Old Ways, Old Secrets by Jo Kerrigan

Author:Jo Kerrigan
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781847177544
Publisher: The O'Brien Press

Great Skellig, a black rock rising high above the crashing Atlantic waves, is clearly visible from the Kerry coast.

Fresh water is the essence of life, for humans, animals and the land, and our ancestors certainly respected the spirits or deities that inhabited it. Springs, streams, rivers and lakes all have their place in our beliefs and legends, recognised not only as sources of goodness and fertility but as entrances to the Otherworld itself.

SACRED WELLS

To see water bubbling up from the ground, falling from a rocky cleft or emerging from a gap in the mountainside is to experience the magic of nature. In Sligo, a man leads his children down a little lane and bathes their eyes at the small pool half hidden in the undergrowth. On a cliff-top in Waterford, dozens are kneeling in prayer by an old well while others circle the surrounding ruined walls, pausing at intervals to scrape crosses into specific stones. Deep in the West Cork woods, a lone figure is twisting a scrap of cloth around a thorn tree, already laden with offerings, which bends over a bubbling spring. Everywhere in Ireland you will find sacred wells still revered and honoured, sought in times of need and importuned for favours. It’s a tradition that has never gone away.

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