Is there an effigy
of the great mythological figure Oisin somewhere at the Rock
of Cashel?
Or perhaps an
imprint where the bull in this story ran into?
I wonder does it
have anything to do with the Sheela na Gig on the walls of the Rock? (See
comments for a picture).
"When St.
Patrick was building the great church on the Rock of Cashel, the workmen used
to be terribly annoyed, for whatever they put up by day was always found
knocked down next morning. So one man watched and another man watched, but
about one o'clock in the night every watcher fell asleep as sure as the
hearth-money. At last St. Patrick himself sat up, and just as the clock struck
one, what did he see but a terrible bull, with fire flashing from his nostrils,
charging full drive up the hill, and pucking down every stone, stick, and bit
of mortar that was put together the day before. "Oh, ho ! " says the
Saint, "Til soon find one that will settle you, my brave bull"
Now, who was this
but Usheen (Oisin) that St. Patrick was striving to make a good Christian.
Usheen was a very crooked disciple. When he was listening to pious reading or
talk, his thoughts would be among the hunters and warriors of his youth, but he
loved the good Saint for his charity to himself. The day after St. Patrick saw
the bull, he up and told Usheen all about what was going on. "Put me on a
rock or in a tree," says Usheen, " just by the way the bull ran, and
we'll see what we can do." So in the evening he was settled comfortably in
the bough of a tree on the hill side, and when the bull was firing away up the
steep like a thunderbolt, and was nearly under him, he dropped down on his
back, took a horn in each hand, tore him asunder, and dashed one of the sides
so hard against the face of the wall, that it may be seen there this day, hardened
into stone. There was no further stoppage of the work; and in gratitude they
cut out the effigy of Usheen riding on his pony, and it may be seen inside the
old ruins this very day."
"A person
pretending to have been on the rock, says there is a rude mark, as of the side
of an ox, on the outside of one of the walls, and a knight mounted on a
diminutive quadruped in bas-relief within."
From The Fireside
Stories of Ireland (1870), 153-4 - Patrick Kennedy.
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