Lá féile Fionn Barra

It's St Finbarr's feast day today so I headed off to Gougane Barra where he founded a small ecclesiastical settlement on this little island in the lake, sometime in the 6th century. First he had to wrestle with the resident water serpent (one that escaped St Patrick obviously) and originally the whole lake was considered holy - humans and cattle regularly immersing themselves. Later a bit of the lake was walled off to make the well. St Finbarr is patron saint of Cork, famous for his beautiful hair (that's what fionn barr means) his miraculous healing (his hand literally glowed with it so he had to wear gloves) and for his general sanctity. When he died the sun didn't set for 12 days. 
Because it's such a ridiculously scenic place, its very popular for weddings and a very stylish one was going on (spot the teeny boy in the kilt plus Thomas the Tank engine lunch box). Luckily the main devotions are going on tomorrow so the two did not collide. Actually, I'm not sure it would have mattered if they did.