Three ladies encountered enroute to Adare

Day one of a well hunting trip to County Limerick in the excellent company of Robert and Finola of Roaringwater Journal. The weather had been atrocious and I was nervous as to how we’d cope as were going to be in the field with nowhere to run. The journey up to Adare, where we were availing of a midweek November special in the Dunraven Arms, was grey but unthreatening. First stop Killeedy.

St Ita’s Well, Killeedy North

St Ita’s Well is to be found tucked amongst the gravestones in Killeedy churchyard, which today was very busy, it being a day of prayer. According to the Limerick Diocesan Heritage Project (excellent by the way):

Legend has it that St Ita asked for a drink here and was given lukewarm water. She threw this water on the ground and a well sprung up. It is said that you cannot boil the water.

Mr Murphy directed me to the well, easy to miss as it is circular, small and flush with the ground. A metal grill has been placed over it to stop people falling in.

A ladle on a metal chain allows access to the water though the lid comes off easily enough.

The well is nearly a metre deep and full of water. It holds a cure for sores eyes, aching limbs and smallpox. Near to the well are three stone fragments, much worn and also easy to miss, shown here in a photo from the 1960s.

Today the engravings on the stones are not so easy to see but two are corbelled heads, probably originating from the nearby ruined Medieval church/abbey, also dedicated to St Ita. The third has tracings of an ogee arch, originally from a window.

All are heavily scored with crosses made by pilgrims as they paid the rounds.

The main pattern day is St Ita’s feast day, the 15th January :

There is only one Holy Well in this district It is in the townland of Killeedy in Killeedy Graveyard. St Ita is the Saint that is connected with this well, and on the fifteenth day of January crowds visit the Graveyard to honour St Ita and to pay ’rounds’ because on that day, St Ita died. People also visit the Graveyard during the month of January, and several other days throughout the year. Special cures were never known to have taken place there, but, some people if they had sore eyes, or any sore to come from itself they pay rounds, there, and people believe they get cured. Some people drink the water from this well, and others rub it to the affected part. Relics are left at St Ita’s Shrine, such as rags, Holy Pictures, and old Rosary Beads. Money is also put into the offering box for the upkeep of The Shrine. There is no bush or shrub of any kind, around this well, but, the Shrine which is about twenty yards from the well, is surrounded with trees, and, also a stone wall supposed to be the ruins of St Ita’s Abbey.

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The ruins of St Ita’s abbey remain as does a large shrine to St Ita, the patron saint of the area. The original shrine, as depicted in this image from the Tourist Association Survey of the 1940s, was a smaller affair, to the right of the archway.

It’s still there, a simple crucifix replacing the original statues just glimpsed in the above photo.

The main focus now is on a large shrine erected in front of the arch containing a life-size statue of St Ita.

A plaque on the back of the shrine describes how it was erected in 1929 to the memory of Tommy, son of Patrick and Bridget Hartnett who died aged 16 but I think this must have come from the original shrine. Maybe the same family were responsible for the newer one too.

Both the well and the shrine are included in the rounds and a turas of three circuits is required, reciting the Rosary each round. Pilgrims then drink the water and leave offerings.

St Ita is patron saint of the parish, Killeedy meaning Kill Ide – St Ita’s church. Like many female saints the folklore describes her as being exceptionally beautiful, very spiritual and disinclined to marry. When she was 21 she she went off on foot in search of the place of her resurrection. She was conferred with the name Ita which means thirst for holiness; her original name was Deirdre. This extract describes her peregrination:

She would travel on foot until she would reach a spot a the foot of Sliab Lucra and there he (God) would point out to her, her future home. Off Ita started God having told her that three divine lights should direct her on her journey. According to local history the first light appeared to her on the top of the Galty Mountains. On and on she travelled never tiring nor never despairing and the second light to her on a hill called Mount Plumer. She walked on a further two miles in a westerly direction. She built her monastery in Killeedy. Then came the boys and girls of the surrounding district all eager to join the blessed band. Under the fostering care of Ita some of the greatest Saints were educated … The saint did not live to attain an old age, years before her death she often told her companions of the day hour and cause of her death. She suffered intense pain from her side before her death. Ita lay on her bed of agony wasting and pining away until the fifteenth of January, about the year 523, A.D. and was buried with great pomp in Killeedy.

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Although she was imbued with the six virtues of Irish womanhood: wisdom, purity, musical ability, gentle speech and needle skills (I don’t score very well on this list), she also had a fiery side and many stories in the folklore refer to this incident concerning her little black donkey:

As Saint Ita built her convent in Killeedy and lived there she is called the patron Saint of the parish. She had a dairy farm in a little townland called Sesonglas between Mountcollins and Rockchapel. She used go to this farm every day riding her ass. As she was coming towards Tournafulla after visiting her farm, she stopped at a house on some purpose. While she was inside, the Tournafulla boys set the dogs after her ass. He ran through the fields towards the Shule river which is a tributary of the Allaughan. On crossing the river he jumped to a rock in the middle of it, where he remained bogged until Ita came to his aid. The print of his hoofs are plain to be seen this present day. Saint Ita cursed the people of Tournafulla and said the village would never be without a widow, a widower, a smoky house or a blaggard.

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The hoofprints are meant to be somewhere down by the RIver Iskule and have healing powers of their own. Should you clean your teeth with the water that collected in them you would never suffer from toothache. Placing your own feet in the marks was also said to cure many ailment. Sadly their location is obscure today. Tournafulla, incidentally means Animal Enclosure of the Blood, its name apparently given by St Ita. I’m not sure what the situation is re blaggards and smoky houses.

