Browse Items · Digital Derg: A Deep Map

The demon Corna

"When we were within half a bow-shot of the said island of the Purgatory I saw a bird blacker than coal take flight ; it had not a single plume or feather on its back..."

Tags: Augustinians, birdlife, boating, Corna, crossing, demons, miracle, pilgrim crossing, Shane Leslie, St. Patrick, Station Island, superstition, transformation

The business of ferrying pilgrims to Station Island

"It is almost incredible what crowds visit this island annually, during the months of June, July, and August—it being no unusual thing to see from 900 to 1000 persons of both sexes upon it at one and the same time..."

Tags: boating, commercialism, crossing, crowds, infrastructure, international visitors, overcrowding, Philip Dixon Hardy, pilgrimage, Protestant critique, satire, Station Island

The 1795 disaster

"The end of the eighteenth-century history of Lough Derg is sadly remembered because of a particularly bad boating accident..."

Tags: 1795 disaster, accusation, Alice Curtayne, boating, disaster, drinking, drowning, eighteenth century, Friars' Island, malfeasance, pilgrim, pilgrim crossing, poteen, Station Island, twentieth century

The 1795 disaster

"But the most lamentable catastrophe of all happened here in 1795 — a catastrophe which for many years cast a gloom over the place..."

Tags: 1795 disaster, accidents, boating, Daniel O'Connor, disaster, drowning, mountains, pilgrim crossing, pilgrimage

Station Island boat leaving

A pilgrim boat leaving the shore, pilgrims boarding another crowded boat, and a crowd on shore

Tags: boating, ferry house, Lawrence Collection, National Library of Ireland, nineteenth century, Photographs, pilgrim crossing, queue, Robert French, Station Island, William Lawrence

Saints Island Quay Archaeological Survey

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…

Tags: Archaeological survey, boating, dryness, medieval, monasticism, pilgrim crossing, quay, Saints' Island, Saints' Island townland