Nation 27th June, 1874 P4 (abridged)
Photo; Norma Scheibe
Ua Corra was a professor of the black art, who did not hesitate to hold direct communication with the devil. He dragged his wife into a partnership in necromancy. They had three sons who also surrendered themselves to the evil spirit. Their loyalty to his satanic majesty was intense and was not confined to words. Its sincerity was proved by action, and action of a most desperate kind. These three brothers, at the head of a band of desperadoes, burned the churches and monasteries and murdered their inmates. While their hands were still red with the blood of their victims, God, in a vision, gave them a glimpse of the unspeakable torments of hell, which roused them to a deep sense of their guilt, and to an earnest wish to repent.
They entered the monastery of Magh Bile, where, after expiating their crimes by a long course of penance, they resolved to make restitution, as far as possible, for the ruin they had wrought. Accordingly they set to work to restore the churches they had demolished.
While engaged on the church of St. Coman (or Cainin), at Ceann Mara, now Kinvara (a little town pleasantly situated on the Bay of Galway), they witnessed a sunset of unusual magnificence.
The bright orb, as it descended into the Atlantic, turned it into a stripe of gleaming gold. The gorgeous sight inspired the idea of an Elysium, and the enthusiastic brothers determined to go out under that distant horizon, float over those golden waters, and be near the sun as it sank into the waves.
Having fitted up a bark they set sail from Kinvara, and roamed over the mighty water for many years. In their wanderings they came upon islands teeming with nature’s richest and rarest gifts.
The Burren and Beyond 