Toberdooran, Tobar Duadhrán, Ballaghboy

Townland: Ballaghboy, Doora

Description of Holy Well and Landscape Setting

This holy well was said to be located in an extensive area of rushes and wet ground. A local who had seen the well as a youth made a search but was not successful in locating the site. The area lies east of Ennis Town and once stood close to the main route from Ennis to Limerick, a busy and important thoroughfare in the past.

Saint and Feast Day Associated with Holy Well

Ordnance Survey Letters, 1839:
‘This Saint’s memory was annually celebrated in this Parish on the 3rd of November, and there is a Holy Well called after him lying about a quarter of a mile to the east of his Church, at which (well) Stations are still performed and in which children are dipped when small-pox or measles is raging in the neighbourhood to answer the same purpose as vaccination, or that they may take them but lightly’.

Natural Heritage around the Holy Well

The foliage here is typical of marginal land. There were lots of rushes present, as well as smaller trees such as alder, with a few fuller trees along the hedges.

Heritage Attractions Nearby

The site of the holy well is five minutes from Ennis Town, which offers all facilities to visitors including museum, shopping, restaurants and accommodation.

Additional Information

Ordnance Survey Letters, 1839:
‘The Parish of Doora, lying between the River Fergus and the Parishes of Kilraghtis and Clooney, is called in Irish, Dúiré, a name which is not easily explained unless it be derived from dúr, water, but this is not likely, though fully borne out by the locality, especially at this season of the year for the Church so called is now nearly inaccessible in consequence of the constant rains and its contiguity to the River Fergus which often inundates the place’.

‘The old Church of Dúiré is situated in the middle of a bog, about one mile to the south east of the Abbey of Ennis. It is a Church of considerable antiquity and was remodelled at an early period.