Category Archives: Irish Monastery

Not Long for this World



In County Kerry, Abbeydorney Abbey, otherwise known as Kyrie Eleison, was founded in 1154 as a daughter house to the existing Cistercian monastery at Monasteranenagh, County Limerick. Christian O’Conarchy, first abbot of Mellifont (the original Cistercian foundation in Ireland) retired to Abbeydorney in old age, dying and being buried here in 1186. In 1227 the Abbot of Abbeydorney was deposed for his involvement in the ‘Conspiracy of Mellifont’, an attempt by Irish Cistercian monasteries to resist reform imposed on them by their superiors outside the country.  More than 200 years later, in 1453 another abbot was accused of misrule by a monk of Monasteranenagh. Following the Dissolution of the Monasteries in the 16th century, Abbeydorney and its lands were granted to Edmond FitzMaurice, Baron Kerry and the buildings gradually fell into disuse. All that remains today are some cloistral ruins (rather lost amidst more recent gravestones) and a 15th century church, but the latter is in such poor condition that it has had to be surrounded by high fencing. Unless remedial works are undertaken here, the structure looks not long for this world.



The Irish Aesthete is generously supported by

Inspiring Reverential Awe


‘The foundation-charter of this abbey is in the Monasticon Anglicanum, and recites, that Harvey of Mount Maurice, who was Seneschal to Richard Earl of Pembroke, made a grant of divers lands to St.Mary and St.Benedict, and to the monks of the abbey of Blidewas in Shropshire, for erecting an abbey at Dunbrody for Cistercian monks; to this charter Felix, Bishop of Ossory, is witness, who was promoted to that see in the year 1178. This place is in the barony of Shelburn, four miles south of New Ross. The Cistercians, from their first introduction into this isle by St. Malachy, Archbishop of Armagh, were much favoured by the Irish nobility, and not less by the English. Hence they everywhere acquired immense possessions, and were enabled to execute in the best style, their different religious houses. Richard, Earl of Pembroke and Walter, his grandson, were benefactors to Dunbrody.
Harlewin, Bishop of Leighlin, was interred in the abbey-church, A. D. 1216, a great part of which he caused to be erected, and Edward III. in 1348, granted a confirmation of all the possessions of this abbey, and so did Henry IV. in 1402.’





‘Perhaps the most extraordinary instance of a sacrilegious plunderer that occurs in our ecclesiastical annals is that of Alexander Devereux or De Ebroico, the last abbot of Dunbrody. By deed dated the 10th of May 1522, he granted to his relation, Stephen Devereux, the town and villages of Battlestown, little and great Haggart, Ballygow and Ballycorean, for the term of sixty-one years, at the annual rent of twenty-two marks, and having thus liberally provided for his family, he surrendered the abbacy, and was consecrated Bishop of Ferns in 1539, in St. Patrick’s, Dublin, by George Brown, Archbishop of Dublin, and others. In this see he continued the same course as before at Dunbrody. He leased to his brother, James Devereux, and his kinsmen Philip and William Devereux, almost all his see-lands, at small rents. After presiding at Ferns for almost twenty-seven years, he died at Feathard in 1566.’





‘The ruins of Dunbrody are great, and have a grandeur, which at first sight inspires reverential awe; to which the solitude of the place and its wilderness not a little contribute. The walls of the church are pretty entire, as is the chancel. In the church are three chapels vaulted and groined. The great aile is divided into three parts by a double row of arches, supported by square piers, the inside of the arches have a moulding which springs from beautiful consoles. The tower is rather low in proportion to the building, and is supported by a grand arch, very little inferior to that of Boyle and Ballintubber: The foundation of the cloisters only remains, they were spacious. The western window is of an uncommon form, and the western door under it magnificent, with filigree open work cut in the stone, of which one single bit now  survives, and that almost worn smooth by time, but raised enough to put the finger under it.’

Extracts from The Antiquities of Ireland by Francis Grose (Dublin, 1791)
The Irish Aesthete is generously supported by

Of a Very Superior Character


‘The monastery of Rahan…was founded by St Carthach or St Mochuda about the year 580. A king of Cornwall, named Constantine, abandoned his throne in 588, and became a monk there, whence it would seem the name Constantine became a favourite one with the family of Molloy, who were princes of Fercall, the district around Rahan. Under St Carthach, Rahan marvellously prospered, so that 867 monks were said to have been gathered under his rule at one time, and his followers formed one of the four great orders into which the Irish monasteries were divided…The monastery of Durrow, however, became jealous of the success of Rahan, and so in 636 roused King Blaethmac to expel Carthach, who took refuge in Lismore, where he founded the see but died the next year.’
From The Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland Part III, Third Quarter, 1896.





