Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 28, 1917.djvu/119

 ==COLLECTANEA.==

(Continued from Vol. XXVII. p. 426.)

Legends of Ardmore, Co. Waterford

legends and superstitions that cluster round the venerable and beautiful ruins of Ardmore Abbey, with its Round Tower and the halo of sanctity which illuminates the memory of its saintly founder and his learned successors, are most quaint, but no doubt have already been collected and printed.Nevertheless it may be well to set down very shortly the beliefs which not many years ago caused crowds of the country people to collect on the patron day at the pretty seaside place, and bring their sick people and those who were in trouble to the holy places to be rid of their griefs, whether of mind or body.

St. Declan was the founder of the original ecclesiastical settlement. The Round Tower of Ardmore is unique among all others for being ornamented by a series of three string courses. St. Declan miraculously built the basal portion in one night, in the second night he raised it to the second string course, and on the third he carried it to the third. But an old woman would not give the saint any credit for this "tour de force," and cried out, "Will you never be done?" and St. Declan immediately completed the final portion of the structure and finished the whole with the conical cap, which is still perfect.

The saint on one occasion went on a pilgrimage to Rome, and on his return, when the ship was approaching Ardmore, some gigantic pagans attempted to prevent his landing and ran out into the sea in a threatening manner; whereupon St. Declan turned