A quick note on a medieval baptisimal font at Ballybacon, Co. Tipperary

About two weeks ago I finally got to visit the beautiful medieval baptismal font at Ballybacon Co. Tipperary. I first came across an article on the font (M. Cahill and E. Twohig, Baptismal Font from Ballybacon Old Church, Co. Tipperary , Journal of the Cork Archaeological and Historical Society , 81, 1976, 92-3, fig.1) when I was doing research for my MA thesis on the Rian Bó Phádraig in 2000. I have always wanted to see the font    in person and after several failed attempts  I finally managed to achieve my goal.

The front panel of the medieval font, showing floral decoration.

The font  is smaller than I imagined but very impressive. It is rectangular in shaped and carved from a single piece of fine grained granite it measures 32cm in height x 58cm wide x 56cm deep. The interior is also rectangular with a central drain hole. All the outside faces of the font are decorated in low relief with circular and floral pattern which is very pretty. The underside of the font has a large circular depression 0.32 m in diameter which could suugest  that it rested on a single columnar base.  Pike (1979, 9) suggests that the font is ‘pre-conquest’ while Cahill and Twohig (1976) date it to the mid-to late- 13th century. Today the font sits on a small wooden table in the modern parish church at Ballybacon.

Side panel of the medieval font, showing a floral motif

Originally  the font was located at the nearby medieval parish church of Ballybacon in the townland of Raheen. The church is today covered in ivy it has a simple undivided plan and is aligned E-W, and probably of 13th-century date, built of roughly coursed limestone and sandstone rubble, with a base-batter (Farrelly 2011).

Google earth map showing the modern and medieval parish churches of Ballybacon, Co. Tipperary.

Ballybacon or Baile Uí Phéacháin in Irish means  “O’Peakin’s Homestead”. It is interesting to note that there is a site  dedicated to a saint to St Peacáin/Beagán at Toureen Peakaun (Kilpeacan)  located in the parish of Kilardry, Co Tipperary. It may be possible to speculate that Ballybacon church was originally dedicated to this saint and there was an earlier church here prior to the 13th century.  Tentative evidence to support this idea  is the  presence of a possible early medieval cross slab at the site and the fact that the church is located beside the  townland boundary of Glebe and Raheen. Many early medieval churches were located in boundary positions and the kink in the road beside the site is very curved and may suggest the presence of a circular enclosure.

the ruins of the medieval church at Ballybacon.

According to a local man Francis Carrigan the font was removed at some point to a nearby farm where it was used as a tough for pigs.  It was later rescued and returned to the medieval church before it was moved  in 1975 a few hundred yards away to the modern parish church where it resides today.

References

Cahill, M. &. Twohig, E. 1976. ‘Baptismal Font from Ballybacon Old Church, Co. Tipperary’ , Journal of the Cork Archaeological and Historical Society , 81, 92-3, fig.1.

Farrelly, J. 2011. ‘Church at Ballybacon ‘. http://webgis.archaeology.ie/NationalMonuments/FlexViewer/accessed 28/02/2012.

Garton, T. 2008. ‘Ballybacon, Tipperary’, http://www.crsbi.ac.uk/search/county/site/id-ti-balba.html accessed 18/09/2012.

Pike, J. 1979. Medieval Fonts of Ireland, privately published, Greystones, 9.

Power,P. 1937. Waterford and Lismore – A Compendious History of the United Dioceses, Cork, 71.

Lady well or Tobar Mhuire in Modeligo, Co Waterford

The village of Modeligo has one of the nicest holy wells,  it is  a real gem. The well like the parish church is dedicated to the Blessed Virgin and local people still gather here on the 15th of August the Feast of the Assumption, to say the rosary.

Medieval Parish church at Medeligo, Co. Waterford

The Ordnance Survey maps record the well as Lady well, while Forsayeth in 1911 says the well was known as Tobar Beannuighthe. Beary also writing in 1911 notes that local people referred to the well as Tobar Mhuire or Mary’s well. Today local people just call it the Holy well.

I first heard about this well from a friend Gillian McCarthy who happens to be from Modeligo and for the last two years I have been trying to visit. Finally in August 2012, I was able to visit and Gillian kindly gave my mum and I a guided tour of the village and the well, which is located in the townland of Knockgarraun a short distance from the local community centre, in farmland own by Gillian’s father Roger.

Lane way leading to Holy Well

The main focus of devotion at the well is the 15th of August and a pattern day is held in the village around this date but it is now a separate event to devotions at the well. The pattern appears to be a revival of an older tradition as in 1911 it was recorded that the pattern day;

‘used to take place here in olden times. People may still be seen to congregate on the aforesaid date, and they invariably hang mementoes, the shape of rags and other objects on the ancient hawthorn that grows beside the well’ (Fortheysth 1911, 187).

This year mass was to be said for the first time at the well but it was cancelled like many other events this summer due to the torrential rain and wind.  To get to the well you have to park at the community centre and walk down a long grassy boreen which leads into farmland. The well is located on steep slope on a rock outcrop that overlooks the Finisk River.

