Stones of Eireann

Wishing stone and cursing stone,
Stones of medicine and power,
Gloonan and bullaun,
The bedrock of Ireland
Masses in the mind.
Touch the bodies
Of gods and heroes,
Feel their blood in your veins;
Turn widdershins or deosil
To release the magic,
White or black.
The beds and thrones
Of the almighty hag
Summon the dreamer.
Navel stones of Ireland,
Swirling eggs
On pillars of fire,
Channel the force
From below.

Touch the White Stone
Of Calliagh Beri,
Indented with the fingerprints
Of warrior and goddess,
Battling lovers of Armagh,
Who hurled it at each other
During their tiffs.

In Fethard’s town wall,
In County Tipperary,
The Witch stares back,
Sheela-na-Gig,
Warding off evil
Beneath Slievenamon,
Abode of the otherworld women.

On the Hill of Uisneach
Looms the Stone of Divisions,
Fivefold Ireland’s omphalos,
Owned by the queen and her sisters,
Sign of her birth.
Earth’s head is emerging,
Midwifed by the banshee sky.

Queen Meadhbh
Stands upright in her grave,
Atop Knocknarea,
Surveying her realm
From under the cairn;
Woe to him who meets her
At the turn of seven years.

At the entrance to Neale
In Mayo’s fields,
A stone stands over
Lugh’s severed arm
That he lost here, fighting
In the Battle of Moytirra,
Driving off the Fir Bolg.

At Knockbridge, County Louth,
The Big Man’s Stone
Hefts its tilt,
Whereto doomed Cúchulainn
Strapped himself to die,
Still facing the enemy
On his feet.

Dark stone seed
In Cavan’s earth,
-The Crom Cruach!-
Once a gilded pillar,
Hub of twelve megaliths,
Till roaring Patrick
Toppled them all.

St Fiachna’s Butter Lumps
In the field next the graveyard
At Temple Feaghna,
Healing stones
Set like eggs in basins,
To be turned at Easter;
Should any fool remove them,
They would home their way
Back here.

On the Hill of Tara,
Lia Fáil stands
Sovereign granite
Sained with the oaths
Of kings, world-pillar
Clocking Ireland
With its gnomon.

Speckled Stones of Inishmurray,
Seventy in number
On their monastic altar,-
Should any man remove one,
Evil fortune will pursue him-
The fasted pilgrim
Counterclockwise turns the stones
And calls down the curse
On his foe.

St Patrick’s Stones
At Kilkerry, County Sligo,
Seven beauties
Round with power
To heal, to be turned
With prayer, and applied
To the ailing body.

At Glencolumbcille,
At June sun’s midnight,
Deosil with the stations,
Among pillars, boulders,
Flagstones and cairns,
Stone pilgrimage begins;
Pebble-bless yourself ,
And,stretched in Colmcille’s bed,
Turn clockwise and thrice;
Three stones in hand,
Three times about the well,
Marking each round
With a stone on the cairn;
Lave your feet
In the stone boat’s pool,
Sky-voyaging with the saint.

On Altadaven’s druid hill,
St Patrick’s Chair
Becomes your throne
Of secret wishes,
And in the holy well
Heal your ills.
Let wild thoughts gather
For Lughnasa,
Preaching and baptizing!

The Apparition Stones at Knock:
Can you bear to stare
Into the Virgin’s ghost?
Bless yourself
With that vision,
Palping the church wall,
And go free.