Travelling hopefully around Tralee

After the enchantment surrounding the adventure to St Erc’s well in the last blog, it is only fair to reveal that not all holy well explorations are so exciting and rewarding. There are about 10 wells around Tralee that I have been intending to visit for years but it’s been hard to muster enthusiasm. Consulting the evidence, they all seemed to be in very obscure, hard to access places. It wasn’t clear whether they even existed and the most I could hope for looked like a damp patch in a field! Still, they deserved a recce.

I was following in the footsteps of Patricia O Hare who visited many holy wells in this area over 25 years ago and recorded what she’d found. Her ensuing paper was published in 2000 in the Journal of Kerry Archaeological and Historical Society, entitled Holy Wells and Other Sites of Pilgrimage within a portion of East Kerry and provided an invaluable place to start my research.

After a couple of days in the field my forebodings proved mainly correct. Many remote and boggy fields were encountered, some interesting discussions ensued with a few humans and a bouncy dog and a golden hare added the interest.

Sunday’s Well, Tobar Rí an Domhnaigh, Boollasallagh

The description in the Archaeological Survey for North Kerry sounded almost promising:

In wet pasture, on a N-facing slope. This well consists of a water-filled depression (1.8m N-S; 1m E-W; D c. 0.6m) with a young tree to the SE and a tree stump to the NW. A modern statue of the Blessed Virgin lies at the base of the young tree and some stones are scattered around nearby. According to local information, ’rounds’ were made here in the past. (O’Hare 2000, 61)

I clambered through fields, missed the path and then saw a promising clump of trees. Ah! I realised I had already visited and recorded this well in a previous meander and must have come at it from a different direction for nothing seemed familiar. As on the first visit, the vegetation was dense and there was no sign of any water or statues. It was good to see that the site was at least offered some recognition by the rickety fencing.

Tobar Muriaha, Molahiffe

This well was once sited near Molahiffe Corn mill and was often used specifically for animals. O Hare described how her informant, Mr Michael Culloty, recalled: that in the spring, any animal that was a bit shook after the winter was brought to the well for a drink of water and was said to improve greatly after.

She encountered a muddy puddle in 2000 but I couldn’t even see that today.

Described as a country house in the Archaeological Survey for North Kerry, this old and interesting house across the road was being renovated. I thought this might have been the mill house but I don’t think it is.

There was also a nicely wrought memorial to Volunteer Mossie Casey who had died here tragically in 1921.

Tobar Lochneáin, Tobar Loughlaun, Cliddaun

On to Cliddaun near Castleisland. Caoimhín O Danachair visited Tobar Loughlaun in 1958 and noted then that the well had not been visited much in in the last 50 years which didn’t sound promising.

When O Hare visited she found a damp depression and recorded that the well was said to cure sore eyes and also contained a blessed trout. Her informant described how the well had been blessed by a holy man called Feidhlim.

Arriving near the site, we first ate a hasty lunch in the car. As we were eating, I saw an elderly man busily trying to get down from some scaffolding near his house and Himself suggested he was the sort of person who might have some useful information. I approached and waited respectfully until he clambered down and tried not to make him jump! We had an enjoyable chat and he recalled that there had once been a well which was reputed to never run dry but suspected it had been covered over now by undergrowth. I followed his instructions but landed up in dense undergrowth and am not certain that this was the place.

The well was traditonally visited on Good Friday and has some folklore attached:

A blind man who lived far away made his way to the well and was cured by the water. A certain Father Loughnane was cured there; he blessed the well and often visited it. A priest’s servant took water for cooking; when the water would not boil a trout was found in it and water and trout were returned to the well. (Danachair The Holy Wells of North Kerry, 1958)

Well of the King of Sunday, Tobar Rí an Domhnaigh, Ballymakegoge, near Fenit  

I didn’t have high hoped for this well either as it was covered over when the Tralee to Fenit railway was built but Danachair recorded that the spring still burst forth. The railway is now a greenway and very much used by runners, cyclists and walkers. I was hoping to find the spring but there was no sign of anything though one walker though there might be a well in the field adjacent to the track – sadly inaccessible as the sheepwire was very high.

Sunday’s Well, Tobar Ri and Domhnaigh, Toberreendoney, Gortdromagownagh, Knockanure

Described as yet another sunken dip somewhere in a field, it turned out that I had also been here before, with no memory of it whatsoever though but I did recall the rather charming and colourful townland name: Gortdromagownagh – the field of the ridge of the milch cows or calves. The field was large and craggy with ankle-breaking tufts and no sign of any well. However, there was an unexpected and rather wonderful encounter. Something sat watching me from afar and as I went slowly forward realised it was a large hare, a rather beautiful light coloured one with white feet. We eyed each other for a moment and then he bounded away – surely Robert keeping an eye on us.

Sunday’s Well, Tobar Rí an Domhnaigh, Tobereedoney, Drombeg, near Listowel

Another tiny lane, and other tufty field but this time I was accompanied by a very big and bouncy dog who thought I was the most exciting thing it had seen all day! I had to resolutely ignore it whilst trying to find: a small spring which is covered over by a circular concrete cover with a wooden hatch to allow access to the water. No sign of anything. This well once moved when clothes were washed in it so maybe it had shifted again.

To make up for a distinct lack of excitement we popped into a well previously visited to check on how it was doing – St Batt’s Well. The site was looking lovely in the cool spring sunshine and everywhere daffodils. The well is a little uncared for and austere – as previously noted it has a not very enticing reddish scum on the water but it’s a peaceful place and obviously still revered.