St Ita is still remembered as the foster mother of saints and as the patron of Munster.

On to the next well in nearby Rathcahill East.

Lady’s Well, Tobar Muire, Rathcahill East

Situated right on the roadside, an iconic flash of BVM blue signals the presence of Lady’s Well with its smartly painted railings and gateways.

I don’t think it has changed much since this description, written in 1934:

In the townland of Rathcahill in the parish of Monegay … is a beautiful well known as Our Lady’s Well. Fronting the well, and on each side of it, is a cement wall surmounted by an iron paling. An ivy matted circular domed roof stone wall encloses the well. It is not known when this enclosure was erected, but the frontage was built by Mr Dan Greene, Building Contractor, Rathcahill, in 1925 … niches were formed in the inside in which a statue of Our Blessed Lord, one of Our Blessed Lady and one of St Joseph are placed. This work was also done by Mr Greene and the statues were supplied by John Harty of New York, better known as the ‘Baron of Broadway’. The work of renovating the well was started by Mr Greene and Mr Denis Shanahan, and £5 was borrowed to help them commence operations.

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A blue painted arch beckons into the circular well surmounted by a trio of niches still complete with saints: only St Joseph seems to have disappeared, replaced by Our Lady holding the infant Jesus.

The well lies below and is circular and full of clear cold water, gently percolating. It holds a cure for sore eyes. Like many wells, there was once a fish living within and, as often happens, it was accidentally scooped up when an ignorant servant came to collect water for the kettle. The water refused to boil and when she looked in she saw the trout. She swiftly returned him to the well but he has apparently not been seen again.

I wonder if it was the same servant who decided to wash her clothes in the well for its original position was about 10metres to the west of where it is now. After the washing incident it dried up, reappearing in its current position.

The main feast day is the 15th August and in the past it attracted enormous crowds and sounded like a lively affair. There is a delightful entry in the Main Folklore Collection which describes the goings on in poetic and colourful language:

People came from all over County Limerick and the neighbouring counties of Cork and Kerry to pay rounds to the well on this day. Canvas-roofed ‘sweet-cars’ and ‘cake cars’ occupy commanding positions at the approaches to the well and the vendors do a ‘roaring trade’ in apples and oranges, gingerbread and lemonade, Black Jack and Peggy’s Leg while the bashful swain may lay bare his heart by presenting his blushing coquette with a penn’orth of Conversation Lozenges. Meanwhile the serious minded are ‘Paying their rounds’. Reciting the Rosary three times while walking round the well to the right is termed a round. Three rounds are paid at each visit after which water is drunk from the well, and the sore eyes, swelled joint or otherwise affected limb … are bathed in water from the well

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I had to Google Conversation Lozenges which are like Love Hearts: sweeties with romantic messages on them. Peggy’s Leg was a cane of candy and Black Jacks were strips of licorice.

After the rounds were completed, the day continued with hurling and camogie at the sports field. Later on, as night approached, the fiddles and melodeons were tuned up and the set dancing began. The same extract refers to the Siege of Ennis and the Rakes of Mallow as favourites!

St Bridget’s Well, Tobar Bride Naomh, Shangarry

By the time we got to Shangarry the heavens opened! Waiting for a brief lull in the weather, and a gap in the traffic thundering down the N21, we ventured down to St Bridget’s Well, Tobar Bride Naomh, clearly signed.

A pleasant avenue leads down to the well, once you’ve got passed all the off putting signage!

The well is astonishing – an artesian spring literally gushing up from underground. Originally the water sprang up from under an old and gnarled whitethorn which has since disappeared. The well basin and paths were renovated in 1931.

The spring bubbles up from its circular basin and is then channelled off in a stream to the left. It holds a cure for sore eyes but is delicious to drink, tasting fresh and silky, arriving at room temperature rather than icy cold! Water from the basin was only used for drinking but sore limbs could be washed in the stream to the left. Unusually, it was also acceptable to take this water to make tea.

Just behind the well is a large shrine containing a life-size statue of St Bridget. This was erected in 1933 by the landowner, Mr James Somers:

Mr Somers was going under an operation and he said that if he got over the operation he would erect a statue after the operation. The statue was erected. Some people take water out of the well home with them and keep it as a token.

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In 1934 Mr Patrick O Shea collected much information about the well from the same Mr Somers, including the appropriate ritual:

A complete round is paid by visiting the well three times and saying three rosaries at each visit. While the prayers are being recited the people walk slowly around the well in such a way that their right hand is always near the well … At the end of the round the following prayer is recited whilst kneeling at the well: Oh Holy St Bridget it is to you I come and I hope through your Holy intercession that my request might be granted.

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The water was then drunk and rags left on the whitethorn, though this practice was discouraged in 1931 when pilgrims were invited instead to leave offerings in a box on the tree. The money collected went towards the cost of the statue. The whitethorn has gone but a small collection box remains – emptied everyday!

The origins of the well are interesting. Apparently St Bridget was returning to Kildare having visited St Ita at Killeedy. She’d left her journeying rather late and the sun was already going down. Fortunately she came across a ringfort and the chieftain (or druid in some stories) welcomed her in. She regaled her host with stories of Jesus and in the morning the chieftain and his family asked to be baptised. St Bridget lifted some handy stones and up gushed the spring, perfect for the baptism.

How wonderful to discover that the the ringfort is still there! Venture past the shrine and a circular area emerges, the remains of the ringfort, today adorned with an interesting bower, surely the seat of the chieftain and his saintly guest. The fort is dated at around 450AD.

The locations of these wells can be found in the Gazetteer.