{"id":418,"date":"2020-11-30T10:29:34","date_gmt":"2020-11-30T15:29:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wanderofwanders.com\/?p=418"},"modified":"2025-08-26T18:12:32","modified_gmt":"2025-08-26T22:12:32","slug":"of-holy-wells-and-spirituality","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wanderofwanders.com\/index.php\/2020\/11\/30\/of-holy-wells-and-spirituality\/","title":{"rendered":"Of holy wells and spirituality"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"
St. Brigid’s well in Liscannor is clearly well visited.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Spirituality is at the ancient heart of Ireland \u2013 a spirituality at once chimeral and tangible, a profound blend of pagan beliefs and traditions that have survived  scores of millennia, coupled with a Catholic narrative deeply imbedded in the country\u2019s psyche. This is syncretism at its most elemental, in which the mysterious is as likely manifested in the sidhe, the fairy folk, as in the patron saint. Indeed, these are not necessarily mutually exclusive concepts, but are easily entwined. That the early, polytheistic system comes down through the ages at all and is not lost to the mists of time, is in large part due to the early Christian settling of Ireland beginning with Patrick in the 5th<\/sup> century. His followers and their followers through the generations included literate, European-trained monks who dispersed throughout the country. Eleventh, 12th<\/sup>, 13th<\/sup> century monasteries are not quite as common as cattle around here, but nearly so. Many monks also chose to live in seclusion, in beehive huts that are also scattered across the Irish landscape. They wrote or transcribed sacred Catholic texts, absolutely, but they were also the Matthews and Lukes of a pagan land, committing to writing the oral traditions of the Irish people of the region. And so today exists virtually hundreds of texts that chronicle the religious and secular origins of this country \u2013 the gods, the goddesses, the battles, the invasions, the traditions, the alliances, the loves, the myths. It\u2019s really quite remarkable, the breadth of what has come down through time to us today. Yet because the chroniclers were Catholic clergy, it is widely understood that the texts had peculiarly Christian moral and biblical twists not part of the original story-telling. Where one begins and the other leaves off is truly lost to the mists of time. And so syncretism began all that time ago, leaving today this blended spirituality. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

 To me, nowhere is this concept more clearly\nmanifested than in the holy wells that are scattered the breadth and depth of\nIreland \u2013 more than 3,000 in all. They are as common as monasteries here in\nCounty Clare, or so I\u2019ve been told, and I have personally been to about a dozen\nso far. I am very much a beginning student of Irish syncretism, and have barely\na thimbleful of knowledge that many spend a lifetime acquiring. With that as a\ncaveat, it is clear that wells were held sacred by the early Irish. In Irish\nliterature and myth, wells and springs were seen as flowing from and conduits\nto The Otherworld, the place where resided the gods and goddesses. Unlike other\npolytheistic and monotheistic traditions that looked above for the home of the\ndeity\/ies (think Mount Olympus or heaven), the Irish texts indicate the Irish\nlooked below. The well waters \u2013 and \nindeed all waters in Ireland — were considered uniquely feminine; the\nwells themselves were guarded by maidens who were often depicted as offering food\nand water from the well to those who came to these sacred places. As Catholicism\ntook hold, these wells that I imagine people had visited for centuries and more\nwere gradually subsumed into a defined saintly hierarchy. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A case in point is that of Brigid,\nan important Irish goddess who morphed into one of the most revered saints in\nall of the country. In \u201cCormac\u2019s Glossary,\u201d ascribed to 10th<\/sup> century\nbishop and Irish king Cormac mac Cuilennain, Brigid was \u201cthe goddess whom poets\nadored,\u201d and she had two sisters, Brigid the healer and Brigid the blacksmith. By\nthe Middle Ages, St. Brigid of Kildare had assumed almost mythic proportions in\nher own right. She was in this manifestation a nun who founded convents\nthroughout Ireland, and has become as revered as Patrick himself. Indeed, the\nchurch next door to me in tiny Corofin is St. Bridget\u2019s. And so we have this\nsyncretic mix of myth, tradition and beliefs blending and swirling like the\nripples on the surface of a lake to create this one particular thread of the\nweave of Irish spirituality. