The Clare Champion Clare news, sport, entertainment and local notes
TOOTHACHES, headaches and a range of ailments of humans and animals have drawn pilgrims to Holy Wells for centuries, if not millennia, writes Fiona McGarry. Across the length and breadth of Clare, people still leave offerings in the hope of spiritual comfort and special intercessions. As well as the famous ‘Tooth Well’ at Gleninsheen in North Clare, where people leave toothbrushes and coins, there are 236 sites dedicated to saints and pagan figures dating to the Neolithic Age. Now, thanks to the painstaking work of historians and authors Michael Houlihan and Tony Kirby and their teams, the location and lore of these sacred sites have been gathered and made available in a new online resource. The two men have spent years carefully searching out the lesser-known and almost-lost wells, and those which are globally famous like St Brigid’s Well in Liscannor. Their tireless work has recovered “the apparently forgotten”. It has also created a springboard for the celebration and restoration …
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