The road from Ballyvaughan to Fanore is glorious and i always stop by this strange but intriguing well and fill my water bottle. The water is cool, clear and refreshing. On a couple of occasions I’ve met locals filling large containers for home use. There used to be a handsome, friendly donkey in the field across the road. Im absolutely loving your well stories Paul. However I’m hoping that you might also be writing and sharing your insights & wisdom with us, with regards to the horrors that are happening in our world right now. I feel so helpless. 🕊️🕊️🕊️
Would recommend anyone interested in the wildness of the west coast of Ireland to check out (if you haven't already) 'Man of Aran', a 1934 "fictionalised documentary" by filmmaker Robert Flaherty. It's available on heavily-censored surveillance state media platform 'YouTube':
It remains a controversial film, for reasons you can read about below, but it does give one a sense of the fierce beauty of the place, and having experienced myself the winds and storms of Galway kicking up in mid-winter, I can affirm what is depicted is not terribly far from the reality of the place, at least in visceral terms.
Does anyone still live that way? Well, there remain old Galway fishing families working near the Aran Islands, and it sure ain't for the faint of heart:
Definitely blessed if you thirsty. I live near the Blue Ridge Mountains in GA. ,USA, and everywhere you go there will be springs coming out of the rock. Alot of them will have a pipe driven or drilled into the mountain to better access and control the water coming out. As a kid I would wonder how the water would come right out of the rock. Was always a treat to stop on side of road and fill a jug of clean water and enjoy the view.
I love the jabs at branding. At least in Ireland it is the Wild Atlantic ... Here in New Jersey we have the aptly named “Chemical Coast”, the petro-chemical hellscape along the Arthur Kill, which separates us from Staten Island, New York. Cherish those blessed journeys through the Emerald Isle.
The WAW has been a great success in our corner of South Kerry, certainly more attractive than the bus round the Ring of Kerry, which is three parts traffic to one part scenery.
I am beginning to really look forward to these holy well visits each Sunday. It is wonderful to have something at once ancient and current to think about, the generations who brought their troubles, many more immediate and dire than even our current battles with the encroaching darkness, and went away refreshed, easier in their minds than when they came. We can vicariously visit the wells with you and come away with some of that much needed refreshment, a sense of the immanence of God and the awareness of His perpetual enchantment of the world.
I think we all need to be very careful what we read or listen to these days. I find it much easier to keep my focus on God reading things like this.
Thank you. Your writing has given me a glass through which to view the times, and now a clue as to the things I should be reflecting upon.
Love all of us, but our comments are astray again friends.
:(
Old Nick will steal this space right out from under us, unless we be a bit of foolish "old guard" here- keep the space.
Paul cant do it all.
alone
we need to help him: keep it clean, on topic, out of love, with gentleness. But prayer and persistence.
That's my plea. :)
re-orient, all, toward the specific post, specific well, specific sands sifted in these beautiful still words here given to us on Sundays, days of christian rest.
trying to follow my own advice let me tell you what strikes me:
the stone.
.
My last confessor- he's the old friend of Rene Girard why I know what Rene knew in the end of his earthly life-
he's the one trying to build a byzantine stone chapel in the the greatest N.A. wilderness preserve- Percell Conservancy.
illegally harvested rock from the mountain btw- and he's a kind meek man- he still blessed this.
My point:
no one knows how to keep one stone on another anymore.
he had a vision: 1000 years of weathering the history ahead of us. Through stone on stone (Mt. Athos).
But,
no human hands can build this anymore.
Morwenna of the old world, a bent over woman, she could do this.
we men of the new world we cant.
How does a 100 year old stone gothic miniature like this still stand, in that climate?
they;re worse than us on the west-ish coast here!
We had a young pup, traditioned into today's ways, try to help us.
I found him in a courtroom- where else?
Our test wall lasted 2 years before falling apart under time and pressure.
so I say again:
who can be still for 1000 years?
otherwise brothers and sisters, 1/10 of you who can hear me, keep your tongues.
Dear Paul;
dont fear the loss of readership.
it's quality, not quantity.
stick with the wells of old.
...and a plug because I love my old confessor- though he did me terrible wrong- if *you* know how to build with stone, contact me. I'll let you help him.
it's real, stone on stone.
here we want to be fake.
but stone on stone, for 1000 years, that is real.
hold's prayer like ice holds cold.
man or they[all one word] at gmail dot com.
peace to you all.
but let's keep it, 1/10 is enough.
that's all the stone that stands in the end. a tithe.
It would be nice if you could look back in time and see how it was used, who used it and what things they held as important. We might learn a lot! Then again, as a human race we haven't learnt much from history so far.
I drank from this well about 30 years ago and am glad to be reminded of it. Even though it is beside a busy road it has a sense of peace about it. For some reason, I'm reminded of the lovely poem Pangur Ban, written by an Irish monk centuries ago. Perhaps it's the parallel between clear water and the monk's slow working towards clarity of thought, while his clever cat catches mice.
