FATHER MOORE’S WELL

The Kildare Observer, October 4, 1913

FATHER MOORE’S WELL

Lord Walter FitzGerald in his paper said – This well is situated on the side of a boreen, a few perches in from the public road leading from Kildare to Milltown, and in the townland of Rathbride. Father Jon Moore had a remarkable gift of effecting cures to certain ailments. He is said by some to have been a “silenced” priest, but others again say such was not the case, but that he refused a parish in order to devote himself to prayer and fasting, by which he carried on his good work in the relief of suffering. He and his mother lived in a tatched house, which now stands in ruins, a few yards from the well further along the boreen. Before his death he blessed the spring in order that those performing a “station” at it might still be cured after he had passed away. Hence it has become known as “Father Moore’s Well” and sticks and crutches left behind by those who had no further need for them fully attest to its curative powers. Father John Moore died on the 12th March, 1826, at the age of 47, and was buried in the old chapel yard at Allen. At the west end of the modern ruins of the former chapel there is a large slab or marble top, which marks the grave of Father Moore and two other priests and bears inscriptions to their memory. There is one relic of Father Moore in existence and kept in the locality; it is his tall silk chimney-pot hat, which is in the custody of a blacksmith named Forde, who lives in a thatched house close by on the Milltown road. It is used as a cure for headache. The sufferer, after visiting the well, proceeds to Forde’s house, and after repeating some prayers places the hat on the head, and obtains relief. The hat is kept on a shelf on the dresser, as it is said it would crumble if placed in a box. Some people suppose that “Father Moore’s Well” was originally the Blessed Well of St. Brigid of Rathbride, but this is a mistake, as St. Brigid’s Well is pointed out at a considerable distance away in the fields to the east.
The following new members were enrolled: – Miss Hopkins, Blackhall Castle, Kilcullen; Col. The Hon. C.F. Crichton, Mullaboden, Ballymore-Eustace; Mr. R.S. Lepper, Carnalea, Co. Down; Mr, Mathew H. Read, Sallypark, Clondalkin.