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Perhaps not surprisingly, wells to\nBrigid are chock-a-block here in Ireland. There is one not too far from here in\nLiscannor \u2013 as you will see in the lead photo for this blog. The Christian\nreverence for her is undeniable, as depicted in the iconography that is\neverywhere in evidence there. Head just outside, though, and you will find trees\nladen with \u201cclooties\u201d \u2013 bits of fabric that have been tied to them. Dipped in\nthe well water, these are thought to have curative powers, a tradition believed\nto have its origin in pre-Christian times when supplicants came to ask the\ngoddesses and gods for a good harvest or a cure for an illness or safe passage\nfor the beloved dead. No doubt today\u2019s largely Catholic supplicants make\nsimilar requests. Superstitious? The purely logical among you will undoubtedly\nnod your head. But there is too much of the unknown in this world for me to be\ncounted among those ranks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So imagine my surprise and delight\nwhen I discovered a local female deity\/saint right here in North Clare. Corofin\nis lucky to have a resident historian, Michael Mac Mahon, who has written a\nmost excellent book on this region\u2019s past, \u201cThe Parish of Corofin, a Historical\nProfile.\u201d (Most excellent to me, of course, a bit of a history nut.) In it, we\nlearn that this area was settled by the Ui Fidgeinte, the tribe of Fidgente, a\nLimerick-based group that flourished from 300-900CE. This tribe venerated the female\ndeity Inion Bhaoith (pronounced Inon Bui), who eventually was transformed by the\nCatholic narrative to become St. Inion. Mac Mahon writes, \u201cDivested of the\ncloak of Christianity, Inion Bhaoith appears to belong to an older world of\npre-Christian ritual connected with agricultural prosperity.\u201d He has identified\n17 holy wells to her right in this region. \u201cConsidering that water is one of\nthe elements fundamental in the maintenance of human life and that wells and\nsprings were sacred objects long before Christianity consecrated them\nto\u2026various saints, the numerous holy wells dedicated to her seem to affirm her\nrole as a nurturing fertility goddess who could significantly influence the\nagricultural cycle,\u201d he wrote. Her following continued right into the\nChristianization of St. Inion, and through the generations until her worship\nbegan to wane in the 19th<\/sup> century. Says Mac Mahon, no longer are local\ngirls named Innerwee, a variation of Inion Bhaoith, but it was once a popular\nname in these parts. Not long ago, I discovered one of her wells in an obscure\nregion of the Burren. You will see a photo of it at the end of this blog.\nUnprepossessing, the well is protected by a circle of stone, bare except for\ntwo pieces of small statuary. I\u2019ve been back several times, once leaving behind\na small Irish apple called a pippin as a way to memorialize her agricultural\nheritage. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am very lucky that life brings me\nto a place and a time to appreciate Irish syncretism \u2013 although I am but a pilgrim\nat the beginning of the journey. I have long felt myself to be a spiritual\nperson, and I\u2019m an amalgam of religious experiences that form who I am now in\nmy early elder years. Raised a Catholic, I spent half my life railing against\nit as only a person not fully matured can rail against the religion of their\nyouth. I still have intellectual, political and moral issues with the Vatican, but\nI have come to a broader understanding. I see the deep faith of family members\nand others I know, and I accept \u2013 I hope with grace and respect \u2013 that their\nspiritual path nourishes them. I come to this understanding in no small part\nbecause I am a Unitarian Universalist, syncretic in its own unique way. On any\ngiven Sunday, I could be sitting next to a Christian on one side, an atheist on\nthe other and a Buddhist next to her \u2013 all finding sustenance in the service.\nAs one of my ministers once said, and it\u2019s proven a mantra to me, \u201cmany paths,\none mountain.\u201d It\u2019s difficult to be a Unitarian and carry religious grudges. Most\nimportantly, I have long found the divine in the spirit of a babbling brook, a\nrustling wind, a fine harvest, the moon. Ireland\u2019s ancient past feels exactly like\nhome to me. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

