Welcome to my weekly blog,  SATURDAY SESSIONS!         

In this blog, for the perusal of all our students, past, present and future, I include an extract from our interactive presentation Course, Ireland and its Culture.

If you wish to ask me any question about the text, by the way, just send me an e-mail at greg@bluefeather.ie

BRENDAN THE NAVIGATOR

Although part of the legendary tradition of Ireland, Brendan was a historical figure who was born in County  Kerry in 484 CE, not long after the death of St. Patrick, and at a time when the Golden Age in Ireland was about to blossom.

Brendan became a priest and established a famous monastery at Clonfert in Co. Galway. He also set up a monastery near Mount Brandon in his native county. On the summit of the 1000-metre-high Mount Brandon are the ruins of a small beehive-shaped chapel from where you can see up to 150 kilometres all around you.

Brendan is said to have seen a huge island far out off the coast of west Kerry from the top of Mount Brandon. (Tír na n-Óg?!) It was this vision which inspired him to go on his famous voyages around the world.

Brendan was very skilled with the coracle, or currach, as it is known in Ireland. This is a boat made from willow wood and animal skin (hide). The hide is tanned in oak bark and softened with butter. A thin coat of tar is painted on it to make it fully waterproof. Fishermen still use currachs in the west of Ireland.

In his currach, Brendan visited Britain, many of the islands off the coast of Scotland, and even Iceland. But his most famous seven-year voyage, recorded in a 9th century manuscript, took him all the way to America.

One story in the manuscript tells us of the time when he disembarked on an island and started to light a fire - only to discover that he was on the back of a whale!

Brendan's ventures were in the typical Celtic tradition of imrama, or learning by wandering; learning was, above all, a nourishment of the human spirit. 

The Old Irish word imrama meant rowing about, but not without a specific direction and not without an aim. Wandering liberated the imagination and inspired great adventures and works of art.

The accounts of his journeys include islands of snow-white birds, sheep as big as cows, volcanoes, and even an empty house in which a feast had been made ready for the wanderers.

In 1973, the explorer Tim Severin, built a currach just like Brendan's and sailed from Kerry to America, proving that Brendan may, indeed, have been the first European to set foot in America.