Sheila NaGeira, Sheila Mageila, Sheila Na Geira Pike, or Princess Sheila is a legendary 17th-century Irish noblewoman regarded in Carbonear, Newfoundland as an ancestor of the locally prominent Pike family.

Legend

Gravesite of Legendary Princess Sheila NaGeira Pike Aged 105 Years

The family legend first appeared in print in a 1934 article on Harbour Grace by William A. Munn.[1] It states that Sheila lived in the early 17th century and was from the recently dispossessed Gaelic nobility in Connacht.[1] Catholic education being illegal in Ireland, she was sent to France to a convent school where her aunt was abbess.[1] On the voyage there or back her ship was captured, first by a Dutch warship, and then by an English privateer captained by Peter Easton on its way to Newfoundland.[1] En route Easton's lieutenant Gilbert Pike and Sheila fell in love; they landed at Harbour Grace, were married by the ship's chaplain, and settled first in Mosquito (now Bristol's Hope) and later in Carbonear.[1]

Munn's 1934 version states that Sheila and Gilbert's firstborn was "the first white child in Newfoundland",[1] predating Nicholas Guy's son born in 1613 at Cupids.[2] Other versions reduce the scope to first white child in Carbonear or the west coast of Newfoundland, or extend it to all of Canada or British North America (where Virginia Dare was reputedly born in Roanoke Colony in 1587).[2] In the 1940s, the story was broadcast several times by Joey Smallwood's radio show, The Barrelman, and included in a school reader, spreading it throughout Newfoundland.[3] In 1958, P. J. Wakeham self-published Princess Sheila, a novel based on the legend, which sold 5,000 copies by 1960 and was republished in 1987 as The Legend of Princess Sheila.[2] Many post-1960 versions of the legend incorporate elements of Wakehams' novel, such as Sheila's death aged 105.[4]

The Pikes became a large family in Newfoundland, and many with a Pike in their family tree claim descent from Sheila.[5] Linda Duncan, MP for Edmonton—Strathcona, said in the House of Commons of Canada in 2009:[6]

My family's roots, beginning around 1610 in Mosquito Point and Carbonear, were based on the shipping industry. My ancestor, Gilbert Pike, was a buccaneer. ... The most famous person in Newfoundland, Sheila NaGeira, is my ancestor.

Name

The given name Sheila is an anglicised spelling of the Irish name Síle (old spelling Sighile), itself originally a Gaelicisation of Celia or Cecilia which was later often equated with Julia. Sheila's second name is spelled Nagira in Munn's account.[7] A baby girl in Carbonear was given the middle name Mageila in 1917 in honour of Sheila.[8] All combinations of M or N with l or r are attested, while the middle vowel may be written i, e, a, ee, ei, or ie; together with the following r it may be pronounced /ɛr/, /ɛər/, /ɪər/, or /ɑr/ (respectively like ERRor, squARE, nEAR, or stARt).[9] Two-word forms like "NaGeira" and "na Geira" are found.[10]

In aisling poems, Síle Ní Ghadhra was a common name for Ireland personified as a woman in bondage awaiting a Jacobite rising. Eponymous examples are one written by Munster poet Tadhg Gaelach Ó Súilleabháin (1715–1795) and translated by James Clarence Mangan in 1849;[11] another with the same metre translated by John D'Alton in 1831;[12] and Ethna Carbery's Gaelic revival "Shiela ní Gara".[13] Eugene O'Curry used the same personification in 1829 with reference to Catholic Emancipation.[14] "Sheela na Guira", "Celia O'Gara", "Shillinaguira", and many other spellings, is a well-known Irish jig setting for the Ó Súilleabháin and D'Alton poems, attested from 1745.[15]

"Ni Ghadharadh" (modern spelling Ní Ghadhra) is the feminine form of Ó Gadhra (O'Gara), surname of the chiefs of Luighne Connacht.[16] Another "Sheela-na-Guira", or "Gillian Dwyer", was an O'Dwyer (Ní Dhuibhir) from Cullahill near Borrisoleigh in Munster, who ended centuries of family resistance to the Norman Burkes by marrying Walter Burke.[17] Na Guira has also been interpreted as Maguire (Nic Uidhir, an Ulster name).[18] In Maria Edgeworth's 1817 play The Rose, Thistle, and Shamrock, the English Miss Gallagher scolds Irish maid Biddy for combing her hair too roughly: "You ran it fairly into my brain, you did! you're the grossest! heavy handiest!—fit only to wait on Sheelah na Ghirah, or the like." Biddy is insulted, "though I don't rightly know who that Sheelah na Ghirah was, from Adam."[19]

In 1978 Harold Horwood suggested that "Na-gaira" was not a surname but an Irish-language epithet meaning "the beautiful", and that Sheila's true surname was O'Conor, that of the Gaelic kings of Connacht.[20] Hiscock suggests Horwood's "Na-gaira" is a misreading of mo ghile "my darling".[21] A related elaboration of the legend is that Sheila's true name and lineage were kept secret in Newfoundland to avoid persecution.[22]