‘The ancient Irish church at Rahan – repaired for Protestant worship – has a remarkable round window, measuring about seven feet six inches in the external diameter of the circle, and it is placed about twenty-two feet from the level of the ground. It formerly lighted a chamber placed between the chancel and the stone roof. It has a circle of bead ornaments and chevron carving within the outer band-line. The ornamental sculpture is in low relief are inciso or hollow. The stone and masonry of this church are of a very superior character.’
From Lives of the Irish Saints Vol.X, by the Rev. John O’Hanlon, (Dublin, 1905)






‘The Abbey of Rahin [is] partly restored as a parish ch. It was founded in the 6th century by St Carthach or Mochuda, afterwards Bp. of Lismore, and is remarkable for its archaeological details. The visitor should notice the chancel archway, which consists of 3 rectangular piers on each side, rounded at their angles into semi-columns, and adorned with capitals elaborately sculptured with human heads. The original E. window is gone, but lighting a chamber between the chancel and the roof is a remarkably beautiful round window with ornaments in low relief. The antiquary should compare the decorations of the capitals with those at Timahoe. There are also ruins of 2 other chs., one of them containing a doorway with inclined jambs (indicative of early Irish architecture) and an arch adorned with the characteristic moulding so like Norman.’
From A Handbook for Travellers in Ireland by John Murray (London, 1866)

A Monument to the Past



Few people today will be familiar with the name of William Delany, Jesuit priest and one of the great educationalists of the late 19th century. Born the son of a baker in County Carlow, in 1860 at the age of 25 he was sent to teach at St Stanislaus’s College, then a Jesuit secondary school in County Offaly. Ten years later, Delany became the college’s Rector and embarked on an expansionist policy which led to rebukes from his superiors (the school ran up substantial debts due to his building programme). What they, and everyone else, could not deny, was the quality of education received by students at St Stanislaus’s College, which led them to seek further academic qualifications. At the time, the Catholic University of Ireland, founded in 1851, could not legally confer degrees, and Cardinal Cullen had forbidden Roman Catholics from attending other third-level institutions because they were non-denominational, denouncing them as ‘godless colleges.’ From 1876 Delany overcame this problem by entering his students for the London University examinations, where they achieved one hundred percent success: in 1881 a First Place and First Exhibition were secured by boys at St Stanislaus’s College, competing against thousands of English entrants. Delany would soon leave the school, and was instead appointed the first president of the new University College Dublin (the successor to the Catholic University) where he achieved equal success. However, despite its academic achievements, in 1886 St Stanislaus’s College closed as a boys’ school. The debts caused by Delany’s building programmes, along with the shortage of Jesuit priests in Ireland, forced the order to make certain decisions, one of which was to focus attention Clongowes Wood College, County Kildare, despite the fact that the latter’s record was not as good as that of the County Offaly school.  






St Stanislaus’s College, popularly known as Tullabeg, dates back to 1818. The land on which it stands had been provided a few years earlier by a local woman, Maria O’Brien, whose father, a wealthy Roman Catholic merchant from Dublin, had bought an estate in the area: Rahan Lodge, originally built c.1740 as a hunting lodge. Initially it was intended that the new college would act as a novitiate for training Jesuit priests. However, before long it began to serve as a preparatory school for boys who would then go on to Clongowes Wood College. After several decades the school began to offer second level education to students and, as already mentioned, continued to do so until 1886. Two years later, a new purpose was found for the property, when it became the novitiate for the Irish province of the Jesuits; every young man who entered the order thereafter would spend a period of time at Tullabeg. This continued to be the case until 1930 when the novitiate was transferred to Emo Court, County Laois. Next the place became a faculty of philosophy for Jesuits who had already finished their studies at university. A further change of direction occurred in 1962 when the order decided to make Tullabeg a retreat centre; this finally closed in 1991. Thereafter the property seems to have had a chequered history, at one stage being used as a nursing home while a nine-hole golf course was installed in the grounds. 






