I officially found two - the one in Oaksey and The Three Disgraces at Burford Church. I tried to see a third at The Cleckheaton (https://sheelanagig.org/Cleckheaton/) but the church was closed. But there was an amazing cemetery so still worth the side quest.
There are, if memory serves me (which it frequently doesn't) there are 126 Sheelas on that map, and I found that many were disappointingly on private land, accessible to the public. However, there are many I still haven't seen. I was so excited to see the two at the Cavan Museum!
They are special ladies indeed! I'm so happy you could see them. The problem with museums is there is no context. Its so much more exciting to see artefacts in their original setting. But so frustrating when so many are on private land with no access.
I think I challenge people a lot with my talk of ETs, but I am not wearing a tin foil hat. I do believe that in the next few years, I will no longer be on the fringe.
I don't know why people find it so challenging to accept that there must be other life forms somewhere out there in this great wide cosmos we are part of. I just hope they are kinder and more advanced than we are... but perhaps that's setting the bar a bit low!
I think humans are amazing, primarily because of our compassion. I also think we are awful but that it is not our nature, and something happened to make us so shitty.
For the record, and with all due respect to the woman on the video in this article, and to John Willmot, the Janus man on Boa Island is NOT a sheela. I have been to visit him twice, and he is considered much older than the sheelas. He do not have a vulva, nor breasts, nor any indication he is female.
Yes, I don't see him as a Sheela, either. He is definitely masculine, not even a hint of a vulva in sight! Also, I personally don't think the carving in general, is in line with what we see in a Sheela. I've also not heard of a Sheela with two heads/ faces. But where I do see a slight connection is with the representation of the arms, he is very much like the two wooden figures in that respect. But that would not be a strong enough connection with the Sheela to me.
I love this article, Ali! I first encountered a sheela-na-gig at Tara, next to the church there back in 2006, during my first visit to Ireland. I have been fascinated ever since. Next time I came, I found a map of where the known sheelas are in Ireland, and began searching for them. I have been a bit confused by the patriarchal views of the figures. Your views are the first to make sense. You always make me think outside the box, and I just love the way your mind works!
Hi Robin, I know the one you mean, its very, very eroded so its hard to make out what it is, but its supposed to be a sheela that was taken down from the old medieval church which was there before the existing one. They are fascinating! I think I probably have that same map you have! My views are just thoughts and speculation, but there might be a little kernel of something in it, who knows?
A fascinating read and I so agree with you that they cannot possibly be fertility/birth figures. So much discussion as to how old they are and what they were used for. In Cork there are four that seems to be slightly connected to holy wells but I think they've all been brought from somewhere else. I too think they represent the hag, and I think they have been placed (often on castles or churches) to scare the bejeesus out of the evil eye and to offer protection. All so interesting and they still invoke fear, revulsion, admiration.
Hi Amanda, happy to see you here! Yes, was just reading John's comments about the Sheelas connection with water, so its interesting to hear their placement at holy wells in Cork. What you say about warding off evil is interesting; have you ever seen the Illustration for The Devil of Pope-Fig Island, from the Fables by La Fontaine (1762) Charles-Dominique-Joseph Eisen
https://vaginamuseumshop.co.uk/products/devil-postcard ? It shows a woman scaring away the devil by lifting her skirts and showing him her vulva... very strange, but I wonder if it's connected in some way, perhaps some lore that we've forgotten about the life-giving power of women, perhaps?
I've been meaning to contribute for ages and always read your posts. I think women showing their vulvas to frighten or intimidate their enemies was a thing: anasyrma-lifting of skirts! The Greeks did it and it was meant to have a supernatural effect. And the Eisen illustration perfectly fits. I'm trying to remember a story about women standing on the cliffs somewhere in the UK and lifting their skirts to terrify the approaching fleet! Interesting isn't it :)
That's amazing, Amanda... I did not know that! The women on the cliffs makes me smile! It reminds me of the Irish warriors in the film Braveheart lifting their kilts to terrify their enemies! Yes, it's all really interesting! Thank you for sharing your knowledge here, much appreciated.
