The Alice Stories (1) Alice goes to Ballycastle
Alice was 11 years old that summer when she went to stay in her gran’s cottage on the shores of Ballycastle bay in the beautiful Glen's of Antrim. She had stayed with gran and great uncle Barney many times before. When neighbours of gran who lived up Drumaroan saw Alice again they would smile and say she was the spit of Rose. Alice loved Ballycastle with all her heart so when her parents suggested that she and her brother Edward, who was 1 year younger, spend the summer in Ballycastle they squealed with delight.
Alice woke early that first morning in Gran’s and at first she could not remember where she was.
She thought about yesterday and their journey from Belfast to Ballycastle. The journey seemed to take forever as they made their way along the Antrim Road in Belfast on through Ballymena and then along winding roads that eventually took them to Ballycastle.
Every year when they went to Ballycastle dad would suddenly stop the car at a certain location and shout ‘first to see Fair Head’. Alice, Edward and their older sisters would cry ‘that’s not fair you are cheating’. It happened every year and this year was no different!
That day the sun was shining brightly and the view of the glen and
Fair Head was breathtaking. They wound their way around the roads that skirted Knocklayde Mountain. Sheep dotted through fields were protected by dry stone walls and cottages that were once proud family homesteads were tumbled down but even in their derelict state they were in harmony with their surroundings.
The Alice Stories (2) Alice finds her magical powers
Lying in bed Alice listened as the waves splashed against the sea wall that protected the cottage. She had no idea of the time as she had forgotten to bring her wrist watch that gran and her great uncle Barney had bought for her Christmas. Alice could hear lots of sounds: seabirds calling, lapping waves; gran working in the kitchen. These sounds along with the smell wafting from the kitchen encouraged her to jump out of bed. She threw back the beautiful quilt that gran had made from old family clothing and smiled when she looked at the yellow squares that had come from her first party dress. She quickly dressed in shorts and t-shirt and then put on her blue jelly shoes, which she could wear both in and out of the water.
Edward was already eating breakfast in the kitchen. A big pot of porridge sat on the range and bread was baking on the griddle which hung on a big hook over the open fire. Gran who was wearing a wrap-around apron smiled as she saw her. They hugged and then Alice sat down to eat a bowl of porridge.
After breakfast Alice and Edward were keen to get outside and clamber over the Pan’s Rocks. “Where’s Barney?” Alice enquired. Handing Alice a bag Gran replied “he’s fishing. Take his lunch to him the sea air always makes him hungry and he’s been away for hours”. Belfast seemed a million miles away. However, not a million miles away from where they were sitting something magical was about to happen.
Out they went in to the bright sunshine their eyes squinting in the light. They made their way across the strand and over to the rocks where Barney was fishing. Barney dressed in black trousers, black waistcoat and white shirt, sleeves rolled up to his elbows, waved at them. He took his cap of. His tanned and weathered face lit up when he saw Alice and Edward clambering towards him. They scrambled over the rocks; sometimes jumping in little rock pools and laughing when the cold water splashed and hit their pale city legs. Barney put his cap back on and pushed it to the back of his head. His large dun-speckled hands reached out and he hugged them in his arms. Even though they had devoured a large breakfast gran included some of her home made biscuits as a treat. And as they gobbled them up crumbs fell on the rocks that would later be devoured by some lucky sea bird.
Barney, who could tell the time by the suns position in the sky, asked Alice the time. He did this because he knew how much she loved the wrist watch that he and gran had bought her last Christmas. Alice said its 10.45 and 20 seconds precisely. “You sound like the
speaking clock” said Edward who was hanging upside down over a large rock pool. Barney who noticed that she was not wearing her watch was just about to ask her how she knew the exact time when the sky started to change colour. It had been a cloudless bright blue sky bathing the bay in a magical blue light. Now it swirled changing to colours of pink, gold, purple and red. Like the aurora or northern lights, colours flashed and danced across the sky. Ballycastle Bay and the Sea of Moyle were now bathed in a magical mystical light. Barney forgetting that his hat was sitting on the back of his head pushed it back even further until it fell of and in to a rock pool. Bending down to pick it up Barney saw his reflection in the pool. To his amazement he saw himself as a young boy about the same age as Edward is now. He rubbed his eyes and when he looked at his reflection again his weather beaten face stared back at him. It was then that he understood Alice had the same magical powers that he once had many years before.
‘Alice, you are not wearing your watch so how did you know the exact time?’ asked Barney. Alice who was still staring at the now diminishing swirl of lights did not break her stare ‘hem, hem, I just looked at the big clock on Fair Head’ she replied. And that was the confirmation that Barney needed.