St Stanislaus’s College is a building of diverse parts and periods, the whole adding up to a very substantial complex. The earliest part dates back to the second decade of the 19th century, when a south-facing block of three storeys over basement was constructed, its architectural style very much aping that of country houses of the period, with a flight of stone steps leading up to the main entrance, the door flanked by Ionic columns and topped by a generous fanlight. Over the following years, projecting wings were added on either side of this block, and then a church built to the immediate west. Once St Stanislaus’s College began to take in secondary school students, additional space was required, so in the early 1860s a large block to the east was added. Known as the Seaver Wing (after the rector of the period), the building, which is centred on a large three-bay breakfront featuring substantial tripartite fenestration, incorporated classrooms, dormitories and a refectory. Later in the same decade, a further wing was added parallel to and north of the original house; this held a college chapel and study hall, along with further accommodation. The work of this period was designed by successful Dublin architect Charles Geoghegan. During his time as rector, William Delany commissioned further work on the premises, rebuilding the students’ chapel, converting another chapel into a study hall and remodelling the east wing; he also had part of the local river deepened and enclosed to provide decent swimming facilities. Little of substance appears to have changed thereafter until the mid-1940s when Fr Donal O’Sullivan, then rector of St Stanislaus’s, commissioned the modernist architect Michael Scott to design a new chapel in the building; this had stained glass windows by Evie Hone, a timber altar and statues by sculptor Laurence Campbell and terracotta Stations of the Cross by French sculptor Robert Villiers. When the Jesuits left Tullabeg in 1991, they removed all these fittings and installed them in some of the order’s other properties. So those items were at least saved from the vandalism and decay that awaited the rest of the place and has led to its present decay. What can be done with such a vast range of buildings? Tullabeg is in a relatively remote part of the Irish midlands, in a rural area with few facilities. No doubt this isolation was beneficial when St Stanislaus’s operated as a religious house, but is now a distinct drawback. It would appear a few commercial ventures were attempted or considered here, but not found viable. So it sits, neglected and falling into further dereliction, a monument to another, now passed, era in the country’s history. 


Tripartite


The so-called abbey in Mungret, County Limerick. There had been a monastery here, supposedly founded in the mid-sixth century by Saint Nessan, but due to frequent assault and despoliation over subsequent centuries, no trace of the original buildings survives.  Instead, what can be found here dates back to the 12th and 13th centuries. In 1179 Donal Mór O Brien, King of Leinster granted the monastery and its lands to the Bishop of Limerick, and this subsequently became a parish church for Augustinian Canons Regular. The building is divided into three sections, the oldest part at the east end being the chancel, followed by the nave and then, at the west end, a square tower added in the 15th century and incorporating living quarters for a priest. Following the 16th century Reformation, the building continued to be used by the Church of Ireland until replaced by a new church designed by the Pain brothers in 1822 and located a short distance to the west of the older structure. The Pains’ work  – which took the form of a Greek cross – did not survive long, since falling numbers of parishioners meant the new church at Mungret closed just 55 years later in 1877, before being unroofed in 1900, with much of the stone then reused to build a parochial house in nearby Raheen. 


Traces of Former Glory

As its name indicates, the County Longford village of Abbeylara (‘Mainistir Leathrátha’, meaning ‘Abbey of the half – or small – fort’) grew up around a religious house. In this instance, a monastery is supposed to have been founded here in the fifth century by St Patrick, who then appointed St Guasacht as its first abbot. Guasacht, who also acted as Bishop of the short-lived diocese of Granard, just a few miles away, was the son of Maelchu, the man under whom Patrick worked as a slave when a youth in Ireland. Following Patrick’s return to this country, it is said that Maelchu preferred to lock himself into his home and set fire to it – perishing in the flames – rather than encounter his former slave. His son Guasacht, on the other hand, did so and was duly converted to the Christian faith.





The present remains of a monastery at Abbeylara can be traced back to 1205 when the Anglo-Norman knight Richard Tuite invited a group of Cistercian monks to settle there. Tuite, who had come to Ireland as one of Richard de Clare’s supporters, was granted large swathes of land in this part of the country and in 1199 had built one of the largest motte and baileys in Ireland. A daughter house of St Mary’s Abbey in Dublin, the Abbeylara monastery was likewise dedicated to the Virgin. When Tuite, by then Lord Chief Justice of Ireland, died in 1210, he was buried here. A century later, in 1315, Edward Bruce – brother of Scotland’s Robert Bruce – who arrived in Ireland with his army earlier that year, having first burnt nearby Granard, seized control of the Abbeylara monastery and spent the winter there. The monks returned following his departure but the establishment’s decline appears to have begun soon after: in both 1410 and 1435 the Papacy permitted funds to be raised for the buildings’ repair through the sale of Indulgences.





From the start of the 15th century until its eventual closure, the monastery at Abbeylara had come under the control of a powerful local family, the O’Farrells, as testified by the fact that successive members of this family were appointed its abbot. The last of them to do so, Richard O’Farrell, surrendered the abbey with its lands and possessions to Henry VIII in 1539: in return, he was appointed Bishop of Ardagh. At the time of its dissolution, the Abbeylara house held over 5,500 acres of land but the buildings were falling into ruins. Today little remains other than the former abbey church’s great central tower, and the adjacent north and south walls: high on the latter can be seen a badly weathered figure which may be a Sheela-na-gig. A Church of Ireland church which once occupied part of the surrounding graveyard has long since been demolished. 

Plainly Ruined



The remains of a church that was once part of a Carmelite monastery in Castlelyons, County Cork. This religious house was established in 1309 by John de Barry, but much of what can be seen today dates from the following century. Although sections of the cloister also survive, the church is the most substantial extant part of the site, a long nave separated from the chancel by a semi-ruinous three-story crossing tower. The building’s best-preserved details can be found on the west front, featuring a pointed doorway with hoodmoulded surround below a twin-light, ogee-headed window.

