School: Cill Tormóir (Cailíní)

Location:
Kiltormer, Co. Galway
Teacher:
Rós, Bean Uí Cheallacháin
Browse
The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0056, Page 0258

Archival Reference

The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0056, Page 0258

Image and data © National Folklore Collection, UCD.

See copyright details.

Download

Open data

Available under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

  1. XML School: Cill Tormóir (Cailíní)
  2. XML Page 0258
  3. XML “St Patrick's Well”

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

  1. St. Patrick's Well
    Close beside Kiltormer village there is a well which St. Patrick is supposed to have blessed. The water of this well is always pure and cold. Stations are done there, three Fridays before the last Sunday in Summer. People do these stations around the well and around trees and a hawthorn bush.
    Long ago there was a pattern there on the last Sunday in Summer, but there is nothing like that now. It is said that faction fights were very common at that pattern. There is a story told about a man named Eyre, who lived in Eyreville and owned the land around the well, he objected to the people having the meadow beaten down; so he got men and got the well covered up. It is said when he sat down in his drawing room that evening, a spring burst up in the room. He got very frightened and got men to take the covering off the well and to build a wall around it with mortar and stones.
    An old woman named Mary Haverty lived beside the well. She told strangers how to do the stations and gave them a cup to drink from. The people gave her money. She is now dead and only the walls of the house remain.
    Transcribed by a member of our volunteer transcription project.
    Topics
    1. agents (~1)
      1. supernatural and legendary beings (~14,864)
        1. saints
          1. Patrick (~489)
    2. place-space-environment
      1. local lore, place-lore (~10,595)
    Language
    English