Ireland’s Holy Wells and Sacred Chieftain Trees
Many of this blog’s readers are interested in the holy wells of Ireland. There are many in varying states of repair and disarray. Only this past weekend some friends on a Bards in the Woods walk near Knockvicar in County Roscommon cleaned out a holy well that had silted up. Anyone preparing a trip to Ireland needs to make sure that these indigenous relics of Celtic spirituality are on their itinerary.
If a holy well runs dry for reasons that can vary between changes of water course or engineering works, the healing spirit that holds the well’s cure moves to the nearest tree.
The folk belief that the cure of a dry well is transferred to the nearest tree harkens back to the seven sacred chieftain trees of Ireland. These are oak, pine, yew, hazel, ash, holly and apple. However, the tree most often seen near holy wells and used as the clootie tree is the hawthorn. Along with oak, hawthorn is considered the preferred tree of the fairies. Since holy wells spring from deep inside the earth, the homeland of the faerie, they are also places where you may be lucky enough to contact these earth spirits.
It’s also usual to see offerings at holy wells. The bits of fabric, ribbons, rosary beads are known as clooties and it is a familiar site to see these at some holy wells. However, in some localities the local priest has banned this practice even though the ‘pattern’ of prayers for a cure is still alive and well and usually done either the last Sunday in July or near the feast of Mary, Jesus’ mother’s ascension.
If you see the word ‘Tobar’ on a map then you will know that there is a holy well there. This is the Irish word for well. This sign translates as ‘Mary’s Well.’ My 100 year old neighbour tells me that there was a very old story that Our Lady appeared here many, many years ago.
St. Brigit is associated with holy wells and many are dedicated to her. However, any spring with a ‘cure for the eye’ or inspiring visions is under her matronage.
If you are preparing for a trip to Ireland then you need to include a visit to a holy well – or indeed many holy wells for they are so varied and individual in each locality – that you may want to do a bit of research in advance. I’ve chosen a few of the best as well as some favourites on the Celtic beliefs surrounding trees.
Fairy Ireland: Stalking Fairies in Tuatha de Danaan Land
You may have read about our Amazing Tribe of Fairy Cats. However, you have not yet been introduced to the little dog, which we latterly discovered is very much in tune with all things faerie. Little did we know that a Fairy Dog was about to be taken under the matronage of the Fairy Cat matriarch.
The little dog came in to our lives in quite a serendipitous way. And where there is whim and whimsy then you are getting closer to the fairies. He was found by a friend on a roundabout near Bundoran on New Year’s Day and he narrowly escaped being hit. This kindly person took him in once he ascertained with the Gardai that no one had reported him lost. Over the next three days it became clear that the puppy was profoundly deaf.
An A-Z of Things to See in Ireland- Fleadhs and Fairies
Fleadhs and Fairies work together not only because they both start with the letter F! In my latest blog in the my series An A-Z of Things to See in Ireland, both are inextricably connected. Fleadh is short for the fleadh cheoil, which translates as a music festival. And if you want to go fairy hunting in Ireland than music will help you in your search if fairies are on your list of things to see in Ireland.
There are many music festivals in Ireland, especially during the summer months. A quick internet check will show you that there is generally a festival going on somewhere in Ireland every month of the year! However, there is a long list to choose from if you are visiting Ireland in July or August. But when we say fleadhs then the kind of music you will be seeing played is traditional Irish or Irish folk music. This can include séan nos singers, rebel songs, as well as folk rock that has its roots in traditional music. It is also work checking for Summer Schools in the area where you are visiting because not only will you hear amazing sessions of music, you will also be able to attend classes and improve your own musical skills in tin whistle, fiddle, flute, bohran, mandolin, harp, bazooki and more!
Here’s a clip of Tony Cuckson singing the traditional song “My Lagan Love” just to get you into the fleadh mood.
But I have to draw your attention to the All Ireland Fleadh or Fleadh Cheoil na hÉireann which will be held again in 2012 in Cavan Town. This is the third year in a row that Cavan has hosted this important national and international festival. It is the second biggest festival in Ireland and will be held this year from Friday, 10th August until Monday, 20th August, 2012.
Cavan is very handy for what I call Fairy Central in Ireland. But I have to warn you. The fairies like gifts. Some of us leave chocolate. Others leave a shiny coin. But some
musically gifted visitors give them song! I was guiding some Fleadh 2011 guests from Cincinnati, Ohio around the Cavan Burren Forest last August and these musicians were moved to give the fairies living in the forest a song as an offering for wandering around their home turf.
