This is slightly off topic, as it's about a different holy well, but I must put in into this blog for one reason: A Google search for Sráid Thobar Pádraig yields NOTHING. I, perhaps a little needlessly, just got my knickers in a bind over this. The back story from a personal point of view:
I read in a book while doing research for my thesis about a St. Patrick's Well that used to exist in the grounds of Trinity College. I went to Trinity and spoke to the head of security about it and got confirmation that it does indeed still exist but is in a private garden. Essentially you have to make an appointment to go see it as you need to be escorted. It took me a number of months but I finally set aside some time to visit the well last December. The head of security, the lovely and helpful Pat Morey, and the head groundskeeper escorted myself and two friends to the well, which is now underground but used to be on street level. That would be Nassau Street. You can see in the brickwork how the street built up around it over the centuries, it's very interesting. It would have been a stopping place for pilgrims and people travelling all those years ago - there's no doubt that Nassau Street was busy even then.
I noticed back in June that the Irish on the street sign over Knobs and Knockers reads Sráid Thobar Pádraig - Saint Patrick's Well Street. The newer street signs simply read Sráid Nassau, but this older one is telling. The street was once called after this now forgotten holy well. I just made an album on Facebook with pictures from all the wells I have visited and was trying to get more info on the street sign to put into a caption. There was nothing. So I created this blog so that the next time someone might Google this place name or holy well, maybe there will be a relevant hit.