According to Wikipedia a story from The Irish Times (September 23, 1977) reported a potentially violent incident involving several men, which was averted by a woman exposing her genitals to the attackers.
PS. Forgot to mention that one of my stone mason tasks was restoring a Sheela Na Gig on the Nunnery, Iona, during the 70s, which is why Attie MacKechnie shared his 'mason's culture' wisdom about Sheelas with me then.
You have had such a varied and illustrious life, John! Not many people can say they restored a Sheela. Incidentally, when I worked for the museum, I went down to the National Museum in Dublin to trawl their archives for objects that we might request repatriation for, and they had a shelf full of Sheelas found in Cavan, just being ignored and accumulating dust. Some of them were in bits, but still. They were the first thing I saw when I walked in, I just stopped dead and stared, and the guy showing us around came over and said, oh yeah, most of them are from Cavan.
Yes, lots of sheelas around Cavan and Fermanagh seems fascinating. Maybe rooted in Lough Erne, Lough Érann, local calling of Ériu. Birthplace of Connaught?
Possible some link up, now lost, to Conneda and his golden apples, black horse, and sidhe hound from the water who’s deeds thereafter founded Connaught?
The sheela I ‘messed with was very faded. We did our best. Best part is it is still on the wall of the Nunnery.
Yes, its amazing how many tasks I have connected with, not thought of them much at the time, then some years later … “Did I really do that? Meet that personal? Did that with that person?” I have been very fortunate with many things.
Well with so many lakes, one for each day of the year allegedly, it would make sense of your water theory, wouldn't it? I'm glad your Sheela hasn't been taken down by the nuns. Great to have so many wonderful experiences and memories.💕
As usual, very thorough, thought provoking, and stretching out the possible interpretations and adding new ones. Lovely job Ali. Two main areas I have been taught in the sheela realms.
The first was a family one, and very water related. At family gatherings, that went into quite deep conversations. With ‘sheela’ chat, they would talk of water actually being the womb within where the building blocks living temples all shapes and sizes would be made and assembled, then let out to the world to do their things. Then when the living body was done, all that water then leaves the body to rejoin all other water again in some way.
So the family teaching was more about the sheela na gig being the way of the landscape. Where there is water, there is life. Where there is just ‘dust’ no life as it needs water to do the construction. They believed in a lot of human burial places being close to water was for that purpose.
Second ‘teaching’ for me was doing stone mason contracts on Iona. The supervisor, ‘Attie MacKechnie’ had a huge passion for stone mason’s heritage. To him, stone masons had their own culture. As far as he believed, all ‘sheela na gigs’ were carved by men. But I am sure we have no proof of this. To him this was a mason’s symbol of ‘you are entering into a sacred place’ and that hairless etc. was to bring full attention to the vulva. Not as a sexual communication but again related to water.
Attie believed the Medieval masons lived in constant tension with the Abbots and monastic sites people due to their constant disregard of gaelic heritage and values, of which water and heritage trees were a large part off.
So Attie believed that the old masons made up a yarn about carving sheea na gigs as ‘gargoyles’ convincing the abbots that they were for keeping away evil spirits. But the real purpose was giving the local people a shock message such as “as you enter this building you will be told about gospels, psalms, the devil, and sin … but never loose your sacred heritage of connection to the sidhe, water, and earth goddesses. Enter this place sustaining your sanctity of the watery womb and creation, while these men may attempt to purify you with their gospels.”
So though the sheelas were ‘sold’ to abbots as being a tool for keeping ‘evil sprits’ out, they may have been tools to stop ‘patriarchal’ conversions taking over the people entering these church temples?
Attie’s story is surreal, but break it down to basics, and to me it makes a lot of senses. And literally, about allow our senses to rule over language.