Historicity

Scholars are sceptical of the story.[23] Elements are common to folk traditions elsewhere in North America.[24] From the 1960s, older locals recounted to folklorists versions heard in their youth in the early twentieth century; there is no evidence of earlier currency.[25] An 1892 letter on "Sheela-na-Guira" in an Irish journal describes her as "daughter of the head of the Connaught O'Garas, and a celebrated beauty", without reference to Newfoundland or Pike.[16] The first Pike recorded in Newfoundland is Thomas Pike at Carbonear in 1681.[26] Ron Howell, chairman of the Carbonear Heritage Society, has written,[27] "This lore of Sheila and Gilbert has no basis in recorded fact. ... It would give me great pleasure to know that someone discovered a credible, recorded, 17th or 18th century reference to either Sheila or Gilbert. I would suggest that anyone promoting the Sheila story note that it is folklore and not recorded history."

The putative grave of Sheila and Gilbert is on a site owned by the Pike family and descendants until acquired in the 1980s by the Royal Canadian Legion.[28] In 1982 the Canadian Conservation Institute gave the faded inscription on the extant gravestone as follows:[29]

Here lieth the body of John Pike, Sen. who departed this life 14 July 1753, aged 63. Also Julian his wife, died 14 June 174[?] Aged 69.

Commentaries

Philip Hiscock suggests that Smallwood valued the story as a foundation myth and its Catholic–Protestant marriage as "a metaphor for an unriven Newfoundland".[30] Johanne Trew comments, "The gendering of the narrative is obvious: since the female Irish line is subsumed into the male English line, it is the English name/identity which remains visible."[31]

Culture

Princess Sheila appears, crowned, on the coat of arms of the town of Carbonear.[32] The local theatre is the "Princess Sheila NaGeira Theatre".[33] A tourist information notice is at the site her putative grave.[34] Besides Wakeham's novel, works based on the story include the 1955 poem "The Ballad of Sheila Na Geira" by L. E. F. English;[34] the musicals Sheila Na Geira: A Legend of Love and Larceny (1997) by Chuck Herriott,[35] and The Princess & the Pirate (1998) by Gordon Carruth;[35] and the children's book A Newfoundland Adventure by Dawn Baker.[27] The heroine of Margaret Duley's 1941 novel Highway to Valour is named "Sheila Mageila Michelet",[36] while "Sheila nGira" in Patrick Kavanagh's Gaff Topsails (1996) draws deeper on the legend.[37]

References

Sources

  • Fleischman, Aloys (5 December 2016) [1998]. Sources of Irish Traditional Music c. 1600-1855. Routledge. ISBN 9781135810252. Retrieved 19 March 2019.
  • Hiscock, Philip (Fall 2002). "A Perfect Princess: The Twentieth-Century Legend of Sheila NaGeira and Gilbert Pike". Newfoundland Studies. 18 (2): 195–244. Retrieved 19 January 2019.

