Mise Meiricheard Mor Nam Feart
I am St Merchard of the Marvels
Jimmy Warren interviewed by Calum MacLean in 1952. Taken from the website of The Calum Maclean Project, based at the department of Celtic and Scottish Studies, University of Edinburgh. Original page here.
Merichead followed the cow. And the cow was always licking at the foot of this tree and working at this tree. And then they dug at the foot of this tree and they found the three bells. So Meiricheard, St. Merchard came on the scene. And he was supposed to take the bells and leave them at these – I suppose they would be churches at that time – and consecrated the churchyards there. Well, the bell rang at the top of Suidhe Meiricheard. It is called Suidhe Meiricheard until this day. He came in sight of the churchyard there. The bell rang. He came away down, took the water from this spring, which is St Merchard’s Well – it is just coming out of the rock – and went down and consecrated the churchyard. Well, there’s a stone in that churchyard that they call the baptismal stone. There is a little hole in it well in the driest of weather it’s wet. That stone is wet. The stone is there and the water is always in it. On the driest day in summer, it is never dry. The water is still there. A lot of people goes to have a look at that stone. It is wonderful.