I can imagine that Attie is right, I can well believe that there was tension between the stone-masons and the church men, and how their story of the figures warding off evil is so plausible. But also the church had no problem with adapting so called pagan deities and symbols into Christianity if it meant increasing their flock, and so their wealth. Re the connection with water, certainly the wooden figures I mention were connected with water, both of them found in bogs and were probably originally erected overlooking bodies of water. And of course water has implications for fertility, as you say dust is just dust, all living things need water for survival, including new life in the womb. Thank you for sharing your teachings here, John. Always learning from you.
Personally, I do not think it was about ‘increasing the flock’ as the ‘peasant’, ‘heathen’ people did not have the freedoms of choice like today, without awful retribution. I think the ‘people’ did what ever their chieftains said, so the huge aim of monastic communities must have been to get chieftains on their side.
I think much of the monastic culture and community had tense relations with local chieftains, sometimes called kings, who still had some superiority over the monastic communities and certainly over what the scribes recorded at least until 12th century
These chieftains were from a legacy of gaelic past, and so were the people of their townlands that they were chiefs of. The Christian Old Testament of middle eastern stories must have seemed to be very alien to them while Ireland had is own Old Testament from its folklore and mythologies.
Though there seemed to be acceptance and wonder about the gospels back then, I feel that there was a movement to link how those teachings could be linked to and advanced from Ireland’s old legacy. Even the sculptures High crosses of 9th to 11th century feature symbols of gospels with gaelic legacy.
I believe the Chieftains of Ireland wanted to become recognised as having the same, if not higher status, to the heroes of the Old testament, especially the Israelites, so the Gaelic culture had to be part of it all to achieve that.
Maybe that is the key to why art, poetry and music sustained as the core communication in Eriu, In Ireland. I could go on for another hour or two talking about this … but I will not. :-)
So in Universe synchronicity, last month I spent part of my roadtrip through the English country side stopping for (or sometimes going way off the highway into into small villages) for Sheilas. The best example I found was outside of a church in Oaksey. You wouldn't know it was there if you weren't looking for it. I love that these can be so mundane. https://sheelanagig.org/Oaksey/
That Sheela is mighty, Liz! Thank you for sharing her with us. What a fab quest for a road trip, searching for Sheelas! How many did you find? Yes, they are often placed in odd places, aren't they... hiding in plain sight, is how I think of it.
As for the question of whether the sheelas are goddess or woman, in a class I took about Celtic mythology recently, I learned Rhiannon is both goddess and human mother. She is treated literally as the beast of burden for her "sins" (she is framed for the murder of her son), begging the question of what happens to the gods when they get embroiled in human affairs.
But, it also for me makes me wonder if there are not Gods who intervened in our affairs, but others from elsewhere in the Cosmos with more knowledge, compassion, and love for us. My classmates who were oh-so-much-smarter than I am rolled their eyes at this theory, but a true God would be impervious to harm.
"Science has made us one-dimensional, where embodiment feels like imprisonment."
This is brilliant. What is the point of seeking meaning if there is none in the universe? That is nonsense.
Hi Whitney. I guess your class mates were not that smart if they didn't have an open mind. Nothing is new, its just that we see things from a different perspective which makes things seem new, or newly discovered, and that comes from having an open and curious mind... which they were lacking, it seems! In the old Irish stories, the Gods, if that's what they were, often interfered with the mortals, inter-married, inter-bred, but also sometimes helped out with battles and such like. I'd say they had love and compassion. Sometimes. But they were not impervious from harm... although they were considered immortal, they could still die from a battle wound, or from sickness, they were just longer-lived than the mortals. It's all very confusing...
I officially found two - the one in Oaksey and The Three Disgraces at Burford Church. I tried to see a third at The Cleckheaton (https://sheelanagig.org/Cleckheaton/) but the church was closed. But there was an amazing cemetery so still worth the side quest.
Yes, I reckon that's the same sort of thing!