The well is a roughly circular hollow in the rock outcrop, the result of natural erosion by rainwater. The water within the well is a result of the hollow filling with rain water. Coming up to 15th of August a member of the McCarthy family will clean out the well getting rid of any algae growing in the water.

Forsayeth (1911, 186) noted that when the well was emptied a cross carved into the base was visible and Gillian confirms seeing this.

The hawthorn tree mentioned above still grows beside the well and Gillian’s father Roger, told me that rags and rosary beads were tied to the tree up to the 1960’s but the tradition has died out now.

Image of the Holy Well in 1911 ( Forsayeth 1911, 186).

Little is known about the well prior to the early twentieth century, Lewis writing in 1837 about the parish noted ‘There is a vitriolic spring in the parish the water of which is clear and sharp’.

Smith in his book the The Ancient and Present State of the County and City of Waterford in 1746 notes

‘On the south side of the parish lies the church; and near it, is a reputed holy well’

A local elderly lady called Mrs Cronin of Knocknageragh (a nearby townland) told Beary in 1911

‘ The rounds were made here. The water of this well may be used for any purpose, such as applying or pouring on the head, or rubbing on parts of the body, and some sup it out of the palm of the hand…. The rounds each time however, are finished  at the flowing spring well 60 yards below, on the flat Inch, and near the brink of the Finisc River. Here  three  sups or swallows are to be taken in honour of the Blessed Trinity’

The tradition of going to the Trinity well has died out in the area and I only came aware of the wells existence following my visit so I wasn’t able to seek it out.

View of the River Finisk from the Holy Well

Another very interesting fact about Lady well is that according to folklore from the 19th century this well  has moved its location in the past.

It was originally in the townland of Scart on the land of a Mr Healy and was resorted to for a cure for bad eyes and blindness.

‘….Mr. Healy used to hear all the people that was cured at this well talking about the well. So he told his steward to take a blind horse he had to the well. But the steward wouldn’t take the horse, so he had to take him himself to the well. So the horse got his sight back there and then, and Mr. Healy, who had  the impudence to take a dumb animal to the well, was struck blind himself, and the well disappeared. So there was no trace of the well to be found where it was. But after some days the well was found where it is at present, up a boreen under the chapel of Modelligo’  (Ussher 1914, 120).

There is another tradition which  states that it was a one Cromwell’s men who led his blind horse to the well in mockery and to test out the healing waters of the well, the horse was cured the solider stuck blind and the well up and moved to Modelligo (Forsayeth 1911, 187).

Bibliography

Beary, M, 1911. ‘Holy Well at Modeligo’JRSAI  Ser. 6, Vol. I, 393-394.

Forsayeth, G. 1911. ‘Holy well near Modeligo, Co. Waterford.’  JRSAI  Ser. 6, Vol. I,  186-187.

Lewis, S. A. 1837. A topographical dictionary of Ireland.

 Smith, C. 1746. The Ancient and Present State of the County and City of Waterford:

  Being a Natural, Civil, Ecclesiastical, Historical and Topographical Description

  Thereof. Dublin: Printed by A. Reilly.

Usher, E. 1914. ‘Waterford Folklore 1’, Vol. 25, No. 1 (Mar. 31, 1914),  109-121.

The Pattern Day at Clonmacnoise

The ecclesiastical complex at Clonmacnoise is truly an amazing place. Founded by St Ciarán in 545, the site  developed into a vast ecclesiastical complex and became one of the great power houses of the medieval church in Ireland.

Aerial photo of Clonmacnoise (from http://www.athlonespringshotel.com/attractions.htm)

I have  visited Clonmacnoise on many occasions and each time I spend hours walking around , there really is so much to see here.

Plan of the ecclesiastical complex at Clonmacnoise

This visit coincided with the Pattern Day celebrations of St Ciarán’s feast day on the 9th of September. Clonmacnoise is one of the very few Irish ecclesiastical sites to have an unbroken tradition of pilgrimage that stretches from the 6th /7thcentury to modern times. The history of pilgrimage during the early to late medieval period and  the early modern period is very interesting and complex and is best discussed in more detail in another blog post.

 

According to the Clonmacnoise Heritage Centre there are two special days of devotion here at Clonmacnoise. The Church of Ireland hold an open air  service on the last Sunday in July which I hope to attend next year, while the annual St Ciarán’s Pattern Day  is held on the third Sunday in September, or if possible celebrated on the 9th of September (St Ciarán’s feast day) as it was yesterday.

 

Pilgrims beginning to arrive for the Pattern day

 

The Pattern celebrations began around 3pm. From around 2.30 pm people began to come into the main ecclesiastical complex in small groups and before  the main celebrations began there must have been well over a 100- 150 people present. A local man I spoke too said that even more people would normally be present but  the All Ireland final between Kilkenny and Galway had kept many away.

