Sister, Wife, Mother, Saint: St Darerca of Valentia

St Darerca’s Well, also known as Sunday’s Well, Tobar Rí an Domhnaigh, is situated on scenic Valentia Island in Kerry. I had come across this attractive image taken in 1955 and hoped that it might still remain but two previous searches had been fruitless. This time I was determined to track it down.

Having already had a pretty epic adventure going over to Illaunlaughan, the day still had hours in it and we headed to Valentia. A wander up a long track looked hopeful but it proved to be a false alarm. I had an enjoyable chat with a lady who lived nearby. She directed me to the landowner of the well site who lived in a bungalow next door, its name looked promising.

Steve was mowing his lawn but stopped for the chat and kindly gave permission for us to carry on up the hillside to where he assured us the well still existed.

The views as we climbed Coombe Hill were magnificent, that’s Portmagee behind us but in front of us, tucked into the slope lay St Darerca’s Well.

In 1911 MJ Delap described the well:

On the lands of Mr J Ó Donoghue, Ballymanagh, 1 mile from Knightstown, and about 400 yards to the SW of the public road is the well called Tobar Rí an Domhnaigh (and also St Darerca’s Well). It is covered with a rudely-built pent-house of rough stones and surrounded by many offerings and tokens of ’rounds’ performed there.

Delap, MJ, Some Holy Wells on Valencia and Portmagee, Kerry Archaeological Magazine, Vol 1, no 7 , 1911

The pent-house remains, neatly constructed out of layers of flat stones but it seems to have lost some of its domed roof and the cross. A slab lies horizontally across the well like small altar.

The water emerges from underneath the slab, cold and with a respectable abundance, flowing in muddy rivulets down the hillside.

Another photo from Failte Ireland Collection gives a different view of the well – has the flat kneeling stone shown below now become the raised slab of today? An intriguing cluster of saintly statues peep from within, as described by Delap.

Today a few modest offerings remain inside the well – a candlestick, a small medal, the burnt remains of a tealight – all now gathering mossiness.

A remote yet scenic spot but who was St Darerca? Not a huge amount seems to be known about her but the snippets of information and folklore that survive present some intriguing glimpses. She is patron of Valentia Island and is usually described as being the sister to St Patrick, as MJ Delap confirms:

St Darerca is patroness of the island and the Chapletown Church is dedicated to her. She was a sister of St. Patrick and was married to Restitutus. The Lombard Restitutus and his six brothers are supposed to have come to Ireland with St Patrick about 432 AD.

Ibid

She was married twice, first to Restitutus the Lombard, as described by Delap, and then to Chonas the Briton. Rather astonishingly she seems to have produced as many as 17 sons and possibly four daughters! Even more impressively each son became a bishop and at least two of the daughters became saints. Somehow St Darerca also managed to found a monastery, or more likely a convent, possibly once sited somewhere up here near the well as described in this entry from the Schools’ Folklore Collection:

Ballymanagh or Monkstown is situated on the eastern side of the island. This townland is very rich. This is how it got its name. ‘St Patrick’ had a niece named Dairerca. He sent her to this Island because he thought that the pagans would do her a disservice. She established a monastery there in this domain. It had a lot of monks in it and from then on it was called ‘Baile Mánach. There is now a blessed well where the monastery once stood.

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According to the Tripartite Life of St Patrick, written sometime in the ninth century, she was also renowned for her needlework and had time to embroider altar cloths for her brother! How did she find the time?

St Darerca’s feast day is the 22nd March, once celebrated in style on the island but according to Pádraig Ó Riain ( A Dictionary of Irish Saints) the pattern had died out by 1850, probably due to the reasons given below:

St. Dererca was a sister to St. Patrick. She came with a number of nuns to Valentia and they had a convent in Ballymanagh. The well in which the nuns used get the water is called ‘St Dererca’s well’. Formerly a ‘pattern’ used to held at this well; but at that time intoxicating drinks were very cheap and several people were drunk at the pattern. The priests then ordered the pattern to be discontinued.

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Steve told us that a Mass had been celebrated here as part of the Millennium celebrations and obviously someone still visits. I’m with Robert from Roaringwater Journal, St Darerca deserves a revival.

The nearby well of St Helena, Tobar Naomh Eléan, remains elusive. Steve said it had virtually disappeared under the furze and although I tried to access the next field, was unable to find a way in.

Many thanks to Steve for allowing us access to the well.

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