St. Finian's Well

The actual St. Finian’s Well is located in Kerry Ireland a short walk from the Sheen Falls Lodge on the Sheen River. The water of St. Finian’s Well is known for curing the blind. A few months before we accidentally stumbled upon this well in 2018, my father had eye surgery to reattach a retina. For a man who has been legally deaf since he was 22, competely loosing the sight in one of his eyes was quite unsettling. Three months after his surgery, we found ourselves in Ireland next to a well known for curing the blind and we chuckled at how apropos it was. At the time my father’s vision was wavy with ripples in what he saw because the retina was gradually reattaching itself to the eye surface and there was a constant worry that it wouldn’t attach properly or that it might even detach again. After our visit to the well, my father’s eyesight continued to improve until it was eventually perfect again. I always thought it was St. Finian’s doing, but I didn’t realize we were supposed to leave a token of homage at the well … Oops… a year later, at Gunston Hall in Lexington, Kentucky, a little chestnut, red-headed foal was born with 2 swirls on his forehead. Fin is named as a means of post-homage to St. Finian and his well in appreciation of my father’s recovery.