Amidst the continuous high profile of the World Cup and Fermanagh's battle with Armagh in the GAA Championship the Aughakillymaude Mummers, all two dozen of them, took time out to mark midsummer.
As a warm up to last Saturday 24th June, the more recent traditional calendar mid summer date the Aughakillymaude carried out a sortie away up into the uplands of county Cavan to Glangevlin. En route throughout the mountainous region the mummers encountered several bonfires on the hillsides to mark out midsummer.
Having been encouraged by this ancient keeping of traditions the Fermanagh mummers set about building their own mountain top bonfire, the third such bonfire since 2003 on the Knockninny summit near to its crowning bronze age cairn. Having cleared the landowners permission, secured environmental heritage service clearance and some funding, won from the Fermanagh LSP NRRT programme the huge bonfire was ceremoniously lit at sunset. As dusk settled against the backdrop of the Lough Erne basin the sound of the bagpipes wailed.
A long line of mummers decked out in straw cladded "get up" appeared far off on the summit of Knockninny Rock (translated at Ninnidhs Hill after Saint Ninnidh) what a sight to behold, over two dozen of them in semi military formation each holding aloft a naked flamed torch that gave the mummers a truly mystical appearance. Some would say it looked like a fearsome procession of a straw cladded Klu Klux Klan.
Onwards they marched towards the bonfire, where, nearby on Knockninny Cairn an assembled crowd of Fermanagh from both traditions looked on as the mummers set about encircling the bonfire in traditional mid summer clockwise direction.
Coming to a stop on the fourth encirclement, the mummers held aloft straw cladded wreaths. In a symbolic gesture of giving thanks to the sun and all the earthly benefits that flow from the recent good weather the mummers simultaneously threw the wreaths that represented the sun back into the bonfire. In doing so, the law of return, the principal of give and take i.e. what we take from the land is recognised and given back was rightly celebrated.
In a further gesture of thanksgiving to the harvest, young mummer Damien Mc Kenna set about giving out fruit bread representing the wheat and fruits of the earth. No problems with takers for this offering!
Next, in yet another ritual that was heavily pregnant with symbolic meaning Captain Mummer, Michael Mc Barron jumped over the glowing orange embers for strength and luck. Again, and again, this act of bravado was repeated as he yelled out to bemused onlookers who came from afar as France, Bulgaria and England. Indeed, old age pensioners who ha last saw the Knockninny mountain top bonfire in 1953 built by the late Eamon Owens had managed to get to the weekend's bonfire on the back of a tractor and trailer provided by the mummers.
As per tradition, another ritual of mid summer bonfire rituals was re-enacted. A young couple to be wedded also ceremoniously jumped together over the embers. The young wedding couple namely Eoin Murphy of Aughakillymaude and a Bulgarian woman Vesela Shtereva who was over on a cultural exchange visit with the Mummers Foundation both jumped over the embers symbolically ensuring that they would have good luck and a big family in their future life together.
After all this leaping through the air for a new found strength the mummers set out their music and traditional set dancing routines before closing the event by the traditional burning of a straw mummers hat, thus ensuring that there would be a new crop of corn and rye straw for a new batch of straw costumes for the winter.
A spontaneous round of applause echoed through the warm night air as it approached midnight and the mummers with renewed torchlight's set about snaking their way down the rock back to Aughakillymaude townland itself.
As midnight struck the gas beacon was lit to mark the midsummer where, from now on, the power of the sun will wane and the evenings will become shorter until their eventual decline in late Autumn.
No one could doubt the energy and the authentic cultural tradition that the Aughakillymaude mummers had committed themselves to. They had successfully bridged a fifty year gap in the tradition of holding mountain top bonfires in the area that celebrated the mid summer.
Witnessing international parallels to the Irish midsummer tradition was Lily Kutzarova of the Bulgarian Irish Association on her first visit to Aughakillymaude remarked " we have a similar tradition of holding bonfires on June 23rd and June 24th in the Rhodopean mountain range in Bulgaria. There it is also to purge all the evil spirits away but this is the first time I have witnessed the Irish tradition of jumping over the embers for fertility, good luck and strength". Jim Ledwith organiser of the event praised the sizeable batch of young mummers who worked both on the building of the bonfire and having some fun celebrating the midsummer as their grandparents had done for generations.