Unlike the pilgrimage I documented earlier this year at St Mullins, pilgrims were spread out around the site. A large group of people were seat on chairs in front of the open air oratory, which was  built for Pope John Paul II ‘s visit in 1979,

Pilgrims seated in front of the open air oratory

Pilgrims seated in front of the open air oratory

the rest of the pilgrims were scattered among the gravestones and the ruins of other churches at the site.

 

Pilgrims scattered around the ruins of the churches

Like the  Pattern at St Mullins, there is also a social element to this occasion,  this it is time for people to catch  up and chat, it is also a time for people to remember those who have died. Many of  people who attended the pattern also visit the graves of loved ones buried within the main complex and the modern graveyard beside it. Visiting of the graves takes place  before and after the Pattern Day mass.

 

During the nineteenth century and up to recent times   St Ciarán’s well, located a short distance away on the Shannonbridge road,  was a central part of the Pattern Day.  According to one lady that I spoke too,  mass and the stations here are now the main focus of pilgrims  but  some people still visit the well on the saints feast before or after the mass.

St Ciarán’s Holy Well

 

Clonmacnoise is part of the Catholic Diocese of Ardagh and Clonmacnoise.  St Ciarán is one of the patron saints of this diocese. The pilgrimage  is an import part of the Diocesan Calendar, so much so that  the Bishop of Colm O’Reilly officiated at the mass, aided by 11 priests.

The pilgrimage began with the procession of the ‘Pilgrim Cross’ (a processional cross) around the  monastic complex while the rosary was recited.

Pilgrim Cross being carried in procession to the first station

Local people were invited to join in the procession but most preferred to pray where they were and only a small group of people joined in the procession. The first station began at the small oratory known as Temple Ciarán, the  traditional burial-place of St Ciarán.

 

The first station at Tempel Ciarán

The Pilgrim Cross then  moved  to the second station at the top of the enclosure  among the gravestones.

The second station among the gravestones

 

The cross was then carried on to the third station at the Cross of the Scriptures opposite the Cathedral church.

The third station at the Cross of the Scriptures

 

The Pilgrim Cross then moved on to the fourth station was at the Round Tower.

The fourth station at the Round Tower

 

The Pilgrim Cross was then brought on procession down to Temple Connor the fifth station. This is the only church at Clonmacnoise which is still use, built in 1010 by Cathal O’Conor, it has been used as a place of worship by the Church of Ireland since the eighteenth century and services are still held here.

Procession past Temple Connor, the fifth station

The stations ended with the bishop reciting a litany of the saints of Ireland .  The mass began and  just as the sermon was being delivered by Fr Liam Hickey PP of St Ciaran’s parish Hartstown , Dublin, who was originally from this  area, the heavens opened and the Clonmacnoise became a very pretty sea of colourful umbrellas.

The umbrellas come out with the rain

As quickly as it began the rain cleared away. As the mass continued a few curious tourists looked on taking photos, perhaps wondering what was happening.

Bishop O’Reilly giving communion to the pilgrims

 

Looking around at the Clonmacnoise I really felt like the site was transformed from a museum into a living place belonging to the community. There was also a real sense of history and tradition, the pilgrims scattered around the site were following the same age-old traditions of their ancestors,  arriving here to celebrate St Ciarán just as their parents and grandparents had done before them and their parents before them and so on. As I will discuss in another post on Clonmacnoise the pilgrim rituals have changed through the centuries but the core act of pilgrimage, the community coming together in honour of their saint  on his feast day is unchanged and I feel really lucky to have been here to experience this.

 

Pilgrims praying during mass at the Clonmacnoise Pattern Day

 

 

Medieval Pilgrimage at Hollywood Co. Wicklow

Hollywood,  Co Wicklow could not be further from its glitzy namesake in Los Angeles. This  quiet rural village is  a really interesting place and has its own unique charm. There is much about the history of pilgrimage at  Hollywood that we do not know, but I firmly believe that this little village played a very important role in the early and later medieval  pilgrimage  landscape of the King’s River Valley and was a stop  for pilgrims en-route to the shrine of St Kevin at Glendalough.

Hollywood Co. Wicklow.

Located at one of the main entry points into the King’s River Valley, the village is traditionally held to be the starting point of St Kevin’s road, a well known medieval pilgrim route .  The route of St Kevin’s road cuts through the Wicklow Mountains via the King’s River and the Glendassan Valleys. The road  linked Hollywood to the ecclesiastical site of Glendalough. Over the centuries countless pilgrims would have passed through Hollywood when travelling to Glendalough.

Unfortunately  there are few historical sources relating to Hollywood. The first mention of the area is in a charter granting land and the right to build a castle here, to the de Marisco family in 1192 (Price 1983, 207-08). All that remains of the castle is a large Medieval Motte located at the edge of the modern village.

