St. John's or St. Anne's

St. John's or St. Anne's

It has many names. It went by St. John's Well after the pattern day, St. Anne's well, after the church that was there before the English and it was also known I think, I think but I can't be sure, as Tobbernannny. It was associated with many saints according to my grandmother. St. Tiarnach, St. Laobhain and St. Croonan.

The townland of Annaghkilly in the County of Monaghan near the bridge of Annalore.

It is only a wet patch in the middle of a field now, it has been disused for many years. There is a stone imprint of the Saint's hand in the field.

It has the cure of skin complaints, toothache and head pain.

The pattern was on St. Johns Eve but people went to it when they needed it.

There was a bush I think where people left rags.

Unknown, I think you just said a prayer and blessed yourself.

There are conflicting stories about the well. One has it that St. Tiarnach blessed the waters. Another one has it that either St. Croonan or St. Laobhin were looking for a place to found a monastery and came to the ford at the River Finn. An old leper man stood on a stone in the middle of the river and guided people across safely in return for food. The saint was guided across kindly by the man who refused to take a payment for his services and the saint walked back across the water to him and took him by the arm and the hand. The saint guided the man up to the well and the saint put his hand on the stone and took some water and poured it into the stone. He annointed the man and the leper was cured. The saint then went on and in St. Croonan's case founded the monastery of Killycoonagh nearby or in St. Laobhins case, with night falling asked for a sign from God to where he should found his monastery. There was a woody bog in that place then and it was difficult to pass but a strange light appeared in the sky over the hill where the bog was an by its light the saint was able to find his way through the bog to the hill of Killeevan where founded the monastery of Killeevan. In either case, the monasteries always kept lepers at the bridge of Annalore and fed and clothed and looked after them until all the lepers were cured hundreds of years later. The other story is from the time of Cromwell. There was a priest of Killeevan, Father Eamonn Mulligan who when he heard English soldiers were coming went to the chapel of Killeevan to save the Blessed Sacrament. Having saved it, he was hiding the statues when a woman all covered in black arrived at the church and told Father Mulligan that the priest of St. Annes had been hung and there was no one to save the Blessed Sacrament there. Father Mulligan went to Analore and consumed the Holy Communion, he was just coming out the door when he saw a group of Cromwell's soldiers standing at the gate of the church. The soldiers dragged Father Mulligan out of the Church and tortured him and drowned him in the well. They threw his body in the church and set the building on fire. The woman in black who had watched from a distance seen it all and went to tell MacMahon who was the Lord here at the time that the soldiers were near and he better scarper. She came to his house at Lough Roosky and found that Mac Mahon was praying in his chapel in our townland of Killykeskeame but the soldiers followed her and destroyed the church there too, but MacMahon escaped.