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NTIQUITIES !N iTS NEIGHBOURHOO!
DUBLIN
HODGES, FIGGIS AND CO., LIWiTED
104 GRAFTON STREET
1916
MIRISRV60
IBOUGIHIT FMM
Phelan Donation
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Digitized by the Internet Archive
in 2007 with funding from
IVIicrosoft Corporation
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Antiquarian Handbook Series
No. VII.
The Council wish it to be distinctly understood that they do
not hold themselves responsible for the statements and
opinions contained in the Papers read at the Meetings of the
Society and here printed, except so far as the General Eules of
the Society extend.
THE ANTIQUITIES
OF
LIMERICK AND ITS
NEIGHBOURHOOD
BY
T. J. WESTROPP, President ; R. A. S. MACALISTER
^^ AND G. U MACNAMARA
DUBLIN
HODGES, FIGGIS AND CO., LIMITED
104 GRAFTON STREET
1916
[all rights reserved]
L7Wf
INTRODUCTION
This Handbook was originally publis^hed for the use of the mem-
bers of the Society on their visit to Limerick and its neighbourhood,
June 26th to 30th, 1916.
The success of previous volumes has led the Council to believe
that this account of a most interesting district will, like its
predecessors, be acceptable to*^o timers.* interested in the history and
antiquities of Ireland. ' ' ' * ** ...
The Handbooks already issued are:^ —
I. Dunsany, Tarn and Glendalough (1895).
II. The Western Islands of Ireland, Northern Portion (1895).
IV. The Western Islands of Scotland (1899).
IV. The Western Islands of Scotland (1899).
V. The Antiquities of Northern Clare (1900).
VI. The Northern, Western, and Southern Islands (1905).
ILLUSTRATIONS
* Lent by the Boyal Irish Academy.
t Lent by the Ncrtb Munster Archsaological Society.
^ Plate.
{T. J. Westropp)
{Henry
P. S.
^ Siege of Limerick, 1 690 (after Story) .
Limerick — Thomond Bridge, Castle and Cathedral
* St Mary's Cathedral and Map of Co. Limerick
^ Stucco Work {circa 1619) — Chapel Ceiling, Bunratty, Co. Clare
S. Crawford) ........
Limerick {circa 1590), from Hardiman Map ISo. 57, Trinity College, Dublin
Limerick {circa 1610), from Speed ....
* Limerick Churches, from old Sketches (1580-1680)
* Limerick Castles, from old Sketches (1580-1680) .
Limerick Cathedral — Plan ......
Limerick Cathedral, Bultingfort and Galwey Monument
Limerick Cathedral — Carved " Miserere " Seats .
•| Killaloe — St Flannan's and St Molua's Oratories {H. S. Crawford)
Killaloe — St Flannan's Cathedral, East {T. J. Westropp) .
Killaloe — St Flannan's Cathedral, South-east
Killaloe — St Flannan's Cathedral — Romanesque Door {T.
Crosfjiivait) ........
Killaloe — St Flannan's Cathedral — Romanesque Door (Detail of Ornament)
Killaloe— St Flaman's Cathedral — Plan ....
Killaloe — St Flannan's Oratory {H. S. Crawford)
* Map of Central Co. Clare (and Thomas De Clara's Lands, 1287)
* Creevagh Cathair and Cahercalla Triple Fort {T. J. Westropp)
Magh Adhair — Mounds of Inauguration and Pillar Stone
* Plans of Magh Adhair Mound and of Cahercalla Fort
* Plan of Moghane Fort or Hill town
* Carrigogunnell Castle . . .
Askeaton, 1599 {Pacata Hibernia)
Askeaton {View by Sandhy)
Askeaton Castle ( View by G. Holmes)
Askeaton Castle from the Friary {T. J. WeMropp)
Askeaton Castle from the North and from the West
Askeaton Friary — the Cloister {George J. Fogerty)
Askeaton Friary — the Cloister (T. J. Westropp)
Askeaton Iriary — Stephenson Tomb and Sedilia {T. J. Westropp)
PAGE
Frontispiece
1
3
6
9
11
13
15
16
19
23
27
29
29
31
33
34
37
39
41
42
44
45
51
52
55
57
57
59
61
62
62
VI
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
PAOE
Askeaton Friary — Nave, ^\est end (T. J. Westropp) .
Askeaton — St Mary's Church — Belfry {T. J. Wesfropp)
Askeaton — St Mary's Church — Plan .....
Askeaton — Plan of Desmond's Hall .....
Askeaton — Franciscan Friary — Plan .....
Adare — The Castle, Keep, Drawbridge and Inner Ward {T. J. Westropp)
Adare — Trinitarian Priory from East (T. J. Westropp)
Askeaton — Plan of Desmond's Castle .....
Adare — Augustinian Priory from South-east, and Cloister (T. J. Wesfropp)
* Adare — Franciscan Friary from South-east and from South
Augustinian Priory — Plan and details
* Adare — Franciscan Friary — Plan ......
* Monasteries in Co. Limerick — 1-4, Monasteranenagh ;' 5, Kilmallock
Details at Adare ; 6, Old Abbey ; 7 and 8 Augustinian Priory Adare
9, Fireplace in Dominican Priory, Kilmallock
Chalices of Kilmallock and Adare ......
^i Askeaton Castle and Cloister of Iranciscan Friary
Adare — Augustinian Priory from South-west [T. J. Westropp)
Quin — Franciscan Fripry from South-west {T.J. Westropp)
Quin — Franciscan Friary from West {T. J. Westropp)
Quin — Franciscan Friary fr^m S.mth-east (//. S. Crawford)
Quin — I ranciscan Friary — Thomas Dineley's ^'^iew, 1 680
Quin — Franciscan Friary — Cloister (H. S. Crawford) .
Quin — Franciscan Friary — Dormitory (H. S. Crawford)
^ Bunratty Cistle— Paved Hall {H. S, Crawford) ....
^ Quin — Franciscan Friary — Cloister Walk (H. S. Cravford) .
Quin — Franciscan I^ riary — (" Oid " and " Coulina ") MacNamara
Quin — Franciscan Friary — East Upper Room ; North Window
^i Quin — Franciscan I'riary — Plan ......
Quin — Norman Castle and Friary from the Belfry {T. J. Westropp)
Quin Friary — Plans
* Quin — St Finghin's Church from North-west (T. J. Westropp)
* Bunratty Castle and Bridge from South (T. J. Westropp) .
Bunratty Castle and Bridge from South-east (//. «9. Crawford)
t Bunratty Castle — Stucco Work (Various) (George J. Fogerty)
+ Bunratty Castle — Plans .........
Dromoland — Portrait of Donat Earl oi Thomond {G. U. MacNamara)
Dromoland — Portrait of Barnaby Earl of Thomond i(t. V. MacNamara)
Dromoland — Table from Spanish Armada (Count L, Salazar) . 110
^ Kilmallock — Church of SS Peter and Paul and Tomb in Dominican
Priory {R. A. 8. Macalister) ......
Loch Gur — Double Circle at Knockroe {B. A. 8. Macalister)
Loch Gur — Monolith in Great Circle (R. A. 8. MacoUster)
\ Loch Gur — Great Circle and Leaba Dhiarmaaa {R. A, 8. Macalister)
Loch Gur Castle (so called Bourchier's Castle) {T. J. Westropp)
Tomb
66
67
67
70
71
71
72
73
75
77
78
79
80
80
83
85
87
87
90
93
95
97
97
99
100
\m
103
104
107
107
109-111
113
114
116
120
121
122
123
124
126
LIST OF ILLUSTKATIONS
vu
Mac
PAGE
127
129
130
131
131
Loch Gur Castle (so called Bourchier's Castle) {G. J. Fogerty)
Kilmallock — Dominican Priory from South-east .
Kilmallock— Dominican Priory — Chancel ....
Kilmallock — Dominican Priory from South {R. A. 8. Macalister)
Kilmallock — Blossoms Gate, Outer Face (i?. A. S. Macalister)
Kilmallock— SS Peter and Paul— South Porch of Nave (R. A. S.
alister) .........
Kilmallock— The Burgate Tablet, 1642
Kilmallock— George Verdon's Tomb, 1632 ....
Kilmallock — Tomb of John Verdon and Alson Haly, 1614
Kilmallock — Dominican Priory — Elevations and Plan {H. G. Leask) 139-143
^ Roscrea — Round Tower and St Croran's Church, West Front {H. S.
Crawford) ..........
Monasteranenagh Abbey — Plan .......
Disert Oengusa, Croom — Round Tower from East (H. /SL Crawford)
132
133
134
137
138
141
144
ERRATA.
Introduction, for " IV " read " III, The Western Islands of Ireland, Southern
Portion (1897)."
Page 7. Another derivation of the name Limerick is from " Liacessa Lomanaig,
the flagstone of Lomanach's waterfall " (Irische Texte, ed. Stokes and Windisch
p. 268).
