Boa Island
Encyclopedia
Boa Island is an island
Island
An island or isle is any piece of sub-continental land that is surrounded by water. Very small islands such as emergent land features on atolls can be called islets, cays or keys. An island in a river or lake may be called an eyot , or holm...

 near the north shore of Lower Lough Erne
Lough Erne
Lough Erne, sometimes Loch Erne , is the name of two connected lakes in County Fermanagh, Northern Ireland. The lakes are widened sections of the River Erne. The river begins by flowing north, and then curves west into the Atlantic. The southern lake is further up the river and so is named Upper...

 in County Fermanagh
County Fermanagh
Fermanagh District Council is the only one of the 26 district councils in Northern Ireland that contains all of the county it is named after. The district council also contains a small section of County Tyrone in the Dromore and Kilskeery road areas....

, Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland is one of the four countries of the United Kingdom. Situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, it shares a border with the Republic of Ireland to the south and west...

. It is 25 kilometres (15.5 mi) from Enniskillen
Enniskillen
Enniskillen is a town in County Fermanagh, Northern Ireland. It is located almost exactly in the centre of the county between the Upper and Lower sections of Lough Erne. It had a population of 13,599 in the 2001 Census...

 town.

It is the largest island in Lough Erne, approximately 8 km (5 mi) long, and relatively narrow. The A47 road goes through the length of the island. This road joins each end of the island to the mainland by bridges leading west toward Castle Caldwell and east toward Kesh.

The Boa Island carved stones, graveyard, and enclosure are Scheduled Historic Monuments sited in the townland
Townland
A townland or bally is a small geographical division of land used in Ireland. The townland system is of Gaelic origin—most townlands are believed to pre-date the Norman invasion and most have names derived from the Irish language...

 of Dreenan, in Fermanagh District Council
Fermanagh District Council
Fermanagh District Council is a local council in Northern Ireland. The borders of the district are very similar to those of the traditional County Fermanagh, containing all of that county plus a small section of County Tyrone in the Dromore Road and Kilskeery Road areas. Council headquarters are...

 area, at grid ref: H0852 6197. The Lustymore
Lustymore Island
Lustymore Island is an island located in Lower Lough Erne, in County Fermanagh, Northern Ireland.Nearby Boa Island, in its Caldragh cemetery has a carved Janus type figure. A second figure was brought to Caldragh in 1939 from Lustymore Island....

 stone figure was moved here in 1939 from the nearby island of that name. The oldest stone monument on the island is a denuded cairn
Cairn
Cairn is a term used mainly in the English-speaking world for a man-made pile of stones. It comes from the or . Cairns are found all over the world in uplands, on moorland, on mountaintops, near waterways and on sea cliffs, and also in barren desert and tundra areas...

 at Inishkeeragh Bridge near the southern tip of the island.

Name of the island

Boa Island is named after Badhbh
Badb
In Irish mythology, the Badb or Badhbh —meaning "crow" or "vulture"—was a war goddess who took the form of a crow, and was thus sometimes known as Badb Catha . She often caused fear and confusion among soldiers in order to move the tide of battle to her favoured side...

, sometimes spelled, Badb, the Celtic goddess
Celtic mythology
Celtic mythology is the mythology of Celtic polytheism, apparently the religion of the Iron Age Celts. Like other Iron Age Europeans, the early Celts maintained a polytheistic mythology and religious structure...

 of war. Badhbh sometimes took the form of a Carrion Crow
Carrion Crow
The Carrion Crow is a member of the passerine order of birds and the crow family which is native to western Europe and eastern Asia.-Taxonomy:...

, most notably on the shoulder of the warrior, Cúchulainn
Cúchulainn
Cú Chulainn or Cúchulainn , and sometimes known in English as Cuhullin , is an Irish mythological hero who appears in the stories of the Ulster Cycle, as well as in Scottish and Manx folklore...

, after he died in battle. At other times she is depicted as a wolf.

She is one of a triad
Triple deity
A triple deity is a deity associated with the number three. Such deities are common throughout world mythology; the number three has a long history of mythical associations. C. G...

 of Celtic war goddesses that included her sisters, Macha
Macha
Macha is the name of a goddess and several other characters in Irish mythology.Macha can also mean:*The LÉ Macha , a ship in the Irish Naval Service, named for the goddess*The Macha crater in Russia, less than 7000 years old...

 and Morrigan
Morrígan
The Morrígan or Mórrígan , also written as Morrígu or in the plural as Morrígna, and spelt Morríghan or Mór-Ríoghain in Modern Irish, is a figure from Irish mythology who appears to have once been a goddess, although she is not explicitly referred to as such in the texts.The Morrigan is a goddess...

