St. Conaire’s Day, January 28th 2025

St. Conaire

The story of St. Conaire is closely linked with the general area surrounding modern Shannon.  Our school is just one of the locations associated with Conaire, a woman who lived over fifteen centuries ago.  The church at Carrygerry in Newmarket-on-Fergus parish is called St. Conaire’s Church.  This is located close to the ancient Kilconry Church (Cill Chonaire) which is named after our patron saint.

The school’s original name was Shannon Airport No. 3.  This was changed to St. Conaire’s National School in order to link it to the rich traditions of the school’s hinterland.  God was believed to have come to Conaire in a dream and brought to her a vision of Scattery Island which is located in the Shannon Estuary.  Scattery Island, Inis Cathaigh in Irish, was home to a devout monk, St. Senan.

Conaire made her way to the island and was met there by a hostile St. Senan.  Thomas Moore, the 19^th century poet and songwriter, recreated the encounter between the two saints in his famous song:

“Oh!  Haste and leave this sacred isle,

Unholy bark! Ere morning smile;

For on thy deck, tho’ dark it be,

A female form I see; And I have sworn this

Sainted sod shall ne’er by woman’s feet be trod.

“Oh!  Father send not hence my bark,

Thro’ winds, and o’er billow dark;

I come, with humble heart, to share

Thy morn and evening prayer;

Nor mine the feet, oh! Holy Saint

The brightness of thy sod to taint.

“The Lady’s pray’r Senanus spurn’d;

The wind blew fresh, and the bark return’d;

But legends hint, that had the maid

Till morning’s light delay’d

And giv’n the Saint one rosy smile,

She ne’er had left his lonely isle,

And giving the Saint one rosy smile

She ne’er had left his lonely isle.”

We celebrate the feast day of St. Conaire on January 28^th every year.