The original fairy race, the Tuatha de Danaan, first landed in their ships of silver and ships of gold, on Iron Mountain, Slieve Anieran, in County Leitrim, which is the county to the south and west of County Cavan. With its holy wells, sweat houses and limestone geology it is not hard to view this landscape as sacred.
When the Tuatha de Danaan were vanquished at the Second Battle of Moytura they went underground and became the fairy or faerie folk. Legend tells us that after their defeat they headed back to their homeplace at Slieve Anieran and so this part of Ireland has a very palpable sense of fairy eyes, fairy music, fairy dust, fairy magic and fairy mischief. There is a very strong presence for those who want to go fairy hunting. If you have an open heart and are willing to make an exchange (for the fairies are strongly motivated by the principle of reciprocity) then they may deign to make themselves known to you.
But I caution you that you need to approach respectfully. The sceptics amongst you should be kindly advised to hold their opinions to themselves. Criticism or mockery is a heart scald to any species.
Real Fairy Ireland
I can proudly say that I have real fairies for my closest neighbours. While the fairies dispersed throughout Ireland, I feel that the real fairies live close to their homeplace. Real fairies were originally the Tuatha de Danaan, a race of immortals that mixed with mortal inhabitants in Bronze Age Ireland. They shared their godlike qualities but, as is the way, conflict occurred. The Tuatha de Danaan, the children of the goddess Danu, won the first bout. But they were vanquished at the Second Battle of Moytura. The real fairy folk, the Tuatha de Danaan, headed back to the place where they had originally landed in Ireland. It was here that they they ‘went to ground’ and became the earth spirits that then dispersed throughout Ireland. But at their home place their presence is particularly potent.
Fairies Prefer Gold Wrapped Hershey Kisses
It’s taken me a while to figure out why fairies prefer the gold wrapped Hershey Kisses, but I think I’ve cracked the conundrum. Fairies like offerings. They also like bright shiny things for gifts. Some people leave them quartz crystals but me? I call Hershey kisses, especially the gold-wrapped Hershey kisses, fairy food.
I live in Ireland now in a part of the world where it is a perfectly rational position to believe in fairies. But I also grew up in Pennsylvania and Hershey was practically local. I had the tour of the Hershey chocolate factory with my Girl Scout troop. I swooned from the chocolate scent that pervaded the town. I was delighted to see that the street lamps were in the shape of Hershey kisses.
Image via Wikipedia
Now forty years on I am doing a last shop before I get the plane back to my life in rural Ireland amongst red squirrel, long eared bats, badgers, foxes, pine martins, dragon and damsel flies…and fairies. My last official act is to get to a drugstore and buy up ‘Fairy Food’. For that is what I call Hershey kisses now.
The traditional silver wrap is acceptable to the fairies. They not only like shiny thing; they seem to have yen for chocolate. Whenever I leave the ‘fairy food’ out it always disappears. Our ‘luck’ has also improved.
However, the gold-wrapped Hershey kisses seem to be even more popular. While the silver is like the moon shine, I finally decided that they like the gold-wrapped Hershey kisses because they reflect back whatever weak and watery Irish sunshine we do get. They appreciate that little extra glamour and glister.
So now when I am back in the States I have to go hunting around for the preferred food for fairies, the gold-wrapped Hershey Kiss. It’s all about the love and it’s also all about the giving, the offering. Fairies always play fair that way.
Yes, Virginia, I Believe in Fairies
I believe in fairies. When I recently asked a friend who is a convinced Christian if she believed in fairies she grew thoughtful and cautious and replied, “ I sit on the fence about fairies.” We both live in this wildish west Cavan landscape. And it was only when we moved here that I became a convinced fairy believer. I have seen the light and now I believe in fairies.
Even those who rationally would like to dismiss the existence of the ‘wee people’ have enough anecdotal evidence to make them ‘sit on the fence.’ It doesn’t do to speak ill of your neighbours even if you never see or hear of them. Because in Irish country neighbourhoods we know that everyone knows everything eventually. And they will eventually get wind if you have been speaking ill of them.
Fairy Ireland and Amazing Tribe of Fairy Cats
Fairies don’t just come in the shape of the wee people. There are fairy cats, too. I should know because our own Zelda became the founding matriarch of the tribe of Fairy Cats. But let me give you a little bit of background. You might need to just temporarily suspend your disbelief in fairy cats.
Most of my regular readers probably know by this time that I live in the homeplace of Fairy Ireland. This is because we live within view of Slieve Anierin (Iron Mountain) in Leitrim where the Tuatha de Danaan, the original fairy race of Ireland, first set land fall in Ireland.
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