              In case I\ndo not write another blog until after the holidays, I want to wish each and\nevery one of you the merriest Christmas, the brightest Solstice, the happiest\nHannukah. May the peace and holiness of the season sustain and guide you. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

***<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have only scratched the surface\nof this subject in my blog. For those who want to learn a little bit more, I\noffer the following references: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you wish to read some of the\nancient texts, the go-to place is this website: http:\/\/www.ancienttexts.org\/library\/celtic\/ctexts\/index_irish.html<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The website, www.duchas.ie<\/a>, is a gold mine for those who\nwant to learn more about \u201cthe lore.\u201d I only know the barest small part of it,\nbut what I know is great \u201ccraic\u201d (fun). Go to the \u201ccollections\u201d link at the\ntop, and click on The Schools Collection. The government of Ireland in the\n1930s asked every schoolchild in Ireland to collect local folklore, by speaking\nwith parents, grandparents and elderly neighbors. In the search function, type\nin \u201choly wells,\u201d for instance, or \u201cfairies,\u201d and you can read account upon\nfolklore account from around the country. Some are in Irish, so you\u2019ll need to\nfind the English ones. I first explored duchas in the states, so I know you can\naccess it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For more information on the\nclootie: https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Clootie_well<\/a>; https:\/\/www.amusingplanet.com\/2015\/05\/clootie-wells-celtic-wishing-trees.html<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of the practices I couldn\u2019t\ninclude is \u201cpattern days,\u201d when people gathered at wells on a saint\u2019s feast\nday. It appears things could get rather rowdy! https:\/\/www.irishcultureandcustoms.com\/ACustom\/PatternDay.html<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n
\"\"
A well in south Galway, its waters are believed to cure eye ailments.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
The Inion Bhaoith well in the Burren I visit. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
A well at the site of a monastery believed to be founded by the monk Colman Mac Duagh in the Burren<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
Clooties near the site of a holy well.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Spirituality is at the ancient heart of Ireland \u2013 a spirituality at once chimeral and tangible, a profound blend of pagan beliefs and traditions that have survived  scores of millennia, coupled with a Catholic narrative deeply imbedded in the country\u2019s psyche. This is syncretism at its most elemental, in which the mysterious is as likely manifested in the sidhe, the fairy folk, as in the patron saint. Indeed, these are not necessarily mutually exclusive concepts, but are easily entwined. That the early, polytheistic system comes down through the ages at all and is not lost to the mists of time, is in large part due … Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":244,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-418","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nOf holy wells and spirituality - Not all who wander are lost<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/wanderofwanders.com\/index.php\/2020\/11\/30\/of-holy-wells-and-spirituality\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Of holy wells and spirituality - Not all who wander are lost\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Spirituality is at the ancient heart of Ireland \u2013 a spirituality at once chimeral and tangible, a profound blend of pagan beliefs and traditions that have survived  scores of millennia, coupled with a Catholic narrative deeply imbedded in the country\u2019s psyche. This is syncretism at its most elemental, in which the mysterious is as likely manifested in the sidhe, the fairy folk, as in the patron saint. Indeed, these are not necessarily mutually exclusive concepts, but are easily entwined. That the early, polytheistic system comes down through the ages at all and is not lost to the mists of time, is in large part due ... 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This is syncretism at its most elemental, in which the mysterious is as likely manifested in the sidhe, the fairy folk, as in the patron saint. Indeed, these are not necessarily mutually exclusive concepts, but are easily entwined. That the early, polytheistic system comes down through the ages at all and is not lost to the mists of time, is in large part due ... 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