Tobar Eoin Óg, St John’s Well, Carrigaline

Today is the Feast of St John the Baptist, a good example of one of those Christian festivals that neatly superimposed itself upon a much older pagan celebration, for it is also Midsummer – an ancient Celtic festival when fires were lit to honour Áine, the goddess associated with the sun, fertility and the protection of animals and crops.

Traditionally festivities began on St John’s Eve, 23^rd June, which is also known as Bonfire Night in Ireland. Once every community would have had its communal bonfire, lit as the sun went set and tended through the night. As the embers died down, cattle were herded through the fire to protect them from disease during the following year. Ashes from the fire were brought home to put on the fields to ensure good crops and some may have been added to the family hearth, for this was a festival about protection: in the home, in the fields, in the community.

In Thomas Flanagan’s book, The Year of the French, set in 1798, he describes a Midsummer bonfire:

Soon it would be Saint John’s Eve. Wood for the bonfire had already been piled high upon Steeple Hill, and when the night came there would be bonfires on every hill from there to Downpatrick Head. There would be dancing and games in the open air, and young men would try their bravery leaping through the flames. There would even be young girls leaping through, for it was helpful in the search of a husband to leap through a Saint John’s Eve fire, the fires of midsummer. The sun was at its highest then, and the fires spoke to it, calling it down upon the crops. It was the turning point of the year, and the air was vibrant with spirits.

Lighting fires seemed suitable to signify St John too, for he baptised Jesus and in doing so, according to the church, brought the world out of darkness.  For more information about customs on St John’s Eve and St John’s Day see here.

As part of the traditions surrounding the festival, wells and sites associated with St John were visited and some are still venerated. I made my way to Tobar Eoin Óg in Carrigaline where:

… On bone fire’s night all the people come from the district and from Cork and the priest also comes to the well. They light bone fires. They take a black stick out of the fire and throw it on their potatoes and the potatoes get no blight that year. 

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The annual pilgrimage and Mass still takes place and this year was a special Jubilee of Mercy Pilgrimage, marking the Holy Year of Mercy.

St John’s Well, Tobar Eoin Óg 

The well is on the outskirts of the town and the custom is to gather on the roadside until assembled by the Carrigaline Pipe Band. It was a very sociable evening, helped by the warm weather, and a good-natured crowd gathered, full of anticipation. At 7.30pm the pipe band struck up and we processed slowly down a boreen and into the woodland.

Sturdy railway sleepers form stairs down into the glade where a the small stone altar had been covered in a crisp white cloth, served by the parish priest, two altar boys and a trainee priest.

Sunbeams played through the trees and less romantically, clouds of midges hovered overhead!

Mass was celebrated and the well featured strongly. The Rosary was led by the priest who circled the well clockwise, stopping at each of the five crosses, another man inscribing the stones. A Decade of the Rosary was said at each one. Later some pilgrims performed the same rounds.

Hymns were sung and we were given a general absolution of our sins, then everyone rushed to gather water from the well. Most pilgrims had brought water bottles with them, others scooped the water up and some just blessed themselves with it.

The origin of the well is interesting and described in an entry in the Schools’ Folklore Collection:

There is only one Holy Well in this locality – St. Johns , which is situated about one mile from Carrigaline Village in the Ballinrea district, on the side of a boreen leading through Mr. Saunder’s farm to his dwelling house. It is a common belief here that it was discovered by a blind old man – a resident in Ballea – who had a very strange dream in which he was ordered by a voice to make a journey – in what direction is not stated – and stop where he heard water trickling. The following day he set out, and locating the water, stooped and dug with his fingers until water sprang up, bathing his eyes in the clear water his sight was instantly restored. Having related his story to the Parish Priest, he proceeded to enclose the well, – so he built a stone wall around it in a beehive shape, and within the well he built a stone seat on which the pilgrims sit to rest and pray. Invalids and other people usually visit the well from the Eve of St John’s Day – 24th June – until its octave, to make the necessary rounds. The rounds performed consists of a decade of the Rosary and making the sign of the Cross on the Crosses engraved in the wall outside as they travel around the well. The relics usually left are – medals, pictures, statues, scapulars, beads and other Holy Objects. My parents never saw any crutches left there, but it is said crutches were to be seen their in years gone by.  An ash tree grows at the back.

