Trinity’s holy well
This article was published in Trinity News on January 27, 2009, with the headline 'A dry well, if not a dry Commons', the seventh of the 'Old Trinity' columns.
Trinity’s holy well
LOOKING THROUGH the railings at the entrance to college on Nassau Street one can see, below street level, what looks like a gated doorway leading under the road. This is St Patrick’s Well, Trinity College’s own “holy well”. Holy wells – outdoor centres of popular piety – were hugely popular in Ireland in previous centuries, and St Patrick’s Well was once frequented by large crowds on March 17th.
Nassau Street itself was called St Patrick’s Well Lane until it was renamed (after the royal house of Nassau) in the 1700s. The name in Irish continues to be Sráid Thobar Phádraig, as street signs attest.
The oldest mention of a well in the area is in a 12th century Life of St Patrick. The author refers to a “fountain of St Patrick” existing in Dublin. The Life says that St Patrick, in the manner of Moses in Exodus, struck a rock with his staff. The rock then “flowed forth abundant waters”.
In 1592, when Trinity College was founded, the description of property granted to the new college defined the southern border as “the lane that leads to St Patrick’s Well to the south of the monastery”.
It was around this time that the St Patrick’s Well’s popularity among Dubliners was at its height, and a dismissive English writer in around 1610 left us an account of devotions at the well. On St Patrick’s Day, he wrote, “the water is more holy than it is all the year after, or else the inhabitants of Dublin are more foolish upon this day than they be all the year after.” On that day, he wrote, “thither they will run by heaps, men, women and children, and there, first performing certain superstitious ceremonies, they drink of the water”.
At the end of that century, a story goes, frogs were introduced to Ireland at St Patrick’s Well. A doctor, “a very good protestant ... to show his zeal against popery”, allegedly brought frog spawn from Liverpool and deposited it in the well.
In 1729 the well ran dry, inspiring Jonathan Swift to write his satirical poem On the sudden drying up of St Patrick’s Well, near Trinity College, Dublin. “Here, from the neighbouring nursery of arts/The students, drinking, raised their wit and parts” he wrote. Public pressure led Dublin Corporation to restore the flow of water to the well two years later.
While the opening underneath the Nassau Street entrance currently claims the title of St Patrick’s Well, and has done so for quite some time, it is unlikely to be very same well which has such an interesting history. Several sites along Nassau Street have claimed to be the well of pilgrimage of 400 years ago, with that at the Arts Building entrance being the latest. Early Dublin maps place St Patrick’s Well nearer to what is now Lincoln Place.
The renovation of the Provost’s House Stables has led to increased and easier access to the well, and a new publication, The Provost’s House Stables: Building and Environs, contains an excellent investigation into the history of the well by Dr Rachel Moss.
NJD WHITE’S Some Recollections of Trinity College, Dublin, published in 1935, contains an interesting description of the beer served at Commons when he was a sizar in 1879. “The beverage supplied,” he tells us, “other than water, was a light beer, brewed at a special brewery in Rathdowney. It was the fashion to rail at this beer; but I believe it was then, as now, quite good light beer.” Hinkson, in 1892, says it was “an attenuated small beer, peculiar to college.”
Today it is draught Guinness which is grudgingly provided to those dining in hall. Can anyone provide evidence for the story that this Guinness is paid for by a fund of some kind? The first and second earls of Iveagh, Edward and Rupert Guinness, who served successively as chancellors of the University of Dublin, were generous with benefactions, so there may be truth to the story.
PARENTS are generous on the day of Commencements, but warn them against any temptation to buy the graduates’ scarf currently available in college for a preposterous price. This item resembles a tea towel more than a scarf. A graduates’ scarf in these colours (black, red, green and light blue – the colours of the TCD Association) is available in traditional two-ply wool for half the price from Ryder and Amies of Cambridge.
LOOKING THROUGH the railings at the entrance to college on Nassau Street one can see, below street level, what looks like a gated doorway leading under the road. This is St Patrick’s Well, Trinity College’s own “holy well”. Holy wells – outdoor centres of popular piety – were hugely popular in Ireland in previous centuries, and St Patrick’s Well was once frequented by large crowds on March 17th.
Nassau Street itself was called St Patrick’s Well Lane until it was renamed (after the royal house of Nassau) in the 1700s. The name in Irish continues to be Sráid Thobar Phádraig, as street signs attest.
The oldest mention of a well in the area is in a 12th century Life of St Patrick. The author refers to a “fountain of St Patrick” existing in Dublin. The Life says that St Patrick, in the manner of Moses in Exodus, struck a rock with his staff. The rock then “flowed forth abundant waters”.
In 1592, when Trinity College was founded, the description of property granted to the new college defined the southern border as “the lane that leads to St Patrick’s Well to the south of the monastery”.
It was around this time that the St Patrick’s Well’s popularity among Dubliners was at its height, and a dismissive English writer in around 1610 left us an account of devotions at the well. On St Patrick’s Day, he wrote, “the water is more holy than it is all the year after, or else the inhabitants of Dublin are more foolish upon this day than they be all the year after.” On that day, he wrote, “thither they will run by heaps, men, women and children, and there, first performing certain superstitious ceremonies, they drink of the water”.
At the end of that century, a story goes, frogs were introduced to Ireland at St Patrick’s Well. A doctor, “a very good protestant ... to show his zeal against popery”, allegedly brought frog spawn from Liverpool and deposited it in the well.
In 1729 the well ran dry, inspiring Jonathan Swift to write his satirical poem On the sudden drying up of St Patrick’s Well, near Trinity College, Dublin. “Here, from the neighbouring nursery of arts/The students, drinking, raised their wit and parts” he wrote. Public pressure led Dublin Corporation to restore the flow of water to the well two years later.
While the opening underneath the Nassau Street entrance currently claims the title of St Patrick’s Well, and has done so for quite some time, it is unlikely to be very same well which has such an interesting history. Several sites along Nassau Street have claimed to be the well of pilgrimage of 400 years ago, with that at the Arts Building entrance being the latest. Early Dublin maps place St Patrick’s Well nearer to what is now Lincoln Place.
The renovation of the Provost’s House Stables has led to increased and easier access to the well, and a new publication, The Provost’s House Stables: Building and Environs, contains an excellent investigation into the history of the well by Dr Rachel Moss.
NJD WHITE’S Some Recollections of Trinity College, Dublin, published in 1935, contains an interesting description of the beer served at Commons when he was a sizar in 1879. “The beverage supplied,” he tells us, “other than water, was a light beer, brewed at a special brewery in Rathdowney. It was the fashion to rail at this beer; but I believe it was then, as now, quite good light beer.” Hinkson, in 1892, says it was “an attenuated small beer, peculiar to college.”
Today it is draught Guinness which is grudgingly provided to those dining in hall. Can anyone provide evidence for the story that this Guinness is paid for by a fund of some kind? The first and second earls of Iveagh, Edward and Rupert Guinness, who served successively as chancellors of the University of Dublin, were generous with benefactions, so there may be truth to the story.
PARENTS are generous on the day of Commencements, but warn them against any temptation to buy the graduates’ scarf currently available in college for a preposterous price. This item resembles a tea towel more than a scarf. A graduates’ scarf in these colours (black, red, green and light blue – the colours of the TCD Association) is available in traditional two-ply wool for half the price from Ryder and Amies of Cambridge.
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