A really nice piece about a part of the world I know well. The well is very close to what was one of the oldest enclosed orders f nuns in Ireland, the Discalced Carmelites, Sisters who left in 2020.
I think I bought a statue of Mary, and a couple of old glass windows, from that monastery when it was cleared out by the man from the local junk shop. It was a sad thing to see. I hadn't thought about the connection with the well. Who knows ...?
First things first: Loughrea is in the Wesht. Secondly - a case for Imbolc: Imbolc falls roughly at the astronomical northern European Spring cross-quarter day. Less showy than well established (in folklore, archaeology, and myth) cross-quarter days, Imbolc/Samhain-timed solar alignments have been proposed for Loughcrew Cairn L, U, Dowth North, and The Mound of the Hostages at Tara. This, of course, doesn't have anything to do with Bríd, (these monuments were built thousands of years before the Celtic gods were a coherent pantheon and before the arrival of Christians to these shores) but their presence makes a case for marking this time, a bead on a string, a turn of the axis, a shift in the weather. All good things.
I wasn't suggesting that Imbolc didn't exist at all as a marker of the seasons, or indeed as a celebration/festival. It seems pretty likely that it did. As you say, it's a time of year at which such a thing would naturally be marked. But there doesn't seem to be any actual evidence for a one-off 'event' (as opposed to a season) called 'Imbolc' which happened on what is now St Brigit's Day, though it's of course a possibility.
On the other hand, I will accept you claim about Loughrea happily!
Ha, same! Sit down with a nice cuppa to read Paul's Sunday morning well report and think, "Hold on! I resemble that remark..." I consoled myself that I'd made this coffee at home in a cheap French press rather than having bought it from some ruthless, soul-destroying global franchise.
Also, while coffee is nice, I'd imagine proper Soma offers a more significant narcotic buzz.
And Mrs Doyle would agree with you. As every Irish Mammy knows the first rule of Irish hospitality is You’ll Have A Nice Cup of Tea, the answer to which is refusal, followed by emotional blackmail (you will, you will, you will, you will).
It’s further evidence of the breakdown of Irish society when the time honoured rituals of guilt tripping, emotional blackmail and martyrdom involved in tea drinking are replaced drive by Starbucks.
I tell you, the fact the Irish do not say what they mean or mean what they say is causing me, with my Asperger's, much grief. Clearly, I need to go full hermit:
I do feel for you. But don’t be too hard on us. In my opinion English as spoken in Ireland is a different language, as it’s bedrock is Irish with a different set of assumptions about reality. (My husbands favourite is the road marking, SLOW followed by SLOWER. )
I'd suggest the scale of demonism related to any capitalist enterprise can rather accurately be gauged as directly proportional to the amount of suffering it causes in the world: to employees, to the environment and land-base, to basic human dignity.
If you want to see real capitalist demonism in action, take a look at the apex capitalist predators attending this event and understand they're making money from gambling with your life, your family's lives, and more or less the lives of every living thing on the planet, for money:
Assume that everything capitalist is demonic. However, as coffee is a natural product which was available many centuries before capitalism was invented, we can drink it with a clear conscience. This is my convoluted excise for enjoying it, anyway.
My conscience is admittedly only semi-clear, as the bag of French Style Roast grounds in my cupboards says 'SuperValu' on it and I surely don't want to know the vast chain of injustices that enabled me to casually toss it into a shopping cart for €1.99.
The prospect of coffee, however, is just about the only reason I get out of bed on too many days. I'm hooked, a junkie, an addict. I need help. And more coffee.
Also: for my "tea non-capitalist/coffee capitalist" statement I relied on the infallible Wikipedia to tell me the earliest references to tea emerged from China circa 39 BC, but coffee appeared stubbornly/surprisingly late in the historical record after early forms of capitalism were already stalking the land.
And to be sure, some neighborhood coffeehouses are similar in being community space to a pub. I hear friends meeting, business being done, pastors pastoring..