Page 25, for " Quuilinan " read'' Hyfferuan of Quinlinlion."
Page 90, line 24, for " Quin " read " Quins."
Page 94, line 44, for " Donall " read " Dovaty
Page 99, last lines, read'' who [both] caused me."
Page 100, lire 5, read " Thoirdhealbhaigh."
Page 120 (" Mote " Section), for " West " read " North-west," for bane '
read " bank."
VUI
Limerick
SECTIONS —
I. Introduction T.J. Wesiropp
II. Limerick City i T.J. Westropp
III. KiLLALOE AND Castleconnell T. J. Westvopp
IV. Magh Adhair, Moghane, and Cahercalla T. J. Westropp
V. Carrigogunnell, Askeaton, and Adare T. J. Westropp
Ogham Stones, Adare R. A. S. Macalister
VI. QuiN, Dromoland, and Bunratty G.U. Macmmara
VII. Kilmallock, Kilfinnan, and Monasteranenagh T. J. Westropp
Loch Gur R. A. S. Macalister
SECTION I.
INTRODUCTION, ANCIENT DIVISIONS, AND HISTORY
INTEODUCTION
The district of Limerick is of the highest interest both historically
and archaeologically, and abounds with beautiful scenery. Within
easy reach are, on one side, the great Bronze Age hill town of
Moghane, its origin and destruction lost in the night of the
unrecorded past, perhaps five to seven centuries before Christ, and
on the other, the great monoliths and circles at Loch Gur, perhaps
preceding the time of Moghane" itself as much as it precedes our
era; fields of legendary battles, as Samhain and Knocklong; and
holier sites where St Patrick preached at Singland, where Neassan
and IMainchin founded their monasteries at Limerick and Mungret,
and saints of the Dal gCais, Molua and Flannan, theirs, at Killa-
loe ; where Senan the Hoary, brother of the founder of Iniscatha in
A.D. 490, is reverenced still by hundreds of pilgrims at his church,
well, and rag-decked tree, by the falls of the Shannon. Limerick
itself is the centre, with all its memories of Norse and Danish
Vikings, and Dalcassian and Plantagenet princes, of the menace of
King Eobert Bruce and his brother — of its captures by Brian,
A
2 INTEOBUCTIOK
Eeymond le Gros, Ireton, and Ginckell, and its defence against
"William. Places abound that, in any other country, would draw
visitors from afar — Adare, where the castle and three monasteries
nestle among the woods on the yellow Maigue; Askeaton, one of
the chief houses of the 'hapless " Rebel Earl " of Desmond, where
the great rebellion, which desolated all Munster, first blazed up;
Kilmallock, ** quaint old town " of abbey and towers, with its
lovely background of the Bally houra JNIountains, and Killaloe,
" beautiful in situation," among the great heathery hills, at the end
of Loch Derg. Picturesque and important ruins (hardly ruins,
though roofless) are met with on every side like Bunratty Castle,
with its blood-stained record of the Norman De Clares and O Briens,
a castle which the.Italian Archbishop Rinuccini (accustomed to his
o\<tn bea,i4tifiil country and noble buildings) yet could mention with
acfmiration," ^nd the tall towered Quin, with its fine cloister, to which
' t^e/iri^'^ 'clung through two stormy centuries until the dawn of
better -days'. • The fault of the district is that it confuses by its
wealth of remains and historic memories, and would require weeks,
rather than days, to see it in any completeness, and a large volume,
rather than this little handbook, to describe it.
ANCIENT DIVISIONS AND HISTORY
For an intelligent study of a district one must know a little about
its ancient divisions and history. So numerous were these tribe
lands in the scene of our visit that to give their bounds and history
at any length would cumber our guide book. Suffice it to note
that Co. Limerick is, roughly speaking, the earliest " Thomond,"
Tuadh Mumha, or North Munster, which name got narrowed more
and more till it coincided in the end with the present Co. Clare.
The ruling house in the historic period was the Dal gCais, whose
princes eventually became known as 0 Briens. The whole of
Clare and the land round the city of Limerick, as far south as
Carnarry^ (Carn Fhearadhaigh), belonged to Connacht, but, at the
farther glimmer of dawn of historic legend, the powerful prince,
L\ighaidh jNIeann, had made raid after raid till he had extended
Munster 's borders northward to the present bounds of Galway. His
hold was of the slightest and remained so till, after his death, his
son Conall Eachluath contrived to get the land as an eric (or
compensation) from Connacht for the poisoning of his foster father
King Crimthann, a.d. 377. The struggle was no shght one, the
formidable warrior, King Fiachra of Irros Domhnann, resenting
the attempts of the people of Thomond to get foothold in his pro-
vince, in the central plain of Clare, led strong forces across the
Shannon. He however received a mortal wound, in what was
probably a draw^n battle with the Caenraighe, of Kenry, about
I O'D-^novan identifies it (by a strange forget fulness of its being on the
nortJi mearing of the Dal gais), with Seefin on the mountains of the extreme
southern border. The name is found used for Carnarry in old records down
to the important rental of the Bourkes in 1540, " Carran Fhearadhaigh."
The Ordnance Survey Maps (under some misleading influence) stereotype
the old (and inexcusable) mistake in their latest issue.
VS^T^
St Mary's Cathedral, Limerick
^':. iT^i/^oTW
COUNTY
^.v^*
CLARES
1^ #
[Cisileco!\r.ell
Srf^anil ./CON N ELLO^^^^ ^ 4^-S'^Feda^*-^^^^ .^^^^^^ {
X '^!'?r;^^^<---^--' Ne^cabde / CONNELL0j=. -.^
NQUIN ^ UPPER ^^Ai^^U^mallock^^^--^^ N^^^^^^^^^^
tpntuEs-
Map of Co. Limerick
4 INTEODUCTION
A.D. 380, and his less able successors left the Dal gCais to consoli-
date their gains up to the Burren Hills by about a.d. 420. The
people of Connacht made more than one great attempt to regain
the land; the last (circa a.d. 620 — 630), in which they penetrated
so far south as Knocklong, was defeated by King Dioma of the
Dal gCais so disastrously that they never made any other serious
attempt. The successors of Dioma ruled at Dun Claire and Bruree ;
a branch which eventually became the ruling line of Thomond,
settling in the Shannon Valley, near Killaloe. The local history is
extremely vague and enigmatical, all disconnected fragments; new
actors appear, win a battle and never are named again in the dis-
trict; thus we 'hear of the battle of Cuillene, in a.d. 552, where the
Corca Oithe, in S.W. Co. Limerick, were defeated, through the
prayer of St Ita of Cluaincredhail (Kilkeedy) ; of a battle of Cam
Fhearadhaigh (Carnarry) where Failbhe Flann, in circa a.d. 640,
defeated Guaire Aidhne, whose brother-in-law, Forannan,^ was
titular King of Thomond and who probably facilitated, if he did not
reinforce, the invader; this probably led to the sons of Enna King
of Munster, and the King of Ui Fidgeinte, of western Co. Limerick,
defeating Guaire on his own ground at Carn Chonaill, in a.d. 646;
while a little earlier, in a.d. 639, Aenghus Liathana, of Glen
Damhain, defeated Maelduin, son of Bennan, at Cathair chinn
chonn, or Eockbarton. What bearing these battles have on each
other is unknown; bare lists of the Kings of Dioma 's line and some
casual records of the Ui Fidgeinti chiefs from a.d. 646, and of
Brughrigh (not of its princes) from a.d. 715 form almost all our
other material for the restless period before the Norse Invasion in
the 9th century. The rest probably perished in the overthrow (and
evidently extermination) of the Kings of Bruree, about a.d. 830.
Far more important than their over lords of the Dal gCais, at least
in the records, are the Ui Fidgeinti of the western half of the
county. They succeeded in withstanding the first onslaught of the
Northmen, on whom they and their kindred, the Ui Chonaill, in-
flicted a terrific defeat, at Shanid, in a.d. 831. They probably
were held in little check by the Northern princes at Killaloe, who
indeed had hardly won the position of kings till recognised by
Fedlimidh, King of Cashel, on his hostile visit to Lachtna a^t
Killaloe about a.d. 840; certainly when that line began to assert
(or re-assert) its claim to the kingship of Cashel it found betrayers
rather than supporters in the Ui Fidgeinti, whose chief seat was
then at the old fortress of the royal race at Bruree. The genius
of Brian was however too strong for the race of Donnabhan, and his
descendent, Domhnall, King of Munster, chased the 0 Connells,
0 Donovans and 0 Sullivans out of their old territory into Kerry
and West Cork in 1174, a most fatal victory, as thereby he left
all his southern territory open to the Normans. Domhnall died
in 1194, after which the Norman power overspread Co. Limerick,
and even penetrated along the north bank of the Shannon to the
Bunratty river in Ui Aimrid.