There are, if memory serves me (which it frequently doesn't) there are 126 Sheelas on that map, and I found that many were disappointingly on private land, accessible to the public. However, there are many I still haven't seen. I was so excited to see the two at the Cavan Museum!
They are special ladies indeed! I'm so happy you could see them. The problem with museums is there is no context. Its so much more exciting to see artefacts in their original setting. But so frustrating when so many are on private land with no access.
Yes, that one has been touched by so many women who desire to be pregnant that it is hard to see.
Oh... that sounds kind of sad.
https://sheelanagig.org/iona/
Ah... she is very weathered, isn't she, but she's still there 💕
I think I challenge people a lot with my talk of ETs, but I am not wearing a tin foil hat. I do believe that in the next few years, I will no longer be on the fringe.
I don't know why people find it so challenging to accept that there must be other life forms somewhere out there in this great wide cosmos we are part of. I just hope they are kinder and more advanced than we are... but perhaps that's setting the bar a bit low!
I think humans are amazing, primarily because of our compassion. I also think we are awful but that it is not our nature, and something happened to make us so shitty.
For the record, and with all due respect to the woman on the video in this article, and to John Willmot, the Janus man on Boa Island is NOT a sheela. I have been to visit him twice, and he is considered much older than the sheelas. He do not have a vulva, nor breasts, nor any indication he is female.
Yes, I don't see him as a Sheela, either. He is definitely masculine, not even a hint of a vulva in sight! Also, I personally don't think the carving in general, is in line with what we see in a Sheela. I've also not heard of a Sheela with two heads/ faces. But where I do see a slight connection is with the representation of the arms, he is very much like the two wooden figures in that respect. But that would not be a strong enough connection with the Sheela to me.
I love this article, Ali! I first encountered a sheela-na-gig at Tara, next to the church there back in 2006, during my first visit to Ireland. I have been fascinated ever since. Next time I came, I found a map of where the known sheelas are in Ireland, and began searching for them. I have been a bit confused by the patriarchal views of the figures. Your views are the first to make sense. You always make me think outside the box, and I just love the way your mind works!
Hi Robin, I know the one you mean, its very, very eroded so its hard to make out what it is, but its supposed to be a sheela that was taken down from the old medieval church which was there before the existing one. They are fascinating! I think I probably have that same map you have! My views are just thoughts and speculation, but there might be a little kernel of something in it, who knows?
Excellent observations!
A fascinating read and I so agree with you that they cannot possibly be fertility/birth figures. So much discussion as to how old they are and what they were used for. In Cork there are four that seems to be slightly connected to holy wells but I think they've all been brought from somewhere else. I too think they represent the hag, and I think they have been placed (often on castles or churches) to scare the bejeesus out of the evil eye and to offer protection. All so interesting and they still invoke fear, revulsion, admiration.
Hi Amanda, happy to see you here! Yes, was just reading John's comments about the Sheelas connection with water, so its interesting to hear their placement at holy wells in Cork. What you say about warding off evil is interesting; have you ever seen the Illustration for The Devil of Pope-Fig Island, from the Fables by La Fontaine (1762) Charles-Dominique-Joseph Eisen
https://vaginamuseumshop.co.uk/products/devil-postcard ? It shows a woman scaring away the devil by lifting her skirts and showing him her vulva... very strange, but I wonder if it's connected in some way, perhaps some lore that we've forgotten about the life-giving power of women, perhaps?
I've been meaning to contribute for ages and always read your posts. I think women showing their vulvas to frighten or intimidate their enemies was a thing: anasyrma-lifting of skirts! The Greeks did it and it was meant to have a supernatural effect. And the Eisen illustration perfectly fits. I'm trying to remember a story about women standing on the cliffs somewhere in the UK and lifting their skirts to terrify the approaching fleet! Interesting isn't it :)
That's amazing, Amanda... I did not know that! The women on the cliffs makes me smile! It reminds me of the Irish warriors in the film Braveheart lifting their kilts to terrify their enemies! Yes, it's all really interesting! Thank you for sharing your knowledge here, much appreciated.
