School: Castlecary
- Location:
- Ballyrattan, Co. Donegal
- Teacher: Mary S.J. Donaghy
Archival Reference
The Schools’ Collection, Volume 1117, Page 46
Image and data © National Folklore Collection, UCD.
See copyright details.
DownloadOpen data
Available under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
- XML School: Castlecary
- XML Page 46
- XML “The Holy Wells of Ireland”
Note: We will soon deprecate our XML Application Programming Interface and a new, comprehensive JSON API will be made available. Keep an eye on our website for further details.
On this page
- Ireland has been celebrated from time immemorial for its Holy Wells and Healing Fountains.The people of Ireland pay great veneration to these Holy Wells. Tourists can find them very easily, and thousands of people go to visit on feast days for the performance of religious exercises.There are no Holy Wells in this locality, that I know of, but I have heard about many Holy Wells here and there throughout Ireland. The teacher has just told me of a Holy Well convenient to the Rectory at Killybegs Co. Donegal. It is called St Catherine's Well and is near to a very old grave yard.The teacher says that she has seen about three dozen people going round this well some on their knees, and all in their bare feet, the people claim to have been cured of different diseases by its waters.All round this well lie handkerchiefs old clothes, sticks, and bandages, being tokens left by the people who have visited it.My reading book gives an account of a well in County Mayo called the Holy Well of Ballintober which has been famous for centuries and people in pagan times worshipped this well, because they believed that a certain wizard dwelt beneath the rock. But when St. Patrick came to Ireland, he(continues on next page)
- Collector
- Arthur Peoples
- Gender
- Male
- Address
- Castlecary, Co. Donegal