View of Motte from St Kevin's Bed

View of Motte from St Kevin’s Bed

The charter and subsequent documents refer to Hollywood as Bosco Sancto or ‘holy wood’  interestingly a later sixteenth century source refers to the area as Cillín Chaoimhín or the little church of St Kevin. This late reference confirms links with St Kevin the founder of Glendalough and alludes to the existence of a church and cult associated with the saint. I believe that this association has a much earlier history. Folklore suggests that St Kevin spent time here in retreat before he headed across the Wicklow mountains and founded the ecclesiastical site of Glendalough. It is possible that a small church or hermitage may have existed at Hollywood  in the early medieval period. The earliest mention to a church at Hollywood is found in a thirteenth century charter but  no physical traces of the medieval church survive. Its location is likely to be the site of the seventeenth century Church of Ireland.

The seventeenth century church built on the site of the earlier medieval church at Hollywood.

Five  medieval cross slabs dating to the thirteenth-early fourteenth century are to be found in its surrounding graveyard and they represent the only visible evidence of  medieval ecclesiastical activity  (Price 1983, 208; 216; Corlett 2003, 99-100; 105).

Medieval Cross Slab at Hollywood

Medieval Cross Slab at Hollywood.

All traces of past pilgrimage are located a short distance from this church in an E-W running valley at the edge of the village.

The Village of Hollywood after google maps

The valley containing the pilgrim stations, is located below the village of Hollywood.

The  aforementioned Norman Motte (site of the de Marisco castle) is found at the entrance to the valley. The Motte overlook a mini pilgrim landscape of two natural caves and a boulder all linked to St Kevin. Although the earliest records of pilgrimage date to the nineteenth century the strong folklore tradition linking the area to St Kevin and its location on the route of St Kevin’s road  suggests that this place would have held significance for passing pilgrims during the early and later medieval period.

View of St Kevin's Cave and St Kevin's Bed from valley floor

View of St Kevin’s Cave and St Kevin’s Bed from valley floor

The two natural caves known as St Kevin’s Cave and St Kevin’s Bed  are sited on a steep east-facing cliff face. I have  visited the caves on a number of occasions, winter is definitely the easiest time to approach them as vegetation is low. The climb is steep and challenging.

  St Kevin’s Cave  is the larger of the two caves.

St Kevin's Cave

St Kevin’s Cave

I found some  graffiti at the back of the cave in 2006 ‘Help me Lord to find my home’ a simple Latin cross was painted over this inscription,  when I visited  again this summer the inscription had  faded and the cross had disappeared.

Graffiti at back of St Kevin's Cave

Graffiti at back of St Kevin’s Cave (2012)

Close by is St Kevin’s Bed,  a narrow  vertical shaft   that leads  through the rock above .  St Kevin spent time in both caves and supposedly  used to sleep here.

The entrance to St Kevin’s Bed

St Kevin’s chair is located on the floor the valley, directly opposite the caves . The boulder is hard to see despite its size, I always seem to walk past it.  According to  the Ordnance Survey Name Books (1840’s) St Kevin, in a fit of rage, threw the rock/chair from St Kevin’s Cave at a woman who annoyed him. Irish saints were not known for their patience.   Sitting on the “chair”  was supposed to  cure   backache.

The stone known as St Kevin’s Chair.

It should be noted that  the pilgrim rituals  at Glendalough included  visiting a cave known as St Kevin’s Bed and a piece of natural rock called St Kevin’s chair . I am hoping to dig a little deeper into the history and folklore of the area in the coming months and I would be delighted to hear from anyone who has any other information on the area and past pilgrimages here.

Bibliography

Corlett, C. 2003. ‘The Hollywood Slabs- some late medieval grave slabs from West Wicklow and neighbouring Counties’, JRSAI vol. 133, 86-110.

Nugent, L. 2009. Pilgrimage in Medieval Ireland, AD 600-1600. Unpublished PhD Thesis.

Price, L. 1940. ‘Glendalough: St. Kevin’s Road’, In Ryan, J. (ed.) FéilSgríbhinn

  Éoin Mhic Néil. Dublin: Four Courts Press, 244-71.

Price, L.  1983(reprint 1953). The Place-names of Co. Wicklow. Vol. IV-The Barony

  of Talbotstown Lower. Dublin: Dublin Institute For Advanced Studies.

Recent Excavations at the Upper Lake at Glendalough

The ecclesiastical settlement at Glendalough, Co. Wicklow   was one of Ireland’s most important centres of pilgrimage from the early medieval period to the 19th century. I have visited this site on many  occasions  and each time I see something that I havent noticed before.

St Kevin’s Church at Glendalough

This visit  luckily coincided with the  School of Archaeology  UCD, research excavation at the upper lake.  This excavation is  part of a research and teaching project focusing on the Glendalough Valley which has been on going since 2009.  This year their team of archaeologists and students are doing  a geophysical survey at an area called the pattern bank close to the round tower at the lower lake and they are excavating a number of trenches at the upper lake.  One of the trenches contains a  possible  medieval leacht. The  leacht was part of the post medieval pilgrim landscape and excavation will prove if it was also part of the  medieval pilgrim landscape.

