Omey Island
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Omey Island is a Tidal island situated near Claddaghduff in the western edge of Connemara, Ireland (). It is the closest of the other small islets of the Irish coastal zone. There is a route across the sand to the island and, at high tide, the water is deep enough to cover a car. To help in the last moments before the water becomes too deep (or the mist rolls in and visibility drops to zero), there are conventional street signs to indicate the highest route.
[edit] Monastic Heritage
In the early to mid 1990's a team of archaeologists from University College Dublin began work to study the monastic heritage of the island, long known for being the site of a monastery and settlement founded by the prodigious St Feichin.
The excavation gave new insights into the life of early christianity in Ireland and included one of the few known burials of a female within a monastic burial ground. The site is believed to date from the early 6th Century.
The island of Omey remains a place of devotion to St Feichin to this day, with a Holy Well situated by the western edge and several other key landmarks of piety, including the still existing ancient church - with the majority of its vast stones still very much in place (having been buried in centuries of sand until the parish priest took matters into his own hands and dug up the area surrounding it with the help of locals.
St Feichin is known to have established many such communities across the west of Ireland and is considered one of the most important of the early founders of the rich tradition of Irish christianity.
For pictures, see Wikipedia Italiano Omey Island, from which this article has been freely translated.
