The community in Raphoe is being encouraged to join in a search for clues as to where the monastery of Eunan may have stood.
The unique project is part of Creative Ireland’s Initiative focusing on heritage and culture where communities engage with heritage professionals.
The ‘Hunt for Eunan’s Monastery‘ is one of 25 funded projects under Donegal County Council’s Culture and Creativity Team.
Raphoe Community In Action is co-ordinating the project.
Chairperson Mary Harte says it’s an exciting challenge for the community, a lot of fun, but the real aim is to try to recreate the story of the early monks who settled in the area over a thousand years ago.
“The gaelic name for Raphoe, Rath Bhoth, means enclosure of the huts, and historians believe this may refer to the walls and cells of the early Christian monastery. Already children from St Eunan’s NS and Raphoe Central primary schools have recreated art works of their own version of what the original monastery might have looked like.
“This is all about community embracing the heritage on their door step and enjoying it,” said Mary.
The public will have an opportunity to engage with professional experts, historians and archaeologists at a seminar in the Suile Centre and then set off on their own journey over the summer to see what they can find.
“We will be inviting people to look with fresh eyes at their surroundings, old walls, a gable end of a dry stone shed and take photographs which will be iincluded in a display during Heritage Week in August.”
Mary added that small carved faces from a monastery are already embeded in the exterior of the Church of Ireland Cathedral.
“We just need to find the layout if possible,” she said.
Dr. Brian Lacy who is Ireland’s leading authority on the Donegal monks, Colmcille/Columba and Eunan, will give a talk on the archaeological and historical evidence leading up to the 12th century when the Cathedral of Eunan was established.
According to Mary Harte it is no coincidence that most of Donegal is the eccleastical Diocesese of Raphoe.
Another leading historian of the Plantation of Ulster, Dr. William Roulston, will give a talk on the impact the Plantation had on the development of Raphoe as a market town and a Cathedral centre with a Bishop’s Palace also known as Raphoe Castle.
The seminar will give people an understanding of what they might be looking for over the summer.
Mary Harte pointed out that Raphoe is a designated Heritage Town and finding even the smallest hint of a monastery layout will add greatly to that title, “ you just never know what we might find once we all start looking”.
The seminar “The Hunt for Eunan’s Monastery” takes place in the Suile Centre Raphoe (behind the Volt House in the Diamond) on Saturday 19th of July at 2pm. It’s a free event and everyone is welcome even if you don’t live in Raphoe.
