Féile Lughnasa ~ Cloghane and Brandon Celtic Festival of Lughnasa

History

Crom Dubh was a Pre-Christian God associated with the Celts. In Máire MacNeill's book, The Festival of Lughnasa, Crom Dubh is described as "a hill dweller, owner of a bull and of a granary, corn bringer and cultivator, feast giver, ruler of the elements, owner of a baleful light, a possessor and a conserver of his possessions."

Lughnasa, the Celtic harvest festival, at the end of July, is a celebration of the outwitting of Crom Dubh, "the dark crooked one", by another god, Lugh, "a newcomer, a traveller, clever, with superior power or skill, able to enlist the help of a giant, owner of a marvellous horse, a dispossessor and annexer of others goods for his followers, a winner of meat and corn. The victory involves dispossession, a transfer of goods and the confinement of the defeated in a narrow place."

The pagan rites of the festival included a solemn cutting of the first of the corn and an offering to the deity by bringing it to a high place and burying it. Mount Brandon was one of the Irish sites involving this pilgrimage and ritual offering. All would then have participated in a meal of the new food and, in some locations, of bilberries. The sacrifice of a sacred bull may have taken place followed by a feast of its flesh. The ceremonies probably included some rite with the bull's hide, a ritual dance play and struggle for supremacy with victory symbolised by the installation of a head on top of a hill and a ceremony of triumph over it by an actor chosen to represent Crom's adversary, Lugh.

With the coming of Christianity, Lugh's place is taken by "monks" or particular personages such as St. Patrick, St. Colmcille or, in the case of Cloghane and Brandon, St. Brendan. The outcome, however, is the same, with Crom Dubh being outwitted, and in this case, converted to Christianity.

The stone head of Crom Dubh, set in the wall of the ruined medieval church in the village of Cloghane, was a tangible link with these early times in the life of the community. In August, 1993, this Celtic idol was stolen from the old church. In 1999, as part of the Féile Lughnasa celebrations, a replica of Crom Dubh was made and presented to the community by Eilín Ní Néill of Brandon.

The Cloghane Brandon area is involves in a twinning with the town of Plozevet in Brittany, France. The president of the Plozevet twinning committee, Monsieur Ronan le Gall heard the story of Crom Dubh's disappearance and decided that he could do something to remedy the situation. While on a visit to the Cloghane-Brandon region, Ronan, an accomplished sculptor, found a suitable piece of stone on Cappagh Strand and took it back to Brittany, where working from photographs of the original, he set about carving a new likeness of Crom Dubh. Easter 2000, at the signing of the second part of the twinning charter, Ronan presented Crom Dubh II to the people of the area. Crom Dubh was placed temporarily in the wall of the church where the original head had been. It was then put on display at the Heritage Centre at Halla le Chéile, Ballyguin, until a suitable place has been chosen to put it on permanent view.

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