SHIPS AND SHIPPINGcontinental carvings. Later examples found in secular
contexts on town walls and tower houses may have
functioned as protective carvings. The change in mean-
ing, from figure of lust to protective icon may have
arisen as a result of Gaelic cultural resurgence during
the later Middle Ages. Elements of ancient pre-Christian
beliefs were embedded within Irish concepts of lord-
ship. The land was a female entity to which the lord
was wedded metaphorically and therefore responsible
for its protection, wealth, and fecundity. These beliefs
found reinforcement in the Irish literary tradition that
included ancient epic mythological tales featuring
female characters such as Queen Medb, who are liter-
ary versions of the ancient earth goddess. Sheela-na-gig
supplied a readymade visual image that could be
expropriated and displayed on a lord’s residence to
provide validation of his role and status. Medieval
lords who displayed sheela-na-gigsin secular contexts
included Ua Briain (O’Brien) and Ua Máelsechnaill
(O’Melaghlin), who were the descendants of Irish high-
kings, while others such as Butler and Fitzmauricewere
of Anglo-Norman stock.
EAMONP. KELLY
References and Further Reading
Guest, E. “Irish Sheela-na-gigs in 1935.” The Journal of the
Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland, Dublin, 66 (1936),
107–129.
Kelly, Eamonn P., Sheela-na-gigs: Origins and Functions
(Dublin,1996).
McMahon, Joanne, and Jack Roberts. The Sheela-na-gigs of
Ireland & Britain: The Divine Hag of the Christian Celts:
An Illustrated Guide. Cork: Mercier Press, 2001.
Weir, Anthony. Images of Lust: Sexual Carvings on Medieval
churches. (London :Routledge, 1999).
See alsoArchitecture; Castles; Ecclesiastical Sites;
Iconography; Parish Churches and Cathedrals;
Pre-Christian Ireland; Sculpture; Tower Houses;
Wall Paintings; Women
SHIPS AND SHIPPING
As an island, Ireland has a history of boats stretching
back into prehistory. The National Museum of Ireland’s
dug-out canoe from Lurgan, County Galway dating
to about 2200 B.C.E. is one of the oldest specimens
known and the Museum’s beautiful gold model boat
found at Broighter, County Derry, has been assigned
to the first century B.C.E. It appears to be a model of
a wooden ocean-going vessel rather than a skin-covered
one and has eight seats, sixteen oars complete with
rowlocks, a central mast with crossbeam, and a steer-
ing oar.
The Irish geographer Dicuil, who recorded in the
early ninth century voyages made a century earlier by
Irish monks to the northern islands, described long sea
voyages in ships out of sight of land. Several types of
boats are described in Adomnán’s Life of St. Columba
written in the island monastery of Iona about 700,
including the curach (curucus) made of hides sewn
together over a wooden framework. These were light,
portable, and seaworthy. The larger of them were fitted
with a sail that hung from a yard, which was raised
and lowered using ropes. Adomnán also mentions
building a “long ship” (longa navis)from pine and oak
timbers that were partly prepared before being
brought to Iona by land and sea. He reports numerous
boat trips made from Derry to Britain, and from Gaul
to Iona, and from Gaul to Britain. Generally the voy-
ages were under sail but sometimes the sailors were
forced to row. The relationship of the early medieval
monks with the sea is best reflected in the Voyage of
St. Brendan (Nauigatio Sancti Brendani), which is
Ireland’s most popular contribution to medieval lit-
erature, composed about a century after Adomnán’s
Life of Columba.
According to Scandinavian archaeologists the first
Viking attacks were probably launched in ships of the
Oseberg type. This restored ship, originally built about
800, is seventy-five feet long with a mast and sail and
could be rowed by thirty men. A century later, when
the Gokstad ship was used as a burial, Viking vessels
were more seaworthy for longer voyages under sail or
oars. They were clinker built in a shell of overlapping
planks nailed to the keel and stems and strengthened
and stabilised by ribs and crossbeams. The sailing rig
was one square sail on a central mast, and the ship was
guided by a steering oar or side rudder. Ship timbers
found in the Dublin excavations—keels, stems, plank-
ing, and framing—are examples close to the Gokstad
ship, indicating that shipbuilding in Dublin, up to the
middle of the twelfth century, was in the mainstream
Viking tradition. These ships were the key to the Viking
success; fast on the water, they were easily beachedRichard II sails from Ireland from Histoire du Roy
d’Angleterre Richard II. ©The British Library