St. Movee’s Cemetery and well are about two and a half or three miles from Skerries on the western side.
The Cemetery has a hollow space in the centre of it where no burials have taken place. The local story concerning this hollow is as follows:-
One day a man was ploughing his field and he had some neighbours helping him. It happened that St. Movee was dead and his funeral was passing by the field. His comrades ordered the man to respect the dead and cease ploughing while the funeral was passing.
He refused and continued at his work saying – “St. Movee or St. Movoo, I’ll plough my fruck before I go”. At the same moment the ground opened and swallowed him and the impression in the cemetery would just fit a man with plough and horses.
The well is in Mr. Woods demesne adjoining, and the water is much used in the district for curing sore throats.
GNS, 1937-38
Story recorded by
P. Flanagan, Skerries – died 1910, aged 80.