Book Review: On the Munster trail of Saint Gobnait
Cornelius Lynch visits the remains of what is believed to be the stone hut in which St Gobnait lived during her time on the Aran Island of Inis Oírr.
- Gobnait: People and Places Associated with Saint Gobnait
- Cornelius Lynch
- Inspire Publications, €20
“The precise route travelled by Gobnait in her quest for nine white deer can never be calculated with certainty,” admits Cornelius Lynch.
He has, however, gone to considerable lengths — a distance of 547km to be exact — to map the places still associated to this day with the 6th century saint’s travels around Munster.
His personal pilgrimage in search of holy wells, shrines, and churches named after Gobnait saw Lynch retrace her progress from Inis Oírr to his own home village of Baile Mhúirne — a journey which forms the basis of his newly-published book.
“When Gobnait came to Baile Mhúirne she was a young girl, most likely less than 30,” he says. “She was possibly born in Co Clare, and went to Inis Oírr, where an angel is said to have appeared to her with these words: ‘This place is not the place of your resurrection. You must go until you find a place where you find nine white deer together in a group and that will be the place of your resurrection.’”
So tasked, Gobnait is believed to have travelled first to Dún Chaoin in Kerry, where her feast day is still celebrated on February 11, continuing her search for deer in Boolteens, near Castlemaine, in Ballyagran in Co Limerick, on through the Glen of Aherlow to Dungarvan, where the parish of Kilgobnet bears testament to her presence.
Following the Blackwater valley into Cork, she is believed to have stayed for a while at what became known as Abbeyswell in Kilshannig, near Mallow, heading through Kilcorney to Clondrohid, where she is said to have spotted three white deer.
“The next stop was the townland of Cillín in Baile Mhúirne, where I was reared myself from the age of seven,” says Lynch, a retired national school principal. “There she saw seven white deer. The very next morning she looked slightly north-west as the fog was lifting over the river and across to the beautiful wooded valley that is Baile Mhúirne, and there she saw nine white deer together in a group in the townland of Gort na Tiobratan.”
Devotion to Gobnait remains particularly strong in Baile Mhúirne, where she based her religious settlement and is believed to be buried. Patron saint of bees, she is reputed to have warded off plague and thieves and “has been prayed to and regarded as a potent intercessor in Baile Mhúirne for 1,500 years”.
Belief in her healing powers sees thousands make the pilgrimage to the Cork village each year, particularly on her feast day and at Whitsun.
Her name also lives on in place names, graveyards, schools, and GAA clubs from the Aran Islands to Caherciveen, from Beaufort to Dungarvan. Such is the geographical spread of places with connections to Gobnait that Lynch makes a case for her to be given the title “patron saint of Munster”.
He suggests the development of a camino linking the sites named after her “certainly would have advantages”, not least ensuring the upkeep of some of the overgrown wells and lesser-known locations.
His research and mapping of Gobnait’s journey has already sparked interest across Munster, the book’s launch opening conversations about future collaborations.
“When I travelled to all of these places I stayed a night close to each of them,” says Lynch, “At the launch people came from Dún Chaoin and Kilgobnet in Kerry, from Ballyagran in Limerick and Kilgobnet in Co Waterford and I was absolutely thrilled at that because one of the stated aims of the book was to create a link between the places with which she is associated. Who knows, perhaps in the future an annual or biennial gathering of Gobnait’s people could be convened, perhaps in Baile Mhúirne one year, and elsewhere another year?”
- See: corneliuslynchauthor.ie