Alas, tea is perhaps even more capitalist. While coffee was the drink of rationalist Enlightenment types ginning up the Machine, tea's arrival in Britain, and thus Ireland, was a result of the British East India Company breaking open the subcontinent for international trade, and was the beginning of the British Raj. William Cobbett, fiery reactionary radical of the eighteenth-century, insisted that no true Englishman should drink tea, and should stick to their native drink - beer. We have our instructions.
Thanks, Paul! Please define what you mean by “capitalist”? Many people use that word and I’m not sure that they all mean the same thing. I also think histories in different countries could be relevant. For example, in the US beer would also be associated with colonialism, perhaps with capitalism.. you see my point?
This is probably not the place for a high-level economic debate, though I have written about this a fair bit in the past, not least in my recent Machine essays. On this occasion it was a throwaway line!
I hear the word from time to time and I'm never sure exactly what a given person means by it, and would like to stop them and find out.. Will check out your Machine essays. Thanks!
The sign and the dry well feel like the religion of my family. But in memory remains hope. My daughter was named Brigid in hopes she would be like her fiery grandmother (of that name, but who once arriving on America's shores never went by it), but moreso that she would be like that great saint, faithful and fearless. In some ways my Brigid is. My mother is lapsed in her faith and neopagan or Buddhist or whatever synthesis with her childhood Christianity works for her, firmly spiritual mush. Yet my six year old Brigid sees through it. Nearly every visit contains the question, "Grandmom, why don't you believe in Jesus?" To which my mother replies, "O, I do in my own way." Thankfully my daughter knows this is not a real answer, and so she asks again and again. She's a better evangelist than I am, and the grace given to grandchildren means she might actually get through. Perhaps on day the well will fill again thanks to Brigid's work.
I'm encouraged by this...may we and the grandchildren learn from the spiritual mush that has had us captive for decades....like the sign by the well..just a mush of neutral words basically saying nothing here to hold sacred.
Somehow Paul's substack found me here in Texas and through it I stumbled across www.friendsoffriendlesschurches.org.uk . Such a wonderful name, I had to join and my packet arrived the other day (although they came out on the short end of the postage.) There are many rural churches in America that have suffered the same fate, fallen into disuse and disrepair, not as old, but just as empty. In the packet was a beautiful booklet and within the booklet was a page showing the sign on the door of a restored church building, "Hints to those who worship God in this Church." The lack of mush and neutrality are refreshing:
1. Be in Time.
2. Go straight into Church
3. Kneel down on your Knees.
4. Do not look round every time the door opens.
5. Join in all the Prayers, and the Singing, and Amens.
6. Stand up directly the Hymns are given out.
7. Do not whisper to your neighbor.
8. Keep your thoughts fixed.
9. Bow your head at the Most Holy Name of Jesus.
10. If you bring children, see that they kneel too.
11. Make Almsgiving a regular part of your Worship.
12. Pray for those who Minister.
When the Choir and Clergy enter, or leave, the Church, then stand up in a body.
When they have passed by, kneel down in prayer for them and yourselves.
Golly…a sign reducing Christianity to some nonsensical hybrid with paganism, an imprisoned saint and a dried up well. It all speaks for itself. What a shame!
God will not be mocked, absolutely! He also will not chase us down and make us do anything. There was some popular Christian song about God chasing us down , busting thru walls etc and I always thought no thats not it. He can wait until everything has dried up. We come to Him and ask for the water.
Yes, that sign is a pretty mealy mouthed example of what the "information" and "communication" culture has reduced us to. Nothing inspiring in it at all.
I value and enjoy this series and have deep respect for the history of Ireland and take the intimate nature of healing miracles seriously. Modern Ireland has its problems and drying up of wells is not a good sign.
That dried-up well is a terrible sight to behold. Water for centuries and, then, finished. I'm sure some of the locals would have an idea why it happened.
