"I remember a strange Easter Sunday spent on Saints' Island, not indeed with any hope of finding archaeological confirmation of its history, but simply in communing with the past..."
"Occasional freakish summer storms are peculiar to Lough Derg. Pilgrims often alighting at the shore on a tranquil summer day are often surprised at the unexpected commotion of the deeps and the dark yeasty appearance of the water..."
"The repetition of the baptismal vow [before St. Brigid's Cross] is a reaching back again towards baptismal innocence and is the usual ritual of retreats..."
"The stone circles [of the Penitential Beds] are small. When this sanctuary was demolished in the seventeenth century the despoilers left only the rude foundation stones protruding from the soil..."
“…[T]here were times, some of which are fresh in my memory, when the pilgrims' boat ran considerable risk from the waves, and when the skill and energy of such experienced boatmen as Pat M'Kane, of Seeavoc, were taxed to the utmost..."
"But the breeze gradually dropped. Large splashes of calm, glazy-looking water appeared here and there, spreading by little and little over the whole surface, while the rises became more and more infrequent, and, before a dozen fish had been caught,…
