LIGHTENINGS VIII The annals say: when the monks of Clonmacnoise Were all at prayers inside the oratory A ship appeared above them in the air. The anchor dragged along behind so deep It hooked itself into the altar rails And then, as the big hull rocked to a standstill, A crewman shinned and grappled down a rope And struggled to release it. But in vain, "This man can't bear our life here and will drown," The abbot said, "Unless we help him." So They did, the freed ship sailed and the man climbed back Out of the marvelous as he he had known it. This poem was cited by the Nobel Committee when Derry's Seamus Heaney was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1995 . The poem has always puzzled me, but perhaps it pertains to the following....".According to an ancient legend recorded in the medieval Book of Invasions, the Tuatha De Danaan, the People of the Goddess Diana, were a race of benevolent enchanters and enchantresses who conquered Ireland long, long before the coming of Christianity. When their first attempts to make a landing were thrown back from the beaches by the evil Fir Bolg, the De Danaan ships took off from the ocean and flew through the air..." Also, the Celts believed that when people died, they went to a land of eternal youth and happiness called Tir nan Og.