. They were born to a mother goddess
Mother goddess
Mother goddess is a term used to refer to a goddess who represents motherhood, fertility, creation or embodies the bounty of the Earth. When equated with the Earth or the natural world such goddesses are sometimes referred to as Mother Earth or as the Earth Mother.Many different goddesses have...

, Ernmas
Ernmas
Ernmas is an Irish mother goddess, mentioned in Lebor Gabála Érenn and "Cath Maige Tuired" as one of the Tuatha Dé Danann. Her daughters include the trinity of eponymous Irish goddesses Ériu, Banba and Fódla, the trinity of war goddesses the Badb, Macha and the Mórrígan , and also a trinity of...

, who is mentioned in Lebor Gabála Érenn
Lebor Gabála Érenn
Lebor Gabála Érenn is the Middle Irish title of a loose collection of poems and prose narratives recounting the mythical origins and history of the Irish from the creation of the world down to the Middle Ages...

and Cath Maige Tuired as one of the Tuatha Dé Danann
Tuatha Dé Danann
The Tuatha Dé Danann are a race of people in Irish mythology. In the invasions tradition which begins with the Lebor Gabála Érenn, they are the fifth group to settle Ireland, conquering the island from the Fir Bolg....

.

Badb is said to have caused confusion among the enemy in battles, providing victories to her side. Battlefields were named, the land of the Badb, by the Celts in Ireland.

Stone figures

Two unrelated anthropomorphic carved stone statues called the Boa Island figure and the Lustymore Island figure are now found together in Caldragh graveyard on Boa Island. Caldragh graveyard dates from the Irish early Christian period (400–800 AD). Both of the figures were badly damaged when they were first found. They have been placed beside each other on unrelated pillars in the graveyard which is the original location of the Boa figure. A canopy has been placed over them to protect them from the weather. Both of the stone figures are generally accepted to be the likeness of pagan
Paganism
Paganism is a blanket term, typically used to refer to non-Abrahamic, indigenous polytheistic religious traditions....

 deities.

The larger of the figures is the Boa Island bilateral figure. It is regarded as one of the most enigmatic and remarkable stone figures in Ireland
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...

. It is called a Janus-figure because it has two faces, reminding some of the Roman
Ancient Rome
Ancient Rome was a thriving civilization that grew on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 8th century BC. Located along the Mediterranean Sea and centered on the city of Rome, it expanded to one of the largest empires in the ancient world....

 two-headed deity Janus
Janus (mythology)
In ancient Roman religion and mythology, Janus is the god of beginnings and transitions, thence also of gates, doors, doorways, endings and time. He is usually a two-faced god since he looks to the future and the past...

, however, it is not a representation of Janus. It is thought to represent a Celtic deity and could represent a Celtic goddess as readily as a god, especially given the name of the island.

In Celtic culture, heads were very important because they were thought to contain a person's spirit after their death. Severed heads were taken in triumph after battles.
The Boa Island bilateral figure is 73 centimetres (29 in) high, 45 cm (18 in) wide on its two broader surfaces, and 30 cm (12 in) wide on its two narrow surfaces. Each side of the figure has a face and torso. On the sides of the stone where the two carved figures are joined, is an interlace design that may represent hair. The faces are large and pointed ovals in shape, with big eyes, straight noses, and half open mouths with protruding tongues above the pointed chins.

The figure has no neck, with its head resting directly on its torso. The torso is a square block with hunched shoulders, crossed arms, and a belt. The figure ends just below its waist. The lower section of the figure—two hands with elongated fingers carved in relief—was broken away from the top part at an unknown time in the past. This base was recently discovered half-buried in the ground close to the figure.

In the top of the bilateral figure is carved a deep indentation of unknown purpose, and tourists often place small mementos in it for good luck. Fears of damage from freeze-thaw erosion have motivated authorities to provide a canopy over the statue.

