Hi again,
On Thu, 17 Aug 2000 01:07:30 +0100 Janet Kaiser
<[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Now we are to understand that they are in a
> sorry state anyway! Many lost and destroyed.
> Others disappeared.
I think that i had better clarify a few things here.
Firstly, i am by no means an expert on Irish wells, but now
that i've seen a few and have sampled the Guinness over
there i intend to visit many more. So i speak from limited
experience and certainly haven't sampled enough to make my
views statistically significant.
>From what i have seen though, i couldn't find a number of
the wells that were marked on the OS Discovery maps. Many
of those that i did track down were in a less than perfect
state of repair, but no worse than some that i have seen in
this country. Some of the more major wells with well
attended pattern days, (e.g. St Mollin's well at Tullogher,
Co. Kilkenny and Lady's well somewhere in Co Clare), were
in pretty good condition, but possibly suffering from the
sheer number of people visiting them.
I think my perception of the condition of the wells was
based on my imagination after reading the literature
but before visiting Ireland. I expected the well cult in
Ireland to be so strong that all of the wells would be very
well looked after. This doesn't seem to be the case, but
the situation probably isn't as bad as in this country
which i suspect has a much higher destroyed:extant well
ratio than Ireland.
All the best,
Rich
----------------------
Rich Pederick
[log in to unmask]
----------------------
Living Spring Journal - THE International Electronic
Forum for Research into Holy Wells & Waterlore
http://www.bath.ac.uk/lispring/journal/front.htm
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