It's hard to know what to make of that sign. At first I thought it might have been written by a local priest, putting some distance between the Church and Brigid, but re-reading it, I see a studied neutrality in it -- almost as if it had been written by a historian. That said, the phrase "ribbons were once tied to a nearby bush" is a killing one: suggesting that any such custom belongs firmly in the past.
Is there really no evidence that Brigid was at least related to or connected to a pre-Christian deity or holy figure?
It seems to me that universally, many folk deities become Christianized. It seems like a natural way for the people to learn to relate to a new religious framework. Why is that offensive?
Maybe it's the way we freeze distinctions between 'goddess', 'saint', etc., that's a product of our own learning that's really the issue. It seems to me that in reality, there's always more of a continuity between these things than a discontinuity. Discontinuities seem to more often come from top down than anything else.
Pretty sure you don't know any female Christian saints personally, and I doubt much less that you know what would make them happy. I do know that taking a strong stance on an extremely nuanced issue is usually a good way to generate some new subscribers. Best of luck to you.
I'm afraid this issue is not 'nuanced' at all. Read, for example, the life of St Brigit, or any of the other Christian saints. Speak to any Christian nun. Understand the faith. To compare a Christian saint to a pagan deity would be deeply insulting to them. This is not news to any Christian. The notion that there is no 'distinction' between a 'goddess' and a saint of the Christian church is modern mush. No committed Christian - or, indeed, committed pagan - would have any time for it.
Perhaps this 'stance' will generate me new subscribers but it seems just as likely to lose some!
Well, I never said there's no distinction, I said that we freeze things into distinctions that often end up being false, because of the way we freeze them. That's not modern mush, it's how things get politicized away from the people who are actually leading a faith into drawing lines in the sand to create political weaponry.
People feeling insulted by nuance, complexity -- e.g., reality -- as much as they want to deny it for their own ideological self-gratification, is not my issue.
I'm not speaking for anyone. I suggested that you speak to the nuns yourself. I can put you in touch with some if you like. All I am doing here is explaining my faith. There's no 'political weaponry' involved in that, and I don't know what you mean when you say that. Feel free to explain what 'false distinctions' you are seeing, if you like.
In Sigrid Undset's "Kristin Lavransdatter" (which won her a Noble Prize in 1928) set in newly Christian 14th century Norway a plague scares the inhabitants into reverting back to paganism to appease the gods and end the Black Death. This involved burying a young child alive. An elderly nun marches into the middle of the mob and puts an end to it.
I think people who don't know what a pagan culture really looks like have a romanticized view of ye olde ways.
Although there is a sad quality to the drying up of the well, it's still there and someone is still looking after it. If there's one thing Christians always have, it's hope!
A really nice piece about a part of the world I know well. The well is very close to what was one of the oldest enclosed orders f nuns in Ireland, the Discalced Carmelites, Sisters who left in 2020.
https://www.irishcatholic.com/loughreas-carmelite-sisters-set-to-leave-the-community/
(Discalced means shoeless or wearing sandals). Maybe that’s why the well dried up?
Also while you did mention the cathedral, you didn’t say that’s it’s got a fabulous collection of stained glass, including some from women like Evie Jone and Sarah Purser. Here’s more info https://roaringwaterjournal.com/2018/06/24/loughrea-cathedral-and-the-irish-arts-and-crafts-movement/.
I think I bought a statue of Mary, and a couple of old glass windows, from that monastery when it was cleared out by the man from the local junk shop. It was a sad thing to see. I hadn't thought about the connection with the well. Who knows ...?
I enjoyed your comments on the horrid sign this week. A shame the well dried up, but kind of understandable.
First things first: Loughrea is in the Wesht. Secondly - a case for Imbolc: Imbolc falls roughly at the astronomical northern European Spring cross-quarter day. Less showy than well established (in folklore, archaeology, and myth) cross-quarter days, Imbolc/Samhain-timed solar alignments have been proposed for Loughcrew Cairn L, U, Dowth North, and The Mound of the Hostages at Tara. This, of course, doesn't have anything to do with Bríd, (these monuments were built thousands of years before the Celtic gods were a coherent pantheon and before the arrival of Christians to these shores) but their presence makes a case for marking this time, a bead on a string, a turn of the axis, a shift in the weather. All good things.
