The Miracle of Newgrange

The triskelion on a standing stone at Newgrange

George Russell, an Irish poet and artist who went by the pseudonym Æ (often written AE or A.E.) wrote, in 1897 – The Dream of Angus Oge. It included this passage - ‘As he spoke he paused before a great mound grown over with trees, and around it silver clear in the moonlight were immense stones piled, the remains of an original circle, and there was a dark, low, narrow entrance leading within -  He took Con by the hand and in an instant they were standing in a lofty cross-shaped cave, built roughly of huge stones. “This was my palace. In days past many a one here plucked the purple flower of magic and the fruit of the tree of life”.....And even as he spoke a light began to glow and to pervade the cave, and to obliterate the stone walls, and the antique hieroglyphics engraven thereon, and to melt the earthen floor into itself like a fiery sun suddenly uprisen within the world, and there was everywhere a wandering ecstasy of sound; light and sound were one; light had a voice… “I am Angus, men call me Young. I am the sunlight in the heart, in the moonlight, in the mind; I am the light at the end of every dream...I will make you immortal; for my palace opens into the Garden of the Sun”.

The secret of the magical light of the great mound of Newgrange, was lost for over five thousand years and not rediscovered until the 1960s. But the legend of the light had passed down through the millenia so that Æ was still able to visualise it at the dawn of the 20th century! Just as remarkable is the fact that the light of the rising sun on the winter solstice was focused through a specially made and highly decorated opening which used quartz blocks to narrow the sunbeam to a fraction, thus creating the earliest known example of a 'camera obscura', which is the precursor of the modern camera.

The Wild Geese Historical Society of Czechia will be presenting 'The Miracle of Newgrange' in its favourite nesting place, the Three Fiddles Irish Bar starting at 17.00 (CET) on Saturday, 20 December. While there is no charge for participants we will need to know numbers interested so that we can accommodate you. Please reply to info@wildgeese.cz by 18 December.

—Seán O'Sullivan, November 2025