Liz Warren | Storyteller

Two Sheela-na-gigs in Athlone Castle

             Mark and I went to Athlone Castle on Saturday, on our last full day in Athlone, to see the Sheela-na-gig. I read in Sacred Ireland by Cary Meehan that there was one there, right in my Irish backyard. Imagine our surprise when we were let into the musty, dusty museum in the castle’s round tower and found two of them. 

        The one from Athlone that I’m sitting next to has a large head, but I really can’t distinguish with any certainty much else about her. Her left arm is more distinct and the right one is either worn or otherwise damaged.  It almost looks as if her feet are at her genitals.  She was salvaged from a 12th century Cluniac Monastery in Athlone on what is now Abbey Lane.

            The other is from Rahan Church in Co. Offaly.  If you didn’t know about sheela-na-gigs you might think she was holding her knees.  Let me assure you, those are not her knees she's clutching.

3 responses to “Two Sheela-na-gigs in Athlone Castle”

  1. Liz Warren Avatar
    Liz Warren

    Lotte Motz has some interesting remarks about the Scandinavian version of “the self-exposing woman” (her term) in The Beauty and the Hag: Female Figures of Germanic Faith and Myth. She says the “exposure” is a way of bring men under control in both the Norse and the Irish tradition (the naked ladies who defused Cuchulainn’s battle frenzy for example and a Norsewoman in Eiríks saga rauða who scared away a whole band of Skrellings — Native Americans — by dropping her shift and slapping her own pregnant breasts with a sword! But, as Þórr once demonstrated, males could respond effectively with a well-thrown rock. (There’s a similar episode involving Cuchulainn)

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  2. Harriet Cole Avatar
    Harriet Cole

    (Actually, the post above was not made by Liz Warren. It was made by Harriet Cole who was using the computer in Liz Warren’s office and who did not realize that Liz was the default)

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  3. Liz Avatar
    Liz

    OMG! Harriet, I should have known that you would know something about this. So, the fact that they are often above the doorways in churches?? What do you think? Calming everyone’s warrior spirit before they enter holy ground?
    Liz

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