'Facts always play second fiddle to a myth'

An excerpt from Michael Harding's column in The Irish Times of yesterday.

It was the last paragraph that might catch one's eye.

"Once upon a time, he said, Colmcille had a stone chalice no bigger than a child’s heart, and by drinking from it a person could be cured of anything; the gout within or the gout without, the broken head or the broken heart.

"For centuries the women of Tory Island were the keepers of this chalice, until it was robbed by fishermen from Scotland. But it only brought bad luck to people who drank from it because it had been stolen, so eventually it was returned to Tory and remained there until the 19th century when it vanished again; this time into the delicate hands of a local clergyman, who I presume didn’t trust the women of Tory with such a precious relic.

"I don’t know if the story is true, but I suppose the great thing about religion is that facts always play second fiddle to a myth."