Get your hands off our pagan statue
Pastor Dale Morgan
Get your hands off our pagan statue*
People in Fermanagh rally to protect Celtic image after reports that it
might be moved to a museum
Henry McDonald, Ireland editor
Sunday April 15, 2007
The Observer
People living near a pagan statue that draws thousands of tourists every
year to Northern Ireland's lakelands are threatening a campaign of civil
disobedience amid concerns it could be moved to Belfast.
The Janus, which has stood in the Caldragh graveyard on Boa Island in Co
Fermanagh since it was put up by the Celts more than 2,000 years ago,
inspired the Nobel prize-winning poet Seamus Heaney to write the poem,
'January God'. Locals hold the 2ft tall figure, depicting a man on one
side and a female on the other, in awe.
But now rumours are circling that the statue may be moved to the Ulster
Museum for its own protection. Opponents say it would be like moving
Stonehenge to London.
Gerry Carrigan has lived a mile and a half from the Janus site for more
than 60 years. 'I will cling on to it myself if I come across anyone
trying to uproot it,' he said. 'The Janus has been here for more than
2,000 years. This place is its home, not some museum in Belfast.'
Looking around last week at his fellow protesters gathered inside the
graveyard where the statue stands, Carrigan added: 'These people and
more like them are prepared to do the same. We will physically stand in
the way of anyone trying to take the Janus away.'
But there is concern among some archaeologists that the elements have
badly eroded the statue. A spokesman for the National Museums Northern
Ireland refused to state if they wanted it moved to Belfast. 'The Ulster
Museum is committed to preserving objects of historical importance,' the
spokesman said. 'The museum's position on any valuable public asset
which is of value to our heritage is that this would be best preserved
in a protected, sheltered and conditioned environment. In the case of
any scheduled monument on private property, such a decision is down to
the landowner and the Department of the Environment.'
Jim Cunningham, a local historian, tour guide and headmaster of nearby
St Davog's Primary School in Beleek, said there was an alternative way
of protecting the Janus. 'If this statue was situated five miles away
across the border in the Irish Republic, there would be no question of
moving it,' he said. 'In Tara the famous High Cross was not moved out of
the centre of Kells but rather placed in protective glass. This was what
happened to statues in Clonmacnoise too. They were moved into protective
casing just 20 yards from their original location.
'In the summer, whenever I take tourists around Fermanagh one of the
main things they ask to see is the Janus figure. It is a world-famous
attraction. Look at any book on Celtic civilisation anywhere on the
planet and you will find a picture of the Janus in its pages.'
A mile and a half from the graveyard in Kells, a popular tourist
attraction for fishing, local bed and breakfast owners said that moving
the statue would damage tourism. A local filmmaker and B&B owner, Alwyn
James, said there were concerns that the authorities were planning to
uproot the Janus and replace it with a plastic replica. 'It would be an
insult if the statue was replaced by a Celtic version of a plastic
gnome,' he said.
Historians believe that Boa Island was a place of pagan worship, and
that is why the Janus figure was placed there originally.
There is, however, a debate over whether a Christian building was
constructed on the site in the post-pagan world. There are Christian
graves dating back to the 13th century at the spot, but no evidence of
any Christian church.