Excavation of Leacht at Upper Lake Glendalough

The progress of the dig is being is being up dated daily  on the Glendalough Archaeology Blog  http://www.ucdblogs.org/glendalougharchaeologyproject/blog/

I cant wait to follow the progress and see what the dig uncovers.

Tobar Íosa (Jesus’s Well) Cahir, Co. Tipperary.

Tobar Íosa (Jesus’s well) is located in the townland of Caherabbey Upper on the outskirts of the town of Cahir in Co Tipperary. I came across it by accident a year ago.

The well is located at the end of a small residential laneway. The field where the well is located can be entered through a gate and there is  a small  stone with a Latin cross, in relief sitting on top of the entrance wall.

Latin cross at entrance to Tobar Íosa

According to Power (1908, 23) this stone is post medieval in date having been ‘cut and placed’ there by Roger Sheehy in the late 1800’s.

Once through the gate one follows a small track which widens out into a rectangular shaped area and it is here that the well is located.

Track leading to holy well

In 1908 Power noted that the well ‘was surrounded by a patch of swamp now drained’. This work was carried out at some point in the nineteenth century.

Today the site consists of a small altar of sandstone with an early medieval cross slab with two crosses. A simple Latin cross is found at the top of the stone and a larger Latin cross in a circle if found underneath. Power noted that this early medieval cross slab  was found ‘many years ago together with the smaller rude cross, in a bog close to the Bansha road, a full half mile from the well’ by Roger Sheehy (1908, 23). I couldn’t see any trace of the smaller  cross at the site.

Altar with early medieval cross slab

Tradition  holds that the altar  was used to say mass  in Penal times. In 2009 the altar was vandalised the local newspaper the Nationalist reported  ‘the altar stones now lie smashed at the bottom of the shallow well’. The altar has since been restored and an illustration of the altar in the JRSAI  for 1899 suggests it has changed little and any reconstruction has been sympathetic.

Upper Well at Tobar Íosa

The holy well consists of a natural spring surrounded by a circular stone structure with steps(SW) leading down into the water, two outflow holes let water flow into a rectangular pool surround by a stone wall.

View of rectangular trough known as the lower well that is attached to the circular well

The two parts of the well are known as the upper (circular part ) and lower well (rectangular part). The water flows out of the rectangular trough/well and flows as a small stream  which  joins a larger stream c. 20m to SE.  The structure that surrounds the well looks relatively modern and is likely 19th century in date.

Rag bush beside the well

The well is still visited by local people and I am hoping to find out more about local devotions here in the coming months. Traditionally the  pattern day at the well was held on Christmas eve, some local people still continue this tradition.  According to the Nationalist newspaper in 2009 ‘There is a rosary here on every first Saturday of the month’.

At the turn of the last century Power (1908) noted the following prayer was recited at the well

Go m-beannuidhe Dia Dhuit,

A Íosa Naomtha,

Tána mé go dtí  thú a’ghearán  Mo scéil duit,

A d’iarraidh cabhair i gcúntas Dé Uait,

go mbeannuidhe Di mise,

Íosa beannuigthe Naomhte.

I place myself in your presence

O Holy God and Holy Jesus,

To make known my problem

Asking help through the power of God,

Bless me O God,

And Holy Jesus bless me too.

According to an information plaque at the entrance of the site three pebbles were taken by pilgrims from the upper well, in remembrance of devotions made. Generations of Cahir people emigrating took away bottles of water and pebbles from the well before their departure as did British soldiers based in the former Kilcommon Barracks before going to war.

Prayer beside altar at Tobar Íosa

This is a really interesting sites and I plan to investigate further and see if I can find out more about it in the coming months so watch the space.

References

Anon. 2009. ‘Outrage as Cahir holy well is desecrated’ Nationalist newspaper March [on line] http://www.nationalist.ie/news/local/outrage-as-cahir-holy-well-is-desecrated-1-2242848 [accessed 23/08/2012].

Power, Rev. P 1908. The Place-names of Decies . London: David Nutt, 23

Power, rev. P. 1937. Waterford &f Lismore. A Compendious History of the United Dioceses. Cork: Cork University Press, 99.

Smith, N. 1899. ‘Holy Well and Antiquities near Cahir, Co. Tipperary’  The Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland, Fifth Series, Vol. 9, No. 3, pp. 258-259.

Update on St Aidan’s Well at Preban Co. Wicklow

Following my post on St Aidan’s well at Preban, I have been doing some investigation to see if I can find out anymore about the history of well.

St Aidan’s Well at Preban Co. Wicklow

I have not  found any historical references to the well but I did come across a very interesting article called  ‘The Holy Wells of County Wicklow: Traditions and Legends’ written by Geraldine Lynch which helps put the well in a  county wide context.

