Olof Gill
Bonfires are frowned upon in this day and age. Considered to be an environmental hazard and a contributing factor to global warming, the once-common sight of fires in rural Ireland is now mostly a thing of the past.
Some fires, however, are slow to die. The tradition of lighting a bonfire on St John’s Night, which falls on June 23 annually, is still maintained scrupulously across County Mayo. In some cases, a large communal bonfire is lit in the centre of a village or town, while in other places each household will have their own blaze.
The large communal fires of St John’s Eve were carefully tended so they would burn brightly long into the night. Experts at Ballintubber Abbey explained to The Mayo News that in pre-Christian times, the summer solstice celebrated the feast of the Oak King. The sun was a potent symbol in pagan mythology, and the power of the sun was its greatest at this time of year. Sacrifices were offered to the Sun God on the day of the summer solstice – these were sometimes human sacrifices – most probably on an altar or in a stone circle. Oak was often burned in honour of the Oak King.
The coals from the oak fire were then thrown to the fields to make them fertile. This tradition is still carried out in parts of Mayo to today. With the dawn of the Christian era, the night was incorporated as a celebration of St John the Baptist.
Bridget Haggerty’s story, ‘St John’s eve in Old Ireland’ gave this fascinating account of how the ritual was performed in Mayo in earlier times. “It was reported that John Millington Synge and his friend, Jack B Yeats attended a St John’s Eve celebration on a visit to County Mayo in 1905.
“At first, they had been saddened by the depressed state of the area, but then Synge is quoted as saying: ‘...the impression one gets of the whole life is not a gloomy one. Last night was St John’s Eve, and bonfires – a relic of Druidical rites – were lighted all over the country, the largest of all being in the town square of Belmullet, where a crowd of small boys shrieked and cheered and threw up firebrands for hours together.’ Yeats remembered a little girl in the crowd, in an ecstasy of pleasure and dread, clutching Synge by the hand and standing close in his shadow until the fiery games were over.”
The bonfires are perhaps best enjoyed along the Mayo coastline, where the sight of the orange blazes dotting the shorelines at dusk is particularly beautiful. Different communities can observe, from a distance, the fires as they appear across the waters. The inhabitants of Curraun, for example, have a direct view across the outer reaches of Clew Bay to the north side of Clare Island, and every year without fail (weather permitting, of course) both communities observe each other’s bonfires burning late into the night.
For this one unique occasion, the powers-that-be are willing to turn a blind eye. Speaking to The Mayo News, a representative from Mayo County Council explained that bonfire night is ‘a strong tradition in County Mayo’ and that the Council is willing to ‘ignore these fires,’ provided that they don’t feature the burning of tyres or other noxious materials. If the Council does receive complaints about fires causing air pollution, substantial fines can be imposed.
