Pembrokeshire County Council commissioned Dunnett to photograph holy wells in Wexford as part of Ancient Connections, a heritage and tourism project linking North Pembrokeshire and Wexford. The series explores the environment and key details of lost and restored wells, and those that have been cared for through the ages. Dunnett’s work accompanies Irish writer Michelle Dooley Mahon’s text, The Bright Plain is published by Parthian Books.  

Lady’s Island is a pilgrimage site dedicated to the Virgin Mary. The island is joined to the mainland by a reclaimed causeway surrounded by a backbarrier seepage lagoon, which is separated from the sea by a layer of vegetated shingle. Salt and freshwater merge, making the lake and its environment an exceptional habitat for plants and animals to thrive, especially terns.

The island has a long history of devotion. Patrick Logan mentions in his book The Holy Wells of Ireland that pilgrims circa 1682 could be found, ‘bare-leg and bare-foote, dabling in the water up to mid leg round the island. Some others goe one foote in the water, the other on dry land taking care not to wet the one, nor to tread dry with the other. But some … goe on their knees in the water round the island and some others … goe three times round on their knees in the water.’

There are two wells in Tomhaggard, St Anne’s, in a carefully maintained garden and St James on the roadside adjacent. St Anne’s Well was known for curing eyes and throats, and there are stories in the Irish National Folk Archives of eyesight being restored. The devoted still leave offerings of candles, rosary beads and medals. Stations of the cross guide you up from her grotto to a small mass house that was used in penal times. Across the road from the garden are the ruins of the old parish church that houses a new gravestone dedicated to Father Nicholas Mayler P.P. who was killed during the celebration of mass on Christmas morning 1653.

Dunnett’s photographs were used as source material to make a series of cyanotypes, a photographic technique dating back to 1842. She read that St James water was used for making tea in the Irish National Folk Archives but came across contradicting information. So instead, she pre-soaked the blue cyanotypes in a bath with a splash of water from the St James Holy Well and toned them in an Irish tea produced since the early 20th century. Very much a lapsed Catholic but out of respect for St James she blessed each print.

St Helen’s well is long lost to the gorse. The remains of a pre-Norman church overlook the sea. It was used during the times of Thomas Cromwell and a story tells of kneeling figures still seen in the ruins a hundred years after. There is another tale attached to St Helen’s. St Aidan journeyed south to till the land with a team of oxen and a plough. He gave an ox to a woman with leprosy who he met on his way, leaving him one short to work the land. On arrival an ox leapt out of the sea. St Aidan yoked the animal with the other oxen and the land was ploughed. Each night the animal returned to the sea and reappeared the following morning. There is said to be a rock from which the animal jumped that bears his print.

At Carnsore Point, the southeasterly point of Ireland, big waves crash on its long sandy beach. St Vauk’s Well could not be found either. The archives state that it was once visited for complaints such as tooth and headache. The faithful drank the holy water directly from the well, took it home in bottles and applied it to the ache. Water from St Machain’s Holy Well in Killincooly was said to cure headaches and warts. Offerings still hang around the stone cross on top of the white washed well house. There is an old graveyard nearby said to be home to curing stones connected with the well.

All that was visible of St Brigid’s Holy Well, Crossabeg, was her statue secured to a tree, the setting had become overgrown, reports Cassidy Says in Ireland’s Own, an Irish family magazine established in 1902. During the first lockdown local residents restored this peaceful place for prayer in the country landscape. Cassidy signs off with, “Whatever ails you, look to the ‘lady of the dairy’ and forge, the patron of healers and poets for succor. Keep the tradition alive.”