The earliest light on the district of our travels is that
I He was of the Ui gCaissin (or " MacNamara ") line of the Dal gCais
and reigned at Tulla, in East Clare, where his hostility to St. MochuUa has
gained hijn ap unflattering record about a,d. 630,
INTEODUCTION 5
found in the Atlas of Ptolemy, a.d. 150. It gives the Senos,
or Shannon; the Ganganoi tribes (the Irish Gann, Genann and
Sengann) at its mouth; a " city " Eigia (variously identified as
Bruree, limerick, and Athenry) and Makolikon— which, strangely,
suggests Gil Mocheallog, or Kilmallock, though the latter name
is said to be derived from a saintly cleric Mocheallog. It is sug-
gested that the great wasted town of Moghane may be Ptolemy's
Magnata (Magen) but the gold ornaments of its plunder may date
600 years or more earlier than the Alexandrian geographer, and
'* Magnata" seems to have lain much farther north, perhaps at
Moyne, in Mayo. The old Dalcassian kingdom and its palaces
(as we saw) lay round Kilmallock at Bruree and Dunclaire in
Coshmagh and western Coshlea, which was the later district of
Fontymchyll. The Deisi tribes lay in Deisbeg, round Bruff and
Loch Gur"; they were reputed to be immigrants from Meath, like
the Deisi in Waterford. The very ancient races of the Uaithne and
Aradha, with the Ui Cuanach, lay from Coonagh and Owneybeg up
to Owney and Ara ; but the Aradha originally dwelt on the Saimer
or " Morning Star" Eiver. The Tuath Luimnigh lay along the
Luimneach estuary as far as the Maigue, and gave their name to the
City of Limerick ; their chief sept, the Ui gConaing or O Gunnings
are recalled by the castles of Carriag Ua Conaing and Caislean
Ua Conaing, now Carrigogunnell and Castle Connell; there seems
to have been a tribe named Aes Chluana near the former place. A
colony of the Burkes gave their name to Clanwilliam. Beyond
Kenry, the Gebtini, another very early *' pre-Milesian " tribe, were
settled at Askeaton (Eas Geibhtine and Inis Geibhtine). Another
group of " Firbolg " and non-Milesian tribes appear, the Asail,
near Tory Hill, or Dromasail, the Calraighe,^ at Pallas Greine, and
the Mairtinigh,2 thence to Emly. To the west lay the great
kindred tribes of the Ui Chonaill and Ui Fidgeinti in Connello.
There were several petty tribes, usually only remembered for
having given their names to various lands; all of very uncertain
affinity. The chief of these were the Ui Mhaille of Crewymalley or
Knocknegall; the Muscraidhe Chuirc of Kilpeacon, the Cenel
Mekin at Monasteranenagh ; the Ui Colochur, of Crecora ; the Corca
Muicheat, of Corcamohide ; the Corca Oiche, near Kilkeedy and
Glenquin; the Ui Fairchealla (Frawleys), of Ballyfraley near New-
castle; the Ui Baithin (O Meechans), near Ardagh; the Uibh
Eosa (Ui Eosa or 0 Eoss) in Iveruss; the Fir Tamhnaighe, of
Mahoonagh (Magh Tamhnaighe) and the Mac Ceire, at Lismakeery,
Save the Corca Muicheat and Corca Oiche they were rather families
than septs. North of the Shannon we pass through the lands of
the pre-Milesian Tradraighe, in Tradree, from Bunratty to Dromo-
land, while the Mac Namaras, the Ui gCaisin, the second branch
1 The Dilraighe, Margraighe, Sibenraighe and Calraighe.
2 Todd places the Mairtinigh at Cohiian's Well, on the south border;
OHuidhrin round Emly, but, as there was a colony of the tribe in S.W.
Clare, it was more probably there that "the (Norse) fleet of Luimneach
plundered the Mairtinigh of Mumhan " ( ? Tuadh-Mumhan) as mentioned in
the Wars of the Gaedhil with the Gaill (ed. Todd) pp. 15 and 227, and note on
p.^ xlii. OHuidhrin was taken far too seriously in the archaeology of the
mid-nineteenth century, for he entirely ignores' existing and even older cir-
cumstances.
6
INTEODUCTION
of the Dal gCais, held the country from Quin north eastward and
a branch of the Koyal house of the Dal gCais from at least a.d.
570,} occupied the Shannon Valley up to Killaloe and became the
later O Briens, named from their great King Brian ' ' of the Tri-
bute."
A few words on the hills which fringe our view from Limerick.
The purple ridge north of the Shannon is Slieve Bemagh or
Cratloe. At its western end, towards Bunratty, was the vast oak
forest so famous that we are told that the oaks were imported to
Westminster to make the roof of its Hall. The more eastern part
is '* Sliabh Oidhidh an Eiogh," where King Crimthann died
poisoned by his sister, in Glennagross, about a.d. 377, whence the
claim of his foster son, Conall Eachluath, to Co. Clare as an eric.
Up the valley we see Thountinna, where Fintan slept so soundly
that the Deluge did not drown him. Opposite to it, above
Killaloe, is Cragliath, the home of the great Banshee, Aibhinn, or
Aibhell (who appeared to King Brian before the battle of Clontarf),
and the site of King Brian's palaces. East of Limerick are the
** Silvermines " (or Slievephelim) culminating in the great dome
of Kimalta " The Keeper " ; southward, the Galtees and their con-
tinuation the Ballyhoura (Bealach Fheabrath) Mountains and
the bold outlying hill of Slievereagh on which the royal fort of Dun
Claire remains, westward the faint low ridges of Luachra. In the
centre of the plains (S.W. from Limerick) is the mote-like Knock-
fierna, the famous fairy hill of Donn Firinne the fairy king.
1 St Brendaa of Birr names his two friends Aedh of Cashel and Aedh of Craig
liath near Killaloe before a.d. 573.
Chapel Ceiling, Bunratty
SECTION II
thp: city of limerick
The chief city of north Munster derived its Irish name from a
tribe, the Tuath Luimnigh, and they from the name Luimneach,
the estuary of the Shannon, which appears in the early description
of the view from Knockainey Hill, put into the mouth of CuchuUin,
in the " Mesca Ulad." St Mainchin (an early bishop, some
say the disciple of St Patrick, but there were several saints of the
name) built a church upon the river island where the later city
stood. Then all is silent, though we are told in the Tain Bo Flidh-
ais (possibly in the 9th or 10th century) of " Eos da>Nochoilledh,
or Luimneach," as the southern bound of the influence of the
ruling race of Gamanraig'he in N.W Mayo. Other vague and un-
authentic stories are told, not of the town but of the district.^ Cor-
mac mac Airt fought a battle there in a.d. 221, and others at Grian
and elsewhere in the county. The Annals of Multifernham call
Limerick " Ross de Nailleagh " (which compares with the Tain
Bo Flidhais), while the lost Psalter of Cashel alleged that Luim-
neach was the western mearing of two partitions of Ireland in a.m.
2870 and 3973. Much speculation existed, even in early times,
as to the origin of the name. The Books of Lecan and Ballymote
tell of a prehistoric meeting of the men of Munster and Connacht
under their very mythically named Kings " Spear and Sword," for
warlike sports; the champions threw off their ** grey-green cloaks "
(Lvinine) on the bank and the tide swept them away. ** Cloakful
is the river now " said someone, whence Luimneach Liathghlas;
others in later days rendered it Lorn an each " bared by horses."
The Tripartite Life of St. Patrick tells of his visit about a.d. 434
to Saingeal fort, or Singland, where he baptized the Dalcassian
King, Carthann the fair, and his infant son Eochaidh Bailldearg.
The Annals of Inisf alien mention a battle of Luimneach in a.d. 567.
As we noted, the date and identity of its ecclesiastical founder
Mainchin is unknown. St Cuimin Fada, of Clonfert, died near it,
a.d. 661, his bodv was carried up " the Luimneach " in a boat,
and a verse of his dirge by Colman his tutor is preserved. None of
the records mention any fort, still less a town, here. Hlimrek the
town, like its sisters at Dublin, Waterford, and Wexford, was
founded early in the 9th century by the Norsemen. One writer,
Mr Pryce Maunsell, considers that the word is Norse Laemrich,
rich land (loam), but this fails to account for the earlier Luimneach
or for the recorded Norse forms. Probably (like Dyflin from Duhh-
linne) it was a Norse version of Luimneach. ** Yvorus " (Imhar)
was its legendary founder. It was commenced about a.d. 812
I Like the story in the Dind Senchas and its variants.
g l^HE CITY OF LIMEHICK
on Inis Uibhthonn (some thinks " Odin's Island " but surely that
would be Odensey)^ now the King's Island, near St Mainehin's
church. The Irish call it " Luimneach of the ships " and it be-
came a formidable centre of foreign power. The detailed history
must be sought elsew^here ; the succession of its rulers was--Barith
and Omphile; Imhar, 853; Sitric Lord of Luimneach, slain, a.d.
895; Colla son of Barith, a.d. 908, 923; Tomar son of Elge, King,
A.D. 922; Colla son of Imhar, a.d. 931; Harold, King, slain, a.d.
