Sun beats down for Brian Boru

THE annual Féile Brian Boru attracted “unprecedented crowds” to the banks of Lough Derg, according to one of the organisers.
Festival committee member Brona Moriarty said organisers were thrilled with the outstanding success of the four-day festival, which drew huge crowds to Killaloe and Ballina.
As the committee builds up to the national celebration of 1,000 years since Brian Boru’s death next year, Ms Moriarty said the core heritage programme based around Viking and other fun-filled family events attracted thousands of spectators.
She said Viking boat trips run by Ardglass were “inundated” with people while the Brian Boru Living History camp, at the back of St Flannan’s Cathedral, attracted a great deal of interest on Saturday and Sunday. Onlookers were keen to get a taste of how people lived, worked and played one thousand years ago.
Organised by the Clare-based Mogh Roith Living History Group, up to 30 medieval enthusiasts and some of their children from Clare, Limerick, Cork and Dublin produced an authentic Viking re-enactment.
Wielding round shields, axes, swords and spears, 12 warriors clashed during a fiercely contested mock battle in the sizzling sunshine as part of the festival. Visitors were also provided with a cookery display on the preparation of food during this period, natural dyeing techniques and weaving.
Brendan Griffin of Mogh Roith outlined the background to a calligraphy project he is working on, an O’Brien manuscript. Writing the script with quill made from goose feather, he estimated a person may complete 180 words an hour of calligraphy script. It could take two or three hours to do one capital initial and a person could do two or three pages a day.
Claire Horgan from Déise Medieval, Waterford, joined up with Mogh Roith for the first time and showed the public how to spin sheep’s fleece into wool using a wooden drop spindle.
“We taught ourselves a lot of these skills. There is a huge resurgence in ancient crafts. There are very few teachers so you have to learn from YouTube. We build all our own equipment and just go at it.”
Freaha Robinson, also from Déise Medieval, showed people how to make linen lining. The group does all its own sewing and makes its own medieval clothes using tablet weaving for the last two years as a hobby.
Jacqui Wright, who is a member of Fingal Living History Society but is based in Sligo, makes copies of Viking style clay pottery from the 10th, 11th and 12th centuries. She displayed a clay helmet modelled from an original king’s ceremonial helmet from the 8th century. Her clay jugs came from a period when the Vikings moved into Germany and was influenced by oriental work from Constantinople. She also had copies of cooking pots from Woodquay in Dublin and pottery from that period.
“The Vikings never took pottery very seriously. It had no status. Although the black clay in the pottery was unglazed, I have glazed it to make it available for modern use.
“When the Vikings were being employed to fight as mercenaries they were happy to pretend they were Christians, because if they didn’t, they wouldn’t get a job,” she said.
Barry Gaynor from Fingal Living History Society, a self-taught lantern maker, acted as the chief of the group that all slept overnight on Saturday in handmade canvass tents with sheepskin as covers near the historical bridge at Killaloe.
Elsewhere, three members of the McGeever family achieved a clean sweep of the top three awards in the 2013 Féile Shannon Swim on Sunday. Finn McGeever was the overall winner in the men’s open event, while his two other brothers, Donnacha and Ruairí, finished second and third respectively.
Amy Killeen scooped the first prize in the ladies open event, Rosie Foley finished second while Majella Scanlan was third.
Steven Atkinson was the juvenile winner. Damien McCormack, Jennifer Hennessy and Greg Chatfield finished first, second and third respectively in the masters event.
Jonathan McGrath, Irish Paralympic Swimmer, presented prizes to the winners while the Killaloe Coast Guard Unit were on standby to provide assistance.
Lough Derg was ably represented at The Brian Boru Cano Polo Tournament when six members from Nenagh Canoe Club took the plunge and entered the competition for the first time.
The team, Lough Derg Acquaholics, included captain Ross O’Brien, Colum O’Leary, Max Giroudiere, Dean Craven, Harry Young and Conor O’Leary.
Having played four matches against mostly university teams from around the country, the team was beaten narrowly in three games but won their last one against UCD B squad. The team was mentored and coached by Laura O’Sullivan and Noel Hogan from Nenagh Canoe Club. Tributes were paid to local man Sean O’Maoláin for organising the tournament.