The Nobel Prize winning poet Seamus Heaney
Seamus Heaney
Seamus Heaney is an Irish poet, writer and lecturer. He lives in Dublin. Heaney has received the Nobel Prize in Literature , the Golden Wreath of Poetry , T. S. Eliot Prize and two Whitbread prizes...

 celebrated the enigmatic Boa Island bilateral figure's similarity to the Roman deity Janus in his poem "January God". The Enniskillen-born poet Francis Harvey
Francis Harvey (poet)
Francis Harvey is a poet and playwright. He was born in Enniskillen, County Fermanagh, Northern Ireland in 1925. Harvey has lived in County Donegal for most of his life...

 published a collection of poems called The Boa Island Janus in 1996.
Similar statues appear outside the cave of Crom Cruach
Crom Cruach
Crom Cruach or Cromm Crúaich , also known as Cenn Cruach /ˈkʲɛnˠ: ˈkɾˠuəxˠ/ or Cenncroithi /ˈkʲɛnˠ: ˈkɾˠoθʲɨ/, was a deity in pre-Christian Ireland, reputedly propitiated with human sacrifice, whose worship is said to have been ended by St...

 in The Secret of Kells.

The Lustymore Idol was discovered in an early Christian graveyard on Lustymore Island
Lustymore Island
Lustymore Island is an island located in Lower Lough Erne, in County Fermanagh, Northern Ireland.Nearby Boa Island, in its Caldragh cemetery has a carved Janus type figure. A second figure was brought to Caldragh in 1939 from Lustymore Island....

, located due south of Boa Island in Lower Lough Erne. It was brought to the Caldragh graveyard on Boa Island in 1939. It is placed with its back to the indigenous bilateral figure. Lacking details of the facial features, it is less impressive visually, and is approximately 70 cm (27.5 in) in height. It is, however, thought to be older than the bilateral 'Janus' figure - which is less worn than the Lustymore figure. Irish archaeologist Eileen Murphy states in Warrior Women (2002) that the Lustymore Idol is thought by some Irish scholars to be the precursor to Sheela-na-gigs: her arms lie across the torso and point toward the inverted V that represents the top of the vulva (page 204). A Sheela-na-gig is a female figure with enlarged genitals held open by her hands. Note the current offerings to the statue in the photograph above.

The reasons for creating these stone sculptures and the dates of their creation are not certain. They may have been part of pre-Christian
Early history of Ireland
The early medieval history of Ireland, often called Early Christian Ireland, spans the 5th to 8th centuries, from the gradual emergence out of the protohistoric period to the beginning of the Viking Age...

 religious sites, or they may have been made by early Christians who included older pagan beliefs in their grave sites.
Boa Island's bilateral figure has been compared to another two-faced figure from Holzgerlingen
Holzgerlingen
Holzgerlingen is a municipality in the German Federal State of Baden-Württemberg. It is located in district of Böblingen.-Geography:Holzgerlingen, with its population of 12,700, lies in a clearing in the Schönbuch, a large forest in the state of Baden-Württemberg. It is south of the city of...

, Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

 and the Tandragee Idol, which is in a collection in St. Patrick's Cathedral
St. Patrick's Cathedral, Armagh (Church of Ireland)
St. Patrick's Cathedral, Armagh is the seat of the Archbishop of Armagh in the Church of Ireland. It is found in Armagh, Northern Ireland.-History:...

, Armagh
Armagh
Armagh is a large settlement in Northern Ireland, and the county town of County Armagh. It is a site of historical importance for both Celtic paganism and Christianity and is the seat, for both the Roman Catholic Church and the Church of Ireland, of the Archbishop of Armagh...

.

These comparisons suggest that the figure dates from the British Iron Age
British Iron Age
The British Iron Age is a conventional name used in the archaeology of Great Britain, referring to the prehistoric and protohistoric phases of the Iron-Age culture of the main island and the smaller islands, typically excluding prehistoric Ireland, and which had an independent Iron Age culture of...

. However, early Christian sites around Lough Erne are rich in these types of figures. An example is the White Island
White Island, County Fermanagh
White Island is an island in Lower Lough Erne, County Fermanagh, Northern Ireland. It is situated in Castle Archdale Bay off the east shore of Lower Lough Erne. The ruins of an ancient church are found near the shore, built on the site of an earlier monastic settlement. It still has an intact...

collection of figures found 5 km (3 mi) south east of Boa Island, which are primitive looking, but date from the early Christian period.

External links

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