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The well is still a beehive shape, made out of large rough stones. A limestone cross is cemented on top of it, and five stones on the structure have crosses inscribed upon them – the stations or stopping points where prayers are said. The opening leading to the water is small and rectangular, a corbelled space within. It was quite difficult to get in and out of!

The water was cold and clear and flowed out down into the fields towards the Owenboy river. The last person to take the water was a young man. He had a bunch of white lilies and some candles and slipped right inside the well, conducting a small, intimate and personal ceremony.

The waters have been considered beneficial for many years. Lewis’s Topographical Dictionary of Ireland of 1837 gives the following account:

At Ballinrea there is a mineral spring, which is considered to be of the same kind as that of Tunbridge Wells, and has been found efficacious in cases of debility; and near it is a holy well, dedicated to St Renogue, which is resorted to by the country people on the 24th of June.

The sketch above, taken from John Barrow’s A Tour Around Ireland was made just two years earlier in 1835 and shows how well attended the pattern was.

This description from the 1930s shows the well was still very active and as usual the water would not boil, and the well was said to contain a blessed fish:

There is only one Holy Well in this district. It is situated near a boreen. People still visit the well on certain days. The holy well in the district is visited on St. John’s Night or bonfires night. Rounds are performed at the well and prayers are said. The people of the surrounding country visit the well. They drink the water of the well. The well is opened form bonfires night until the twenty-ninth of June.St John is mentioned in connection with the well. People have been cured at the well. Long ago it is said that a man from Cork came to the well. When he came to the well he saw a fish in the well. The minute he saw the fish he was cured. He left his crutches in the well. Some people drink the well-water to cure the disease. Most invalids rub the well-water to the affected part of the body. Relics are left behind at the well. No offerings are left behind at the well. Some people have seen a fish in the well. It is only very seldom seen. Long ago when some of the wells in the district were dried up people took the water home for household purposes but the water would not boil. A small tree grows at the well. The well is situated about a mile from Carrigaline, on the Ballygarvan road. One stormy winter’s night a person went to the well for a bucket of water. He brought home the water and put it into a three-legged pot on the fire. No matter how much fire he put under the pot the water would not even get hot. He looked into the pot and saw a fish inside. He took the water to the well and threw it into the well. He got another bucket of water. He looked into the bucket but there was no fish in the bucket. he took the water home and it boiled.

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The ash tree mentioned in several of the Schools’ Collection entries seems to have disappeared though:

There is a holy well in Mr. Jack Saunder’s lane Carrigaline. The name of the well is St. John’ s well. It got its name because St. John is supposed to appear there twice a year. There is a tree growing on top of the well an ash tree and the people living in the house near the well cracked a piece off the tree and put it in the fire and they said it would not burn. There is a fish in the well and who ever sees the fish is supposed to be cured of all sickness. When people come to wash their sores in the well they leave a little holy picture or an Image and sometimes they leave rosary beads and medals. They light candles there at night for to pray to the candles for someone that is sick and are supposed to get better … The holy well is round like a tower and about six feet in height the well is the middle of it. There are crosses on the stones outside of it and if you scratch your money on it you will have twice as much next year. From the people scratching their money the crosses have got six inches deep.

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St Renogue seems to be a corruption of Eoin Óg, young John, and is another, older name for the well. According to tradition the well was discovered by a blind man whose sight was restored. A rather eroded plaque tells the story:

Tobar Eoin Óg Rónógs: St John’s Well

According to tradition was discovered by a blind man whose sight was restored. In gratitude he built this beehive surround in the early 19th Century. Crowds attended the pattern every St John’s Eve, 23rd June. To drink from the well it is customary to recite a decade of the rosary at each of the inscribed crosses.

The well has been fairly recently restored and is obviously still much venerated and looked after – at least a hundred people were here this evening.

Emerging from the woods it was rather nice to see a communal bonfire burning in the fields nearby, young people gathered around it.

In fact I was amazed at how many bonfires I saw burning on my way home. Ainé is alive and well, as is St John.

Edit: a few images from a revisit in December 2022.

The location of this well can be found in the Gazetteer.