Thinking Out Gobnait

A visit to Corca Dhuibhne, the Dingle Peninsula, and the Gaeltacht, with several interesting wells on the agenda (an oxymoron surely). First stop, Dún Chaoin, Dunquin, and Ionad agus Oileán an Bhlascaoid Mhór, the Blasket Centre, Designed over 25 years ago and nestling respectfully into the landscape, this is an interesting building containing a fascinating display about the lives of the Blasket islanders and their extraordinary literacy legacy. You can enjoy a cuppa and gaze out at the Great Blasket which looks deceptively close, the sea also deceptively calm and enticing today. The islanders were evacuated in 1953 and today there are no permanent residents but there is a hostel where visitors can stay overnight.

Pondering over all of this, we walked to Tobar Ghobnatan, St Gobnait’s Well. You can take a cliff walk via the waymarked Siúlóid na Cille or drive a little closer and park in a small layby and walk the rest of the way. It’s a pleasant stroll with big views inland to Sliabh an Iolair, little clusters of white houses nestling beneath its massive form.

And big sea views in front of you, dominated by the the Blasket Islands, especially the reposing and enigmatic shape of Inis Tuaisceart, also known as the Dead Man, now just home to sheep.

We parked in the layby near an attractive bungalow and walked the last bit. The garden of the bungalow was a spectacular riot of cowslips and orchids today.

We walked along the rough path heading towards the sea, its roar in our ears. We passed a burnt out bungalow, gaunt and black, just the chimneys still standing proud at each end.

Continuing, a huge outcrop of rock came into view – almost Dartmoor-like. Looking closer the lower half has been worked on – encircled by a wall of enormous Cyclopean blocks of stones .

This is Cill Ghobnait or St Gobnait’s church (KE052-003005) , the chunky stone walls the only structure remaining. But climb up amongst the rocks and inside there is an early stone cross sitting atop a small cairn (KE052-007). The cross is 0.9m high and 0.42m wide, worn and grizzled by the weather.

 

The well lies about 120m west of the rocky outcrop and is tucked into the the grassy slope. You have to look carefully to see it – it’s middle left in this photo.

The well is not marked on the historic OS maps, though the ancient cross and the nearby penitential station that lies to the north are. Fortunately some wonderful photographs of the well taken in 1947 survive and are now in the National Folklore Photographic Collection. They are the work of Caoimhin Ó Danachair who visited and recorded all Kerry wells during the 1940s/50s. His findings were published in The Holy Wells of Corkaguiney, in the Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland, Vol; 90 1960.

In the 1940s the well is more of a beehive shape, standing proud from the hillside, constructed with stones of varying sizes. A ledge inside holds an assortment of statues. Today the well is  horseshoe shaped, fitting into the gentle slope of the hillside and the stones seem to be have been arranged so that the slabs are vertical, with a smattering of smaller stones on top. Larger slabs have been laid in front of the well recess.

The newest addition is an attractive carved head of the saint gazing serenely down, almost an Eastern air to her. Coins and white pebbles adorn her,

The sculpture is the work of Cliodhna Cussen, an Irish sculptor who mainly works in brass or stone. I have seen and admired her work before – who can not fail to be impressed by the beefy St Fanahan in Mitchelstown.

Large slabs lie horizontally in front of the well, revealing a small basin.

The water is clear but full of tangled grasses. It is said to hold a cure for toothache and sore bones.

Various offerings are piled around a small group of stones, one of which has a cross inscribed by countless pilgrims over the years (it originally seems to have rested against the walls of the well in the 1947 image). Nice to see a jar of honey tucked in there, for St Gobnait is patron saint of beekeepers. She is also patron saint of Dún Chaoin and her feast day is the 11th February when traditionally the Blasket Islanders came to the mainland to take part. The weather was often very rough at that time of year so sometimes the date was moved to Easter Sunday. Once the pattern attracted hundreds of people as described in the Diocese of Kerry website:

Tradition records that people came from the surrounding parishes and from the Blaskets came to the pattern. Micheál Ó Gaoithín recorded that there was formerly a fair on the Pattern day and that the drinking and selling went on for three days but that this finally ended due to clerical opposition. Ó Gaoithín also tells us that one PP was very strongly opposed to the Pattern, this upset the locals who argued with him, he cursed the people of Dunquin and they responded by throwing him over a cliff!

The cliffs are very high round here and the fields steep!

The rounds have been recorded by the same website as Gaeilge:

Go mbeannaí Dia dhuit, a Ghobnait Naofa, Go mbeannaí Muire faoi mar a bheannaím féin dhuit.Is chughatsa a thána ag gearán mo scéal leat, Go dtabharfá leigheas i gcuntais Dé dom. An Turas: Sula dtosnaíonn tú, téir ar do dhá ghlúin agus abair an phaidir thuas. Téir isteach ansin go dtí an áit ina bhfuil an chros, téir ar do dhá ghlúin ansin agus abair paidir.

