Creative History

From time immemorial the site at Clonmacnoise in central Ireland on the banks of the storied River Shannon has been considered a mystical and spiritual place.  Clonmacnoise, literally translates from ancient Gaelic as, “Meadow of the Sons of Nois” , named in honor of the offspring of a mythical figure in the  Pagan lore of prehistoric Ireland. In the year 544 missionary Saint Ciarian founded a Catholic Monastery at the site of Clonmacnoise.  Today, Saint Ciarian, along with the much more well known Saint Patrick and Saint Columbia is considered to be one of the “Twelve Apostles of Ireland and Scotland”, those church fathers who first brought Christianity to the British Isles. During his lifetime in the sixth century Saint Ciarian was renowned for his love of learning, knowledge of scripture and his vast collection of manuscripts.  Due largely to Saint Ciarian’s reputation as an intellectual and bibliophile, within a few decades of its founding, the Monastery at C...

  The media called it the “Fight for America” and like almost every single major prize fight ever since with high stakes involved, and even higher public interest, the bout was dubbed “The Fight of the Century”--the Fight of the 19th Century that is!   Ten thousand dollars and some would say the future of what it even meant to be called an “American” were on the line that day when on February 7, 1849 at a farm in Maryland, located forty miles from Baltimore on a desolate snow covered island, what the press called “The Fight for America” and what the public referred to as “The Fight of the Century” took place in front of less than 200 spectators, mostly gamblers and former fighters themselves, because at that time boxing despite its underground popularity, and its popularity as a legitimate sport in the United Kingdom, was illegal almost everywhere in the United States of America. It was definitely not an auspicious place or time of year to hold an outdoor boxing match...