Holy wells of County Clare

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Clare Past Mod
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Holy wells of County Clare

Post by Clare Past Mod » Thu Aug 07, 2008 8:28 am

The holy wells of County Clare have been the subject of a number of interesting contributions in the thread "Irish and Clare history book recommendations" in this forum (see http://www.ourlibrary.ca/phpbb2/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=347 ) so this topic is being posted here as a thread of its own to help Subject browsers stumble on it.

The "Wells" subject was started by Barbara (barbarad) who is working on a study and pilgrimage of wells.

Michael (moc66) mentioned the website of an organization dedicated to upkeep and restoration of holy wells in Ireland, http://www.slaine.ie/ .

Clare Admin pointed to the archaeology section of the Clare Library which features a long list of holy wells of Clare (see http://www.clarelibrary.ie/eolas/coclar ... _wells.htm ).

Paddy Casey pointed out that GPS coordinates of wells can be uploaded to http://www.geonames.org so as to make them widely available to mapping organisations.

M. McNamara told us that Eddie Lenihan has written several articles in various issues of "The Other Clare" concerning holy (or blessed) wells in Crusheen and surrounding parishes. M. McNamara himself has written an article in the Sixmilebridge parish magazine about these wells in the Sixmilebridge area.

Please do continue to contribute to this topic.

Thank you.

Clare Past Moderator

Clare Admin
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Re: Holy wells of County Clare

Post by Clare Admin » Fri Aug 08, 2008 11:07 am

Hello all. There are 146 photographs of holy wells in Foto at the moment. See http://foto.clarelibrary.ie/fotoweb/Gri ... y%20Well)). We would love to receive more such photos to display online. Please send any you may have to Maureen Comber, Clare County Library Headquarters, Mill Road, Ennis, County Clare. We will of course return any prints. Or you can email digital images to mailbox@clarelibrary.ie. Clare Admin

barbarad
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Re: Holy wells of County Clare

Post by barbarad » Fri Aug 08, 2008 10:38 pm

oh good! thank you Clare Admin for splitting off this thread.

I'm wondering how to access the articles mentioned by M. McNamara.. if "the Other Clare" isn't available online, is it in the Library in Ennis? I'll be there in a few weeks' time and can do some hands-on research then.

The photos - they are wonderful, aren't they? especially the old ones! There are still a lot wells not represented, though. Of the 220+ listed, how many can still be found? I would love to fill in some of the blanks in the archaeology site.

But first I have to do all this history reading!

peace,
barbara

Paddy Casey
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Re: Holy wells of County Clare

Post by Paddy Casey » Sat Aug 09, 2008 6:44 am

Barbara,

Current and back numbers of The Other Clare are held in the Local Studies Centre of the Clare County Library in Ennis.

Enjoy your stay at the Fountain of Knowledge.

Paddy

moc66
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Re: Holy wells of County Clare

Post by moc66 » Wed Aug 13, 2008 4:51 pm

Hi all,

This could easily happen in Clare as well as Donegal http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ire ... tml?via=mr A holy well has run dry due maybe to excavation works close to it in Ballyshannon Co Donegal. The report is in today’s Irish Times but was referred to on Morning Ireland RTE 1 radio as well. A spokesperson for the local council said they "were looking into it”. Now does that mean that they are looking into the dry well for inspiration or the sewerage pipe to see where the water disappeared to?
The irony of all this is we are after some of the worst floods in living memory right around Ireland and yet a natural spring well in Donegal runs dry. The annual pilgrimage on the 15th of August will still take place but the holy water will come from a plastic barrel probably from some other holy well.
There have been many instances of wells disappearing and reappearing again in Clare and elsewhere. In1937 national schools folklore commission scheme where the pupils collected stories from their parents and neighbors and wrote them all down, there were many references to wells. All the original books from the schools are archived in the folklore Department at UCD Dublin.
All the stories are on micro film now and the Clare schools can be accessed, you guessed at Clare Library Local Studies Centre The Manse Harmony Rd Ennis.
It is well known that any work close to a holy well or long standing spring well can interfere with the flow of the spring water. But it is not the only reason water disappears. Wells not being properly maintained and the outflow blocked will cause the water to push through elsewhere.
Here in Clare at Drumellihy http://www.clarelibrary.ie/eolas/coclar ... 027---.htm Cooraclare Parish Our Lady’s Well pilgrimage takes place on the Feast of The Assumption on the 15th of August. Over the decades it has attracted large crowds from all over West Clare who come for the nine days and do the rounds.
I have heard no reports of the well running dry, not after the rain we had in the last twenty four hours.
More later on wells
Michael

barbarad
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Re: well disappearances

Post by barbarad » Mon Aug 18, 2008 1:17 am

Aren't there stories in the lore of wells about wells that take offense when some heedless soul does their laundry in them or commits some other sort of trangression, that then disappear entirely, or move across the road, or to another field?

I wouldn't put it past them.

A couple of years ago I visited Glendalough and was directed to St. Kevin's Well by a rather desultory attendant who said, "you can't miss it, it's right by the tree all covered with rubbish." Indeed there was a tree, apparently the subject of a recent festival of some kind, which was festooned with a mixture of honorable rags and true rubbish - plastic soda bottles, tin plates, paper streamers, cans, etc. The well next to it was perfectly dry. There was a nice little pool on the other side of the path, however. This may have been a temporary phenomenon, or even my imagination.

I've been to places in Clare where wells used to be, or where they were mapped at one time according to the OS. Sometimes there's a patch of spongy ground, with a flow-shaped growth of swamp iris. In those places it seems to me the well hasn't disappeared so much as the caring for it.