His great niece Alice had magical powers. She was the one. There was a time when he could also tell the time by the clock on Fair Head but that was a long time ago. Now when he looked up he saw the same circular clock face, that is there for anyone to see, with its hands permanently set at five minutes passed ten. Alice looked over her right shoulder and pointed up to the clock face but to her
amazement there was no numbers on the dial and the hands set as she had always remembered them to be.
The Alice Stories Part 3 the priest's head & Children of Lir
The Priest’s head is carved on an outcrop of rocks situated at the end of the strand. The rocks leading up to the edge were flattened many years ago. Gran had told them that there was an old infirmary in the area where people used to come to Ballycastle for salt baths (part of the infirmary wall still stands today). The Priest’s head was there as long as she could remember.
Alice skipped out over the rock and shouted to the Priest’s head 'good to see you wouldn’t want to be you!' She had shouted this greeting to him ever since she was a little girl and had always made a point of visiting him at the earliest opportunity. She thought he looked sad and as always wondered how he had got there.
As Alice turned around to look down in to the devils churn a huge pump of water (just like a geyser) shot out. Alice, Edward and Barney screamed with laughter as the water cascaded around them. Now it was not just Barney’s cap that was wet! Barney and Edward started to make their way home to get changed. Alice was about to follow them when a strange voice called out 'Hi Alice!' Alice turned to see who was calling to her and to her amazement she realised that the voice was coming from the Priest’s head. Rubbing her eyes with scrunched up fists Alice looked again in disbelief at the animated face in the rock. 'Don’t be afraid Alice' said the Priest’s head. His voice soft and gentle continued 'you are the first person I have spoken to since B… since someone a long time ago'. Alice stared at him. She still really could not take it in. By now Barney and Edward were well out of ear shot. 'How do you know my name?' asked Alice. 'I have always known your name, ever since you first came to the rocks. You were always the one to call out to me and even though you could not hear me I would always call back'. 'I don’t understand, why, how can I hear you now' asked Alice. 'Because you have magical powers Alice' he replied. 'No, no I don’t' cried Alice. 'Well said the Priest’s Head how were you able to tell Barney the exact time and remember you are not wearing your wrist watch' Alice gasped 'how do you know that, how, how' she cried. 'Alice, can you tell the time now please?' Alice looked up toward the clock face on Fair Head. 'It’s, it’s hem, it’s…' And at that moment she could hear the tick tock of the large clock and then to her amazement the hands started rotating anti-clockwise slowly at first and then so fast she could no longer see them. The Sea of Moyle started swirling and turning different colours of blue, green, purple and pink. Waves crashed along the rocks and ships long since wrecked were lifted high above their watery graves. And then just as quick as the scene had erupted Moyle became calm, very calm. Unable to comprehend what was happening Alice stared straight across to Rathlin Island or Raghery as gran and Barney called it. Then a flash of brilliant, sparkling and absolute white far out on the horizon caught her eye. At first she thought it was waves crashing on Carrick-na-Mannan but it wasn’t. The sparkling white flashes seemed to be coming closer to the rocks where she was standing. Alice realised that what she thought to be waves crashing on the rocks were in fact four beautiful, white swans. Alice had fed swans before in the Waterworks in Belfast but she had never, ever seen any as beautiful as the snow-white swans in front of her on the Sea of Moyle. They swam over as close as they could to the Priest’s head and he introduced them to Alice one by one. “Alice this is Fiachra, Fionnula, Conn and Aodh”. With one voice they chorused “Hello Alice”. “I have heard your names before” Alice replied. It suddenly dawned on her that these were no ordinary swans but the mythical Children of Lir. As she looked around to call Barney and Edward they were no where to be seen. Neither was gran’s cottage and neither was Ballycastle. The whole area above the Shore Road was covered with trees and all the while the hands on the clock were spinning. “Alice don’t be afraid, Lir’s children will not hurt you.” he said. Alice gently reached out to stroke the swans. Unlike the ones in the Waterworks they did not hiss or try to bite her. “I am hungry” said Aodh. Alice remembered that she still had some of gran’s biscuits in her pocket which she crumbled up in her hand. The swans, very gently, ate from her open hand. Alice laughed when they told her that her gran made the best biscuits in the whole world. With that the swans swam away and Alice witnessed the breathtaking site of these beautiful swans fly up and out of Moyle where they had lived for 300 years. They circled over Moyle several times and swooped down over the Margy River where they had sheltered from storms before calling out their goodbyes to Alice and the Priest’s Head. With that they were gone and as Alice turned to the face it was set as it always had been. Edward pulled on her arm and shouted “look, look what I found”. On in his hand lay a beautiful snow-white feather which he thought belonged to a seagull. A gust of wind gently lifted the feather up and out of Edward’s hand and as it was falling down again Alice gently caught it and thought she would put it in to her box of very special things.
