Dear Spin A Web Team,

I am delighted to learn that you are doing a web-site on Clonmacnois. I wish your project every success.

Clonmacnois is certainly one of Ireland's most important monastic sites, and indeed one of the most important monastic sites of Europe. Monks from Clonmacnois, would have set out for continental Europe as evangelisers, while many monks and clerics and others would have come from continental Europe to Clonmacnois for study at its famous monastic school. In addition, Clomacnois was an important centre of artistic creation, with many of its beautiful works of art stored in the National Museum and some of its beautiful illuminated manuscripts dispersed in various places in Europe.

The fame of Clonmacnois as a place of learning is reflected in a ninth century poem translated from the Irish by Frank O'Connor (see Kings Lords and Commons, Gillen Macmillan, 1959). The student in question came from Swords but his words could be applied from many far-flung places in Ireland, Britain and Europe:

"Whence are you, learning's son?"
"From Clonmacnois I come.
My course of studies done,
I'm off to Swords again".
"How are things keeping there?"
"Oh, things are shaping fare -
foxes around churchyards bare
Gnawing the guts of men'.

The reference in the second verse is to a recent Viking raid, which had left Clonmacnois, not for the first or last time, in ruins and desolation.

Viking raids on Clonmacnois and other monasteries in Ireland were frequent and destructive. People lived in fear of these raids, watching the seas anxiously in case another flotilla of raiding Vikings might be on the main. Another poem translated by Frank O'Connor from the Irish tells of "The Viking Terror":

"Since tonight the wind in high, The sea's white mane of fury I need not fear the hoards of Hell Coursing the Irish channel"

Clonmacnois made a deep impact on Pope John Paul 11 when he visited there in 1979 Here is what the Holy Father said in St. Peter's Square on his return to Rome:

"I will never forget that place, in which we stopped for a short time, in the early morning hours, on Sunday 30"' September: Clonmacnois. The ruins of the monastery and of the churches speak of the life that once pulsated there. ... It is difficult to look on these ruins merely as a monument of the past; whole generations of Europe owe to them the light of the Gospel and the structure framework of their culture. These ruins are still charged with a great mission. They still constitute a challenge. ... here is Ireland: at the heart of the perennial mission of the Church, which St. Patrick started".

In Clonmacnois itself, the Pope said:

"Clomnacnois was long the centre of a renowned school of sacred art. The Shrine of St. Manchan, standing on the altar today, is one outstanding example of his work. This is therefore a fitting place for me to express my gratitude for the works of Irish Sacred Art, several pieces of which have been presented to me on the occasion of my visit.

Irish art embodies in many instances the deep faith and devotion of the Irish people as expressed in the personal sensitivity of its artists".

Hoping that these rushed notes might be of some interest to you, and wishing your project every success.

Yours sincerely,