According to Wikipedia a story from The Irish Times (September 23, 1977) reported a potentially violent incident involving several men, which was averted by a woman exposing her genitals to the attackers.
🤣🤣🤣
Brilliant! Well, I'm sure it would be distracting, if nothing else!
PS. Forgot to mention that one of my stone mason tasks was restoring a Sheela Na Gig on the Nunnery, Iona, during the 70s, which is why Attie MacKechnie shared his 'mason's culture' wisdom about Sheelas with me then.
You have had such a varied and illustrious life, John! Not many people can say they restored a Sheela. Incidentally, when I worked for the museum, I went down to the National Museum in Dublin to trawl their archives for objects that we might request repatriation for, and they had a shelf full of Sheelas found in Cavan, just being ignored and accumulating dust. Some of them were in bits, but still. They were the first thing I saw when I walked in, I just stopped dead and stared, and the guy showing us around came over and said, oh yeah, most of them are from Cavan.
Yes, lots of sheelas around Cavan and Fermanagh seems fascinating. Maybe rooted in Lough Erne, Lough Érann, local calling of Ériu. Birthplace of Connaught?
Possible some link up, now lost, to Conneda and his golden apples, black horse, and sidhe hound from the water who’s deeds thereafter founded Connaught?
The sheela I ‘messed with was very faded. We did our best. Best part is it is still on the wall of the Nunnery.
Yes, its amazing how many tasks I have connected with, not thought of them much at the time, then some years later … “Did I really do that? Meet that personal? Did that with that person?” I have been very fortunate with many things.
Well with so many lakes, one for each day of the year allegedly, it would make sense of your water theory, wouldn't it? I'm glad your Sheela hasn't been taken down by the nuns. Great to have so many wonderful experiences and memories.💕
As usual, very thorough, thought provoking, and stretching out the possible interpretations and adding new ones. Lovely job Ali. Two main areas I have been taught in the sheela realms.
The first was a family one, and very water related. At family gatherings, that went into quite deep conversations. With ‘sheela’ chat, they would talk of water actually being the womb within where the building blocks living temples all shapes and sizes would be made and assembled, then let out to the world to do their things. Then when the living body was done, all that water then leaves the body to rejoin all other water again in some way.
So the family teaching was more about the sheela na gig being the way of the landscape. Where there is water, there is life. Where there is just ‘dust’ no life as it needs water to do the construction. They believed in a lot of human burial places being close to water was for that purpose.
Second ‘teaching’ for me was doing stone mason contracts on Iona. The supervisor, ‘Attie MacKechnie’ had a huge passion for stone mason’s heritage. To him, stone masons had their own culture. As far as he believed, all ‘sheela na gigs’ were carved by men. But I am sure we have no proof of this. To him this was a mason’s symbol of ‘you are entering into a sacred place’ and that hairless etc. was to bring full attention to the vulva. Not as a sexual communication but again related to water.
Attie believed the Medieval masons lived in constant tension with the Abbots and monastic sites people due to their constant disregard of gaelic heritage and values, of which water and heritage trees were a large part off.
So Attie believed that the old masons made up a yarn about carving sheea na gigs as ‘gargoyles’ convincing the abbots that they were for keeping away evil spirits. But the real purpose was giving the local people a shock message such as “as you enter this building you will be told about gospels, psalms, the devil, and sin … but never loose your sacred heritage of connection to the sidhe, water, and earth goddesses. Enter this place sustaining your sanctity of the watery womb and creation, while these men may attempt to purify you with their gospels.”
So though the sheelas were ‘sold’ to abbots as being a tool for keeping ‘evil sprits’ out, they may have been tools to stop ‘patriarchal’ conversions taking over the people entering these church temples?
Attie’s story is surreal, but break it down to basics, and to me it makes a lot of senses. And literally, about allow our senses to rule over language.