Lynch’s article is based on material collected from oral traditions in the 1930’s such as the Irish Folklore commissions school’s manuscripts achieved in the Department of Folklore at UCD along with nineteenth century information from Ordnance Survey six-inch maps, letters and namebooks which were all compiled in the 1830’s. Lynch (1994) records 106 holy wells in Wicklow, sixty-two of which are dedicated to Saints and Deity. As I suspected St Aidan’s well is not listed in this article nor  is it listed in the County Inventory of 1997. Lynch notes St Brigid is the most popular dedication of holy wells in Wicklow followed closely by SS Kevin and Patrick and  she records no other dedication to St Aidan in the entire county (1994, 626).

The article states  forty per cent of Wicklow wells are located near church property, with a number located in graveyards  or  located near the ruins of a church or monastery.  Interestingly  44 per cent of the Wicklow wells are associated with a holy tree (Lynch 1994, 626- 630). Like these wells,  St Aidan’s well is located close to an early medieval ecclesiastical site and it is also associated with a former rag tree .

Bibliography

Grogan, E & Kilfeather, A. 1997. Archaeological Inventory of County Wicklow. Dublin: The Stationery Office.

Lynch, G. 1994. ‘The Holy Wells of County Wicklow: Traditions and Legends’, In  Hannigan, K. & Nolan, W. (eds.) Wicklow: history  and society: interdisciplinary essays on the history of an Irish county. Dublin: Geography Publications, 625-648.

Scattery Island. A place of prayer, battle and beauty!

I am delighted to introduce   my first guest post written by Maggie McNamara .  Maggie is an archaeologist based in Co Clare who has a great interest  in archaeology and history of  Scattery Island also known as Inis Cathaigh.

Scattery Island (Inis Cathaigh), a beautiful historic island located in the mouth of the Shannon estuary, off the coast of Kilrush Co. Clare, is home to a monastery founded by St. Senan in the early 6th century.

View of Scattery Island

Legend tells us that Senan was placed on the island by an angel where he had to defeat a terrifying monster called Cathach hence the name Inis Cathaigh. The island contains evidence of intensive religious activity represented by the ruins of 6 churches, a round tower and holy well. It is said that there were 7 churches here at one stage if not more. An important religious settlement and place of learning in medieval times, administering to a diocese in the 12th century, associated with monastic possessions such as the Golden Bell (7th-8th century) and Bell Shrine (12th century) and a strong cult of Senan which survives to the present day. The saint is also said to have founded monastic cells in Brittany, Wales and Cornwall as well as at other Irish sites in Enniscorthy and Cork and on Mutton and Canon Islands in Co. Clare. Connections with other monastic foundations are known, most notably Clonmacnoise. The church ruins date to between the 7th and 15th centuries and display much fine stonework and a number of carved faces including representations of a bishop and kings. The round tower dates to the 10th century and is unusual in that it is one of only two in the country with its door at ground level.

Round Tower and St Senan’s church at Scattery Island

There is also a 10th century cross slab containing the inscription ‘A prayer for moinach, tutor of mogroin’ and an undated ogham stone.

St. Senan is said to have died  here in 544 on March 8th. In post medieval times pilgrimage took place here on Easter Monday and the 8th March, the saint’s feast day. Although there are no direct references to pilgrimage in medieval times, the modern pilgrimage is very likely to be a continuation of a medieval tradition.

The pilgrimage involved rounds of the island, starting on the shore and moving to the various churches and other points on the island, finishing at the holy well (located close to the round tower). The well is said to cure eye ailments and was an important focus for the islanders. The saint’s grave was also supposed to be the site of miraculous cures. The Life of St Senan states that the

Stones from St. Senan’s Bed were regarded as relics and a protection against diseases and especially drowning.

The Parliamentary Gazeteer of Ireland for 1845 noted

“A holy well in the island,” says Mr. Hely Dutton, “is resorted to by great numbers of devotees, who, as they term it, take their rounds about it annually on their bare knees; and it is a frequent practice for those who cannot conveniently perform this penance, to pay at this and other holy wells a trifling gratuity to some persons to perform this ceremony for them; I have known a woman to make a trade of this mummery. The common people have a great veneration for this island and its ruins; they carry pebbles taken from it as preservatives against shipwreck, and the boatmen will not navigate a boat that has not taken a round about Scattery in a course opposite the sun.”

Interior of St Senan’s church

The island has seen much turmoil over the centuries having been raided numerous times by the Vikings, Irish and Anglo Normans. The Vikings had a stronghold here in the mid 10th century. Other features on the island include a late 16th century tower house, 19th century battery and lighthouse and a 19th-20th century village, home to river pilots and fisher-farmers up to the late 1970’s. A place of prayer, battle and beauty!

References

Anon. 1845 The Parliamentary Gazeteer of Ireland, 1845. [online] http://www.clarelibrary.ie/eolas/coclare/places/scattery_1845.htm [accessed 3/04/2012]

Local studies Project (no date) Scattery Island [on line] http://www.clarelibrary.ie/eolas/coclare/people/life_of_senan.htm

[accessed 4/08/2012].

