Paul at [log in to unmask] writes:
<< Thank you for your web-site.
I'm doing an MA dissertaion on Wells in Ireland- do you have contacts with
anyone that is working at a similar depth as yourselves? I'd be grateful for any
help - thanks. Paul >>
Paul,
Here are some sources you could use. The only extensive website I know of
for Irish wells is the www.slaine.ie/ one. Other than that, I depend on
hard-cover books for my information. The Festival of Lughnasa, by Máire MacNeill,
is a useful reference book. My copy is Oxford Univ. Press, 1962, but I think
it was reprinted and expanded later. Wordwell Books, at
www.wordwellbooks.com/ has issued a series of Archaeological Inventory books for various of the
26 counties, published by the Irish gov't. The series is a "work in progress",
and they have completed 12 (or 13) complete counties-worth, plus 2/3 of
Galway and half of Tipperary. These books - especially the more recent ones - have
separate sections devoted to Holy Wells. The earlier publications seemed to
include wells in with other features and sites, and are harder to extract from
the huge amount of information in each of these books.
Another useful source is the Ordnance Survey Letters, collected during the
survey in the 1830/40's. These are available for all of the 32 counties but
Antrim and Tyrone in the North and Cork in the Republic. The manuscripts were
typeset during the 1927-1934 period under the direction of Rev. Michael
O'Flanagan in Bray, Co. Wicklow. A few of these have been re-set and re-published in
more recent years, notably by Four Courts Press (but I still prefer the feel
and smell of the older volumes). The information in these volumes (42 separate
books) contains information regarding antiquities and the 'leader of the
pack' was John O'Donovan - who included data on Holy Wells whenever possible. He
believed that the existence of these wells - even unconnected to a ruined
church or a graveyard - might, in the future, be a guidepost to a hitherto unknown
ecclesiastical site............and hence he tried to include the well
information in his letters, for future use. He was also careful to get the name of
the well, the Saint to whom the well was dedicated, and the Pattern Day -
observed, or no longer practiced (as of the 1830's or so).
And, of course, the series of 1:50,000 Discovery maps show many hundreds of
wells. The Slaine website uses these Discovery maps and the two sources work
well together. But nothing beats actual visiting them. I've certainly been to
hundreds of them, but I have only recorded the few which actually interested
me. Usually, this means the wells with cross-slabs or Early carvings, and/or
sites with votive offerings.
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Pete Schermerhorn, in the glorious Berkshire hills of western Massachusetts
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