A Golden Fish & Fun & Frolics: Our Lady’s Well, Croom

Meandering through south County Limerick, a quick stop was made in Croom, County Limerick, in search of Lady’s Well.

Steps from the main road lead down into a public park and the first things encountered are some strange looking stones – big ones. Three large stones seemed to be arranged in a triangular arrangement with a fourth stone beyond. The area is tarmacked and grassed. A sign at the site refers to its refurbishment post 1950s and it does look rather tidy and manicured, somewhat lacking in presence but intriguing nonetheless.

Fortunately there is a long and detailed description of Lady’s Well and its connected monuments in the Main Manuscript of the Folklore Collection, including an attractive drawing.

I was instantly reminded of the sketch depicting St Lachteen’s Well and was delighted to find it was the same recorder, Dáithí Ó Ceanntabhail. His meticulous drawing shows two large rocks with trees behind, representing two elm trees and whitethorn bushes, and written notes refer to the well being originally between two of the rocks. He gives further information in his text:

A legend said that the well was originally sited between two large rocks, known as Our Lord’s rock and the Devil’s rock, but because of the abusive act of a soldier the well moved to where it is now. These rocks are said to bear the marks of Our Lady’s hands, although another local legend claims they are the handprints of a giant. These rocks are used as mass rocks on pattern day.

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The rocks do not seem to be in the position that he has depicted and look neatly and evenly spaced. They are strangely shaped, made from limestone with conglomerate and very solid. I looked in vain for the handprints and knee prints. He makes no mention of the other large conspicuous boulders now on site.

So where was the well? It was eventually spotted about 50 metres away, seen in the far right of this photo.

It is a rather strange arrangement: a subterranean well with two odd curved columns arranged horizontally on each side of it, the area surrounding it paved with plain slabs.

Three steps lead down into the water which is enclosed in a rectangular basin and is clear and cold. It holds a cure for sore eyes and originally had a blessed trout, a golden specimen according to one account.

It doesn’t exactly thrum with presence but this photo from 1954 suggests it has always been of a simple appearance. The steps remain the same and there is a large cement slab covering something to the left, but there are no curved columns.

It seems that this isn’t the original position of the well, in fact it moved three times, obviously quick to take offence:

They say too that the well moved three times. Once it was nearer to the road than it now is and a soldier washed his coat in it, next morning it was found a good bit down from the road in a place called the sally bed near where Dr. Hedderman’s house now is. Again a woman washed her clothes in it and it moved once more towards the road. This time a little golden fish inhabited it. A policeman caught this fish and took it home to cook it and opinions differ apparently, as to the fate of the fish and fisherman. One story-teller tells me the man went about cooking the fish and it jumped off the pan and found its way back to the river. Another that the man cooked and ate the fish but that he lived only a short time after, but all agree that the well moved again to where it now stands. The smaller well where it had been at first remains to be seen, that is there is a hole there with no water in it, but strangely enough when the well gets flooded as it sometimes does, when the river rises higher than usual this small well, which is above the level of the river altogether, becomes full of spring water, and supplies water to the people of the street until the flood subsides and the lower well is again accessible, when the smaller well runs dry again.

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The smaller well must be the A referred to in the drawing but there was no sign of it now. And another entry in the Schools’ Folklore Collection is very clear about what happened to the policeman:

One day a policeman went fishing in it for blessed trout and the well was removed about 200 years from the old spot. The policeman was found dead the next morning. No one has interfered with the well since.

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The well seems forgotten and ignored but was once much revered, especially on its feast day, 15th August, when large crowds gathered in what was known as the Well Meadow and booths selling all sorts of tempting things lined the road. This detailed account gives a rich description of the lively goings on:

There is a holy well in this village known as ‘Lady Well’, the field in which it is situated being known as ‘The Well Meadow’. The parish is dedicated to Our Lady of the Assumption and the pattern day is 15th August. The special cure attributed to its waters is a cure for sore eyes, though ’rounds’ for all sorts of favours are paid at the pattern. The pattern day now causes very little stir in the village – the well is decorated, mostly by the children with flowers in jam crocks and bottles and some pious women around the street lend holy pictures and small statues for the occasion. There is a fair crowd, especially towards evening ‘Doing rounds’ which consists of walking round the well by a certain route, pausing and saying part of the Rosary in certain defined places, but all the people who do the rounds are natives of the immediate district and of late years there are no strangers at the pattern. Once the ‘Well Day’ in Croom was an event of most importance. People came there not alone from all over our own county but from the surrounding counties as well. A man born here tells me that his father remembered the street to be so crowded that it took half an hour to get from the cross to the Well step – a five minute walk at most in ordinary times. I suppose originally this crowd collected with religious motives, but later the Croom ‘Well Day’ became more a social gathering or a general holiday of fun and frolic, than a religious pilgrimage. Even those who came to pay rounds really joined later in the fast and furious fun and many who came ostensibly to do so evaded the rounds and spent the whole day in amusement. It was possible to evade the rounds in this way. A number of older women who lived in the district stood down near the well and were willing, for a consideration, to do your rounds for you. Offering them to Our Lady for your intention. This slight to the holy well was not at all the worst of the things that happened on the day when the crowd gathered in the name of the Holy Lady of the Well. A good many drunken scenes took place in the street and drunken brawls often ended in serious harm to those concerned. Then too faction fights began to be seen on the occasion of the event and there is a tradition locally that a man was killed, or at least died as a result of injuries received. Finally the Parish Priest stopped the ‘Pattern’ altogether, except for the people of the parish and the immediate surroundings and it has never revived.

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The rounds were precise and lengthy:

The rounds consist of the following prayers and exercises (a) you kneel at the rock shown in the sketch, make the sign of the Cross, the Creed, Pater Noster, Gloria and three Aves. Then you go to the well – about 40 paces away – kneel down during the Our Father and when that is said, slowly rise and round and round the well by the right, till the Decade of the Rosary is finished then kneel again, saying Our Father, rising when that is finished to go round again till the Decade is finished and so on till the five Decades are completed. You then return to the boulder where you started and make your request, adding whichever prayers you deem fit yourself.

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It is perhaps easy to see how it might be tempting to get someone to pay the rounds for you and head straight for the fun and frolics! On a more serious note, the well seems to have been sought by those in exile ie those away from home:

The well is frequented for the purpose of obtaining spiritual and temporal favours through the intercession of the BVM. When the circumstances of the time impelled exile, the wandering fortune seeker paid some friend or other trustworthy person at home to pay rounds for him when he could not do it. Tim Fierney, Main Street Croom, aged 72, labourer told me that he himself while working in London sent money home to pay for rounds and added ‘and they were a success too’… I heard from several that the rounds were paid for by those in exile.

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The rounds were completed by drinking the water and leaving offerings:

On the pattern eve candles, pictures, statues and flowers are used to decorate the well during the rounds. The candles are left there to burn out … the flowers are left as an offering.

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I fear it might have been a long time since this little well received flowers.

Edit: Tim kindly contacted me with some more information about this well. His mother has very fond memories of it and could remember playing near it with her siblings her brothers forking for eels in the nearby stream, Her sister once had an eye infection and her father cured it with moss from the well. Sometimes his mother would collect water from the well to keep the butter dry in the summer months. Tim describes how the 15th August once attracted big crowds – holy statues were put up around the well and the Rosary was recited in the evening.

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