Hedderman, Fr. S. Life of St Senan, Bishop, Patron Saint of West Clare [on line] http://www.clarelibrary.ie/eolas/coclare/people/chapter8.htm [accessed 4/08/2012].

Westropp, T. J. 1905. ‘Iniscatha (1188-1420)’ in Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland, vol xxxv .

Westropp, T. J. 1897. ‘Descriptive sketch of places visited: Scattery Island and Canons’ Island, Co. Clare in Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland, vol. xxvii .

Westropp, T. J. 1915, ‘Ancient remains on the west coast of Co. Clare: St Senan’s bell shrine’ in Journal of the North Munster Archaeological Society, vol.iii, no. 4 .

Pilgrimage at St Declan’s Well, Toor, Co. Waterford

St Declan’s Well at Toor in Co. Waterford, has a special significance for me as my grandmother, who was originally from the area, visited the well throughout her life (even when living in another county).

St Declan’s Well

According to folklore St Declan  stopped here while en route to Cashel to quenched his thirst and it was this act that blessed the waters (Komen no date). I was unable to find any references to the well prior to the twentieth century, but the dedication to St Declan a pre-patrician saint suggests it is of some antiquity and  it may have originally attracted pilgrims only from the local area.

Statue of St Declan at Toor

Changing landscape of the Well

The modern landscape of the well is relatively recent. The statues, the structure where mass is said, the outdoor pulpit, are all additions dating to the 1950’s -1960’s. The coniferous plantation which surrounds the well is also modern. Thanks to the permission of Waterford County Museum I have included a number of photos of what the site was like in the 1950’s which show these changes.

Pilgrims praying at St Declan’s Well in the 1950’s (Waterford County Museum Image Archives)

The photo below (Waterford County Museum Archive) shows the well as a deep  depression. The   large cross covered in rosary beads with flowers at the base is still present at the site.

Kate McGrath (nee_Corcoran), at St Declan’s well Toor in the 1950’s (Waterford County Museum Image Archive)

In the early 1950’s Josephine Fitzgerald the wife of Jerry Fitzgerald a cycle shop owner from Main Street, Dungarvan was cured at the well. In the subsequent years the couple were involved with others in the up keep and the addition of  the statues, new buildings  etc. at the site. There are two plaques dedicated to  their work at the site.

Jerry Fitzgerald, a cycle shop owner from Main Street, Dungarvan at Saint Declan’s Well in Toor. Mr. Fitzgerald was the caretaker of the well for many years.

By the 1960’s all the features that are visible at the site today were in place.

St Declan's well Toor 1966 ( Waterford County Museum Image Archive)

St Declan’s well, Toor in 1966, note the white rags tied to the fence ( Waterford County Museum Image Archive)

Today the site is enclosed but the older images suggest that prior to the planting of the modern forest, the site was open.  A really interesting feature at the site is the addition of a rag tree/bush following the enclosing.  Today  pilgrims tie cloths, kitchen towels and rosary beads to the hedge which surrounds the site.

Rags tied to hedge of enclosure around St Declan’s Well.

The Well and Healing

Like many other wells the water here is renowned for its healing powers. Its reputation is such that people travel here from all over Waterford and neighbouring counties such as Cork, Tipperary and Wexford to pray and to avail of the healing waters. The water is especially beneficial for diseases of the eyes and the skin.

St Declan's Well, Toor

St Declan’s Well, Toor

In 1945, The Irish Tourism Association  survey for Co Waterford recorded for the well that

 Cure for skin diseases, ringworm especially, is attributed to it. Seán Dower, an old man who lives near the well told me he saw many people come here and bath their lombs etc. which were afflicted with ringworm and exzema in the water, and he afterwards saw them quite cured. I got like information from other sources (I. T. A 1945, 122).

Pilgrimages take place here throughout the year. Individuals come to the well, drink the water, do the rounds while reciting the rosary. Many will then wash limbs in a small rectangular trough, located a short distance from the well.

Rectangular trough where pilgrims wash their limbs

For a cure or prayer to be successful it is a requirement to visit the well three times.

Annual Pilgrimage Mass

The well is also the site of two annual masses in July and on the 15th of August when, large number of people come to the well for the blessing of the waters and the celebration of mass and the feast of St Declan. This year I attended the July pilgrimage which is held here on the Thursday closest the feast day of St Declan on the 24th of July.

Mass at St Declan’s Well on the 26th of July

The tradition of mass is relatively new having begun in 1951. While attendance at other wells is in decline,  the pilgrimage here is very strong as evident from the large number of numbers of pilgrims young and old who arrived by car and bus. There was a very strong local presence with many people from the neighbouring parishes of Aglish and Clashmore attending. There  were many people who had travelled long distances to be here from Waterford City, Wexford and Clonmel.

The mass is an important event and  11 priests assisted   Fr.  Gerry O’Connor  the parish priest of , who said the mass.  The ceremony began with blessing of the waters of the well and those present, next a box containing  petitions to the saint, from those in attendance was carried to the well.