939; Imhar, a.d. 940; Olfin, a.d. 942; Amlaibh, i\Iagnus, or Murus
its governor, slain at Sulchoid, a.d. 968; Maccus, died a.d.
972. Imhar seems also to have fought at Sulchoid or Sulloghod
(near the Limerick Junction), where Mathgamhain, King of Mun-
ster, and his brother Brian overthrew the Danes, drove them back to
Limerick, and burned and sacked the town and fort. It never
rose to its old importance, but subsisted as a dependency of the
Dalcassian kings, paying them a heavy tribute of wine. It was the
first of Irish towns to get in touch with America; for, about a.d.
1000, *' Hrafn the Hlimrek merchant " was a friend and informant
of Ari, who made voyages from Iceland to " Wineland " on the
east coast of the present United States. INIuircheartach Ua Briain,
King of Munster, seems to have resided in it, and his successors,
down (it would seem) to Donnchadh Cairbreach, who was buried in
the Dominican monastery, in 1242, retained some connection with
it though the Normans, under Reymond le Gros, stormed it in
1175. Reymond was called off on other business so he " swore
in " King Domhnall to act as governor and marched out of it.
Domhnall's perjury was evidently not long premeditated, for
hardly were the Normans clear of the town before he burned it
to the ground. It was only some j-ears after the fierce old
monarch's death, in 1194, that the English established a colony;
Prince John built its bridge and castle, and granted it a charter
before 1199. From that time it has subsisted as a corporation,
though for the thirteenth century, the " received lists " of Mayors
and Bailiffs is most untrustworthy, contradicting the few authentic
records : sometimes being mere lists of names of witnesses to early
deeds (c. 1210) in the Black Book of Limerick, recited in their exact
order in those documents. The Ostmen were moved out of the
town into the " cantred of the Ostmen," and some of their families,
notably the Harolds, Thursteyns, Thordelfs, Thurstans, Sweyns,,
and others long held land near it; the Harolds still subsist. It 'had
walls in 1175, and repairs to them took place in 1237, the cost
being paid by a wine tax and other imposts. Though of small
*' historic importance," it is of interest to note in 1295 the price
of provisions in it : 10 acres of oats 2| marks, 1 acre of beans 40
pence, 6 acres of oats 20 shillings, cows 5 shillings each, a sheep
goat or hog 6 pence, a lamb 3 pence, and a kid 2 pence. Horses
sold at 5 marks, and mares 10 shillings, oxen at 3 shillings, foals at
2 shillings, a he-goat was worth 8 pence. The city was closely con-
nected with Bristol, several of whose citizens removed to Limerick;
Thomas Balbeyn had residences in both towns and left his castle
I For these relations with America see the sources brought together in
Proc. B. 1. Acad., vol. xxx, pp. 233-236,
10 THE CITY OF LIMEBICK
of Thom-core to the citizens of Limerick. The city received many
charters, that of John, before 1199 ; Edward I, 1291 and 1303 ; Henry
IV, 1400; Henry V, 1413; Henry VI, 1423, 1429; Henry VII,
1489; Edward VI, 1551; Elizabeth, 1577, 1582, and James I, 1609.
Its outer history is usually uneventful; it was threatened by the
Bruces, in 1315, and sacked by the Mac Namaras, 1369, after their
defeat of the Geraldines at Monasteranenagh ; they even appointed
a governor, who was slain by the citizens. The city was wealthy
and extremely prosperous in the 15th century, and we shall see
some interesting monuments of its opulent citizens during that
period. Its prosperity lasted for many years after Elizabeth's
succession, but the terrible Desmond war, the religious troubles and
general unrest brought it down to an unprosperous condition. It
however showed great vitality, recovering rapidly on every relaxa-
tion of adverse destiny. The transplantation of its citizens, after
the Cromwellian Siege, 1651, left numbers of its " houses great
and fair, without inhabitant," but again it rapidly recovered and
drove a thriving wool trade with Holland ; some of the Dutch mer-
chants were benefactors, the Cathedral bells still bear the name of
one William York, while several Dutch families, the Van der Luers
(Vandelure), Vanhogartens, Verekers, and others, settled from 1620
to 1670. The two great sieges of 1690 and 1691 affected the
personnel of the citizens rather than the prosperity of the port. It
was at times reputed to be the second city of Ireland, though in
later years the conditions of modem trade shifted away from it and
railways deprived it of its position of emporium for Munster and
Connacht.
ST MAEY'S CATHEDEALi
The city consists of three sections (besides suburbs) ; the English
town on the island, the Irish town adjoining it, and Newtown Pery.
The first is the ancient city of the Danes and the Norman colony.
After the destruction of the 0 Briens' palace at Kincora, the King's
of Munster made it their headquarters, building a fort, in which
it is said the present Cathedral of Limerick stands. It was to this
fort that the soldiers of Muircheartach Ua Briain, nominal High
King of Ireland, when he " came against the fortress of the King
of the North," brought the cap stones of the Grianan of Aileach as
a trophy, and some have looked for them (of course without success)
in the walls of the massive old church. Domnall mor Ua Briain,
the last recognised King of Munster, founded a church in honour
of the Blessed Virgin, some time between 1180 and 1190; the men-
tion of the church by Keating, in his account of the Acts of the
Synod of Eathbreasail, in 1112, has led some persons to assert an
earlier origin, but Keating 's words are clearly an explanation and
not from the " Book of Clonenagh." The Gothic style was intro-
duced by Domhnall after he built the convent of St John, Killone,
near Ennis : his abbey of Corcomroe and Cathedral of Killaloe are
I We must here gratefully acknowledge the kind permission of the Royal
Irish Academy to use a number of the illustrations of antiquities which
appeared in their Proceedings. The North Munster Archaeological Society
was' equally kind.
O w
eg Qj
Ok -5 «
^ ^ '~fl
4) O) O
^* ^
02
1^ THE CITY OF LIMERICK
of rich Norman transition ; his other abbeys are free from Norman
details. Limerick Cathedral seems to belong to the second
group in its rounded clerestory and west door and pointed arcades ;
only in some of the nave capitals does characteristic Eomanesque
ornament survive. The chancel was built by the first Irish Bishop,
Donnchadh (O Brien), who died in 1209.^ It has been so often
repaired as to show no trace of its early origin, the present details
being of the 15th century. Domhnall's church was cruciform, a
nave, with side aisles, short transepts and presumably a chancel.
The tower is an after- thought, being raised at the west end on
massive piers insei-ted between the older walls. ^
In the 15th century several chapels were added by various
devout families, the city being then most wealthy and prosperous.
They were (so far as I can identify them) as follows : — ^In the north
aisle, the Creaghs' chapel, now the baptistery. 3 The next chapel was
the burial place of the terrible " Murrogh the Burner," Earl of
Inchiquin, in 1673. His body, was said to have been dug up and
thrown into the Shannon; the urgency in his will, 1673, "my
friends .... shall immediately after my death bury and enterr my
corps privately " (his own son William being then abroad) suggests
some anxiety on his part, and an empty coffin found under a stone
marked " I " (Inchiquin) possibly confirms the story. The third,
now called the " Jebb Chapel," from the statue of that prelate,
was the Arthur chapel, or transept, dedicated to St Nicholas (the
patron of seafarers) where Thomas fitz Dominick Arthur directs his
burial, in 1634. In it should be noted the tombs of Dean Andrew
Creagh, 1519; a floriated calvary cross; the tomb of Piers Arthur,
1649, one reading " orate pro a(n)i(m)a Thome Creagh filii David
q' obiit — die Junii a.d. 1427 ( ? 1527) pro aia David filii Andr p(ro) aia
Petri Creagh filii — . . . die Junii 1546," and others of that family,
and Fanning 1634, Creagh 1632, Arthur 1649, Nicholas Rice 1769,
his wife Mary 1724, Thomas Arthur 1729, and William FeiTar
(father of the first historian of Limerick) 1753. The slab of the
mediaeval altar is in this chapel and several fragments of a large
Gothic tomb of the 15th century, portions of whose canopy and
buttresses also lie behind the south porch. The chapel has been
clumsily built against the north transept and has curious corbelling,
explained by some quasi-antiquaries as " the remains of the
O Briens' castle " ! It may be generally noted that the old Norman
capitals of the aisles were retained and in some cases rebuilt into
the new piers of the chapels. The old clerestory lights were in
some cases (as in the Jebb chapel) closed by the later additions.
1 The tablet with his name " Donoh " and a shield with three lions passant
round a chevron is probably later. The OBriens had on their banner in the
De Clare Wars the device- of onchoin, leopards, or perhaps hounds. Of course
the coat of arms, derived from the tribal banner, is later and, in fact, when
the first Earl of Thomond was invested the Tudor heralds gave him a coat
adapted from that of the English Bryans with three piles.
2 One " historian " gives a fancy account of a consultation of King Domh-
nall and his Master Builder as to the construction of the tower ; it is evidently
one of the later additions to Domhnall's Church.