Mountain Gothic
The road from Ballyvaughan to Fanore is glorious and i always stop by this strange but intriguing well and fill my water bottle. The water is cool, clear and refreshing. On a couple of occasions I’ve met locals filling large containers for home use. There used to be a handsome, friendly donkey in the field across the road. Im absolutely loving your well stories Paul. However I’m hoping that you might also be writing and sharing your insights & wisdom with us, with regards to the horrors that are happening in our world right now. I feel so helpless. 🕊️🕊️🕊️
Would recommend anyone interested in the wildness of the west coast of Ireland to check out (if you haven't already) 'Man of Aran', a 1934 "fictionalised documentary" by filmmaker Robert Flaherty. It's available on heavily-censored surveillance state media platform 'YouTube':
https://youtu.be/Cwmc05qW0xc
It remains a controversial film, for reasons you can read about below, but it does give one a sense of the fierce beauty of the place, and having experienced myself the winds and storms of Galway kicking up in mid-winter, I can affirm what is depicted is not terribly far from the reality of the place, at least in visceral terms.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Man_of_Aran
Does anyone still live that way? Well, there remain old Galway fishing families working near the Aran Islands, and it sure ain't for the faint of heart:
https://www.irishexaminer.com/news/arid-40075511.html
Definitely blessed if you thirsty. I live near the Blue Ridge Mountains in GA. ,USA, and everywhere you go there will be springs coming out of the rock. Alot of them will have a pipe driven or drilled into the mountain to better access and control the water coming out. As a kid I would wonder how the water would come right out of the rock. Was always a treat to stop on side of road and fill a jug of clean water and enjoy the view.
I love the jabs at branding. At least in Ireland it is the Wild Atlantic ... Here in New Jersey we have the aptly named “Chemical Coast”, the petro-chemical hellscape along the Arthur Kill, which separates us from Staten Island, New York. Cherish those blessed journeys through the Emerald Isle.
The WAW has been a great success in our corner of South Kerry, certainly more attractive than the bus round the Ring of Kerry, which is three parts traffic to one part scenery.
I am beginning to really look forward to these holy well visits each Sunday. It is wonderful to have something at once ancient and current to think about, the generations who brought their troubles, many more immediate and dire than even our current battles with the encroaching darkness, and went away refreshed, easier in their minds than when they came. We can vicariously visit the wells with you and come away with some of that much needed refreshment, a sense of the immanence of God and the awareness of His perpetual enchantment of the world.
I think we all need to be very careful what we read or listen to these days. I find it much easier to keep my focus on God reading things like this.
Thank you. Your writing has given me a glass through which to view the times, and now a clue as to the things I should be reflecting upon.
Love all of us, but our comments are astray again friends.
:(
Old Nick will steal this space right out from under us, unless we be a bit of foolish "old guard" here- keep the space.
Paul cant do it all.
alone
we need to help him: keep it clean, on topic, out of love, with gentleness. But prayer and persistence.
That's my plea. :)
re-orient, all, toward the specific post, specific well, specific sands sifted in these beautiful still words here given to us on Sundays, days of christian rest.
*heart*.
-mb
Okay,
trying to follow my own advice let me tell you what strikes me:
the stone.
.
My last confessor- he's the old friend of Rene Girard why I know what Rene knew in the end of his earthly life-
he's the one trying to build a byzantine stone chapel in the the greatest N.A. wilderness preserve- Percell Conservancy.
illegally harvested rock from the mountain btw- and he's a kind meek man- he still blessed this.
My point:
no one knows how to keep one stone on another anymore.
he had a vision: 1000 years of weathering the history ahead of us. Through stone on stone (Mt. Athos).
But,
no human hands can build this anymore.
Morwenna of the old world, a bent over woman, she could do this.
we men of the new world we cant.
How does a 100 year old stone gothic miniature like this still stand, in that climate?
they;re worse than us on the west-ish coast here!
We had a young pup, traditioned into today's ways, try to help us.
I found him in a courtroom- where else?
Our test wall lasted 2 years before falling apart under time and pressure.
so I say again:
who can be still for 1000 years?
otherwise brothers and sisters, 1/10 of you who can hear me, keep your tongues.
Dear Paul;
dont fear the loss of readership.
it's quality, not quantity.
stick with the wells of old.
...and a plug because I love my old confessor- though he did me terrible wrong- if *you* know how to build with stone, contact me. I'll let you help him.
it's real, stone on stone.
here we want to be fake.
but stone on stone, for 1000 years, that is real.
hold's prayer like ice holds cold.
man or they[all one word] at gmail dot com.
peace to you all.
but let's keep it, 1/10 is enough.
that's all the stone that stands in the end. a tithe.
peace. or be gone!
for my piece.
*heart*.
basil.
It would be nice if you could look back in time and see how it was used, who used it and what things they held as important. We might learn a lot! Then again, as a human race we haven't learnt much from history so far.
I drank from this well about 30 years ago and am glad to be reminded of it. Even though it is beside a busy road it has a sense of peace about it. For some reason, I'm reminded of the lovely poem Pangur Ban, written by an Irish monk centuries ago. Perhaps it's the parallel between clear water and the monk's slow working towards clarity of thought, while his clever cat catches mice.
I took water from this well last month. I needed it.
That tiny little well-house/gothic 'church' ... looks somewhat masonic in design 🤔
This wonderful essay that Paul wrote thoughtfully about the wells. His turn turned into quite the mess, hasn't it???
I realize the state of the world right now.
But I honestly don't think that's what Paul intended?
We all need to be respectful of each other
And mostly for Paul because he's putting this out there for us
*My opinion