Kilmeena

County Mayo

St Meena (Miodhna) is said to have had a dispute with St Classer about the boundary of the parish-and, as is usual with Irish saints, was apparently not above a piece of trickery. For the honour of the saints, I usually suspect their lesser disciples indulging in this stuff.

However it is also said St Patrick was involved when he founded the parish after his time spent on Croagh Patrick.

To cap it all, St Brendan was also involved in this parish. Indeed his Holy Well once changed the sex of a baby. I have never yet heard this feat quoted in debates on transgender, but the story is worth retelling. The English decided to exterminate the local clan, the O’Malley’s, and slaughtered them to the last man on Clare Island. But a pregnant O’Malley woman escaped with her life and when she gave birth to a baby girl at St Brendan’s Well in Kilmeena. The Saint promptly obliged by making the baby a boy and thus the bloodline of the clan was preserved.

I owe this information and the photographs to Aiden Clarke.

OS: 31 990 884 marked
OS: 31 966 890 marked