School: Mastersons (roll number 8390)
- Location:
- Manorhamilton, Co. Leitrim
- Teacher: Gobnait de Búit
Archival Reference
The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0197, Page 238
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- In Ballaghameehan near where the Protestant Church is now, in a field belonging to Wm. Clarke there is a holy well beside which there was a shrine and a story connected with it. One day St Molaise was holding a service in his church in the presence of his Bishop. A neighbouring priest who was jealous of him thought it would be a great joke to steal his Bible and did so, but St Molaise prayed and a Bible dropped down to him from Heaven. The Saint got a beautiful casket to put it in and a lock was put on it which none dared to remove. The box was deposited in a Shrine at the Holy Well and whenever any crime was committed the suspected person had to take his oath on the Seisceal. All were afraid of swearing falsely because a false oath was followed by sudden death and for centuries after, one member of that family was to have a sudden death. A copy of this legend, written in Irish, was in the possession of a family named Ward living in Ballaghameehan up to a short time ago, and a copy written in old English was in the possession of Mrs Wm. Clarke till about 1903 when she gave(continues on next page)
