While legal and religious factors have long guided our moral compass, our traditional code of right and wrong has also been informing indivi
While legal and religious factors have long guided our moral compass, our traditional code of right and wrong has also been informing individual conduct for a considerable amount of time. In oral tradition, particular behaviours deemed to be unacceptable are often followed by examples of what happens when this code is ignored. Among the prohibitions listed by Seán Ó Súilleabháin in A Handbook of Irish Folklore, there are objections to interfering with holy people or places, keeping late hours, using forbidden speech, as well interfering with the natural world. Disrespect for the natural world, including the desecration of wells and particular trees, and interference with particular animals, may result in unfortunate outcomes for those who do not abide by this popular belief.
Wells in Irish folklore are often spoken of as though they are sentient beings, who will move or dry up if they are abused or offended. Washing your clothes in them, misbehaving near them, removing the fish from them, or trying to fill them in are causes for the well to dry up and move places, appearing elsewhere and making a statement to those who use the well to be careful with their actions, for the well is in control: what it provides, it may also take away.
