Dun Briste

This is Dún Briste (literally Broken Fort) in Co. Mayo, Ireland. This 50 metres tall sea-stack stands just off Downpatrick Head, in the townland of Knockaun, east of the quiet village of Ballycastle. The stack is crowned by an old ruined fort...

There is a local legend that explains the name "Broken Fort". It was collected by Douglas Hyde and published in 1914 book "Legends of Saints & Sinners"...It is called "St Patrick and Crom Dubh" and I will here give a short version...With interpretation 🙂

...Before St. Patrick came to Ireland there lived a chieftain...in Co. Mayo, and his name was Crom Dubh. Crom Dubh lived beside the sea in a place...which is now called Dún Briste, or Broken Fort. My story will tell why it is called Dún Briste...

...Crom Dubh was one of the worst men that could be found, but as he was a chieftain over the people of that country he had everything his own way; and that was the bad way, for he was an evil-intentioned...man, with desire to be avenged on every one who did not please him...

...He had two sons... (who were) were worse than himself, and that leaves them bad enough! Crom Dubh (also) had two hounds of dogs...and if ever there were [wicked] mastiffs these two dogs were they....

...And, to go further, Crom Dubh had a big fire kindled...Anyone who displeased him, used to be brought before Crom Dubh, as he sat beside the fire, and Crom used to pass judgment upon him, and after the judgment the man used to be thrown into the fire...

...It is said that a fairy sweetheart walked with Crom Dubh, and giving him knowledge according as he used to require it. And every scheme hatched against Crom Dubh to put him out of the world, he overcame them all, for he had too much wizardry from the fairy sweetheart...

...The fame of Crom Dubh and his two sons, and his two mastiffs, went far and wide, for their evil-doing; and the people were so terrified at his name, not to speak of himself, that they used to hide their faces in their bosoms when they used to hear it mentioned in their ears...

...Crom Dubh was continuing his evil deeds for many years...and every year it was getting worse...Some say that he was a native of hell...But people had no knowledge of God or Mary...and for that reason they could not put trust in any person beyond Crom Dubh...

Here is the interesting bit 🙂 

...because they thought, bad as he was, that it was he who was giving them the light of the day, the darkness of the night, and the change of seasons... 

Who gives light and darkness and seasons? The sun god of course...The god for whom the Bronze Age Grange stone circle was built. 

The stone circle aligned to Crom Dubh's day, the day that marks the moment of maximum heat and to summer solstice, the day of maximum daylight...

It is Crom Dubh that St Patrick had to defeat to Christianise the Irish...After which Patrick took over Crom Dubh's holy mountain. 

And became "the one who decides the faith of the Irish"... 

And so enters Patrick:

...During this time St. Patrick was going throughout Ireland, working diligently and baptising many people....

...St. Patrick began explaining to the Pagans about the light and glory of the heavens. Some gave ear to him, but the most of them paid him no attention...Patrick took all those who listened...to be baptised to the well which is now called Tobar Phadraig or Patrick's Well...

...When these Pagans got the seal of Christ on their forehead...they began telling St. Patrick about the doings of Crom Dubh and his evil ways, and they besought him...to chastise Crom Dubh, rightly or wrongly, or to give him the Christian faith if it were possible...

Interesting right? The pagans get baptised and the Old God becomes Devil. Actually not even Devil, as that would give the Old God too much importance. The Old God becomes an Evil Chieftain...Much easier to deal with...

To cut the long story short, St Patrick arrives to Crom Dubh's house "...with his defensive company with him..."

Now does this imply that St Patrick used force during his conversion of the Irish?

...Crom Dubh set his dogs on St Patrick, with coals of fire coming out of their mouths, and a blue venomous light burning in their eyes...But Patrick tamed Crom Dubh's hounds and they become Patrick's hounds. Then Patrick extinguished Crom Dubh's fire. Then Patrick tried to "put the seal of Christ on Crom Dubh's forehead, but Crom Dubh did not give any ear to St. Patrick's words"...

...Then Crom Dubh tried "deviltry, druidism, witchcraft and  black art" trying to gain the victory over St. Patrick. But it was all no use for him, for the words of God were more powerful than the deviltry of the fairy sweetheart...

Finally:

...St. Patrick gave a blow of his crozier to the cliff under the base of the gable of the house, and he separated that much of the cliff from the cliffs on the mainland, and that is to be seen there today...and that is the cliff that is called Dún Briste or Broken Fort...

...Crom Dubh had to remain on top of the cliff "until the midges and the scald crows had eaten the flesh off his bones". And that is the death that Crom Dubh got...

...The people gathered in multitudes from every side doing honourable homage to St. Patrick, and the pride of the world on them that an end had been made of Crom Dubh...There was a well near and handy, and he baptised them all...

...There is not a year from that out that the people used not to make a pilgrimage to the well, on the anniversary of that day; and that day is the last Sunday of the seventh month, and the name of the Sunday is Crom Dubh's Sunday...

And so the people, on whose foreheads Patrick put the sign of the cross, after he banished their Sun God Crom Dubh, continued celebrating Crom Dubh's day...🙂 Under the pretext that they celebrated the victory of Patrick over Crom Dubh...I mean the day is still today known as "Domhnach Crom Dubh" which means "Crom Dubh's Sunday"...

Being a proper Sun God, Crom Dubh's day is Sunday. But not any Sunday. Sunday marking the middle of the hottest part of the year, the time when Sun's fire burns the strongest (like Crom Dubh's fire). Which accidentally falls in the middle of the Dog Days (like the Crom Dubh's ones which breathe fire and have light flashing out of their eyes)...

Oh by the way, did you know that right about the time when Patrick killed the Sun God and extinguished his fire, there was a major drop in temperature in Europe? You see the sudden drop in the second part of the 5th century AD?

How cool is this story? 

It is a historical account of the forceful conversion of the Irish and turning of their Sun god into Devil basically, by "The Patron Saint" of the Irish St Patrick "and his defensive company"...Oh and of the beginning of the medieval ice age...