Brian Rua U'Cearbhain

Brian Rua U’Cearbhain

In the early 17th century, in the townland of Inver (Irish: Inbhear) in the parish of Kilcommon, Erris, Co. Mayo, a man was born who is remembered to this day for his gift of prophecy.

Historical Setting

The early 17th century was a time of turmoil in Ireland.

In 1648, when it would appear that Brian Rua U'Cearbhain ceased to be an ordinary man and became an extraordinary man, the Catholic King Charles I of England had been imprisoned in the Tower of London by the parliamentarians (puritanical Protestants) and Oliver Cromwell was about to come to Ireland to deal with the rebels this side of the Irish sea. The Plantations of Ireland was being implemented speedily and bringing disaster on the native Irish people who were having to leave the country or having to become tenants of new English landlords.

Irish land was being seized by adventurers and settlers from England who were being granted Irish land in return for favours to the English monarch.

When Cromwell came to Ireland, matters got a whole lot worse and from the mid 17th century onwards, his policy of “to hell or to Connaught” saw many dispossessed native people sent to areas like Erris from their homelands elsewhere in Ireland.

Inbhear tenant farmer

Brian Rua, so named for his flame red hair, was born into a poor farming family living near to the western seaboard, in an area known as Fal Rua, in Inver townland, Erris which did not even have a road leading into it. He grew up and scratched his living from the poor blanket bogland in North West Co. Mayo.

He was a kindly man and one day he saw his elderly widowed neighbour begging her landlord for more time to pay her rent and begging him not to evict her. The landlord asked the widow if she had anybody who would go surety for her. She replied “I have only God”. “I’d like if you had someone else along with God” the landlord replied. Brian Rua paid the landlord out of his own pocket saying that he could take God as his surety.

The Gift of Prophecy

When Brian returned home later that evening he fell asleep and when he awoke he found a jewel in the right sleeve of his coat. The jewel revealed to Brian what was going to happen from that day on and he became blessed with the gift of prophecy.

Some time later Brian Rua bought some cattle from an O’Donnell man in the area. When O’Donnell called to the house for his money he was told that his money would come in from the sea. A short time later, a mastless ship with gold on board was driven onto the coast nearby and O’Donnell was paid well for his cattle. (In these years many ships passed through these waters - Spanish Armada and many foreign ships were shipwrecked and plundered by “pirates” in the Broadhaven Bay area when they tried to shelter from storms out at sea.)

In 1678, a priest in Kilcommon Parish, Fr. Paul Higgins, told people in the area not to heed Brian’s prophecies because he was a madman. Brian Rua waited outside the Church and told the people that Fr. Paul Higgins would be a Minister of the Protestant religion within four weeks. It happened as Brian Rua said it would.

Brian Rua became a local hero and from that day on his prophecies were believed by the people and he became well known across the county.

He made many prophecies which have been passed down by word of mouth and in the local culture and folklore through the generations ever since. One was called Scéal í mBarr Bataí. Brian Rua prophecised that messages would be sent on the tops of poles more quickly than a hawk would fly from Dublin to Blacksod Bay. Local people believe that his prophecy has come true with the advent of the telephone and internet.

The Achill Railway Line

Another well-known prophecy concerns the ill-fated Achill railway station Line, running from Westport to Achill Sound, which was started in 1894 with high expectations for the new train to carry goods, tourists, researchers and businessmen to the poor depopulated areas of the west and bring economic boom to the area The train line ran through many tunnels and across the nine-arch Newport Viaduct, through Mulranny where it ran along the coast until it reached Achill Sound. However, due to never being economically viable, it was decided to end the railway and the last train was scheduled to run in 1937.

Almost three hundred years previously, Brian Rua had prophecised that “the day will come when there will be iron wheels on fire carriages from the south and the north”, “blowing smoke and fire which on their first and last journeys will carry corpses”.

Not only did he foresee the advent of steam trains which were not invented until the early 19th century but he also predicted the Achill tragedies.

The first time the train ran in 1894 it carried the corpses from an incident known as the Clew Bay Drownings. A ship with day labourers bound for Scotland to pick “tatties” (tattie hokers) capsized in Clew Bay near Westport taking the lives of 32 young people from Achill Island. They were taken home to be buried on the first train to run on the new line.

By 1937 the railway was not turning a profit and after 43 loss-making years, it was taken out of service. Shortly after the railway closed, there was a tragedy in Kirkintilloch, Scotland when ten “tattie hokers” from Achill were killed in a fire in temporary accommodation, a so-called “bothy”. Although the train line was officially closed it was put back into service one last time to bring the burned remains of the Kirkintilloch Burning Disaster home to Achill to be buried.

In relation to his home village of Inver, he foretold of giant candles along the street and that the entire village will be destroyed all in one single day.

It is widely believed locally that his prophecy refers to the Corrib gas project and that Shell’s contentious pipeline with extremely high pressure (345 bars) of raw, unodourised gas will rupture and combust spontaneously leading to a major disaster for the parish of Kilcommon if it ever goes ahead (Corrib gas controversy).

As street lights have recently been erected in Inver village for the first time, many local people await anxiously for the second part of the prediction of Brian Rua O’Cearbhain to happen.

References

Achill Railway [1]

Mayo County Library [2]

Noone, Fr. Sean. Where the Sun Sets (1991) Erris

Nolan R. Within the Mullet (2001) Kildare