I’m adding one more well here just because it’s in the right area and it’s a well I visited sometime ago but have not had the opportunity to record before.

Sunday’s Well, Tobar Rí an Domhnaigh, Tobairín, Ballyseedy

This well is a bit of a conundrum. It is situated in a small road just outside the imposing demesne of Ballyseedy Castle, now an attractive hotel. It is tucked into the wall, very easy to miss and is unmarked.

An entry in the main manuscript of the Folklore Collection describes it as remarkable and beautiful:

Almost opposite Mrs. Devare’s house – at the right hand on bank of the Leha (Lee) – just outside the Ballyseedy demesne, in a bit of commonage, on the south side of the Tralee Killamoy road in the townland of Caherbriagh (Cathair Brioghach) is a remarkable well. Thomas O Connor of Seairt (born 1851) says it was called “Tobar Ri an Domhnag”. Nobody else corroborates. It is a small & beautiful clear well. (MM:0035.0466)

It is nicely constructed out of chunky stone bocks and when I visited was full of clear water.

It was once associated with a very lively pattern held on the first Sunday in May:

Some years ago on May Sunday a big crowd used to assemble at Ballyseedy Cross. The small shop-keepers from Tralee used to set up tents, and sell sweets, cakes, apples, etc. The bands from Tralee used to come out. The young boys and girls used to have a dance. “Three Card Trick” men did a lively trade on that day, and games of pitch and toss etc. were played. The “hubby-horse” was brought to it. It usually dashed into the middle of a crowd and snapped hats, caps, etc. each owner had to pay a shilling to get back his or her property. Boys and girls formed a procession and marched to Ballyseedy with the band at their head, and as they proceeded through he town the procession increased. When evening came the people partook of refreshments and took a rest. Then they marched back to town again after the band. People from other districts went home by cars, bicycles etc. very tired but happy after an enjoyable day… (SFC:121: 0442)

The reference to a hubby horse (hobby horse) is very interesting and this is the only pattern where I’ve come across it. To me, it seems a very English thing and I instantly thought of Padstow in Cornwall where two obby osses dance down the streets on May Morning. Was the Ballyseedy hubby horse something like this? Robert was also intrigued by this phenomenon and wrote about it in this blog in Roaringwater Journal.

Oddly devotions to the well seem to have died out and its not clear if rounds were ever paid there, though the pattern continued until fairly recently.

A Pattern is held on the first Sunday in May. near at hand at the Cross, but there are no rounds ever there. It supplies water to the whole neighbourhood. Thomas Brosnan (born 1846) of Ballynahinch says he heard this well called some name as “Tobar a weaon keen” (an aomcinn? éincaoin?). He never heard of any rounds paid there. He believed that people used only be “maying” there i. e., dancing, drinking, arguing and fighting…. (MM: 0035:0466)

The reasons suggested for the demise in interest in the well are varied. This account describes how the road was just too small to cope with the crowds and festivities moved to the Cross:

When Blennerhassett opened his demense for the “Patron” day, the people were taken away still further from the road & well. The road at “Tobar Rí an Domhnaig” is only ordinary width & is not suitable for a great concourse of people. Hence presumably the reason why in the first instance the crowd moved to “Cathair Brioghach” cross & forgot the well. (cross & well are about only a hundred yards apart) … No one ever now associates the May day assembly with the Well, called “Tobairín”. (ibid)

Another puts forward a more disturbing reason:

For the past seventeen or eighteen years the number of people going to Ballyseedy on May Sunday had dwindled, and some years nobody went there…. The reason for this is that a number of men were cruelly killed near the spot by being blown up in a mine, and people feel that it is not a suitable place for enjoyment. (SFC:121:0442)

It is impossible to come to Ballyseedy without thinking about the barbaric atrocity that took place near here in 1923 during the Irish Civil War. On March 7, 1923, nine anti-Treaty IRA prisoners were taken in a truck from their prison in Ballymullen Barracks in Tralee, and, on the orders of the Free State National Army, roped together around a landmine and literally blown up. This was in reprisal for the killing of five Free State soldiers the day before. The nine men were Patrick Buckley from Scartaglin, John Daly from Castleisland, Pat Hartnett from Listowel, George O’Shea, Tim Tuomey and Stephen Fuller from Kilflynn, James Walsh of Churchill, Michael O’Connell from Castleisland, and John O’Connor from Innishannon, Co Cork. Eight men died but incredibly, one man, Stephen Fuller, was thrown into a ditch by the blast, unseen by the soldiers, and survived. The official story was that the men had died whilst attempting to defuse a devise they themselves had set. Fuller finally revealed the true horrific story many years later.

The massacre is commemorated with a powerful bronze sculpture designed and cast by Jann Renard Goulet. Goulet was born in St Nazaire and was an active and passionate member of the Breton National Movement. During the Second World War he fought for the French but after he was captured by the Germans, he was elected leader of Bagadou Stourm, a Breton stormtrooper group with German associations. At one point during the War he seems to have been wanted by by the Gestapo, the Vichy government and the French Resistance! In 1947 he and his family fled to Ireland and in 1952 took Irish citizenship. The sculpture was not specifically designed for Ballyseedy but had been created a few years later and never used. It can perhaps be interpreted as a general memorial to Irish Republicanism.

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