' The Creagh coat of arms was painted in it "on the left hand, near the
entrance to the choir," (i.e., the extension westward, I presume) about 1583.
See M8S., T.C.D., E. 3-16. B.S.A.I. Journal, xxviii, p. 45.
StMAHY^ CATHtORAL
LIMERICK
1S90
LIMERICK
FRANCISCAN CONVENT , Sf»AAJW"3 MOUSE
S^ DeMIN\C»^$
bSiS-
I IkiLL '^^^ ill!
1680
ABBEYFEALE
SINGLAND ROUNO TOWeft VJQHN'S . UneRICK
CARRlC I PARSON
1655
ABBEYOWNEY }680
#lv^WH
CASILECONNEU
165-5
niLLTOWM ABBtY.lfcaO
"^^^1
^£^^
ROUND TOWER
CARKENLYS
16&0
A(IDPATP.ICK
1655
CRANE CGREAN)
1680.
Old Views of Limerick Churches
14 THE CITY OF LIMEEICK
The north transept retains very few old features. In a restored
trefoil-arched recess is set the curiously lettered tablet: —
'* Hie jacet, in tumuli fundo, sublatus a mundo,
Galfridus Arterue — Thesaurarius quondam istius ecclesie.
XVI luce Maya requievit in pace perpetua,
Anno Grucifixi Domini MDXIX.
Tu transiens cave quod hie dices Pater et Ave."
It has long tried the skill of visitors; in 16B0 Dyneley could only
read " Galfrid Art " and " 1519," Lenihan first read it correctly,
but Fitzgerald read it in 1827, with the wonderful version of the
closing lines — ** Tu tubis sic octavum cane qui hie dice octo precuni
eanae.''
" Do thou excite the solemn train and with the doleful
trumps proclaim
Eight times the mournful story.
Then to Eana oblation make of eight prayers for the sake
Of his soul in Purgatory."
For " you who are passing take care that you say here a Pater and
an Ave."^ There is a tombstone with a decorated cross on the
bottom slab of the recess. Another tablet set near the N.E.
corner reads : : Hie jacet Dns Johannes ffox quondam pras.
See. Crucis qui diem clausit extremam XXIII die Mensis
Augusti Anno Dni MDXIX cuius aie. pp itietur Deus." He was
** Provost " (prepositus) of the *' House of the Holy Gross," " The
Cell of Our Lady " (dedicated to St Mary and the Holy Cross)
founded for Austin Hermits after 1200 by O Brien. The mansion
house with a ruined belfry, choir, chancel, and a little garden still
stood in 1594 at Sir Harry's Mall. Another tablet set in the
north transept wall commemorates repairs to the chancel by the
Harold family in 1529 ; it was most injudiciously removed from its
true position in the choir.
The chancel — The noticeable features are (1) a quaint
little tablet with a chevron between three lions, and the
name *' Donoh," commemorating the rebuilding by Bishop
Donnchad ante 1204, but, as we noted, either later or in
part recut in the late 15th century ; (2) the pretentious
monument of Donat, the " Great Earl " of Thomond, put
up by his grandson in 1678 to replace the original, and destroyed
by the Cromwellians. It contains the broken effigies of the Earl
and his Countess ; a third of King Donnchad Cairbrech 0 Brien
(died 1242) is said to have once occupied the top recess. The Earl's
portrait is preserved at Dromoland. It will be noted that the last
was Vllth Earl of Thomond but is numbered in regal style Henry
II, i.e., the 2nd of that name. In the will of Donat, Earl of Tho-
ond, 1617, he directed that his monument should be a copy of
the Vere tomb in Westminster, w-here kneeling figures hold up a
I In "transiens cave quod hie dices Pater et Ave " "the final « of transiens
and of dices was read 8, octo and octavum; "trsies" (transiens) was read
" tubis sic," pr et ave " " precum eanae !"
2 Maurice Lenihan : Limerick, its Antiguilief>, Journal Roy Soc. Ant
Ir., vol. viii, (1864) p. 578. Fitzgerald and MacGregor's History of Limeriek
(1827) vol. -ii, p. 651.
CASTLETOWN CCorcomohide).
fl
D-SA-al-
BALLYBRICKEEN
BAUYVORNEEN
NEWCASTLE
(Near LimericK)
DSA-59v
CUOGHNODFOY
CARBICOCUNNELL
Old Views of Castles in Co. Limerick
(D S— Down Survey, 1 655. H— Hardman Maps. T D— Dinely, 1 680.
T— Trustees Maps, 1688)
16 THE CITY OF LIMEBICK
heavy slab, heaped with carved armour, over the effigies; (3) on
its steps the late Dean O Brien has re-erected the coffin lid with
four lions reputed (but I think only since 1866^) to be that of King
Domhnall the founder. The East window is modern, re-con-
structed in 1860; there are a handsome new reredos, an ancient
credence table and a little tablet to Bishop Averill and a
monument to Cornelius 0 Dea ; the contemporary effigy of the last
named prelate was placed on the later tomb, but is now lost, if it
be not the faintly traceable figure, chipped off the slab, in the
Galwey tomb.^ The side walls show that the choir was lengthened
about 20 feet in the 15th contury. The external S.E. buttress shows
to the south a slab with the well-known arms of " John Artur,"
about 1420; with a chevron between 8 clarions (described by
Dyneley as " Irish brogues ") : and to the east a nameless shield
bearing a chevron between 3 scallops. The choir room was
once the chapels of St Mary Magdalen and St James, circa 1370;
their plain Gothic arches are the only original features, but 2 w^in-
dows of the two succeeding centuries remain. They were wrecked
in the siege of 1691. The south transept is mainly ancient and its
window was rebuilt in the style of the older one. The beautiful
monument of the Westropps of Boss, Co. Clare, with the wrong
date, 1830 (recte 1839)3 is set in the east wall; in the south is a re-
markably interesting group of a tomb with its piscina and ambreys
on one side and sedilia on the other. The sedilia were put up by John
Budston whose name and merchant marks appear on them. He
was Bailiff of the city in 1401 ; his daughter, Margaret, married
Peter Arthur, and their son, William, records his grandfather's
good deeds, and that he gave 4 brass bells to the church. John
Budston's widow left her family the two monuments and her just
share of the chapel of the Magdalen. The Galwey tomb is a large
and picturesque one with rich shields and finials, a great pediment
and figures of angels, round a cinquefoil recess. The shields bear
arms and initials, S.G.G. (Scutum Galfridi Galwey), S.E.G.
(Scutum Edwardi Galwey, and (within the pediment) S.E.B.
(Scutum Eicardi Bultingfort). In the back is the defaced inscrip-
tion, which gave many hours' work to several, including the writer
of these lines, before it yielded ** [Hie jacet in] tumb [a] . . . .
[vener]abilis [v]ir Eicardus/[Bulting]fort quondam civi-
tatis Lim[erici et] Corcagie qui [obi] it .... Anno Domini Mcccct?
.... iiii/Hic Jacet .... venerabilis vir Gal [fr]idu[s]/Galvey
quondam civis [civi]tatu[m] Limerici Corca[gie et]/Vatfordie qui
obiit ... die Januarii Anno Domini Mccccxi .... [E]dmun
filius talis Ga[lfr]idi et Margarete filie talis Eicardi Bultingford/
istam tumbam fieri [fecer] unt. " It is said to have been battered
by Cromwellians, but it is most improbable that these fanatics
would have left unharmed the shields, and, above all, the angels
1 It is not so described by Lenihan in that year.
2 This was first noted by the late Dr. George J. Fogerty, R.N. on removal
of a coart; of plaster.
3 Thomas Johnson Westropp (not " Johnstone " as on the brass) actually
died 1839 (not 1830) in Madeira. His mother directed that his body should
be brought for burial to Cheltenham, where she lived. On her burial the
chest was opened iand found to contain no human remains,
■ H72-IZ07-
mil \3b9-tkOO
S m 16 -11,50
^ ey ^89-1526-
DOUBTFUL
,. MW W<Ot
CHOlK M' ,. «> .1
plan of limerick cathedral.
Architectural Features and Older Tombs.
a Altar Slab.
5 Piscinae, with Shelves.
c Credence Table.
t/Stoups.
e Sedilia.
/Misereres.
^Stoups.
/i Miagh(?) Arms.
i Arthur Arms.
J Closed Door.
/i Corbels, 1172.
/ .St. Michael and Satan.
m Lord Inchiquin, 1673.
n King Donald, 1194 ; Dean
Andrew Creagh, 1520, &c.
o Arthur, 1640, &c.
/ Geffry Arture, 1519.
y John ffox, 1519.
r Bishop O'Brien, 1207.
s Earl of Thomond, 1624.
/ Bishop O'Dea, 1421.
u Bulting^ort, Galwey, and Bud-
ston, 1369-1449.
V Stacpoole and Roche.
w William Yorke, 1679.
y Dragon and Pelican.
