The Death of Skellig Mór
(Part 2)
By C. M. Duggan
A bitter battle in the courts over the rightful ownership of the goat ‘Skellig Mór’ was fought by the Knights of St. Brendan and a splinter organisation. Wiser heads prevailed and the factions compromised and made a present of the animal to the battleship USS Vermont (BB-20). Skellig Mór was welcomed to its new home in a special ceremony on the warship’s quarterdeck on 16th March 1909. He was well received and was very popular with the crew. At mess he chewed tobacco and was happy to partake in drinking the ship’s supply of alcohol. He was rather carless in regard to the rest of his dietary requirements and when a steel hatch, a hog’s hair brush and a mop disappeared the blue-jackets began to worry about him. His reign as the ship’s mascot was short lived. It appears he died by drowning sometime around Independence Day (4th July) that same year. An elegy to Skellig Mór was penned by a Mr Joseph Smith in the Boston Traveler shortly afterwards and was reprinted in the in ‘Kerry People’ on the 31st July 1909.
The remains of Skellig Mór were stuffed and bagpipes and bugles sounded as he was borne to his last resting place in the Main Hall of the Boston National Museum.
Source: Kerry People (31st July 1909, p5): Kerry Champion: (6th July 1929, p8)
Air: Lament for Owen Roe
The battleship Vermont is draped in sombre solemn hue
There's woeful lamentation 'midst her officers and crew;
They've lost their Kerry mascot, they'll never see no more
The princely strut or feel the "butt" of fighting Skellig Mór.
He is advent to Bostonians, brought the Kerrymen no luck,
It were better if Saint Brendan Knights had never seen the Puck
Tho' specially imported to grace their Kerry Sports.
He caused much litigation in our Massachusetts courts.
After years of legal conflict Col. Scannell got the goat
And quickly turned him over to our Yankee champion boat,
Where, few short weeks he roamed her decks belligerent and gay
From the 17th of Ireland until Independence Day.
The officers and Jackies were to Skellig very kind
Yet, proper mountain fodder for the goat they could not find,
The anchor chain, and capstan, and Bethlehem steel hatch
Were not the proper substitutes for Glenbeigh mountain thatch.
Ah.' shame upon the Kerrymen who fooled that noble goat,
Decoyed him from the mountains and marooned him on a boat,
Did they think for e'en a moment to transform a Kerry Puck,
With scented coat and horns to the plumage of a duck.
Oh Skellig, darling Skellig, 'twas for you a sorry day
When they took you from your hundred wives and master, Patrick' Shea;
If left amid your native hills you'd live one hundred years
To lead along, your goatly throng of Glenbeigh Carbineers.
You were graceful as a Muckross fawn, as cunning as a fox.
Respected by all ”Gowrdom” from Listowel to Skellig Rocks,
Full conscious of the dignity and titles that you bore
Pretenders beat a swift retreat ‘fore-kingly Skellig Mór.
Hark, hear the sound of wailing ring o’er distant seas
From Skellig Mór’s departed kin, the “keening Gowr Banshees”
Weep, weep you Kerry goatherds, weep, weep forever more
No more you’ll bleat with joy to greet your monarch Skellig Mór.
15 Holmes St., Atlantic Mass, .U.S.A. July 13th, 1909.