I wasn't suggesting that Imbolc didn't exist at all as a marker of the seasons, or indeed as a celebration/festival. It seems pretty likely that it did. As you say, it's a time of year at which such a thing would naturally be marked. But there doesn't seem to be any actual evidence for a one-off 'event' (as opposed to a season) called 'Imbolc' which happened on what is now St Brigit's Day, though it's of course a possibility.
On the other hand, I will accept you claim about Loughrea happily!
Fair point. Up, Galway!
“Capitalism’s soma”, got a chuckle out of that, as I read this with coffee in hand!
Ha, same! Sit down with a nice cuppa to read Paul's Sunday morning well report and think, "Hold on! I resemble that remark..." I consoled myself that I'd made this coffee at home in a cheap French press rather than having bought it from some ruthless, soul-destroying global franchise.
Also, while coffee is nice, I'd imagine proper Soma offers a more significant narcotic buzz.
Would I like non-capitalist coffee less? What would be different? Is tea capitalist? Inquiring minds..
Capitalism appears to predate coffee so there may in fact be no such thing as genuinely non-capitalist coffee, though there was coffee available (sometimes: https://folkways.today/coffee-russia-ussr-communism/#Coffee_Supplies_in_the_USSR) in the Soviet Union.
Tea is decidedly pre-capitalist in origin, and is therefor kosher for anti-capitalists, unless purchased from demonic capitalist franchises.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=aF62cA2NMFs
And Mrs Doyle would agree with you. As every Irish Mammy knows the first rule of Irish hospitality is You’ll Have A Nice Cup of Tea, the answer to which is refusal, followed by emotional blackmail (you will, you will, you will, you will).
It’s further evidence of the breakdown of Irish society when the time honoured rituals of guilt tripping, emotional blackmail and martyrdom involved in tea drinking are replaced drive by Starbucks.
I tell you, the fact the Irish do not say what they mean or mean what they say is causing me, with my Asperger's, much grief. Clearly, I need to go full hermit:
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/what-one-man-learned-living-alone-in-the-wilderness-for-40-years/ar-BB1noFYS
I do feel for you. But don’t be too hard on us. In my opinion English as spoken in Ireland is a different language, as it’s bedrock is Irish with a different set of assumptions about reality. (My husbands favourite is the road marking, SLOW followed by SLOWER. )
I never heard the phrase 'hot drop' until I moved here. The day there are no more hot drops will be the end of Ireland.
How do we discern whether capitalist franchises are demonic or not? Is there a special ministry for discernment of spirits for businesses?
I'd suggest the scale of demonism related to any capitalist enterprise can rather accurately be gauged as directly proportional to the amount of suffering it causes in the world: to employees, to the environment and land-base, to basic human dignity.
If you want to see real capitalist demonism in action, take a look at the apex capitalist predators attending this event and understand they're making money from gambling with your life, your family's lives, and more or less the lives of every living thing on the planet, for money:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/article/2024/jun/01/bilderberg-meeting-spain
And since a cone of corporate silence has been placed on everyone in the West, understand you may have only hours to live:
https://youtu.be/0sntSogw1gs?feature=shared
Assume that everything capitalist is demonic. However, as coffee is a natural product which was available many centuries before capitalism was invented, we can drink it with a clear conscience. This is my convoluted excise for enjoying it, anyway.
My conscience is admittedly only semi-clear, as the bag of French Style Roast grounds in my cupboards says 'SuperValu' on it and I surely don't want to know the vast chain of injustices that enabled me to casually toss it into a shopping cart for €1.99.
The prospect of coffee, however, is just about the only reason I get out of bed on too many days. I'm hooked, a junkie, an addict. I need help. And more coffee.