Citations

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Hiscock 2002 p.198; Munn, William A. (December 1934). "History of Harbor Grace: Chapter 5.—Colonization" (PDF). Newfoundland Quarterly. 34 (3): 5–8: 6. Retrieved 26 March 2019 – via Memorial University of Newfoundland Digital Archives Initiative.
  2. 1 2 3 Hiscock 2002 p.205
  3. ↑ Hiscock 2002 p.221
  4. ↑ Hiscock 2002 p.210
  5. ↑ Hiscock 2002 p.200
  6. ↑ Linda Duncan (11 March 2009). "Canada-EFTA Free Trade Agreement Implementation Act". Parliamentary Debates (Hansard). Vol. 144. Canada: Commons. col. 1624.
  7. ↑ Hiscock 2002 p.212
  8. ↑ Hiscock 2002 p.213
  9. ↑ Hiscock 2002 pp.212–214
  10. ↑ Hiscock 2002 p.214
  11. ↑ Mangan, James Clarence (1850) [1849]. "Sighile Ni Gara". The poets and poetry of Munster: a selection of Irish songs by the poets of the last century (in English and Irish) (2nd ed.). Dublin: John O'Daly. pp. 100–105. Retrieved 19 March 2019.
  12. ↑ Hardiman, James, ed. (1831). "Sheela na Guira". Irish minstrelsy, or, Bardic remains of Ireland; with English poetical translations (in Irish and English). Vol. II. London: Joseph Robins. pp. 54–63, 138–140. Retrieved 5 April 2019.
  13. ↑ Carbery, Ethna (1906). "Shiela ní Gara". In MacManus, Seumas (ed.). The Four Winds of Eirinn (Complete ed.). Dublin: M. H. Gill; Jas. Duffy And Co. pp. 3–4. Retrieved 19 March 2019.
  14. ↑ Ó Fiannachta, Pádraig (1989). "Eoghan Ó Comhraí, File Traidisiúnta". In Breatnach, Liam; McCone, Kim; Ó Corráin, Donnchadh (eds.). Sages, saints and storytellers: Celtic studies in honour of Professor James Carney. Maynooth monographs (in Irish). Vol. 2. Maynooth: An Sagart. pp. 280–307.
  15. ↑ Thumoth, Burk (1785) [c.1745]. "XVI Chilling O guiry". Twelve Scotch, and twelve Irish airs with variations; Set for the German flute violin or harpsichord. London: S.A. and P. Thompson. Retrieved 19 March 2019.; Fleischman 2016 Nos. 1025, 1044, 1633, 1842, 2505, 2806, 3894, 3954, 4500, 5685, 6528
  16. 1 2 Hewson, George J. (December 1892). "Miscellanea: Sheela-na-Guira". The Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland. 2 (4): 437–438. ISSN 0035-9106. JSTOR 25507952.
  17. ↑ White, John Davis (October 1892). "Miscellanea: Sheela-na-Guira". The Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland. 2 (3): 291. ISSN 0035-9106. JSTOR 25507915.; Mrs Mahon; Gleeson, Thomas. "Sheila na Guira". The Schools' Collection. dúchas.ie. Retrieved 29 October 2021.; Kenny, Michael; Quinlan, John (1944). Glankeen of Borrisoleigh; A Tipperary Parish. James Duffy. OCLC 1078967126.
  18. ↑ Fleischman 2016 No.1025
  19. ↑ Edgeworth, Maria (1817). "The Rose, Thistle, and Shamrock, Act I Scene ii". Comic Dramas: In Three Acts. London: R. Hunter. pp. 284–285. Retrieved 21 March 2019.
  20. ↑ Hiscock 2002 pp.214–215; Horwood, Harold (1978). The colonial dream, 1497–1760. Toronto, Ontario: Natural Science of Canada. p. 49. ISBN 0-9196-4414-7.
  21. ↑ Hiscock 2002 p.243 n.52
  22. ↑ Hiscock 2002 pp.214–215
  23. ↑ Hiscock 2002 pp.201–202
  24. ↑ Hiscock 2002 p.201
  25. ↑ Hiscock 2002 pp.218, 223–224
  26. ↑ Seary, E.; Kirwin, William (1 November 1998). "Pike". Family Names of the Island of Newfoundland. McGill-Queen's Press. p. 415. ISBN 9780773567412. Retrieved 19 March 2019.
  27. 1 2 Howell, Ron (30 September 2017). "Letter: Sheila NaGeira should be regarded as folklore, writes heritage society chair". The Compass. Carbonear: SaltWire Network.
  28. ↑ Hiscock 2002 p.207
  29. ↑ Hiscock 2002 p.211
  30. ↑ Hiscock, Philip (Fall 2010). "Sheila na Geira" (PDF). Newfoundland Quarterly. 103 (2): 10–11. Retrieved 9 April 2019.
  31. ↑ Trew, Johanne (2005). "The Forgotten Irish? Contested sites and narratives of nation in Newfoundland". Ethnologies. 27 (2): 43–77: 57, fn.29. doi:10.7202/014041ar. ISSN 1481-5974. Retrieved 9 April 2019.
  32. ↑ Hiscock 2002 p.199
  33. ↑ "The Theatre". Carbonear: Princess Sheila NaGeira Theatre. Retrieved 26 March 2019.
  34. 1 2 Hiscock 2002 p.217
  35. 1 2 Carpenter, Carole H. (27 January 2015). "Princess Sheila". The Canadian Encyclopedia. Retrieved 19 January 2019.
  36. ↑ Staveley, Michael (9 September 2006). "[Review] Hanrahan, Maura. Tsunami: The Newfoundland Tidal Wave Disaster". Newfoundland and Labrador Studies. 21 (2). ISSN 1715-1430. Retrieved 9 April 2019.
  37. ↑ Delisle, Jennifer Bowering (6 June 2006). "Nation, Indigenization, the Beothuk: A Newfoundland Myth of Origin in Patrick Kavanagh's Gaff Topsails". Studies in Canadian Literature. 31 (2). ISSN 1718-7850. Retrieved 9 April 2019.; Holmgren, Michele (2008). "The Three Sheilas: Irish Myth and Newfoundland Folklore in Patrick Kavanagh's "Gaff Topsails"". The Canadian Journal of Irish Studies. 34 (2): 56–62. doi:10.2307/25515720. ISSN 0703-1459. JSTOR 25515720.; Fowler, Adrian (1 January 1997). "[Review] Gaff Topsails. Patrick Kavanagh". Newfoundland and Labrador Studies. 13 (1): 102–106. ISSN 1715-1430. Retrieved 9 April 2019.
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