Heart and Hearth

From the desk of Fr. Ignatius Waters, cp

Sunday, 12th June, 2016

On my recent sojourn in Co. Mayo I visited the village of Lahardane which has a  memorial park in memory of the ‘Addergoole Fourteen’. They were the fourteen people from that area who sailed on the Titanic in 1912. All but two of them were drowned. Most evocative in the park is the ‘Addergoole Hearth’ which is made from stones from each of their houses. The symbolism of the hearth draws on a charming tradition from times past that when a family emigrates, leaving behind a vacant homestead, a neighbour or relative would take an ember from the last fire that burnt in that homestead on the last night that the family slept within its walls. That ember would be added to the neighbour’s or relative’s fire so that when the migrant family or a member of the family returned, their fire would never have gone out. It is in line with the theme of the park as a memorial to all Irish emigrants. 

A plaque on the wall gave this explanation:

‘The traditional Irish Hearth represented the living presence of people in rural Ireland. The hearth was the heart of the family activity; from birth to betrothal, from marriage to Irish wake.

The Irish rural hearth was the centre of all productivity and creativity; the cooking, the drying of clothes, the curing of meats, nurturing sick animals, warming the older and younger generations, while stories, songs and news from a newly arrived American letter were exchanged.

To this day it is a poignant sight to see a cottage ruin or a cluster of abandoned cottages their gables set against the elements, their hearths empty and over grown.  They are a testament to monoculture, famine and perpetual emigration.

The hearth provided a place of refuge and hope for one’s neighbours and the embers remained aglow anticipating the return of one’s own.’

We are all emigrants and pilgrims on this earth and we gather each Sunday around the hearth and table of the Eucharist to hear again the story of Jesus and to be nourished and encouraged in our faith and hope as we journey together.