Pilgrims writing petitions to St Declan

This is a new  addition to the ceremony at the request of  pilgrims the previous year. Following mass pilgrims went to the well to drink the water and some when to wash their feet at the trough underneath the structure where mass was said.

Pilgrims drinking the water of St Declan’s well after the annual mass

There is also a real social aspect to the occasion, it’s a chance for people to catch up and talk, afterwards  in the field generously provided by the local farmer for parking, many people had picnics out of the booth of their cars.

I would like to thank Fr Ger MacCarthy and Fr Pat Butler  for information on the well  and Waterford County Museum for permission to reproduce their photos.

References

I.T.A. Topographical and General Survey of County Waterford. Ireland, 1945. [on line] http://snap.waterfordcoco.ie/collections/efolders/155321/ita_survey.pdf [accessed 4/08/2012]

Komen, J. no date. ‘St. Declan’s Pattern.’ [on line] http://www.waterfordmuseum.ie/exhibit/web/Display/article/331/7/The_Ardmore_Journal_St_Declans_Pattern_.html [accessed 3/08/2012]

An overview of the history of pilgrimage to Croagh Patrick

Today is Reek Sunday the main pilgrimage day to Craogh Patrick. Croagh Patrick is located on the western coast of Mayo on the southern shores of Clew Bay. Its pyramid-shaped summit is known locally as the “The Reek”, and the  mountain has a long  association with St Patrick. Pilgrimage can be undertaken at any time during the year but the main pilgrim days are the last  Friday of July, last Sunday of July or Reek Sunday and the 15thof August. In the coming months I hope to expand on this post and explore the prehistoric,  medieval, early modern and modern pilgrimages in much more detail. What follows is really just an overview of the history of the pilgimage here.

Croagh Patrick

View of Croagh Patrick, taken by Helen Duffy

The mountain has been a focus of pilgrimage from medieval if not pre-historic times  and has an unbroken tradition for pilgrimage through the medieval period  to the present. Little is known about the early medieval history of Croagh Patrick. By the seventh century the mountain was associated with St Patrick. The earliest written record of this association is the Brevarium by  Tírechan which recalls that, during his mission in the west of Ireland, St Patrick  (Mons Aigli)  fasted there for forty days and nights on the summit of Croagh Patrick ( Bieler 2000, 153). Excavations carried out on the summit in 1994 revealed the presence of  a small oratory on the summit dating to between between AD 430 and 890 built in the style of Gallarus oratory Dingle, Co. Kerry (Hughes 2005).

The earliest and most interesting reference to  pilgrimage at the mountain comes from the annals for the year AD 1113 (AU). We are told

A ball of fire came on the night of the feast of Patrick 17 March on Cru chain Aighle, and destroyed thirty of those fasting (AU).

The pilgrims were fasting and performing a night vigil  when this  horrific event occured .  Jocelyn’s twelfth century Life of St Patrick also records pilgrims fasting and performing a vigil ‘That many are accustomed to spend the night awake and fasting on the mount’ (Hughes 1991, 16). In 1432 Pope Eugene IV issued an indulgence of two years and two quarantines  ‘of enjoined penance to penitents who visit and give alms for the repair of the below mentioned chapel’ on the summit of Croagh Patrick on the last Sunday of July (CPL). Croagh Patrick continued to attract pilgrims in the aftermath of the reformation and there are  detailed  ninteenth century accounts of the pilgrim rituals at the mountain. These rituals consisted of performing prayers known as stations, ritual prayers around devotional points in the landscape of the pilgrim site. The stations performed by modern pilgrims are very similar and the core traditions have not changed drastically, with the exception of the relaxing of some of the more penitential aspects of the prayer such as performing the entire pilgrimage barefoot or the stations on bare knees. Following the famine pilgrimage seems to have gone into decline but due to the efforts of the clergy it was revived, and a new church was built on the summit in 1905 (Hughes 2005, 15-22). The  popularity of the pilgrimage has continued to grow and today  pilgrim numbers on the main pilgrim day can reach  tens of thousands.

Modern Pilgrims climbing Croagh Patrick, image from The Guardian 2009
(http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/jul/31/croagh-patrick-pilgrimage)

Bibliography

Bieler, L. 2000. (reprint 1979). The Patrician Texts In The Book Of Armagh.  Dublin: The Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies.

 CLP -Calendar of the Entries in the Papal Registers Relating to Great Britain and Ireland. Papal Letters. Vols. I to XIV, London, HMSO, 1893-1960; Vols. XV-XX, Dublin, Irish Manuscripts Commission, 1978-2005 and in progress.

Hughes, H. 1991. Croagh Patrick: (Cruach Phádraig-The Reek) An Ancient Mountain Pilgrimage. Westport: Berry’s of Westport.

Hughes, H. 2005. Croagh Patrick. Ireland’s Holy Mountain. Westport: The Croagh Patrick Archaeological Committee.

Mac Airt, S. & MacNiocaill, G. (eds.) 1983. The Annals of Ulster (to AD 1131). Dublin.