Going Clear: Islanders plan big welcome for summer visitors

THE Cape Clear Islanders are working on a new project which they intend to have available for visitors next year.

The Cape Clear Heritage & Fastnet Centre will open for the summer of next year.

“Our goal is to develop a heritage centre that will merit national and international prominence,” I have been told.

The islanders have no doubt about the ability of their home place to make its mark for visitors. I admire their confidence and determination.

“The first phase will be followed by other significant developments,” I was told. “Our maritime heritage includes local historic shipwrecks, a tower, the history of the harbour, a church and castle, and there is much more.”

One of the historic items, which I did not know about, is one that the islanders say they are “optimistic” about getting returned to the island.

This is the Cape Clear Stone which dates from 4000BC-2000BC, is 1.36m in length, 0.39m wide and 0.08m thick, decorated in the style of passage tomb art.

The stone was found in the 19th century and removed from the island by Rev John O’Leary to his garden on Sherkin Island. He moved away in 1881, leaving the stone to be re-discovered in 1945, when it was transferred to University College Cork, and later to Cork Public Museum.

In 1984, archaeologists discovered traces of a prehistoric construction, with a chamber and possible passageway, on top of Quarantine Hill on Cape Clear. They described the site as the remains of a passage tomb and the likely original location of the Cape Clear Stone.

It is now in Cork Museum and the Cork City Council website describes it as follows: “This beautiful stone, ornamented with prehistoric art, not only interesting for its prehistoric significance, but also for its recent history. It is a large, prolonged, rectangular shape with a smooth surface. Its layered nature resulted in the top layer being separated through time, but most of the decoration, comprising spirals and zig-zags, survives.

“The stone is decorated with megalithic art, which is almost exclusively found on the neolithic period passage tombs. Neolithic spanned a long period in Ireland, from around 4000BC to around 2000BC, and the period is best known for its megalithic tombs, including the passage tombs. These comprise mounds covering stone-built central chambers, approached by a narrow passageway and were burial places. They were usually built on hilltops.

“The art is carved in the Fourknocks Style, a coherent design covering one surface in full ... Megalithic art is mainly found in the north and east of the country, so the stone found on Cape Clear is an exception and indicates the possible presence of a passage tomb on the island.”

Fourknocks is a neolithic passage tomb complex built about 5,000 years ago, located 10 miles southeast of Newgrange between Ardcath in Co Meath and the Naul in Co Dublin. The name ‘Fourknocks’ may be from the Irish ‘fuair cnocs’ meaning ‘cold hills’.

The Cape Clear islanders held a Flags Day to launch their development of the centre.

Micheal Ó Ceadogáin, for many years a leader of the island’s co-op, raised the Cape Clear flag for the centre. Being one of the island’s older residents, he has spent a lifetime working for the island as chairman and manager of Cape Clear Co-op, and in many other roles as well.

He is also known as one of the ‘Iron Men of Cape Clear,’ which I wrote in a previous column.

These mariners plied an arduous trade in the 1960s, delivering coal to the Fastnet Lighthouse. He and his companions had to carry bags of coal on their shoulders up the 99 steps from where they landed by the lighthouse itself.

There is a close relationship between Cape Clear and the Fastnet Rock Lighthouse, going back to the original lighthouse for the area having been based, not on Fastnet, but on Cape Clear.

During the Flags Day ceremony, the Cape Clear flag was also raised close to St Ciarán Gallán and the Holy Well in North Harbour. This recalls 5,000 years of island history represented by the Cape Clear Stone. Forty years of work by historian and author Éamon Lankford developed an impressive collection of artefacts from the island. He carried out extensive research into its history and folklore and has produced a collection of publications about Oileán Cléire.

A flag for the new children’s playground on Cape Clear was also raised on the day, as was a flag in memory of the O’Driscoll heritage. The O’Driscoll Worldwide Archives are to be kept in the new centre.

When I left RTÉ a number of years ago, the Cape Clear islanders accorded me a special “farewell night” in Club Chléire, which I still remember fondly for the discussions about the island’s history, its people, emigration, culture, and music.

Their new centre will, without doubt, be a major tourist attraction.

“Come visit us on Cape Clear Island, an historic Irish-speaking island which is just off Ireland’s beautiful West Cork coast,” the islanders say in lauding their home place.

“With a population of 120 people, the island’s rich history is visible across a lush green landscape pockmarked with megalithic standing stones, a 5,000-year-old passage grave, and the ruins of castles and churches dating back to the days of Ireland’s earliest Christian saints.”

There is no doubt that Cape Clear Islanders are proud of their home place.

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