Gobnait

), also known as Gobnat or Mo Gobnat or Abigail or Deborah, is the name of an early medieval female Irish saint whose church was Móin Mór, later Bairnech, in the village of Ballyvourney (Irish: Baile Bhuirne), County Cork in Ireland.

[3] In spite of this, Gobnait's cult continued to thrive here and the ruins of a medieval church dedicated to her are still visible today.

[4] One story tells of how she drove off a brigand by sending a swarm of bees after him and making him restore the cattle he had stolen.

[4] Some traditions associate her with the legendary saint Latiaran, the patroness of a sacred well in Cullen, making them two of three sisters.

[6] St Gobnait's well is situated to the north of Ballyagran in a high field to the left of the road to Castletown.

[8] She is depicted on a stained glass window at Honan Chapel in Cork, which was made by artist Harry Clarke in 1916.

[10] Former churches dedicated to Gobnait are commemorated in townlands and other places named Kilgobnet (Irish: Cill Ghobnait "church of Gobnait"): in counties Kerry (at Dunquin[11] and at Kilgobnet near Milltown[8]), Waterford (near Dungarvan), Limerick (in Ballyagran), and Cork (near Glantane, Dripsey, and Clondrohid).

Harry Clarke 's design drawing for the Saint Gobnait window , Honan Chapel , Cork, (1914)
St. Gobnet's Church , Inisheer; although the church is 11th century, it claims to derive from a foundation by Gobnait and to contain the remains of her beehive hut.