"Some of the evil spirits settled on the Island of Swimmers to which they gave the name of demons. The demonaic island in truth is girded by an inland lake..."
"Ballyshanny. (Nov. 1, 1835.) I visited the far-famed terrestrial Purgatory of Lough-Derg but received no benefit from my tours except a severe cold, which I attribute more to the wet mountain bogs that surround the Lake..."
"The Liffer largens near its source and forms a lake in which there is an Island with a little Convent, near which there is a grotto narrow enough and full of spectres horrible to the view..."
It is traditionally believed that a monastic settlement was founded here in the fifth century by St. Patrick who installed Dabheoc as the first abbot. There are forty-six islands in Lough Derg but only two of them are of archaeological interest. The…
"Pettigo. (July 23, 1824). A country road leads in this direction a mile: after leaving which we passed over the mountains following a path, which the number of devotees who visit the Island, had marked too distinctly to be mistaken..."
"No record was kept of all the years that passed after the coming of the Danesmen till the Archbishop of Armagh sent a band of canons regular of the rule of Augustine..."
