
Loch Mucsnámha / Lake of the Swimming Pig
Original Painting
Medium: Palette knife acrylic painting on canvas.
Size: 30”x 20”
A perfect example of a place name so long Anglicized that the true meaning has disappeared. Lough Muckno originally came from the Irish Mucsnámha or the swimming pig and refers to the story of where the church of St. Maeldoid came to be built. For when the Saint first decided to build a church, the stones would mysteriously end up on the other side of the lake. Then one night the builders decided to see what was happening, and to their surprise they witnessed a black pig swimming out to the building site, where suddenly the stones would magically be transported to the opposite side of the lake. Saint Maeldoid decreed that this must be the will of God and so relocated his church. When I went there in Spring, the sky was brilliantly blue though the air was cold. It was a beautiful early Spring day and the almost bare trees were remarkably contrasted against the expanses of blue water and lakeside reeds.