John, thanks so much for cross-posting, I just realised! You are so kind! 😍
Pleasure. Sometime what you write is so essential for the thread I am trying to sustain. So thank you for compiling that.
Well, you are very kind and so supportive of my work, I really appreciate that. Also, I consider myself lucky to be able to learn from a master. 😊
I can imagine that Attie is right, I can well believe that there was tension between the stone-masons and the church men, and how their story of the figures warding off evil is so plausible. But also the church had no problem with adapting so called pagan deities and symbols into Christianity if it meant increasing their flock, and so their wealth. Re the connection with water, certainly the wooden figures I mention were connected with water, both of them found in bogs and were probably originally erected overlooking bodies of water. And of course water has implications for fertility, as you say dust is just dust, all living things need water for survival, including new life in the womb. Thank you for sharing your teachings here, John. Always learning from you.
Personally, I do not think it was about ‘increasing the flock’ as the ‘peasant’, ‘heathen’ people did not have the freedoms of choice like today, without awful retribution. I think the ‘people’ did what ever their chieftains said, so the huge aim of monastic communities must have been to get chieftains on their side.
I think much of the monastic culture and community had tense relations with local chieftains, sometimes called kings, who still had some superiority over the monastic communities and certainly over what the scribes recorded at least until 12th century
These chieftains were from a legacy of gaelic past, and so were the people of their townlands that they were chiefs of. The Christian Old Testament of middle eastern stories must have seemed to be very alien to them while Ireland had is own Old Testament from its folklore and mythologies.
Though there seemed to be acceptance and wonder about the gospels back then, I feel that there was a movement to link how those teachings could be linked to and advanced from Ireland’s old legacy. Even the sculptures High crosses of 9th to 11th century feature symbols of gospels with gaelic legacy.
I believe the Chieftains of Ireland wanted to become recognised as having the same, if not higher status, to the heroes of the Old testament, especially the Israelites, so the Gaelic culture had to be part of it all to achieve that.
Maybe that is the key to why art, poetry and music sustained as the core communication in Eriu, In Ireland. I could go on for another hour or two talking about this … but I will not. :-)
So in Universe synchronicity, last month I spent part of my roadtrip through the English country side stopping for (or sometimes going way off the highway into into small villages) for Sheilas. The best example I found was outside of a church in Oaksey. You wouldn't know it was there if you weren't looking for it. I love that these can be so mundane. https://sheelanagig.org/Oaksey/
That Sheela is mighty, Liz! Thank you for sharing her with us. What a fab quest for a road trip, searching for Sheelas! How many did you find? Yes, they are often placed in odd places, aren't they... hiding in plain sight, is how I think of it.
I loved this, Ali.
As for the question of whether the sheelas are goddess or woman, in a class I took about Celtic mythology recently, I learned Rhiannon is both goddess and human mother. She is treated literally as the beast of burden for her "sins" (she is framed for the murder of her son), begging the question of what happens to the gods when they get embroiled in human affairs.
But, it also for me makes me wonder if there are not Gods who intervened in our affairs, but others from elsewhere in the Cosmos with more knowledge, compassion, and love for us. My classmates who were oh-so-much-smarter than I am rolled their eyes at this theory, but a true God would be impervious to harm.
"Science has made us one-dimensional, where embodiment feels like imprisonment."
This is brilliant. What is the point of seeking meaning if there is none in the universe? That is nonsense.
Hi Whitney. I guess your class mates were not that smart if they didn't have an open mind. Nothing is new, its just that we see things from a different perspective which makes things seem new, or newly discovered, and that comes from having an open and curious mind... which they were lacking, it seems! In the old Irish stories, the Gods, if that's what they were, often interfered with the mortals, inter-married, inter-bred, but also sometimes helped out with battles and such like. I'd say they had love and compassion. Sometimes. But they were not impervious from harm... although they were considered immortal, they could still die from a battle wound, or from sickness, they were just longer-lived than the mortals. It's all very confusing...