{"id":2729,"date":"2016-05-14T13:36:53","date_gmt":"2016-05-14T13:36:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.writingsinrhyme.com\/?p=2729"},"modified":"2016-05-14T13:52:37","modified_gmt":"2016-05-14T13:52:37","slug":"holy-waters-of-saint-bridget-at-ballycumber","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/writingsinrhyme.com\/index.php\/holy-waters-of-saint-bridget-at-ballycumber\/","title":{"rendered":"Holy Waters of Saint Bridget at Ballycumber"},"content":{"rendered":"

This story I first heard from a poem read by Rosemary Porter at Banaghers “Readings from the Pallet” festival some years back. I retell the story in my verse here…<\/strong><\/p>\n

“The good you wish may it come back double on you, the ill threefold return to you”<\/em>
\n~ Irish proverb<\/p>\n

“A holy well, once defiled, will spring anew some distance away, and ill befall the defiler”<\/em>
\n~ Irish superstition<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"Me
Me at Leamonaghan Fairy Tree close to Ballycumber some years back<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Johnson, cruelty in his heart
\nSaw the locals in his fields gather round
\nIt was Pattern Day at St Bridgets Well
\nWhere annually they could be found.
\nWith bullwhip and dog he attacked the crowd
\nDrove them from their worship away
\nHe believed it a Pagan not a Christian belief
\nAt a Holy Well to pray.<\/p>\n

For Catholics he had little time
\nHe thought the peasent a fool
\nHe was of the Established faith
\nWas tyrannical in his rule
\nNo Christian welcome for a begger
\nWas to be found at his door
\nThey were sent to the road at once
\nBy the same means used before.<\/p>\n

No merchants they in a temple<\/em>
\n But the least of folk most of need<\/em>
\n No Christ he was though called himself Christian<\/em>
\n All he knew was naked hatred and hard greed.<\/em><\/p>\n

The holy well he ordered filled in
\nSo Patterns at it no longer could be made
\nOnly to find it reappeared
\nIn his own houses basement instead.
\nHis house was high set to the well
\nThat it was connected he said it could not be so
\nWater found its way out as it always does
\nSet its path to the old well to flow.<\/p>\n

In the middling ground a pool deep did form
\nTo a height it did its hollow fill
\nOverflowed its banks, and continued on
\nTo the old well site to spill.
\n“Open the well” the order he gave
\nThough he did not believe it would help at all
\nThe spring neath the house it dried
\nThough the water level in the pool would not fall.<\/p>\n

It had no spring to fill it
\nNo one knew where the water was from
\nThough dry the week it would not empty
\nMore water to it would come
\nAs if Moses himself had struck the rock
\nIt oozed from the ground beneath
\nSoon stories of miracles spread the area around
\nLocals came to pray and bathe their feet.<\/p>\n

Apoplectic now – TWO pagan sites
\nIn the fields of a Christian man
\nHe set an idea cruel from the heart of Satan:
\nTo action he set his plan!
\nOne morning before the locals came
\nIn the quiet hours after dawn and before mass
\nHe to the pool waded and spread
\nShards of sharp transparent broken glass.<\/p>\n

The locals came as in their time they would
\nPrayers muttered, in the waters walked
\nTo scream with pain when they stepped\u00a0on the glass
\nOf his great cruelty today its still talked.
\nNow, a man of Christ, and his wife, to his door
\nTravellers, – some say Mongans was the family name –
\nHe, angered, set the dog upon the wife,
\nThat savaged her when she to his door for alms came.<\/p>\n

The husband, blood boiling, to the door he strode
\nRevenge in his heart for this hard hearted man
\n(God gives courage where others would baulk<\/em>
\n The the wronged justice seeking man<\/em>.)
\nWhen he showed up at the door
\nJohnstone came out with a gun pointed
\nBut Mongans wrestled it wrong the wrechedhearteds hands
\nAnd the landlord was set by it to be anointed!<\/p>\n

“Walk through the glass that you for us set,
\nWith not on your feet sock or boot,
\nFeel the pain you made Christians feel
\nAnd you I will not shoot”
\nNot those words he spoke exact but similar
\nAs through the waters at gunpoint he did the landlord lead
\nWho roared with pain that Christ bore without a moan
\nRed waters ran as his feet did bleed.<\/p>\n

The gun was into the waters tossed
\nMongans set his way back to his wife to make
\nJohnston to his house went to rest
\nTo his sick bed he did take.
\nHis bed he never walked from again
\nInfection to the wounds had set
\nJustice, or Karma, or Gods Will, I know not which it was
\nBut the evil in him was beat.<\/p>\n

The locals say that before he died
\nTo Catholicism he converted and did repent
\nI know not, care less if that is or is not so
\nThat he got his own medicine I am content.
\n“The good you will may you get double<\/strong>
\n The bad return triple time to you”<\/strong> folk say
\nIts a good lesson of life for those of privilige and fortune to remember
\nAs I finish this tale here today…<\/p>\n

\n

Glossary<\/h3>\n

Pattern<\/strong> – a prayer session at a holy well, and the procession thereto. A Holy Day at a Holy Well. From pagan times it was continued through to Christian times, when the local saint is said to have blessed the well.<\/p>\n

Johnston<\/strong> A cruel landowner who had just bought the Castle Armstrong estate.<\/p>\n

Reference:<\/h3>\n

Article on OffalyHistory.com<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This story I first heard from a poem read by Rosemary Porter at Banaghers “Readings from the Pallet” festival some years back. I retell the story in my verse here… “The good you wish may it come back double on you, the ill threefold return to you” ~ Irish proverb …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[54,256],"tags":[2827,2824,2360,2833,2826,1630,2837,2835,1596,2831,2595,2832,2836,60,2800,781,2829,2828,2830,918,264,2802,2803,2839,2838,693,2825,2834],"class_list":["post-2729","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ireland","category-irish-heritage","tag-armstrong-family","tag-ballycumber","tag-banagher","tag-blessed-well","tag-castle-armstrong","tag-catholic","tag-catholic-and-protestant-conflict-in-ireland","tag-catholic-syncretism","tag-curse","tag-defiled-well","tag-folk-belief","tag-folk-belief-about-holy-well","tag-folk-religion","tag-gypsy","tag-holy-well","tag-irish-traveller","tag-mongan","tag-mongans","tag-moving-well","tag-offaly","tag-pagan","tag-pattern","tag-pilgrim","tag-readings-from-the-pallet","tag-rsoemary-porter","tag-saint-bridget","tag-saint-bridgets-well","tag-syncretism","column","twocol"],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7EI4f-I1","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":4104,"url":"https:\/\/writingsinrhyme.com\/index.php\/saint-donatus-of-fiesole\/","url_meta":{"origin":2729,"position":0},"title":"Saint Donatus of Fiesole","author":"Tom\u00e1s \u00d3 C\u00e1rthaigh","date":"4th November 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"At Inishcaltra he learned to write At his mothers knee to pray In Italy he learned to fight In Ireland he was not to stay. 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