

109 The inscription and inverted anchor are executed in theneoclassical style which would suggest that the tombstonedates from the late 18th or early 19th century.

110 Geoffrey Keating, History of Ireland, 1570-1644, (1866 ed.),472.

111 MacMahon, Fertile Rock, p. 26 f.n. 71.112 “Beannaigh an Bárc” translated by. M.F.Ó Conchúir. In Ó

Conchúir and Ó Lochlainn, 12 –13. Trans. M.F. Ó Conchúir.An Ceangal A Athair na ngrás thárrthaigh an t-ochtar do bhíSealad san Áirc ábhail gur sochtadh an díl, Tabhair gachtráth, áilim, gan dochar gan díth Chun calaithe slán árthachUí Lochlainn ‘s a buíon.

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