The holy well at Liscannor is a meeting of Christianity and ancient Celtic belief.
According to an archaeological survey there are more than 3,000 holy wells in Ireland. Whilst many are attributed to St Patrick and one or two other notable Catholic saints, most are dedicated to St Brigid. She’s known as Mother of the Gael and she is patron saint to dairying - a strong signal to fertility and rebirth. Her feast day, 1st February, neatly coincides with Imbolc, a pagan festival that traditionally marks the first day of spring and the time of the Celtic goddess Brigit (or Brigid). The pagan goddess is associated with poetry, fertility and healing. So which one do people turn to when they come to these wells?
For almost a thousand years Druidry was a powerful force in Gaelic culture, and regardless of the new Christian faith that spread to Ireland in the 5th Century it would not easily be dismissed. If the relatively new religion was to gain traction, it needed to surreptitiously align itself with pagan festivals. Thus, Saint Brigid assumed the qualities and attributes of the goddess Brigit and continued to maintain the feast day (also known in Ireland as Pattern or Patron days). So perhaps it’s to both figures that people pay homage, because what we’re looking at is a seamless narrative of 2500 years of Irish cultural history.
What’s striking about this particular well is the amount of votive offerings. The little cavern is filled with thousands of items including icons, rosary beads, photographs and other personal memorabilia that are left there in the hope of supernatural intervention. Outside, above the well, a rag-tree is adorned with pieces of cloth, plastic or anything else that came to hand when someone made a prayer or asked favour of the saint, goddess or both. This particular tree is a fuchsia, but they are normally hawthorn (sceach or whitethorn) and sometimes ash. Traditionally the sick would rub a piece of cloth on their body, dip it into the holy water and tie it to a nearby tree. The afflicted are cured when the rags rot and fall away. But rag-trees are not always beside holy wells, and because they’re mostly hawthorn there is a powerful association with faeries who use these trees as meeting places. Here, people tie pieces of cloth and make a wish to the faeries.
Little has changed in two and a half thousand years, whether the ancient veneration of a Celtic goddess, fifth century saint or faeries and sacred trees. In votive offerings the Celts consigned some of their most beautiful valuables into lakes and bogs in the belief they were portals to the Other World, and to this day we continue the custom by tossing coins into fountains and wells. And just as the Druids guarded ancient oak groves in fealty to the tree gods, perhaps our patronage to the holy well conserves an ancient Irish custom.
At first you might imagine the grotto is filled with sorrow and superstition, but maybe it’s the traditional rhythm of Irish pastoral life and we the baton carriers through time.
The lake is not burdened by its swan, a steed by its bridle, or a man by the soul that is in him - Old Irish proverb.
© David O’Neill 2018