In any case, I feel sorry for the pilgrims to St. Patrick's Well in Donegal. Is the water still holy if it's delivered in a plastic barrel? Maybe that's irrelevant. I don't mean to be irreverent. Maybe I'd better stop writing this now. :)

barbara

barbarad
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Re: Holy wells of County Clare

Post by barbarad » Sat Aug 30, 2008 9:58 pm

this is a copy of a message I just sent to the Clare County Library e-mail address. Photos are not attached here, I don't want to be that much of a pest,

I've been consolidating the material I have on the Holy Wells of County Clare, (preparing for a visit there soon, from the US)

I've attached here two photographs of St. Tola's well, on the grounds of the castle at Dysert O'Dea. I didn't see photos of this well in the existing internet material, and would be most happy if you want to use them.

I also have photographs of several other wells (five or six) that I don't think you have online. The problem is, I don't know their names! I'm working on that, on being more scientific, with the help of the material on the website. Once I match them up, I'll send them on,

thank you !

Barbara Devitt
Sherwood Forest Maryland, USA

Paddy Casey
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Re: Holy wells of County Clare

Post by Paddy Casey » Sun Aug 31, 2008 1:34 pm

Barbara,

Will you have a GPS device with you to record the positions of the holy wells on your visit ?

For a long time I have noticed that places and roads are not where they appear to be on commercial maps or have names different from those on the commercial maps, e.g. the Discovery maps in the case of Ireland. I had always put this down to simple error or an assumption on the part of the map publishers that the users wouldn't be bothered (or wouldn't notice ?) if a major road junction on the map were a couple of hundred yards from its true position. I checked and rechecked the datum setting on my GPS device but the errors were still there. An example is the historically famous Lughid bridge on the road from Tubber to Crusheen. The bridge is marked on the map as "Inghid Bridge" and is some distance from its true position. Another example: the N18 which runs down through Clare is not where the map says it is.

Now, to my amazement, I have just discovered that map publishers deliberately scatter errors throughout their maps to thwart copyright infringers (see http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/index.php ... aster_Eggs). Thus they add streets or whole blocks of houses which do not exist, change street names, and offset streets and roads from their true positions. So a holy well may be deliberately malpositioned on a map and the searcher would be none the wiser.

For some time now I have included a GPS receiver in my field kit when rambling around the monuments of Clare and am now doubly glad I have done so. I can add my data to the rapidly growing open-source bank of map data and thus ensure that it will be easier to find those monuments, many of which are in the middle of nowhere and very difficult to locate.

Paddy

Clare Admin
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Re: Holy wells of County Clare

Post by Clare Admin » Tue Sep 02, 2008 10:32 am

Barabara's two photographs of St. Tola’s Well in the townland of Mollaneen in the parish of Dysert are now included in Foto, our online photographic collection.

See 00010099.jpg and 00010098.jpg

Many thanks to Barabara for her kind donation.
Clare Admin

barbarad
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can you name this well?

Post by barbarad » Thu Sep 04, 2008 6:12 pm

Last night I sent a message to Maureen Comber, library webmaster, with photos that I can't upload here (the files are too big) of a well I visited last September.

The well is under a big tree in a field between Craggaunboy and Carrowduff. It's marked on Discovery series map 57, the square bounded by #s 23, 24, 88, 87. The well-shaft has a lovely circular stone structure heaped over with boards and blocks. Maybe the cows were falling into it?

Trying to learn the geography by parish and townland,

Regards,
Barbara

Sduddy
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Re: Holy wells of County Clare

Post by Sduddy » Mon Aug 15, 2016 9:03 am

Today, 15th August, is a good day to speak of Holy Wells, and to mention a book by Michael Houlihan, “The Holy Wells of County Clare” (2015), dedicated to “all those Clare people who quietly continue the Holy Well tradition”.
It’s quite slim, but contains a good history of the veneration of wells (in Ireland) and is packed with photos (some I am familiar with from the site given above http://foto.clarelibrary.ie/fotoweb/Grid.fwx?search=(IPTC025%20contains%20(Holy%20Well)). Produced to good effect on glossy paper, they show how lovingly many wells are cared for by local people.
On the subject of excavations of holy wells, Houlihan says, “Digging, no matter how well intentioned, might meet with local resistance…. A distinction is drawn between, say, a ruined church and a living well. The deserted church is treasured for its antiquity, a shelter for the dead, its previous role in the community and possibly as a conduit to the founding saint. It is however understood to be desacralised. On the other hand an active holy well is a living entity.”

So true, but it had never occurred to me before.

Sheila

s1nead
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Re: Holy wells of County Clare

Post by s1nead » Thu Feb 23, 2017 5:33 am

My great grandfather was born at Moher Lodge in 1838.
We will be there next week!
I've been told that there is a Holy Well near the Lodge which is named St Brigid's Well.
Visiting it is on my list.
Does anyone know anything about this Well? What should I look for while visiting? Should I bring something to leave behind?
Thank you!

Sduddy
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Re: Holy wells of County Clare

Post by Sduddy » Thu Feb 23, 2017 11:52 am

Hi sInead

There’s a lot about St. Bridget’s Holy Well in the clarelibrary site: http://www.clarelibrary.ie/eolas/coclar ... 02102-.htm

For some recent photographs, google “Clare Champion St. Bridget’s Well”

For some more on St. Bridget, read Frank McNally’s recent piece in the Irish Times, “An Irishman’s Diary on the case for a National Holiday on February 1st” http://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/brace ... -1.2958366

Finally, to answer your question, there is no need to bring anything, but yourself.

Sheila

s1nead
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Re: Holy wells of County Clare

Post by s1nead » Thu Mar 02, 2017 7:44 pm

O My Goodness!

I had no idea there was so much available information!

Thank you!

I'll check it all out!

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