the well of Fionnchú

Tobar Fhionnnchon signifies ‘the well of Fionnchú’. The feast day of Fionnchú is celebrated 25 November and the well is still visited annually on that date (see Roaring Water Journal). Notably, the Schools Folklore Collection made in the 1930s contains a host of stories and detail about ‘Saint Fanahan’ and his holy well, including the tradition that it was originally located elsewhere before drying up as a result of inappropriate use, only to re-emerged at Brigown (see BNS Fanahan). (The same tale is told about many other wells around the country. For folklore relating to holy wells, see Dr. Pádraig Ó Dálaigh’s thesis on The Holy Wells of County Kilkenny.) Brigowan/Brí Ghabhann ‘hill of (the) smith(s)’ was doubtless the main centre of veneration of this saint, and it is linked to him in all early accounts of his life (see below). The well in question is located in the neighbouring townland of Ballynamona/Baile na Móna ‘the town(land) of the bog’, depicted as St. Finnchu’s Well on all early versions of the Ordnance Survey 6″ and 25″ maps.

Saint Fionnchú is frequently mentioned in native Irish sources. In the Corpus Genealogiarum Sanctorum Hiberniae (320.2) largely containing Old and Middle Irish genealogies of the saints, he is found as Findchú mac Find m. Loga m.Findbairr m.Ail m.Masside m.Fergusa m.Duach m.Bresail m.Colla. m.Carpre Lifechair), although an alternative genealogy is found in the The Martyrology of Donegal: A Calendar of the Saints of Ireland. (Pádraig Ó Riain highlights the various conflicting genealogies of this saint in A Dictionary of Irish Saints.) He was called Findchú ó Bríg gobann ‘Fionnchú of Brigown’ in the The Martyrology of Oengus the Culdee, and similar versions of his name occur in other Old and Middle Irish sources (see Historical Dictionary of Gaelic Placenames, Facsicle 2 (Names in B)). A variant form of his name, namely Findchua, is also found in Corpus Genealogiarum Sanctorum Hiberniae (410.1), and he was called Fionnchua (the Modern Irish version of this variant) in the title of a relatively early account of his life, namely Betha Fionnchua Brigobhann ‘The life of Fionnchua of Brigown’ (see Fionnchua). However, the first version of his name, that is Old Irish Findchú (gen. Findchon), or Fionnchú (gen. F(h)ionnchon) in Modern Irish, predominates in other accounts of his life, in which he was generally referred to by various versions of Fionnchú Bhrí Ghabhann ‘Fionnchú of Brigown’, which emphasises his integral link with the ecclesiastical site at Brigown, despite his peregrinations around the country (see Ó Riain).

Fionnchú is a compound of fionn ‘fair(-haired)’ + cú ‘hound’ (Old Irish find + cú). The name is attested in early genealogies, such as Corpas Genealogiarum Hiberniae (ed. M. A. O’Brien), but it apparently fell out of fashion among the general population at an early stage, so that it does not figure as a personal name among the Gaelic Irish in the later medieval period. The genitive form is Fionnchon, or in standard Modern IrishFhionnchon, meaning ‘of Fionnchú’. This form would doubtless have been pronounced similar to /ˈ(f)inəxən/ (with an epenthentic vowel between -nn- /n/ and -ch- /x/; see Stair na Gaeilge, pp. 481, 484) which would have readily generated Fanahan as found in the local version of the name of the well dedicated to Fionnchú, namely St. Fanahan’s Well, most likely an anglicization of Tobar Fionnchon or in standard Modern Irish Tobar Fhionnchon. Interestingly, one account of the well written in Irish in the Schools’ Folklore Collection from the 1930s refers to the well as ‘Tobar Naoimh Fionnchon’. It should be noted that the addition of naomh ‘saint’ here seems somewhat artificial, as it is only rarely found in placenames or the names of wells, as the structure seen in Tobar Fhionnchon is the norm, e.g. Tobar Fhíonáin, Tobar Fíonáin, Tobar Feichín, Tobar Bhríde, Tobar Phádraig, Tobar Pádraig, Tobar Mhichíl, Tobar Mhuire, Tobar Muire, etc. (Note that in many names of well the version of the qualifying name is found without the lenition of standard Modern Irish.)

24ú Deireadh Fómhair 2024 (CÓC)