When she showed the feather to Barney he smiled and said nothing. In fact nothing more was said about it. Later on, after dinner, Barney, Alice and Edward sat high up on Drumaroan watching the setting sun go down over Rathlin. Smoke from the cottage chimney rose high up in to the atmosphere. The warm evening air was perfumed with the heady scent of fuscia, honeysuckle and veronica. And with the swing and swirl of swift and swallows Ballycastle bay never looked as beautiful.
To say that Alice slept like a top is an understatement. However, when she woke up the next morning her mind was racing with thoughts of the Priest’s head, swans, storms and ship wrecks. Alice leapt out of bed and got washed and dressed but by the time she got down for breakfast Edward was already fed and out with Barney. Gran was brushing around the front of the cottage. The day like yesterday was bright and sunny. Alice was keen to go over to the Priest’s head to talk with him again. She wasn’t quite sure if she had dreamt it all. Eating breakfast Alice asked gran about shipwrecks and gran told her that there were lots of them out in the bay. Moyle has dangerous currents and some ships were shipwrecked in storms and some were lost in the war. “Just like Glentow and Drake” reflected Alice? Gran looked at her for a few seconds and then went on to tell Alice how she remembered bodies being washed up on the strand and how these poor souls were buried in Bonamargy. Their headstones bare the words ‘known only on to God.'Alice kissed gran and grabbing Barney’s lunch skipped out of the house. In the distance she could see Barney and Edward walking down the strand towards the big rock. Before catching up with them Alice headed to the Priest’s head. As she approached she slowed her pace and gingerly climbed up the rocks stopping short of where she knew she would make eye contact with him. Normally, as you know Alice’s first words would be “good to see you wouldn’t want to be you”. But this morning she did not say a word as she cautiously moved further up the rocks. When she looked at him part of her was relieved that he looked as he always had. But a bigger part of her was disappointed that it he was not real after all. She thought she must have dreamt it after all. Turning away to catch up with Barney and Edward, Alice made to head back down the rocks. Just as she was about to climb down the Priest called out “good to see you wouldn’t want to be you”. Alice, her eyes wide in stare, spun round and shouted “it wasn’t a dream you really are real”. The Priest started laughing and said “yes, yes I am”. He asked her what she had remembered about yesterday. Without hesitation Alice called out the names of Lir’s beautiful swans Ficra, Fionnuala, Conn and Aed. Then she named some of the ship wrecks that were raised up with the swell and swirl of Moyle.
Suddenly it dawned on her she knew the swans by name because she had read about them in school and of course because the Priest had introduced her to them but how did she know the names of all the different vessels? What must gran have been thinking when she had mentioned Glentow and Drake this morning? Any wonder she had stared at her. Alice was puzzled. How did she know the names of all these ships and although she hadn’t mentioned it she also knew the date they sank along with their various cargos. “Well”, said the Priest ‘it’s because you have magical powers, I told you that yesterday’.
‘But why me’ asked Alice.
‘You stand on the shoulders of countless thousands Alice and these magical powers have been passed down to you through the generations. It is a rare and priceless gift which you will only have a short while. It has been known for 2 people of the same generation to be chosen but it is rare. Alice looked at him and then asked who had the powers in Gran’s generation? Before he could answer her Edward called out “look, look at the clock face on Fair Head. The hands moved, honest I saw it”. Alice looked him. In that moment she new that Edward also had the special powers. Even though she was excited about what had happened yesterday she was glad that she now had someone to share it with.
“Edward, do you know the story of the Children of Lir?” she asked. “Well, I know it is something to do with swans and a bad step mother” he replied. Barney joined them and they sat down on the rocks at the end of the beach and opened up his picnic lunch. He laughed when he saw the size of it as gran had made sure that there was plenty of food for them all. Alice told Edward how after the children’s mother died they were turned in to magical swans by their jealous stepmother Queen Aoife (their mother’s sister). Queen Aoife hated her step-children and condemned them to spend an isolated and lonely life of 300 years on Lake Deravarragh, 300 years on the Sea of Moyle and 300 years on Inis Glora. She decreed that when they heard a Christian bell ringing across the land would the spell be broken. 900 long and harsh years later, the bell of St. Kernoch rang out and the children became frail old people about to die. When they died they were buried together – Aed resting at the bosom of Fionnuala with Ficra and Conn at either side within her embrace. After telling the children’s story Alice and Edward sat and stared out across the Sea. It was a beautiful summer’s day the Sea of Moyle slept silently and without a ripple. Then out of the blue the waves started to roll and splash. A blue/grey haze enfolded everything and there was no division between sea and sky. In the blink of an eye Rathlin had disappeared from view. Their summer playground was barely recognisable. Flashes of light danced across the sky and the hands on the clock started spinning fast. “What’s happening” shouted Edward as swans appeared and disappeared; shipwrecks appeared and disappeared. “Hold on tight” shouted Alice. They were caught in the vortex of a whirlpool and were being pulled down. Spinning and falling they held hands and then there was silence. They were lying on a pebbled beach but it was not the familiar Ballycastle strand it was somewhere different. They could see Fair Head but it was not the image that was ingrained in their memory. Instead it looked flat and they could see land behind it. In the distance they could see Knocklayde Mountain and they quickly realised that they were in fact on Rathlin Island. The hands on the clock were still spinning but much slower now. Its tick-tock carried over the Sea of Moyle to where they were sitting. Looking around they realised that they were being watched by a family of seals who were sunning themselves on the rocks. Edward thought of Captain Black’s boat Carrick- na-Ron, which translated from Irish, means rock of the seals. They stood up brushing sand of their clothes and were amazed that they were not wet. A voice called to them but at first they could not understand what was being said.