Cross Again




Not too far from Termonfeckin Castle, seen here earlier in the week, stands St Fechin’s church, alas now standing forlorn and neglected in the midst of a graveyard. Here can be found a sandstone High Cross, some nine feet tall and somewhat weathered but with an unbroken nimbus ring. Above a tapered shaft decorated on all four sides with abstract, interwoven patterns, the centre of the east face shows the Crucifixion, while the west face depicts Christ in glory.



Cloistered



The remains of the cloister garth at Ballintubber Abbey, County Mayo. This house was founded in 1216 by Cathal Crobhdearg Ua Conchobair (Cathal O’Conor) King of Connaught, and given to the Canons Regular of St Augustine. The church was almost destroyed by fire half a century later, but rebuilt and, along with the ancillary buildings, survived until the 17th century when badly damaged by Cromwellian forces. The church and some other structures on the site have been restored over the past 50 years, but the cloister, in its present form dating from the 15th century, remains as shown here.

Bello Loco


‘The Abbey of Killagha [County Kerry] was erected on the site of the abbey of St. Coleman by Geoffrey de Marisco for Canons Regular of St. Augustine, and dedicated to our Blessed Lady. Hervey de Marisco, one of the first Norman knights who came to Ireland, acquired large tracts of land in Tipperary, Wexford and Kerry. He died without descendants, and his large estates passed to his brother, Geoffrey. The latter is mentioned as Judiciary of Ireland in 1215. Smith, in his “History of Kerry”, says Killagha was erected in the reign of Henry III, which would be some time after 1216. Geoffrey de Marisco founded also a house for Knights Hospitallers in Awney in Limerick, and built the castle of Castleisland.
It is to be regretted that the records of the Augustinian order in Ireland are of the most meagre character. The Canons Regular aimed at a contemplative rather than a missionary life. They sought to realise the spirit of an à Kempis rather than a Dominic. Hence they were not bound up in such close relations with the people among whom they lived as were, for example, the Dominicans or Franciscans. When the ties were broken in the sixteenth century that bound the Canons Regular to their abbeys, they did not look back with the same wistful longing as did the members of these two orders, to recover their lost homes and renew old relations. As a consequence, we see the Dominicans and Franciscans dwelling once more beside their old monasteries, while hardly an instance occurs of the Canons Regular returning to the place that they left.’





‘The Abbey of Our Lady grew into importance soon after the Canons Regular had taken possession of it. It received large tracts of land in different parts of the county. Tithes and glebes were added, and the abbey became very wealthy. The Canons Regular happily united industrious habits of life with contemplation, and probably spent part of their time in manual labour. Lands were tilled and woods planted, and the surroundings of Our Lady’s Abbey became quickly changed. The place came to be recognised as one of unusual beauty, and the abbey henceforth to be known as Killagha, or the Abbey of Our Lady de Bello Loco…
…I have very little to record of Killagha during the intervening years down to the sixteenth century. Some improvements were made in the church, most probably in the fifteenth century. The beautiful east window was put in, also a handsome double-lancet window at the south side of the chancel, an aumbry within the sanctuary, two Gothic doors leading to the church from the south side, and a square window of three lights in the western gable. The insertion of these windows and doors has led Archdall to conclude that the foundation of the abbey is of more recent date than that assigned to it. “The architecture,” he says, “which is of a dark marble, bespeaks the structure to be much more modern than the time before mentioned.” The windows and doors that I have named are, indeed, more modern, but the other parts of the building, which are altogether different in character from the insertions, date most probably from the time of Henry III.’ 





‘The church is the only portion of the abbey buildings that at present remains; a few feet of masonry attaching to the south side of the chancel are all that we now see of what was once the abbey of Killagha. I am inclined to think that the materials of the abbey were removed soon after it was destroyed in 1649, as Smith and Archdall make particular reference to the church, but make no reference to the abbey structure…
The church is of rubble masonry, and though of plain workmanship, is solidly constructed. Though still in a fair state of preservation, there are evidences of approaching decay. Rents appear in the western gable, and the southern wall; and the joints are becoming much open in the east window. The church, rectangular and without aisles, lies east and west, and very long for its width; length 128 feet five inches, and breadth 23 inches five inches. The walls are very massive, those at the sides 4 feet 8 inches, and in parts 5 feet, eastern gable 4 feet 4 inches, western 4 feet 7 inches. It was divided, at intersection of chancel and nave by a steeple, or bell tower.’  


Extracts from The Abbey of Killagha, Parish of Kilcoleman, Co. Kerry by the Rev. James Carmody in The Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland , Series 5, Vol. XVI, 1906.