Also: for my "tea non-capitalist/coffee capitalist" statement I relied on the infallible Wikipedia to tell me the earliest references to tea emerged from China circa 39 BC, but coffee appeared stubbornly/surprisingly late in the historical record after early forms of capitalism were already stalking the land.
And to be sure, some neighborhood coffeehouses are similar in being community space to a pub. I hear friends meeting, business being done, pastors pastoring..
Alas, tea is perhaps even more capitalist. While coffee was the drink of rationalist Enlightenment types ginning up the Machine, tea's arrival in Britain, and thus Ireland, was a result of the British East India Company breaking open the subcontinent for international trade, and was the beginning of the British Raj. William Cobbett, fiery reactionary radical of the eighteenth-century, insisted that no true Englishman should drink tea, and should stick to their native drink - beer. We have our instructions.
Thanks, Paul! Please define what you mean by “capitalist”? Many people use that word and I’m not sure that they all mean the same thing. I also think histories in different countries could be relevant. For example, in the US beer would also be associated with colonialism, perhaps with capitalism.. you see my point?
This is probably not the place for a high-level economic debate, though I have written about this a fair bit in the past, not least in my recent Machine essays. On this occasion it was a throwaway line!
I hear the word from time to time and I'm never sure exactly what a given person means by it, and would like to stop them and find out.. Will check out your Machine essays. Thanks!
The sign and the dry well feel like the religion of my family. But in memory remains hope. My daughter was named Brigid in hopes she would be like her fiery grandmother (of that name, but who once arriving on America's shores never went by it), but moreso that she would be like that great saint, faithful and fearless. In some ways my Brigid is. My mother is lapsed in her faith and neopagan or Buddhist or whatever synthesis with her childhood Christianity works for her, firmly spiritual mush. Yet my six year old Brigid sees through it. Nearly every visit contains the question, "Grandmom, why don't you believe in Jesus?" To which my mother replies, "O, I do in my own way." Thankfully my daughter knows this is not a real answer, and so she asks again and again. She's a better evangelist than I am, and the grace given to grandchildren means she might actually get through. Perhaps on day the well will fill again thanks to Brigid's work.
I'm encouraged by this...may we and the grandchildren learn from the spiritual mush that has had us captive for decades....like the sign by the well..just a mush of neutral words basically saying nothing here to hold sacred.
Somehow Paul's substack found me here in Texas and through it I stumbled across www.friendsoffriendlesschurches.org.uk . Such a wonderful name, I had to join and my packet arrived the other day (although they came out on the short end of the postage.) There are many rural churches in America that have suffered the same fate, fallen into disuse and disrepair, not as old, but just as empty. In the packet was a beautiful booklet and within the booklet was a page showing the sign on the door of a restored church building, "Hints to those who worship God in this Church." The lack of mush and neutrality are refreshing:
1. Be in Time.
2. Go straight into Church
3. Kneel down on your Knees.
4. Do not look round every time the door opens.
5. Join in all the Prayers, and the Singing, and Amens.
6. Stand up directly the Hymns are given out.
7. Do not whisper to your neighbor.
8. Keep your thoughts fixed.
9. Bow your head at the Most Holy Name of Jesus.
10. If you bring children, see that they kneel too.
11. Make Almsgiving a regular part of your Worship.
12. Pray for those who Minister.
When the Choir and Clergy enter, or leave, the Church, then stand up in a body.
When they have passed by, kneel down in prayer for them and yourselves.
Bam, what a Sweetie you have! May she continue to grow in the grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ!
Golly…a sign reducing Christianity to some nonsensical hybrid with paganism, an imprisoned saint and a dried up well. It all speaks for itself. What a shame!
‘Kneel and pray’ sounds about right
God will not be mocked, absolutely! He also will not chase us down and make us do anything. There was some popular Christian song about God chasing us down , busting thru walls etc and I always thought no thats not it. He can wait until everything has dried up. We come to Him and ask for the water.
"We come to Him and ask for the water" when everything has dried up. Right.
Yeah that seems to be my story. Try everything else and then come running back when Im in hot water.
