Tubrid Well, St. Ite's Well

Tubrid Well, St. Ite's Well

Tubrid Well, Millstreet. St. Ite (though some claim St. Gobnait from Ballyvourney, or St. Laterian)

Claraghatlea, Co. Cork

This well is actively visited during the day and night in teh twenty-first century.
A spring-fed pond about 40 feet diameter which flows into the Fion Abha River"
Mass is said here adn the altar is regularly maintained by local volunteers. The land owner turns lights on every evening for those who pray during the night with special concerns.

Sore eyes; blindness.

Amanda Clarke delivers a story about a blind man from Tipperary who dreamed of this well three nights in a row, and after three visits to the well he can see again.

"A cripple leaves her crutch there for all to see and walks away. A girl has her hair restored by washing in the well, an eight-year old child begins to talk, a woman has her finger straightened, and American gets relief from arthritis, a priest has a speech-impediment cured. An invalid thirty years in bed gets up and walks again after she has donated the stones for the building of the Grotto"

(Clarke, 2016, https://holywellscorkandkerry.com/2016/05/02/two-wells-for-bealtine/)

--1 May---This site is traditionally visited at Bealtine,

rosary beads, regularl cleanings keep the site free of votive accumulations

Amanda Clarke has these as "The traditional round dates consists of three visits to the well any Thursday, Friday or Saturday of May. Say a Rosary each day beginning at the Grotto and continue circling the well. Break the Rosary three times at the Grotto to ask Our Lady for request. Finish with six paters, Aves and Glorias. The ceremony ends in the drinking of water from the well. Receive Holy Communion following Sunday. If visiting only one day – say the fifteen decades on that visit, the six paters etc. and receive Holy Communion on Sunday. The rounds are always conducted sunwise ie clockwise and an annual Mass is still held here – this year it will be conducted on the 27th May" (Clarke, 2016, https://holywellscorkandkerry.com/2016/05/02/two-wells-for-bealtine/)

The well "may be ancient but it nearly fell into disuse. A law passed during the reign of Queen Anne (1701-14) prescribed a pubic whipping for those who dared visit holy wells and Tubrid was subsequently almost abandoned. However, the story goes that it was rediscovered during the 1930s when a blind man dreamt that he would be cured if he visited the well. He had the same dream for three nights and was eventually brought to the well and after three visits his sight was restored"

"One summer’s day in May a mad cow came along the Killarney Road bellowing. When she came to the cross she faced down the bog. After a while she rooted with her legs and horns. She left again in the evening and went west. It was said she had come from Castlemaine. When people went down they found a stream of water where she had been rooting. The first man who went to the well was a blind man from Tipperary. He had a dream on three nights that he would be cured if he visited the well. Which was by another name Tubber na mo Mingnon mon Clare na Blaogh which means tubber of the bogs beneath the fogs of Clare, He went with his friend O Leary from Coomlegane. They went on horseback to the well. On the first night after paying the round the blind man asked is that gravel. On the second night he asked is that a horse. On the (third) night he was cured. The waters are especially good for sight. The prayers to be said are five Our Fathers and five Hail Marys and five Glorys."

(Clarke, 2016, https://holywellscorkandkerry.com/2016/05/02/two-wells-for-bealtine/)

https://holywellscorkandkerry.com/2016/05/02/two-wells-for-bealtine/
http://www.millstreet.ie/blog/history/tubrid-well

On May Sundays, 300 to 400 people of all ages visit the well.
The well is stewarded by James O Sullivan, who's family has stewarded the well for generations.
The well has its own Facebook page