Tobar Eoin Baiste, Cooliska

St John’s Well, Tobar Eoin Baiste, Cooliska

Still in County Limerick, today’s holy well is about seven kilometres southwest of Newcastle West in the townland of Cooliska : an Chúil Loiscthe, the burnt corner. It is large well right on the roadside, dominated by a sparkling white statue of the patron saint, St John the Baptist astride a plinth.

The statue is unusual and striking. The saint is shown as a wilderness figure, dressed in animal skins of a rather fine texture. He has one arm aloft and is clutching a cockleshell to his chest, a staff supported at his elbow. His hair and beard are neatly coiffed and he has a bag slung across his chest. The cockleshell is interesting as I believed this is generally associated with St James.

Apparently the statue was especially imported from France in 1951 which explains the rather chic, continental air. Behind him lies the well, a large pool of clear water said to remain icy cold in the summer and comfortably warm in the winter. It can be seen percolating vigorously.

As is often the case, the water would not boil however hard someone tried:

About sixty nine years ago a man living near the well was cooking his dinner and he ran short of water. Out he went for a gallon of water, he put it in the kettle but it would not even warm. It is said that the water of Baptist’s well would never boil.

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It held a cure for sore eyes and other ailments and was renowned for its effectiveness:

A girl by the name of Flanagan from Knockaderry was cured at the well from blindness after saying three decades of the rosary. The child also claimed to have seen three trout in the well. According to tradition, if you should see a fish in the well, your disease will be cured. When Dean Richard O’Brien was a child, he was cured from blindness at the well. In honour of this, his mother named him Richard Baptist O’Brien…

Limerick Diocese website

Seeing the three blessed fish added extra certainty to being cured. In another version of events, the fish spotted was described as being a red one.

The origins of the well are interesting. Travelling on from Cloncagh well, having dispelled a serpent, St Patrick arrived in Cooliska where a similar event occured concerning stray serpents and missal throwing. This impressed the local people who:

… declared their willingness to be baptised. St Patrick, noticing a rock in the ground, struck it with his crozier, causing a cleft in the rock from which water immediately flowed. He blessed the newly formed well and baptised the people.

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St Patrick then dedicated the well to St John the Baptist. When he stood up he left the imprints of his knees on the rocks. I’m wondering if those odd shaped protrusions under my feet are the clefts from where the water gushed?

Another version describes St John himself as the serpent killer:

One day St John was on his knees reading his prayer book. Looking up he saw a snake in front of him. The St. flung his prayer book at the snake and killed him. Where the snake fell dead a spring sprung up through a rock and formed into a well. St John blessed it and called it Baptist’s Well. A tree grew up over it. Nobody knows the name of it. Ever since people visit the well on the 29th August. When the people go to the well they usually pay three rounds there.

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The well is not in its original position but it moved when disrespected:

The well was originally on the roadside. Tradition says that a certain man was passing by. He sat down by the well and desecrated the water by washing his feet in it. Suddenly the well changed its position into the field nearby and it is there ever since. 

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You can see how tempting it would be to dip your feet in. I wondered if this site was ever used for full immersion as it seemed large and accessible enough and would fit in with the ethos of its patron.

Like many holy wells, this was once graced with an enormous tree which seems to have been in situ when St Patrick visited for:

He also blessed the tree and declared it would flourish long after the nearby oak of the Druids had ceased to exist.

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The reference to the Druids and their oak is interesting, suggesting that this place was already considered sacred pre Patrick’s arrival. The tree continued to thrive and in 1934 was described as:

…overhanging the well is a very old wychelm tree. This tree is practically hollow in the centre and gives the appearance of being partially decayed but every year it produces as mass of foliage.

MM: ibid

The photos below were taken in 1954 and the tree, then considered to be at least 1500 years old, has fallen – quite recently by the look of it.

Its wood would never burn.

Another excerpt from the Schools’ Folklore Collection refers to St Patrick’s kneeprints being on the tree itself. Sadly the original tree has now vanished but a new tree has taken its place. The saintly kneeprints remained elusive. The concrete walls and steps seen in these photos were put up in 1913, the money raised by voluntary subscription and through football matches. A shrine was also erected above the well at this time, presumably replaced by the statue in 1951.

The feast day is the 29 August, one of two dates connected with St John the Baptist, this date commemorating his death, (24th June remembers his birth). The pattern once attracted a large gathering :

The usual devotions were performed and were followed by horse racing, jumping, bouts of wrestling, weight throwing and other feats of strength.

MM:ibid

Like many other pattern days this one became blighted by faction fighting. It seems that the fighting originated at a fair in Newcastle West on the 20th August and then was renewed at this pattern nine days later. In 1854 the Captain of Kilmeedy tried to stop the mayhem but was himself killed. After this the pattern lost favour though the Rosary is still recited on the 29th August, Covid permitting.

I shall leave with this extraordinary story recorded by Nancy McCarthy:

About a hundred years ago two nice girls from Cooliska came to the well on the pattern day. One girl was Eily Hartnett and the other was Eily Moore. They were first cousins and were supposed to be the nicest girls in three parishes. While they were praying a whirlwind came and whirled Eily Hartnett up in the air. The people tried to catch her but failed to do so. They could only watch and pray. After a while she disappeared. The priest said masses for her the following week. About a week after the pattern day the Hartnett family heard a cry in the field adjoining the well. It was in the middle of the night. They ran out to see what was wrong. They saw their own child Eily and she was going up in the air again. This time she was saying ‘good-bye’ to her people. Any time a Moore or Hartnett dies the cry is heard. She is called the Banshee.

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The location of the well can be found in the Gazetteer.

Many thanks to Finola Finlay for permission to use her photographs. The Good People caused havoc with mine.