The Curse of St. Munchin
Not since the appearance of a stain resembling Jesus Christ on the wall of a pub in Wolfe Tone St. (some time ago) has the Limerick Leader delved into the world of supernatural simulacra. With Munster Mania now gripping an expectant and delirious city ahead of tomorrow's Heineken Cup Final, however, signs, portents and good or ill omens are being seen everywhere.
A glance at the front page of this week's paper, for example, reveals the tasty headline "Is it God or St Munchin?" below a picture of Thomond Bridge and its environs. As the Leader explains:
Amateur city photographer; Martin Moran dramatically captured what he believes is the vision of God overlooking the city and Thomond Park before Saturday's match which points towards a Munster success. However, pessimists believe that the face formed by the clouds over one of the city’s oldest churches is not a good omen as it is claimed to be the centuries old curse of St. Munchin forecasting gloom for the outcome of the clash against Biarritz.
Even though spotting meaningful shapes in clouds is an age-old human pastime, the 'face' in question requires a certain amount of squinting to pick out in the image printed (and you'd need startling acuity of vision to identify it in the scanned image above).
For those non-Limerickians who may currently be crying "Who’s this St. Munchin character, and what's all this business about a curse?", a few words of explanation may be required. First of all, the name by which he's known is merely a nickname, deriving from the Irish word for 'monk' (manach) and the diminutive 'ín' – thus making him St. "Little Monk".
The Limerick Diocese Heritage website has this to say about the wee fella:
St Munchin is the patron of the Diocese of Limerick and his feastday is celebrated on January 3rd. He founded a church called Cill Mainchín on Inis Sibhton. Details about the life of St Munchin are shrouded in legends but it is believed that he lived in the second half of the 7th century.
The Leader gives us the good stuff on the curse.
His curse is at the core of local folklore. Yet most people seem to be vague about the precise circumstances in which it was uttered. That is scarcely surprising considering that it occurred some 1500 or so years ago.
The incident is highlighted in a new and authoritative book, "Irish Saints" by Padraic O'Farrell (Gill and Macmillan 6.50). Indeed, the curse takes up almost all of the chapter devoted to the reputedly vengeful Limerickman.
O'Farrell records: "St Munchin was supervising the building of his church. Workmen trying to raise an enormous stone were finding the job difficult and the saint called on some locals to help They refused.
"Then some strangers happened to be passing and Munchin put the request to them. They were delighted to oblige and soon the great stone was in place. The saint cursed the locals."
Among the things he called them — according to O'Farrell, citing his source as Michael Hogan, Bard of Thomond– were "worthless and weak rogues" and "graceless and lazy caubogues (clodhoppers). And he damned them to suffer murderous taxes, robbery, ruction and jobbery; and, feasting on each other's bad luck, to flock to the poor house like crows. And their commerce, he thundered, would become "an abortion."
Yikes. Nasty temper on him that Manachín. At least Biddy Early (demonised by the church as a witch, but gloriously restored to the position of "wise woman" by Eddie Lenihan's marvellous collection Meeting the Other Crowd) only put the kibosh on the Clare Hurling team, rather than dooming an entire community to penury and ruin.
Even if the bould saint has returned to spread misery on the people of Limerick it's unlikely his reach extends to Cardiff…or at least we hope not. One way or the other, by tomorrow evening we'll have a clearer idea of what this all portends.
Keep watching the clouds…
[tags]Munster, Rugby, Thomond, Munchin, Curse, Heineken Cup, Cardiff, Limerick[/tags]
May 19, 2006
10 responses to The Curse of St. Munchin
I like the way that the Leader asks, “Is it God or St Munchin?”, not even considering the third option that it could be, well, just a cloud.
It is obviously god, he wants to get in early so he’ll get a good seat to watch Paul O’Connell
Hullo and welcome back.
I’m not so sure about this Munchkin chap but I do like the picture of Mr Moran and the unnamed local lad. His son? It must be – look at the pride on that face.
Particularly interesting is the tell tale camera strap around Martin’s neck indicating that he is indeed a photographer.
Tis good to be back.
The lad in question is indeed his son, and it was he who first spotted the ‘face’ glaring (or beaming?) down on the city.
As for God wanting to watch Paul O’Connell…what’s he doing hovering over Thomond Park? He needs to get his divine ass over to Wales post-haste. Although, having said that, you could probably see Paul O’C from a few hundred miles away. He’s hard to miss.
Ah, he was just checking to make sure everything was in order before he headed across the water.
Can’t be everywhere at once now can… Oh yeah. God.
It’s all bollocks. It’s quite obvious that the Invisible Man and the 50 Foot Woman mated and produced offspring. And the picture captures the child playing hulahoop in Thomondgate.
Biddy Early also makes an appearance in the Leaving Cert Irish Oral Sliocht section. The only thing I can remember of that was the mention of, what was translated to become, “elf-child.”
Can I just add, in a quite drunken manner, “GHHWAHHHNNNNNNN MUNNNSTERRR!!!”
Limerick has gone a bit nuts.
my surname is munchin.
My suname isn’t, sadly. “Simone Munchin”: great name…I wish it were mine.