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By D.J. Garrity, Contributor
Five thousand years ago, on the windswept edge of Western Europe, near the village of Ballycastle, halfway between Benwee Head and Killala Bay, a community of farmers, cattlemen, crafters of wood and stone, men and women of passionate beliefs were engaged in an organic and spiritual existence alongside the daunting, relentless sea cliffs of North Mayo.
The primeval forest of Ireland was slowly and meticulously cleared with polished stone axes, and a quarter million tons of fieldstone were replaced by barley, wheat and cattle hemmed in by neatly arranged walls of liberated stone. This ancient settlement was widely scattered about the landscape and enjoyed the relative peace of a developed social order, not feeling the need for defensive walls. It was undisturbed until a climatic change of a few degrees brought increased rain and a gradual loss of fertility, which contributed to the birth of the great bog of Mayo, a hundred square miles between the Nephin