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The Abbey, Clare Island: A PortraitAuthor(s): Chris CorlettSource: Archaeology Ireland, Vol. 19, No. 3 (Autumn, 2005), p. 25Published by: Wordwell Ltd.Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20559079

Accessed: 30/08/2010 18:00

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TheAbbey;

Clare Island

?aportrait

Picture, if you will, a medieval stone church, once on the edge of

the known world, still standing today despite suffering the full force

of Atlantic storms for hundreds of years. This is not the context in

which one would expect to find the remains of Ireland's finest surviving

medieval wall paintings.Nor are such sophisticated and accomplished

paintings somethingwe would tend to associate with the O'Malleys, who

founded this church?a family conventionally paintedas treacherous

pirateson land and sea.

Followingon from the original

scientific survey of Clare Island

(1909-11), the Royal Irish Academy have returned inmore recent years

to carry out what has become known as the New Survey of Clare Island.

Several volumes of results have been published, and the latest volume,

No. 4, is dedicated exclusivelyto a

variety of aspects of the medieval

church known as the Abbey*.

The volume is divided into two main sections, with aconcluding

paper by Roger Stalley placing the site in itsGothic context. The first

section is devoted to a historical and architectural analysis of the building

and the graveyard, supplied by Conleth Manning, Paul Gosling, Ian

Cantwell, Fergus Gillespie and Miche?l ? Com?in. The second part isdedicated to the wall paintings,

in terms of both their conservation and

their iconography, and issupplied by Christoph Oldenbourg, Karena

Morton and Ann Buckley.

There can be no doubt that these paintingsare the jewel

in the crown

of the Clare Island Survey.In a

country where this kind of artwork is such

a rare survival, the Clare Island paintingsare a national treasure. Indeed,

theyare a treasure trove of images and iconography, and Ann Buckley

pays special attention to the musical instruments depicted, includinga

unique and fascinating ?mage of a medieval church organ. At first glance,

warriors on horseback, dragons and griffins would appear inappropriate

to an ecclesiastical context such as a medieval church, but Karena

Morton discusses these imagesin terms of Christian iconography that

helpsto

explain this apparent paradox.

In general, there is a well-balanced series of papers, in terms of the

general description of the site and the more detailed accounts of the

results of the conservation and the images themselves. There are

plenty of illustrations,but I ould be critical of the quality of the

reproduction of many of the photographs of the wall paintings, which

areunnecessarily dark, making both the detail and colour tones

unclear.

Having had the privilege of seeingat first hand the conservation

works, Icanappreciate

the tedious nature of the process involved and

the stamina requiredover several years to see such a

project through

tocompletion?the

term 'watching paint dry' doesn't even come

close to capturing the painstaking process. However, the investment

of all this effort has helpedto preserve one of the wonders of

medieval Ireland, and there can be nodoubting the incredible value

of that investment. The attention to detail that the conservators have

lavished on these wall paintings, in terms of stabilising, conserving

and recording them, is afitting tribute to the artists who deliberated,

composed and executed their designs. Of course, we are also

indebted to the original patron(s) of these artists, and the more

recently inspiredchoice to see them restored. We can now all share in

the spoilsof this O'Malley

treasure.

Chris Corlett

*New Survey of Clare Island Volume 4: The Abbey. Edited by Conleth

Manning, Paul Gosling and JohnWaddell. Published by the Royal

IrishAcademy 2005. ISBN 1 904890 059.

Archaeology Ireland Autumn 2005 25