What is recorded here

Kilballykeefe is a place where the dead are still argued with, where a well called Thubberniclaush gives water to the living and takes back the names of the dead. The church stands a little to the east, its stones worn smooth by centuries of hands that believed St. Nicholas could be reached through clay and rain. To drown is not to disappear; it is to join the argument. The well does not drink, it remembers. What is forgotten above is kept below, waiting for someone reckless enough to ask.

The OS Letters (1839) mention, ‘a well called Nicholas’s Well lies a little to the west of it [‘it’ being the church (KK022-015001-) and graveyard (KK022-015002-) at Kilballykeefe]’ (O’Flanagan 1930, vol. 1, 237 (81)). The church is also described by Carrigan (1905, vol. 3, 436) who mentions that the patron of the church was, ‘St. Nicholas, whose holy well, called Thubberniclaush, or St. Nicholas’s well, is close by’. The precise location of this holy well is unknown. Compiled by: Jean Farrelly Date of upload: 27 May 2021

Linked to St Nicholas, the well at Kilballykeefe was historically noted near a church and graveyard, suggesting a Christian devotional tradition. St Nicholas was often associated with protection and healing in Irish folklore.

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