"Windows and Modern Monuments.
A Dean Kirwan.
B Preston.
C General Napier, 1859.
D i\Iatilda Napier, 1840.
E A large Five-light Window,
over 3 smaller Windows.
F Samuel Caswell, 1874.
G Augustus O'Brien Stafford.
H Charles Maunsell, 1858; over
it Robert O'Brien, 1870.
K Thomas T. Westropp, 1838.
L Sir Matthew Barrington, iStjS.
M Viscount Glentworth, 1844.
N Rev. A. Edwards, 1849.
O Sir M. Barrington ; below it
the ancient Romanesque
Doorway.
18 THE CITY OF LIMEEICK
Antichrist) is outside, built into the Pery vault, not far from the
S. porch. The pelican is not feeding, but reviving, its dead young
with its blood, a beautiful symbol. The Stacpooles still bear it as
their crest. Near the S.W. angle of the Cathedral will be found
the escutcheon of the Creagh, or Creevagh, family of Adare and
Limerick City; they claimed to be O Neills, from 1580 onward, but
seem to be Kussells, several at Adare and Limerick being called
" Russel alias Creevagh " in the 14th century. The south porch
has a recess for a holy water stoup richly decorated with " nail
head " ornament and mouldings. The old recessed, round-arched,
west door, though plain and defaced, was very interesting, the
three ou^er arches had a single block as their keystone. Most
unfortunately in a recent " restoration " (or rather destruction)
the whole, save the inner arch, was removed to allow the construc-
tion of a valueless modern doorway. It is most regrettable that
so little respect for an ancient building should have been exhibited
in such recent times, or that architects should be found to commit
such vandalism. The foliage on the older capital was similar to
that of the piers in the S. arcade, and, therefore, was one of the
earliest parts of the existing building. When the Cathedral has
been inspected, those who do not fear narrow and steep stairs should
ascend the tower to see the fine bells, several given by the Mayor
of the city, William Yorke, in 1678. Thence by a ladder the
summit can be reached, with its magnificient bird's-eye view of
the city, castle and river, and the ring of rich fields and heathery
mountains, and the wide plains down to the blue Galtees. The
" verger tradition " that the Cromwellians stabled their horses in
this church is confirmed by the accoimt book in the Public Record
Office with the items for fodder for the same. Of the later monu-
ments, attention need only be called to three. The one of William
Yorke, the donor of the Bells in 1679; that of " Dan Hayes an
honest man and a lover of his country " (1767) ; and the quaint one
of the clock maker in 1693.
'* H^re lieth littell Samuel Barrinton that great
undertaker
Of famious cittis clock and chime maker;
He made his one time go early and latter,
But now he is returned to God his Creator."'
The first record of the Cathedral bells is that of the gift of a peal
by John Budston in 1401. We need only recall the w^ell-known
story of an earlier " chime." An Italian bell founder had made
a most tuneful peal for the Cathedral of his native town. The
place was plundered and destroyed and the bells w^ere carried off.
The ruined old man " a wanderer on the face of the earth " was sail-
ing up the Shannon at sunset, when the bells of St Mary's chimed
out and in a moment he recognized his lost masterpieces; with a
cry. of joy he lay back, his eyes fixed on the old tower, and
when the bells ceased he was found to be dead with a smile on
his face. Legend added that these silver bells were thrown into
i C»n a Later tomb of the family the " Bar," " ring," and " tnn " foim a
\i' ^ 0 1
3 f t£T '^-■'|^^v^(J[>
BUTTINOFORT AND GaLWAY ToMB, LiMERICK CATHEDRi.Ii
20 THE CITY OF LIMEETCK
the Abbey river to save them, but were never recovered; though
they can be heard faintly ringing under the water on Christmas
nights.
THE CASTLE
There seems little reason to doubt the tradition that this and the
bridge were founded by Prince John, though an early source for
the statement has not been traced. Whether any part is as old
as his reign may be contested; if any, the ring tower next the
bridge might lay claim. The fine gate towers are possibly of the
reign of Edward I. The castle was fortified against Thomond
only, the part next the city was apparently badly walled till the
early 17th century, when the seething discontent of the citizens
forced the government to remodel the inner part and to add a bas-
tion. There is a view (in the Hardiman collection of maps) showing
the building before the alteration. It was grievously dilapidated and
some of the towers were undermined by the river. The shot holes
(made by Ginckell's cannon in 1691 and plugged with brick) are
very noticeable on the " Bridge " or " Thomond Tower." To
give here the salient points of its history for more than 700 years
IS not possible, though there is a vast mass of material relating
to the building — Stanihurst states that King John built an
** egregium castellum " and a bridge; the " bawn " of Limerick
is first mentioned in 1200 by the Annals of Loch Ce. Kichard de
Burgo, held it for the King in 1226, when all the other castles were
disloyal. It had been greatly neglected and, two years before, the
commissioners for valuing the Koyal property found that in Linje-
rick Castle the King's goods were scarcely worth 18 pence " as
broken dishes." In 1227 it was repaired, and again in 1272. It had a
chapel, and hostages were kept in it; a new chamber was built and
two watchmen were kept " to watch from the top of the towers to-
wards Thomond, and archers at the head of the bridge." A wall
was built in 1297, possibly along the river front. In 1318 a quaint
matter is recorded ; the constable carelessly let 16 prisoners escape,
of whom John Wogan recaptured 18 and slew 2 ! In 1310 and
1322 grants of murage were made for repairing the fortifications,
the last year being soon after the terrifying extinction of the
Norman colony at Dysert in 1318 and the burning of Bunratty.
It was again in bad repair in 1326, and £20 and £80 were expended
on it. A sensational event occurred in 1332 ; the hostages broke
out, slew the constable and held the castle, which had to be stormed
by the mayor and citizens. In 1369 the city surrendered to the
Mac Namaras, who appointed a governor; but the castle probably
held out till the citizens slew the Irish governor Sioda Mac
Namara and cleared the city of the Irish. In 1417 it reappears,
the fees for its support being " annihilated," so the city repaired
it with dues from the Lax weir, the great salmon weir, near Par-
teen, founded by the Danes. In 1427 the corporation and citizens
petitioned that the castle might be confided to them as it had
often been nearly lost by carelessness, or treachery; the Govern-
ment took the offer on condition that the city paid for its repairs.
In 1476, James, Earl of Desmond, who was successfully imposing
THE CITY OF LIMERICK 21
dues on the free English, and (one would think) a dangerous wolf
to be put over that fold of wealthy merchants, was governor. In
1542 it was supported by two gardens and the pasture on the King's
Island, 10s. from the " He " (eel) weir, at Corbally, and dues on
salt, wheat, herrings and oysters, brought into the port. Its his-
tory is rarely eventful. Sir Geffry Galwey, the mayor, was fined
£400 in 1600 for recusancy, which sum was expended on the castle ;
in 1611 the undercut towers were repaired, and, in 1624 and 1626,
provision for a small garrison, a governor, porter, ** cannoneer"
and 20 men, was made. The English colony retired into it in 1641 ;
it was besieged by the Confederates and surrendered on terms 21
June, 1642. When the city was taken by Ireton, ten years later,
the castle was extensively repaired, the works continuing till 1654.
There was an alleged plot of an old Cromwellian officer, Capt.
Thomas Walcott, to take it by a mine from St Nicholas' graveyard
and to call in the Dutch in 1672. Lastly it was surrendered to
Ginckell, after the siege of 1691, and it has since been continuously
used as a garrison barrack. The structure retains the three corner
towers (two abutting on the river). On the side next the street
along the north face, is the noble old gateway, with two great round
flanking towers and lofty arches. Some of the town wall remains
at and beyond the churchyard of St Munchin's at the opposite side
of the street along the river bank.
THOMOND BRIDGE
It is usually assumed that the " egregium castellum " and the
bridge were erected about 1210, and that the bridge of that date was
wooden. The old stone bridge was a picturesque level structure
of 14 irregular arches, with bold cutwaters at each pier. The
arches were turned over wicker, which rather favours the view
that it was built in the 14th or 15th century, when this method
was very usual. The vaults in Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin,
and the window splays of Shanid Castle and other early Norman
buildings were turned over planking, not wicker. The best and
fullest account is given by Mr James Grene Barry in the first
pages of the journal of the North Munster Archaeological Society.
The old bridge was 150 yards long and had a fortified gate-house
next the city and a castellated gateway and drawbridge at the
seventh arch, the '' Thomond Gate." ^lany will recall that sad
episode m the last siege, Sep. 22nd, 1691, when 600 of the defenders
were drowned or slaughtered. The English had taken the out-
works and driven back the gari'ison; a French Major, in command,
lost his head and ordered the drawbridge to be raised before the
fugitives could enter, thus causing the disaster and on the next
day the parley for the surrender of the city. A quantity of King
James' brass money was found in the river fcerl at the site of the
drawbridge, when the old bridge was removed and the new one
built in 1840. The present structure cost ^(^10,000. At the farther
bank stands the so-called " Treaty Stone," an object of undeserved
sentiment and interest. The treaty of Limerick was signed in a
house on the Clare side of the river, on a table which was long
22 THE CITY OF LIMERICK
preserved. No tradition attached to the " stone," which was used
as a " mounting block " and lay near its present position beside
the roadway.^
ST MUNCHIN'S.
