The Blessed Well of St. Dagan

Asenath Nicholson

Ireland's Welcome to the Stranger

1847

Chapter VII (3) | Start of Chapter

A large stone, with a wooden cross fixed in it, stands at the head of this well, and a beautiful tree waves over the whole. St. Dagan, we are told, blessed this water some hundred years ago; and so efficacious has it been, that cripples, who came on crutches, have gone away leaping and praising St. Dagan, and the blind have been made to see. So infatuated have been its devotees, that the bishop has thought it expedient to prohibit its resort, as being a place where miracles are no more to be expected. So unmindful was I of its healing virtues, that I actually turned away without tasting its waters.

Ireland’s Welome to the Stranger is one of the best accounts of Irish social conditions, customs, quirks and habits that you could wish for. The author, Mrs Asenath Nicholson, was an American widow who travelled extensively in Ireland on the eve of the Great Famine and meticulously observed the Irish peasantry at work and play, as well as noting their living conditions and diet. The book is also available from Kindle.

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An American widow’s account of her travels in Ireland in 1844–45 on the eve of the Great Famine:

Ireland’s Welcome to the Stranger

Sailing from New York, she set out to determine the condition of the Irish poor and discover why so many were emigrating to her home country.

Mrs Nicholson’s recollections of her tour among the peasantry are still revealing and gripping today.

The author returned to Ireland in 1847–49 to help with famine relief and recorded those experiences in the rather harrowing: Annals of the Famine in Ireland.

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