Boa Island figures
| The Boa Island figures | |
|---|---|
 The Boa Island figures | |
| Size | Lustymore 70 cm (28 in) |
The Boa Island figures are two stone idols in the Caldragh graveyard on Boa Island, located near the north shore of Lower Lough Erne in County Fermanagh, Northern Ireland. They are assumed to date from the Irish Iron Age period and consist of contains two anthropomorphic carved stone statues known as the Lustymore and Dreenan figures.[1]
They are today placed beside each other in Caldragh graveyard, which itself dates from the early Irish Christian period (400–800 AD).[2]. Although both figures are badly damaged from wear, the Dreenan figure is in especially poor condition.[3] Both figures are generally accepted to be the likeness of pagan deities, although which ones has not been established.[2]
Description
Lustyman figure
.jpg)
The Janus (two headed) sculpture, known as the "Lustyman figure" is the largest of the two and regarded as one of Ireland's most enigmatic and remarkable pre-historic stone figures.[1][4] It is thought to represent a Celtic deity and could represent a Celtic goddess as readily as a god, especially given the name of the island. In Celtic mythology, heads were given great importance as they were thought to contain a person's spirit, and severed heads were sometimes taken in triumph after battles.[2]
The figure measures 73 cm (29 in) high and 45 cm (18 in) wide.[3] Each side has a face and torso. On the sides of the stone where the two carved figures are joined, there is an interlacing design that may represent hair. The faces are large and oval, with big eyes, straight noses, and half-open mouths with protruding tongues above pointed chins. The figure has no neck, with its head resting directly on its torso. The torso is a square block with hunched shoulders, crossed arms, and a belt.[2][1] The figure ends just below its waist.[3] The lower section of the figure—two hands with elongated fingers carved in relief—was broken away from the top part at an unknown time in the past. This base was recently discovered half-buried in the ground close to the figure.[1]
Dreenan figure
.jpg)
The much smaller and very worn Dreenan figure is placed in the graveyard with its back to the Janus figure. Its facial features lack the detail of the Lustyman figure, and it is overall less visually impressive than the Dreenan figure.[1][3] It is, however, thought to be older than the Lustyman idol, which is less worn.
Origin and dating
The reasons for creating these stone sculptures and the dates of their creation are not certain. They may have been part of pre-Christian religious sites, or they may have been made by early Christians who included older pagan beliefs in their grave sites.[2]
The Dreenan figure is often compared to the two-faced Holzgerlingen figure, Germany, and the Tandragee Idol in St. Patrick's Church of Ireland Cathedral, Armagh.[3][5] These comparisons suggest that the figure dates to the Iron Age. However early Christian sites around Lough Erne are rich in these types of figures.[2] An example is the White Island collection of figures found 3 miles (4.8 km) south-east of Boa Island,[1] which are primitive looking, but date from the early Christian period.[6]
The Nobel Prize winning poet Seamus Heaney celebrated the enigmatic Boa Island bilateral figure's similarity to the Roman deity Janus in his poem "January God".[7] The Enniskillen-born poet Francis Harvey published a collection of poems called The Boa Island Janus in 1996.[8] Similar statues appear outside the cave of Crom Cruach in The Secret of Kells.
References
- ^ a b c d e f Halpin, Andy; Conor Newman (2006). Ireland: An Oxford Archaeological Guide to Sites from Earliest Times to AD 1600. Oxford University Press. p. 157. ISBN 0-19-288057-8.
- ^ a b c d e f The Chrono Centre, Queen's University Belfast. "Boa Island – Carved figures – Lower Lough Erne". Archived from the original on 18 July 2011. Retrieved 24 November 2007.
- ^ a b c d e O'Kelly, Michael J. (1989). Early Ireland: An Introduction to Irish Prehistory. Cambridge University Press. p. 292. ISBN 0-521-33687-2.
- ^ "Boa Island". Tuatha, 8 June 2022. Retrieved 12 July 2025
- ^ The Chrono Centre, Queen's University Belfast. "The Tanderagee Idol". Archived from the original on 15 September 2008. Retrieved 24 November 2007.
- ^ Herity (1996), p. 253
- ^ McKee, Linda (17 April 2007). "Fury over plan to relocate historic statue". Belfast Telegraph. Archived from the original on 22 April 2007. Retrieved 24 November 2007.
- ^ Irish Writers Online. "Francis Harvey". Archived from the original on 21 October 2007. Retrieved 24 November 2007.
Sources
- Eogan, George; Herity, Michael. Ireland in Prehistory. London: Routledge, 2013. ISBN 978-1-3158-8762-3
- Lowry-Corry, Dorothy. "The Stones Carved with Human Effigies on Boa Island and on Lustymore Island, in Lower Lough Erne". Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy: Archaeology, Culture, History, Literature, volume 41, 1932. JSTOR 25515968
- Ó Hogain, Dáithí. "Patronage & Devotion in Ancient Irish Religion". History Ireland, volume 8, no. 4, winter 2000. JSTOR 27724824
- Rynne, Etienn. "Celtic Stone Idols in Ireland". In: Thomas, Charles. The Iron Age in the Irish Sea province: papers given at a C.B.A. conference held at Cardiff, January 3 to 5, 1969. London: Council for British Archaeology, 1972
- Waddell, John. The Prehistoric Archaeology of Ireland. Galway: Galway University Press, 1998. ISBN 978-1-8698-5739-4
- Warner, Richard. "Two pagan idols – remarkable new discoveries". Archaeology Ireland, volume 17, no. 1, 2003