HOLY WELLS:

Across the Santry River from St. John the Evangelist Protestant Church is the site of St. Brendan’s Holy Well. This was originally a small well about 4 foot in diameter.

It was filled in in 1941 because local people believed it was connected to an outbreak of fever at the time and the water from it was piped into the Santry River. The site is now marked by a clump of white-thorn bushes. There is no evidence of devotion at this well.

There are also other holy wells in the area.St.Doolough’s Well in a field near St.Doolough’s Church is a small circular shaft lined with cut stone in an eight-sided tower-like building.

About the middle of the 17^th century Patrick Fagan of Feltrim decorated the eight-sided building which covers St.Doolough Well. He had the walls inside covered in paintings. The painting of the ceiling represented "The Descent of the Holy Spirit", those at the sides St. Patrick, St. Bridget, St. Colmcille and St. Doolough.

According to Lynch’s "Life of St. Patrick", those pictures were destroyed by Sir Richard Buckley when returning to Dublin with a party of troopers after the Battle of the Boyne.

A "patron" was formerly held at St. Doolough’s, but it became a scene of rioting and drunkenness. The clergy put an end to it in the last century.

St.Catherine’s Well, which is beside St. Doolough’s Well, covers the floor of a small rectangular building. Both St. Catherine’s and St. Doolough’s wells are below ground level and both may come from the same spring. The water of St.Catherine’s cures sore eyes.