Rites of Passage | Evolving Our Past | Manchán Magan

Manchán Magan (Writer, Documentary-Maker, Global Nomad) joined us for Evolving Our Past at the Pepper Canister Church in September 2013.

In his own words...

I felt curious about the novelty of the undertaking when asked to speak at Rites of Passage. The subject matter given to me was very specific so I just reflected on what personal perspectives I could bring to the particular historical series of events - mixing different perspectives of intuitive, personal history, shared collective history and linear fact-based history.

In describing my Rites of Passage experience... it was interesting to find an audience open to accepting both an intuitive with a strictly factual take on our past. The most memorable moment was seeing one of the speakers reaching bravely into himself, revealing a private secret to illuminate a wider, shared truth. I am struck by the importance of relying on solid narrative structure and well-honed communication techniques (even tricks of presentation), to convey personal insights, wider thinking and new awareness. There is little place for traditional fluffy thinking in this brave new era.

This is such early days for something like Rites of Passage in Ireland. We are all still taking awkward, toddler steps towards new ways of thinking, experiencing and expressing. It is vital that the process is allowed to happen slowly and naturally without too much pressure or expectation. Questions can occasionally be unconsciously biased in a certain direction. It is said that asking the wrong question can hide the truth as much as not asking any at all.

[cigh]

Not many Irish people know this, but the Pope recognised King Henry I claim to Ireland, because Ireland, though Christian in a sense, was outside the influence of the Papacy. Even many years later, when King Henry VIII was excommunicated, the Papal recognition of the English monarch's right to Ireland was never retracted.

There's an irony to that, considering how being Catholic became such a strong marker of identity for the Irish after being conquered, when they refused to obey the King and convert to protestantism, and considering that hundreds of years later, under DeValera, Ireland was pretty much under the direct rule of the Roman Catholic Church.