‘I think he is talking in Gaelic’ said Alice.
He was speaking in Gaelic but it was Scottish Gaelic.
‘Who are you?’ she asked this stranger.
‘I am Robert” he said. ‘I am Robert the Bruce from Scotland’.
‘Wow!’ exclaimed Edward who was dwarfed by this giant of a man ‘you are the King of Scotland’.
This was Robert the Bruce’s last day on Rathlin as he had decided that he was ready to return to Scotland. Bruce’s cave is located on the east of the island just below where the east lighthouse stands today. He told them that he had been crowned King of Scotland in 1301. Alice and Edward both gasped when they realised how far back in time they had travelled. He went on to tell them that after being defeated in battle he escaped his enemy and had been hiding out in this cave for the past three months. He looked sad as he told them that when he made it to the cave he had been at the lowest ebb of his life. He told them that he had thought about leaving the country all together and never coming back. Edward, who loved spiders and other creepy crawlies, said ‘tell us about the spider sir’. Robert the Bruce laughed heartily saying ‘not only will I tell you about it young man but I will show it to you, follow me’. Alice and Edward had to run to keep up with this giant of a man and then clambered over the rocks after him. They climbed in through the entrance of his cave and it was amazing. The remains of a driftwood fire smouldered and skeletons of fish lay on a flat black rock which he had been using as a plate. Robert the Bruce threw a large piece of driftwood on to the fire and because it was so dry it burst in to flames immediately. Sparks danced in the rays of light that were streaming in to the cave and limestone deposits in the walls flashed and danced lighting up this natural underground hollow. And there in a shaft of light was the spider’s web. It was delicate, intricate and inspiring. It was this web and the little spider that had created it, despite falling to the cave floor many times, that gave Robert the Bruce the strength and the courage to continue the battle for his beloved Scotland. Even though they could not see it they were aware of the crescendo of the tick-tock of the clock around them. Robert the Bruce stood at the entrance of the cave his silhouette, bathed in coloured lights which swirled all around him. He reached in to a sack and lifted out a beautiful silver Celtic broach embossed with precious stones and skewered by a fine silver pin and gave it to Alice. He reached in to the bag again and pulled out a dagger telling Edward to be sure to look after it as he carried with him throughout all his battles. What they were witnessing was Robert the Bruce’s last moments on Rathlin and now he was ready to return home. Farewell Alice and Edward and always remember like the little spider if at first you don’t succeed try, try and try again. And then with a crash of waves he was gone. The limestone flecks in the walls dazzled so brightly that Alice and Edward both closed their eyes. When they re-opened them again they found themselves back on the rocks at the end of the Strand. The priest’s head set hard his eyes once more looking over Moyle. After a few minutes they gathered themselves up and then Alice asked Edward if he was ok? 'Ok' exclaimed Edward 'I am more than okay that must have been the best experience of my life'. They made their way up the path at the end of the strand that leads up to the Shore Road. Neighbours of Gran who waved at the Belfast children had not an inkling of what they had just experienced. As they walked along the road they came to the house which has a small set of concrete steps built out on the roadway. They climbed the steps jumping in the air as high as they possibly could before landing back down on to the ground again. When they reached home Edward declared that he was ravenous and heading in to the cottage they were greeted with the most marvellous smell in the whole world. Gran had a big pot of stew on the range and home baked bread on the griddle was ready to eat. The scrubbed pine table was set and in the middle sat a large jug of buttermilk. Alice and Edward washed their hands and sat at the table. As gran dished out their dinner she asked them what they had got up to today. Alice and Edward looked at each other and really did not know what to say. Struggling to find words they set the brooch and dagger on the table.
