Mass Rock
During the Penal days the faith of the population of Ireland was
put to the ultimate test - and survived. At that time, to openly
practise the Catholic faith was to court death. This, however, did
not discourage the population. They selected secret places hidden
in the hills, wood or valleys to gather and celerate Mass, often
despite great peril. Evidence of these terrible days lie all over
Inishowen in the form of Mass Rocks and holy wells. Several lookouts
would be positioned around the place of worship, and at the first
sign of danger the alarm would be raised. These isolated sites sometimes
witnessed cruel and vile acts perpetrated by soldiers who either
discovered the gatherings by luck or by guidance from others.
In Kinnagoe, as elsewhere, the people practised their faith at
Mass and the authorities let it be known that anyone prepared to
divulge the whereabouts and the time of these congregations would
receive a handsome reward. As in all times of peril and hardship
there are those who are ready to betray their beliefs and neighbours
for their own personal gain and Anne McGuire was one of them.
McGuire decided that the offer was too good to turn down, so she
met the soldiers in secret and they proposed a plan to trap the
lawbreakers. She described exactly where the Mass Rocks were in
a particular part of the hills and the next time Mass was due to
be said she arranged to hand a white linen wash on her line as a
sign to the soldiers.
When the occasion eventually arose,McGuire put out the linen as
planned and continued about her normal everyday tasks. On seeing
the prearranged signal, the soldiers set off immediately towards
the area where the Mass was supposed to be taking place, However,
as they passed close to McGuire's they noticed that it wasn't material
on a line at all but a slab of white rock beside the house, Thinking
they had simply made a mistake they returned to barracks.
When Anne Mc Guire came home from Mass she discovered that her
linen had been turned to stone. At once she was repentant of the
evil deed she had committed and went directly to the local priest
to confess her sin. To this day the 'stone washing' can be spotted
on the face of a rock outside Carndonagh.
Many people believe that Mass Rocks, and the ground surrounding
them, were special places. To interfere with them would be to risk
disaster.
In the outskirts of Carndonagh one of the local men, Tom McAdams,
had been called out late one night to help with a cow that was having
trouble calving. On his way back home he had to pass by the site
of an old Mass Rock. At the time the men were working on building
a new road which meant that they were disturbibng the ground around
the rock itself. All of a sudden, Tom heard the sound of people
talking and as he came closer to the Mass Rock he saw a large crowd
had gathered. Thinking that something was amiss, he went closer
to investigate and realised that he recognised some of the faces.
Strangely, this did not reassure him as he still felt something
was not quite right. Then it sudenly hit him - the people he recognised
had been dead for years!
Not wanting to interefer with the ground and whatever was happening,
Tom quietly slipped away and returned home, where he told his wife
what he had seen. She said that it was a sign from above and that
the work should be stopped. When the builders heard about the story
the next day they all agreed to down tools. The ganger wasn't too
pleased and had no option but to change the course of the proposed
road away from the Mass Rock area.
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