The church, though on the site of the earliest church in Limerick,
was entirely rebuilt in 1827. Its patron w^as probably Mainchin,
son of King Cass, c. 400, cousin of Carthann Finn, the first
Christian king, circa 430-480. The 1580 map shows that the
mediaeval church had an aisle, side chapel and tower. It has a
monument of Thomas Young 1649, but is of no general interest or
beauty.
BAAL'S BRIDGE.
This again has been replaced by a new bridge, but its history
is interesting. It was originally built, about 1340, across the
" Abbey River," between the old English and Irish towns. It is
said to have been bravely defended by John de Burgo of Galway
in 1361 (though I have not found any contemporary record) against
the Irish. Legend alone told of how in reward, with other privi-
leges, Lionel Duke of Clarence granted him the " honorable
augmentation " of the figure of the Bridge to the De Burgo arms.^
It is however certain that the Galwey rental, about 1564, mentions
the *' Bridge of Limerick in possession of John Galwe " but it was
held by Richard Bultingfort, a contemporary of the alleged
" Horatius of Tjimerick," at the close of the 14th century, and it
is not impossible that the Galwey legend and their adoption of
the bridge device in their arms (later than the time of Geffry
Galwey, 1445, and his son Edmund, but at least as early as 1627),
refer to some episode when the 0 Briens took at least the Irish
town after the battle of Monasteranenagh in 1369. The name does
not refer to the " abomination of the Canaanites " Baal, but is
simply the " Bald Bridge," or as the Irish speakers call it Droi-
chead Maol, for it is said to have had no battlements. A row of old
houses stood upon it; views of 1810 and Bartlett's well known view
in 1836 are extant. Pacata Hihernia shows it with 3 detached
houses and a gate tower and drawbridge, in all 5 arches; the 1810
view shows 4, but the quays had probably been widened by the
later date. No houses are shown on it in the plans of 1690 and
1691. When the old bridge and houses were levelled in Nov., 1830,
a curious metal squares was found under a w^all with this inscription
in Roman capitals: —
" I will strive to live,
1507, with love and care
Upon ye level
By ye square."
1 As 1 have been told by the late Captain Kalph Westropp and others.
2 The 15th and early 16th century legends of family origins are dis-
astrously inaccurate, but they hardly equal the fictions of heralds and
genealogists in the reigns of Elizabeth and James I.
3 See Paper by Dr. H. F. Berry, Ars Quat. Coronat., vol. xviii. It was
given by the Architect, James Pain, to Mr Michael Furnell, and is still
preserved.
^f-^-c^
Carved " Miseheke " Oak Seats, Limerick Cathkdeal
24 THE CITY OF LIMEEICK
DOMINICAN FEIAEY
The Dominican Friary was founded by King Donnchadh Cair-
breac'h 0 Brien in the 2nd quarter of the 13th century, and was re-
built by James, Earl of Desmond, who died and was there buried
in 1462. It is the only one of the numerous religious houses of
Limerick of which any tangible remains subsist. It was at one
time a tanyard and at another a barrack ; yet the north side wall
of the church with several windows, but too thickly ivied for
thorough examination, remains; other low walls and archways
also exist near the city wall. There is a sort of rockery of carved
fragments, some of beauty, all of interest, shafts of cloister piers,
many stoups, tablets with portions of inscriptions, &c.
ST JOHN'S CHUECH
The church is called " Ecclesia Sancti Johannis de Sancta Cruce "
on the Forde tablet, 1693. It existed in the time of Bishop
Uonat, 1200. Thomas Dyneley gives a sketch of this church in
1680, showing it with two side aisles, and rich Gothic windows in
the east ends of these; the central (chancel) gable, had a plain
shafted rectangular window set in the arch of an older one. In
the north wall were a double light, with pointed heads, a single
lancet, and a pointed door. It was 60 ft. by 63 ft. ; portions of the
older church remain but all remodelled. The mediaeval building
has been demolished, and the modem one is of no antiquarian
value, save for an interesting slab. It is carved with circular
headed panels : (1) shows the scourge, pillar, cords, and cock crow-
ing out of the pot; (2) the palm branch, Pilate's ewer and basin,
the hand which smote Christ, and St Peter's Sword; (3) the
lantern (?), St Veronica's napkin, the seamless coat, the dice, 30
pieces of silver and the sponge ; (4) which has suffered injury, shows
the cross, crown of thorns, nails, pincers, hammer, ladders, spears,
and reed. The inscription is partly legible " Philippus filius
Hoc Monumentum condidit suis [posteris cujus animae propiti-
etur] Deus, Amen." There is a figure conjectured to be a fish; if
so, the tomb may be of a Philip Eoche who was Mayor, 1602, and
bore that device in his anus; other stones record the restoration
of the walls in 1693 " after the recent slaughter of the war," and
one to John Foorde, Mayor in 1693.' In the front wall of St
John's Hospital is another slab of John Creagh, Mayor, 1650, when
the city gave £200 for repair of the outworks ; slabs of Piers Creagh,
1643, at Plassey Mill, originally over the Mungret gate, and
another, commemorating the making of Long Pavement Eoad and
Bridge by the same magistrate in 1632, lie outside our field of ex-
ploration. A monograph on these is greatly needed. There were 15
towers round the English town and two great gates — the Thomond
Gate, near the castle, and one on Ball's Bridge ; another large gate-
way, the Kilmallock Gate, led out of the Irish town southward.
I See Fitzgerald's History, vol, ii, p. 558.
THE CITY OF LIMEEICK 25
There are many remains of old houses and, till recently, whole
ranges of buildings, collegiate and otherwise, and the Galwey's
Castle or " Ireton's House " nearly hemmed in the Cathedral. Part
of the vaulted passage of one may be seen beyond the Cathedral, and
the lofty side of another to the right as we cross the bridge. The
old view, of about 1580, here reproduced, shows the numerous
castellated houses and the various monasteries. The city cross
(then reduced to a headless shaft and steps) will be noted near the
Cathedral. Of the fortifications, many portions of the walls, a
sallyport, and a part of the historic " Black Battery " (blown up
with many of the German and English besiegers in 1690 in the
final assault of King William before his retirement) remain round
8t John's Cathedral, a noble modern Gothic church.
The older city was rich in churches, all have been rebuilt. Be-
sides the above 4 there were — (5) the church of St Nicholas: it
stood before 1194, and had a grant from King Domhnall mor
O Brien; it had a north aisle, with a central tower and low spire,
in 1580, and was totally destroyed in Ireton's siege, 1651. It stood
near the castle. (6) St Martin, some say the same as " Ecclesia ; St
Martini (or Ste Marie) rotunda," 1201. (7) St Lawrence, near
the City Hospital. (8) St Michael, 1201, ruinous in 1615, near the
West Watergate and dismantled 1658 ; it had a side aisle and battle-
mented tower, 1580, and lay in James's Street. (9) St Brigid,
1201, mentioned 1212. (10) St Anne's chapel, 1270, no other
record. (11) St Andrew's chapel, in the castle, 1216, mentioned
down to 1250. (12) St Augustine's convent, circa 1199; a list of
the church furniture in 1529 remains. (13) St Peter's convent,
founded by King Domhnall, 1171, in Peter Street. (14) St Mary
and the Holy Cross, " Our Lady's Cell," and " Holyrood," 13th
Century. In 1559 it had a church, hospital, steeple, waste garden
and barns ; in 1594 it was ruinous save a mansion. (15) The Domini-
can convent, or ** Monastery of Donnoho Carbry," noted above.
(16) The Franciscan convent, founded by King Donnchadh Cair-
breach 0 Brien, ante 1241, refounded by a De Burgh of Castle-
connell. It had, in 1580, a large belfry, with stepped battlements
and a side turret and various low buildings. Sir Thomas and Sir
Eichard de Clare were buried there, 1287 and 1318; Father Mooney
describes its remains in extensive gardens and orchards, as spacious
but of poor structure. It was eventually used as a tannery and it
still remained at Bishop Pococke's visit, 1752. The east window in
1789 was removed to St George's church and then to St Michael's,
but has again been taken out. Some vaults remain on Sand Mall;
the County Courthouse was on the site. (17) The Templars had a
small house at their dissolution, 1314; it was in Quay Lane. (18)
Beyond the river lies the venerable Celtic Church of Kilrush, in the
grounds of '* Old Church," it has a massive lintelled door, with
inclined jambs, and a round-headed east light. A curious square
window of the Quinlinans, possibly late 16th century, was removed
to it from St Mary's Lane and preserved by the late Eobert Vere
O Brien. (19) Another church, Killeely, standing in ruins in 1657,
and only represented by a graveyard, lies farther to the north-
east. In the S.E. suburb, well seen from the railway, stood (20) St
26 THE CITY OF LIMEKICK
Patrick's church of Saingeal, or Singland, near King Cairthin's
Fort, about 437. Its ruins and a broken round tower stood there
in 1657 ;i the latter was demolished so late as 1776; no trace of
either remains. Near it stood the Singland Battery in the sieges
of 1690 and 1691. (21) Killalee, called Kelilin, in 1410, is repre-
sented by a graveyard near St. John's Gate.
