Anam Cara

NOTES

“The Banshee’s Grotto”—The authoritative work on the Banshee tradition in Irish folklore is Patricia Lysaght’s The Banshee: The Irish Death Messenger (Roberts Rinehart, 1996).

“The Secret of Thereness”—This poem takes its title from the title of a photograph by the Conamara photographer Fergus Bourke.

“Encounters”—The rosary is a form of devotion accompanying the contemplation of fifteen mysteries highlighted from the life of Jesus. They are divided into the Joyful, Sorrowful, and Glorious Mysteries. Fifteen decades of Hail Marys are recited; each decade is preceded by an Our Father and followed by a Glory Be to the Father. This devotion is usually prayed on rosary beads, consisting of a sequence of beads which represent the five decades corresponding to one set of the mysteries. According to the theologian Noel Dermot O’Donoghue, the rosary enfolds the mystical heart of Christianity. The name “rosary” comes from the flower, the rose, which in the medieval period was understood as a symbol of life eternal. The rosary in its present form emerged in late medieval Christianity.

“An Paidrín”—This poem was first written in Irish, and “The Rosary” is the English translation.

“Mountain-Looking”—Mullach Mór is a spectacular mountain in the Burren in the West of Ireland. It has been the subject of a recently successful ten-year environmental campaign by the Burren Action Group to prevent the Irish government from building an interpretation centre for tourists there.

“A Burren Prayer”—Corcomroe is the ruin of a twelfth-century Cistercian monastery in the Burren. It was dedicated to Maria de Petra Fertilis: Mary of the Fertile Rock.