Irish Holy Well, pagan origins - christian cures....

There are 100’s of holy wells all over of Ireland, sacred places since long before they were credited with the Christian saints names they bear today and are well worth a pause and a prayer if you are lucky enough to come across one of them. ‘Tobar’ is the Irish word for well, so anywhere with a name that ends in ‘tubber’ as in Baile an Tobair (the town of the well) or Ballintubber is bound to have one, most likely close to the church (where Pierce Brosnan got married) or graveyard.

Others, you will spot these easily enough by the roadside, as they are often adorned with statues, colourful (plastic)flowers and dozens of rosary beads. But many more you will have to ask about locally to get directions and possibly hike over some muddy fields and ditches to get to them. Which will be well worth the trouble (call it penance) as nearly all these wells are in stunning locations (the celts, monks, saints knew how to pick them) high up in the mountains, isolated onislands, or in wild and remote places such as the Burren (forty holy wells) which lend themselves to peaceful prayer or contemplation at least. Many are named after St Patrick, the patron saint of Ireland or St Brigid, originally a pagan goddess, or a local saint such as St Colman in Clare and are credited with being a cure for most ailments the most popular being ‘eyes’ and ‘teeth’.

Whether that was because of the lack of dentists or the expense of spectacles at the time who knows but these places are still being visited today probably even more so? Perhaps as a cure for depression in these recessionary times or world weary travellers seeking solace in nature where the water (a symbol of new life in many cultures) gushes forth from the earth. People often leave small, if odd? tokens like chocolate wrappers, coins or pieces of cloth tied to the branches of overhanging trees. Which makes you wonder about the lives of the people who have visited over the years, hopefully their prayers were answered and their ailments cured.

Go dté sibh slán - May you go safely.

For more Sacred Places in Ireland visit www.irelands-hidden-gems.com/irish-symbols.com

Or download free St Patricks Day iPhone app here

Susan Byron author of www.irelands-hidden-gems.com

St Brigid, a pagan goddess turned christian saint in Ireland

Read more: St. Brigid’s Day, Feb. 1, marks start of Celtic Spring

Read more: How to make a Saint Brigid's Cross - SEE VIDEO

Spring in Ireland officially starts on St Brigids Day which is February the 1st in our calendar? Which may not be accurate as this is a celebration that has its roots along way back in pre-christian times, some 6000 years ago actually when there was no written tradition. Like many other cultures around the world female deities ruled supreme, the similarities between Egyptian mythology and Irish mythology being quite remarkable? For example most people will be familiar with Egyptian ritual from the Book of the Dead, of Isis breathing life into the mummified corpse, well not many know that the same scene is depicted in stone at the foot of a high cross in Ireland.

Similarly our Goddess, had a sacred cow that suckled a king, the same as Queen Hatshepsut in Egypt. Indian and many other cultures that revered the cow as a symbol of nurturing. In fact up until the 12th century children were baptised with milk in Ireland. Fascinating or obvious? these ancient races relied on the land so it is no wonder they revered the female Goddesses that embodied and symbolized mother earth for them. She had to be appeased and celebrated to insure the fertility of the land, animals and people. Celtic mythology holds that the chieftains slept with the goddesses in a mating ritual that crossed the boundaries of physical and metaphysical as these Goddesses could shape shift into birds and other mythical creatures. She could be ‘an old hag’ in human form standing at a crossroads, or the triple goddesses ‘Moriggan’ in the tale of the Tain or the ‘banshee’ in latter years foretelling death in a family.

Having infused tradition in Ireland with a mixture of reverence and fear, for thousands of years prior to Christianity creeping into Ireland, its highly understandable that our ancestors would have been a tad reluctant to banish her completely, which coincidentally is about the time she seems to have morphed into the Christian St Brigid we know about today? Although the signs were there from the start that this was no ordinary mortal woman?

Apparently or so the story goes and we Irish never let the truth get in the way of a good story, when St Brigid was trying to wrestle enough land on which to build her monastery in Kildare from the high king of Leinster, he said that she could have as much land as her cloak would cover. Where upon Brigid laid down her cloak and it magically spread out to cover several hundred acres....!

To read more about Irish Culture and Traditions visit www.irelands-hidden-gems.com/irish-culture.html or visit the excellent Museum of Country Life in Castlebar either in person or online http://www.irelands-hidden-gems.com/museum-of-country-life.html

Beannachtai na Feile Bride by Susan Byron author of Irelands Hidden Gems.com

Read more: St. Brigid’s Day, Feb. 1, marks start of Celtic Spring

Read more: How to make a Saint Brigid's Cross - SEE VIDEO