"Tonight Ireland is desolate" - recalling the words of the poet Eoin Rua Mac a'Bhaird, President Mary McAleese spoke yesterday of the "cathartic" experience of the Flight of the Earls for Gaelic Ireland. She was speaking on the beach from which they left 400 years ago to the day, writes Patrick Smythin Rathmullan
The President, who was in Rathmullan, Co Donegal, to formally unveil a statue by John Behan to mark the quatercentenary, said that the flight had represented a huge loss for generations.
In these different times of a powerful and prosperous Ireland "we need to remember what our freedom cost".
In exile, she said, they and those who went later had managed to create a "virtual Ireland" in the places where they found refuge such as Spain, Rome and Louvain, whose Irish College also celebrates 400 years this year. They had preserved Irish culture with "intelligence, genius and passion", winning friends for the Irish people far and wide.
Just above the picturesque village's fine strand, Behan's vision of the flight - in his familiar bronze skeletal figures - is of earls O'Neill, O'Donnell and Maguire waving from the gangplank of their ship, their cloaks billowing in the wind, their arms raised in farewell - or was it surrender, as some will have it? - to a small group of emaciated followers.
It is a striking piece that has evoked both praise and some uncertainty, not to mention controversy on local radio from a "concerned" listener for Behan's clear depiction of one of the earls' private parts.
Yesterday several hundred gathered with local politicians and bishops for the ceremony on the shore, serenaded by the band of the Western Command.
Behan, himself the son of a Donegal mother, spoke of his pride in the commission and his delight to be participating in the "renaissance of Irish art and culture". In the statue he had tried to capture the essence of a moment in history, he said.
Understanding that past was crucial. "We may look to the past, so that we may see the future. The future is bright."
Later, a costume re-enactment was held at Portnamurray cove, just south of the village, from which the ship had left, with the Jeanie Johnston playing the latter's part. It was followed by a parade of the chieftains back to the village.
The festivities mark the culmination of celebrations in Donegal and Rathmullan whose climax today includes a firework and music spectacular expected to attract several thousand spectators.
All that was missing from the occasion were the MacSwineys - 400 years ago they turned up on the pier to throw stones at the departing earls. But some parts of history just are not worth commemorating.