When you look upon his face remember the Devil’s in the detail.
While worshipping the devil, I heard a horror story from Athlone about a woman who drowned in the Shannon years ago but the town folk didn’t remember her name.
I met with some friends from Athlone on Saturday who were visiting Madrid and while showing them the beautiful Buen Retiro Park, I took them from the manmade lake and monument to Alfonso XII where Spiderman posed for photographs and people rented rowboats and I brought my friends to see the devil himself.
Lucifer the fallen angel is depicted in Buen Retiro and is an unusual angel to sculpt and is believed to be of only a few statutes dedicated to Lucifer in the world.
The statue stands at a height of 666 metres above sea level but the horror that I was told did not take place at sea and did not involve the devil but a Celtic goddess drowned in a river that took her name. Our heroine forgotten though she flows through our souls. Swimming, snorkeling, boating both big and small, jet skiing, kayaking, fishing but never catching anything, no salmon of knowledge to call my own and taking part in triathlons along the wealthy banks of my town.
Artists proposed public works for Athlone and a water god was selected and accepted but we forgot the devil in the detail. Who was the bearded man depicted at Custom House?
Was it Poseidon with his devil’s trident beside him? Was it Zeus?
Was it Thor chiselling out rock with his hammer Mjölnir?
As Climate Change activist Greta Thunberg asks us to remember Mother Nature, we forgot our own river goddess. Where is the wisdom in forgetting the source of The Shannon's mythical power?
*When the goddess Sionna traveled to Connla’s Well where nine sacred hazel trees grew and drop their fruit into the waters below. These hazelnuts contain a substance known as éigse, the spirit and inspiration of poetry, within them where the Salmon of Knowledge lived inside the well and gained intelligence from eating these nuts. Those who ate the fruit or salmon should share in this wisdom but when Sionna opened the well holding the treasure she sought without performing the proper rituals, a tumultuous wave escaped and swept Sionann away.
She drowned and her divine power dissolved into what formed the River Shannon.
The river that divides all Athlonians was forgotten when we wanted to built a statue to a river god.
The fact we knew that this shambolic statue had nothing do with Sionann or Luain.
What cents we have to invest in rock when our Celtic past is in ruin.
What history do we tell ourselves when we build roundabouts round fairy-forts?
How does The Shannon not cross our minds as time and tide goes by?
A Celtic goddess forgotten, another tragic case of heroine abuse in Athlone.
No clock can turn back this opportunity we missed nor the millenia we skipped.
When you look upon his 11-foot face, remember the devil is in the detail.
Based on a conversation in Madrid with Orla and Fiachra beside a statue to Lucifer, El Ángel Caído.
*Mythical Name Sionna explained: https://www.behindthename.com/name/shanna/comments/history
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