Belfast / Shankill

The Library Ireland web site [http://www.libraryireland.com/Belfast-History/Early-Belfast-Churches.php] [accessed 29 September 2007] illustrates the font and cites from Mary Lowry's 'The Story of Belfast' (ca. 1913): "The ancient font which lies in the graveyard is formed out of a solid block of stone about three feet square with a hole cut in it. This ancient font is now used by the children of the district for a very curious purpose, and it is looked upon with reverent awe, as it is believed that it has marvellous powers of healing. Any child who has a wart sticks a pin into it, and then drops the pin into the hole in the stone, and the wart is cured. How frequently this is done may be seen from the solid layers of pins lying in the stagnant water which half fills the cavity. The font, which dates from the year 1413, is now re-named the Wart Stone. In the year 1911, it was removed to St.. Matthew's Church, and set up on a pedestal at the entrance door." Fred Kee, in his Lisburn Miscellany (Lisburn: Lisburn Historical Society, 1976 [e-version]: p. 17) writes: "There was a similar font in the Shankill Graveyard, Belfast. It sat with the bowl upwards and was called the "Wart Stone". If you had a wart, say on your hand, you stuck a pin in it (the wart), dropped the pin in the water (it was always full of rain water) and the wart went away. At the bottom of the bowl there was always several inches of pins from satisfied customers". Later in the same source mentions that it is located by St Matthew's Church, on Woodvale Road, "on a pedestal outside the church". [www.lisburn.com/books/lisburn_miscellany]