There is a story that suggests St. Patrick visited Boyle as he toured Ireland banishing snakes and converting the natives to his version of Christianity. The late Malachy Beirne related details of the the alleged visit to me as follows:
• Patrick (not yet a saint) and his entourage approached Boyle and passing through Copse asked for water for his horses but was refused and ceremoniously urged “buzz off you with your Jesus story”. The holy man and his thirsty horses move on to the area we know as Assylinn and created the fresh water St. Patrick’s Well beside Boyle river. “Henceforth” Patrick declared, “There will always be fresh clean water here for man and beast” as he knelt and prayed beside the well.
• Next morning, low and behold, there was no sign of the horses … someone had stolen them while Patrick and his group slept!
• Allegedly, and enraged Patrick immediately put a curse on Boyle. “This place will never prosper” he said … and that’s the end of Malachy’s story.
• Maybe the current ‘wise men and women of Boyle’ should take heed of “The Curse of St. Patrick” and pray earnestly to him requesting that he lift the curse and allow the town to prosper as it should and could.