Téir seacht n-uaire timpeall ar an gcros leis an ngrian ag paidreoireacht leat i gcónaí. Tabhair póg don Chros ansin, téir ar do ghlúine arís agus abair cúpla paidir sara théann tú go dtí an tobar.
Téir ar do ghlúine arís ag an tobar agus abair cúpla paidir. Seacht dtimpeall ansin ar an dtobar leis an ngrian. Tógann tú trí dheoch as an tobar le do láimh is fágann tú rud éigin id’dhiaidh sa tobar…. biorán, cnaipe, airgead nó rud éigin. Téir ar do ghlúine arís agus abair paidir sula fhágann tú an tobar.

Téann tú ansin go dtí na clocháin agus tugann tú naoi gcinn de chlocha beaga leat. Téir ar do ghlúine arís in aice leis na clocháin agus abair cúpla paidir. Téann tú timpeall ar an gclochán mór cúig uair, agus cloch a chaitheamh isteach agat ar gach timpeall. Téir ansin timpeall an chlocháin bhig ceithre uair, agus cloch a chaitheamh isteach agat ar gach aon timpeall. Téann tú ar do ghlúine arís don uair dheireanach. Má bhíonn roinnt daoine le chéile ann is féidir an Choróin a rá, má bhíonn tú i d’aonar abair cúpla paidir agus as go brách leat arís tríd na goirt. (Diocese of Kerry ie)

If, like me, you need a little help with this, my good friend Finola has kindly translated:

God’s blessings on you, St Gobnait. May Mary bless you, as I bless you. It’s to you I come to tell my complaint to, that you may grant me a cure in God’s name (or in God’s stead).

The turas: before you start, go down on your two knees and offer the prayer up. Go inside then to the place where the cross is, go on your two knees there and say a prayer. Go sunwise around the cross seven times praying all the time. Kiss the cross then, and say a couple of prayers before going to the well. Kneel again at the well and say a couple of prayers. Seven times then around the well, sun wise. Take three drinks from the well with your hand and leave something from yourself in the well … a pin, a button, money or something. Kneel again and say a prayer before leaving the well. Go then to the clochán and take nine little stones with you. Kneel beside the clochán and say a couple of prayers. Go round the big clochán five times, throwing a stone each time. Go round the small clochán four times throwing in a stone each time. Kneel again for the last time. If there’s a group there together the Rosary can be said. If you’re on your own a few prayers can be said and then away you go across the field.

So the rounds began at the cross, continued to the well and then went to the clocháns.

Unfortunately I missed the clocháns so will have to revisit them but fortunately Ó Donachair recorded them in his visit in 1947. They are two large stone cairns within an enclosure.

They lie about 100m away to the north and are probably the result of pilgrims depositing stones over hundreds of years. It has also been suggested that one heap might once have been an oratory.

Today rounds are still paid on St Gobnait’s Day. This short video shows the pattern for this year, 2019, a chilly day. How I wish I could say Dún Chaoin in the same way as the film maker, Seán Mac tSithigh.

I have encountered St Gobnait many times before in County Cork, especially in the area around Bhaile Bhuirne, Ballyvourney, where she is much revered. There are a profusion of wells dedicated to her here.

So what was she doing in Dún Chaoin? The story goes that St Gobnait was born on the Aran Islands. Here she was visited by an angel who told her to seek her resurrection. She would know when she had found it for she would she would  see nine white deer. She duly left Inis Oirr, where there is a well dedicated to her, and set off journeying on the mainland. Her pilgrimage can literally be traced through Kerry and Cork by the many townlands referring to her, as the Diocese of Kerry website explains:

The foundations associated with her mark her various stops in her search for the nine deer. These places include Dún Chaoin as mentioned, Kilgobnet near Dungarvan and Kilgobnet (between the MacGillicuddy Reeks and the Laune, accessible from the Killorglin / Beaufort Road on the southern side of the Laune; it is interesting to note that this Kilgobnet is also said to have been the original site of the Lughnasa festival now held in Killorglin – Puck Fair! ( Máire Mac Neill, The Festival of Lughnasa , Oxford, 1962, 299). At various stages of her journey Gobnait met white deer – three at Clondrohid and six at Baile Mhic Íre – but it was only when she crossed the Sullane river that she found the nine as foretold at Baile Bhúirne. This place, on a rise overlooking the Sullane and looking towards the Derrynasaggart hills was where she settled, died and was buried “to await her resurrection. (Diocese of Kerry website)

At Dún Chaoin, when she was fairly early on in her journey, Gobnait is said to have seen three deer and caused the well to spring up.

There are many depictions of the saint but my favourite has to be this one, beautifully crafted  in stained glass by Harry Clarke. Some of the images of her can be a little homely but not this  with her strong profile and red hair. It is one of the many magnificent panels by Clarke to be found in the Honan Chapel, University College Cork.

It seems she gave him a little trouble for here is a painting by his friend the artist Sean Keating  showing Harry Clarke deep in reflection. The title of the painting: Thinking Out Gobnet (sic) painted in 1917. I think he got there.

Incidentally, the windswept ruins of the old school house just below the well are all that remain of the school house built for the film Ryan’s Daughter in 1969/70 when Robert Mitchum played the schoolmaster. Not a great place for a school – those cliffs – but a magnificent venue for a well!

Many thanks to Finola Finlay for her translation and for her photograph of Thinking Out Gobnet.