Yes, that sign is a pretty mealy mouthed example of what the "information" and "communication" culture has reduced us to. Nothing inspiring in it at all.
What the sign said about the early church was 'probably' not completely accurate. See, anyone can do it.
I value and enjoy this series and have deep respect for the history of Ireland and take the intimate nature of healing miracles seriously. Modern Ireland has its problems and drying up of wells is not a good sign.
The reality of living in pagan culture was harsh and cruel, they would sacrifice all of us for a good crop.
"is harsh and cruel" would be more accurate.
That dried-up well is a terrible sight to behold. Water for centuries and, then, finished. I'm sure some of the locals would have an idea why it happened.
It's hard to know what to make of that sign. At first I thought it might have been written by a local priest, putting some distance between the Church and Brigid, but re-reading it, I see a studied neutrality in it -- almost as if it had been written by a historian. That said, the phrase "ribbons were once tied to a nearby bush" is a killing one: suggesting that any such custom belongs firmly in the past.
Is there really no evidence that Brigid was at least related to or connected to a pre-Christian deity or holy figure?
It seems to me that universally, many folk deities become Christianized. It seems like a natural way for the people to learn to relate to a new religious framework. Why is that offensive?
Maybe it's the way we freeze distinctions between 'goddess', 'saint', etc., that's a product of our own learning that's really the issue. It seems to me that in reality, there's always more of a continuity between these things than a discontinuity. Discontinuities seem to more often come from top down than anything else.
I wrote about that in the article I linked to above. No female Christian saint would be happy being compared to a pagan goddess!
Pretty sure you don't know any female Christian saints personally, and I doubt much less that you know what would make them happy. I do know that taking a strong stance on an extremely nuanced issue is usually a good way to generate some new subscribers. Best of luck to you.
I think I've met a few, though I can't be sure.
I'm afraid this issue is not 'nuanced' at all. Read, for example, the life of St Brigit, or any of the other Christian saints. Speak to any Christian nun. Understand the faith. To compare a Christian saint to a pagan deity would be deeply insulting to them. This is not news to any Christian. The notion that there is no 'distinction' between a 'goddess' and a saint of the Christian church is modern mush. No committed Christian - or, indeed, committed pagan - would have any time for it.
Perhaps this 'stance' will generate me new subscribers but it seems just as likely to lose some!
Ah, so now you're speaking for the nuns, too.
Well, I never said there's no distinction, I said that we freeze things into distinctions that often end up being false, because of the way we freeze them. That's not modern mush, it's how things get politicized away from the people who are actually leading a faith into drawing lines in the sand to create political weaponry.
People feeling insulted by nuance, complexity -- e.g., reality -- as much as they want to deny it for their own ideological self-gratification, is not my issue.
I'm not speaking for anyone. I suggested that you speak to the nuns yourself. I can put you in touch with some if you like. All I am doing here is explaining my faith. There's no 'political weaponry' involved in that, and I don't know what you mean when you say that. Feel free to explain what 'false distinctions' you are seeing, if you like.
"Speak to any Christian nun. Understand the faith. To compare a Christian saint to a pagan deity would be deeply insulting to them."
Bullshit. That is speaking for someone. You are saying that comparing a Christian saint to a pagan deity would be insulting to them.
Agree!
In Sigrid Undset's "Kristin Lavransdatter" (which won her a Noble Prize in 1928) set in newly Christian 14th century Norway a plague scares the inhabitants into reverting back to paganism to appease the gods and end the Black Death. This involved burying a young child alive. An elderly nun marches into the middle of the mob and puts an end to it.
I think people who don't know what a pagan culture really looks like have a romanticized view of ye olde ways.
Please, please visit the OG St. Brigid's well, at the site of her monastery in Kildare: https://youtu.be/TH13wFB-Nf4?si=pGVSUMxHCN1A6iqT&t=92
Although there is a sad quality to the drying up of the well, it's still there and someone is still looking after it. If there's one thing Christians always have, it's hope!
Holy Brigid, pray for us!