Sheilagh Ne Geira
The great folklore tale of Carbonear
and perhaps one of the most famous in all of Newfoundland is the story of the
Gaelic Princess Sheilagh Ne Geira or “Sheilagh the beautiful." Legend holds
that in 1602 Sheilagh, the daughter of an
Irish Chieftain whose name was said to be O'Connor, was sailing home from a French convent school when her boat
was seized by Dutch pirates and the passengers taken prisoner. As luck would
have it , the English Captain Peter Easton known as the “Pirate Admiral” who
was on his way to Newfoundland intercepted the Dutch vessel and rescued Sheilagh
Ne Geira and the others. She married Lt. Gilbert Pike at sea and the couple
settled at Bristol Hope, near Carbonear in the early 1600s. Sheilagh is said
to have been the earliest woman settler in Newfoundland. She and her husband
Pike are credited for being the founders of Carbonear. A model planter
she tended crops while her husband became a successful fisherman. Sheilagh was
well-admired for the care she offered the sick and the leadership she
demonstrated at times of crisis.
Legend has their first born as
the first European child born in New World. Whether a Pike child of the
“Carbonear’s Irish Princess” was the first European born in the New World after
the Viking settlement at L’Anse Meadows we cannot say for sure. Indeed many
Pike children were born in Carbonear and one of the earliest family graves is
dated August 14th, 1753 perhaps a descendant of the legendary
Carbonear couple.
Read the poem "Sheila Ni Gara" by Iris poet Ethna Carberry (Anna MacManus)
Another version of Sheila Ne Geira from a A Treasury of Newfoundland Stories
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