There were numerous small castles, all now swept away. Thorn-
core (where Alungret St. and John St. meet) built by Thomas
" Cor " Balbeyn and named in his will, 1402; he bequeathed it
to the city^ if his brother Henry, of Bristol, did not come to Lime-
rick; it was demolished, and a market house made on its site in
1696. Others were of St John's Gate^ St Mary's House, probably
the monastic steeple adapted as a castle; the Shambles; Filkin's
Castle in High Street; Stritche's Castle, in St Munchin's parish,
and Galwey's Castle, called Ireton's House, beside the Cathedral.
The old city gates were — (1) Thomond Gate ; (2) Island Gate ; (3)
Sallyport; (4) Little Island Gate; (5) Abbey Gate North; (6) Fish
Gate; (7) Ball's Bridge Gate; (8) East Water Gate; (9) St John's
Gate; (10) Mungret Gate; (11) West Water Gate; (12) Creagh
Gate ; (13) Quay Lane Gate ; (14) New Gate ; (15) Gate at Castle
Barrack; only one (9) built into St John's Hospital, remains. 3
BIBLIOGKAPHY
Histories of Limericlx, Ferrar, 1767, 1787, Fitzgerald and J\Iac
Gregor, 1827, and Maurice Lenihan, 1866. History of Diocese,
by Kev. J. Begley, 1906. The Black Booh of Limerick, ed. Eev.
James Mac Caffrey, 1907. Churches and Castles of Co. Limerick,
Proc. R. I. Acad., xxv and xxvi, T. J. Westropp. Arthur tomb,
Journal, vol. viii, p. 114, M. Lenihan; Dyneley's Tour, 1680,
City of Limerick, Ibid, vol. viii, p. 424; Carvings in Limerick
Cathedral, T. J. Westropp, Ibid., vol. xxii, p. 70; Limerick Cathe-
dral, its plan and growth, same. Ibid., vol. xxvii, p. 35, p. 112.
Siege of Limerick Castle, 1642, M. J. Mc Enery, Ibid., vol.
xxxiv, p. 163. Guides to Limerick Cathedral, by Rev. Precentor
Meredyth, 1883, 1887, and Rev. J. Dowd, 1899. Crozier of Bishop
Cornelius 0 Dea, Journal, vii, ser. iv, p. 369; Reliquary, July,
1893; Journal, Limerick Field Club, vol. i, part iii. Carved Oak
Seats, " Ecclesiologist," 1861.
^ Down Survey Map No. 13 gives a view, reproduced in group of eliurch
views, p. 13.
2 Captain Fennell admitted Cromwellian soldiers to the tower of St.
John's gate, which decided the surrender of the city to Ireton, 1651.
' The chief fort of the outworks of Limerick appears to have been on
the salmon weir in 1651.
SECTION III
KILLALOE, BEAL BORUMHA, KILTINANLEA AND
CASTLECONNELL
KILLALOE
Leaving Limerick, one gets a striking view of the old river-girt
English town, and a pleasing view of the hills and Shannon, which
is crossed at Athlunkard Bridge (" ford of the fortress "). Once
the Black water (appointed as the boundary of Killaloe diocese by
the Synod of Eathbreasail in 1112) has been passed, a lone shady
road is reached, the reputed haunt of the Puca so late as 1911, and
of a ghostly horse -he ad floating beside those riding or driving in the
dark. After passing through Clonlara, the road turns over a
steep canal bridge, with the Castles of CooUstiege and Ballynua,
or Newtown, to either side, and, in the north wall of the bridge,
a curious female figure in low relief with the added date 1769. It
was probably one of those grotesque luck-bringing carvings called
Sheela-na-gigs. Legend says that a " lady ghost " haunted the
bridge till driven away by cutting her counterfeit presentment on
the slab.^
The thickly ivied Castle of Elmhill, or St John's, in the low
ground to the right of the road was reputed to be haunted by a
ghostly black bull, with fiery eyes, and a farmer living even in the
" nineties " told us that he had seen it at high noon sally forth,
wind its tail round a small hay cock and draw it into the ruin. The
whole district is a mine of folk-lore, much of which has been pub-
lished. ^
The well of St Senan is a modern structure in a neat grove. It
is loaded with china and other offerings, and is the resort of hun-
dreds of pilgrims and visitors on August ir)th each year. The
saint's own day, on March 8th, the day of the patron of Iniscatha,
is but little observed. Nearer to the river bank is the graveyard
with a late 15th century church. Near its N.W. gable is a vener-
able fallen hawthorn covered with rags and beads; and in the rock
before it is a bullan or basin, also an object of pilgrimage. No
history is preserved of the origin or founder of Kiltinanlea church.
It is dedicated to " Senan the Hoary," reputed to be a brother of
the famous St Senan of Iniscatha, but some fancy him a pei'sonifi-
cation of the foam-sheeted river beside the ruin. The present
church is of the same period as the three castles above-named, and
like them, was very probably a Mac Namara foundation. It has
^ Folk Lore, vol. xxi, Plate xiv.
2 Foik Lore, vol. xxi, pp. 480, 481, xxii; pp. 54, 339, 449, 459, Plate x,
" S. Senan's tree."
28 BEAL BOEUMHA
a neatly moulded pointed south door, and a curious little double-
oped holy water stoup in its jamb, a trefoil headed south
light on the point of collapse, and the east window, a
tall ogee-headed lancet. A short walk through the de-
mesne leads along the river bank to the " Turret
Rock," commanding a fine view of the Salmon Leap, and
rapids. It is the " Rock of Astanen " in Elizabethan documents.
Dun Easa Danainne in Irish annals. No trace remains of the
fort, nor, for that matter, of the Mac Namaras' Castle, which was
still standing on the rock in 1655; it was destroyed for material
to make the terraces and the ruined turret by Sir Hugh Dillon
Massy, the 2nd Baronet of Doonass, about the beginning of the
last century. The great rounded mountain, seen up the river, over
Castleconnell, is the Keeper, or Kimalta, the chief of the Silver-
mine and Slievephelim range. The survivors of an avenue of fine
old chestnut trees, some 23 feet in girth, reach from the turret
towards Doonass House.
O Brien's Bridge stands on the site of the older bridge (1509),
Droichead Puirt Croise, which, with its strong castles in the middle
of the river, was entirely demolished in 1536. The present bridge is of
two periods, owing to diversity of action by the grand juries of
Counties Clare and Limerick. Just above the bridge is seen Inish-
losky, with a couple of fragments of a venerable little church. The
only features are the northern half and the side of a beautifully built
plain Romanesque window of red and yellow sandstone with the
springing stones of the circular arch : the light is 5 inches wide, with
a neat recess and chamber, the walls 2 feet 8 inches thick. Only the
foundations of the sides, and about 'half the ivied west gable remain,
with a few illegible tombstones and a vault from which a recent
flood washed the coffins and bones.
BEAL BORUMHA
Northward from Killaloe the road, keeping to the river bank,
passes the beautiful woods of Bally valley on the left; to the right,
on the great drift spur, in a grove amidst the fields is the fort of
Beal Borumha. Popular legend says that the great spur was an
artificial eiTibankment made by King Brian to dam up the Shannon
and drown out the Connacht men. The fact of the fort's having
been made by King Brian never passed out of mind ; it is mentioned
by Bridgeman in his account of Clare for the Philosophical Society
of Dublin in 1683, by De Latocnaye in 1797, and by most other
writers. The name probably originated in the fact that
the cattle tribute of Eastern Thomond was brought across the ford
to the Kings of the Craglea line of the Dal gCais. There were
two other palaces, one up on the flank of Craglea, the other pro-
bably on the site of the town of Killaloe, named respectively
Grianan Lachtna and Ceann Coradh. It may be well to treat the
'history of this group together, keeping the account of the chiu'ches
for a later section. At the end of the upper ford a Stone Age settle-
ment seems to have existed, as implements have been foimd on
several occasions. Safe in the river valley, flanked on both sides
St Flannan's Cathedral, Killaloe
KiLLALOE Cathedral from S.E.
30 BEAL BORUMHA.
by mountains, it was an ideal place of settlement; the lake and
river were rich in fish and fowl, the rich pastures on the shore
most desirable for cattle, and the hills and forests abounding in
game lay behind. 'The ford w^as evidently much used in the bronze
age, several weapons of that period having been found when it
was dredged away. Craglea was the seat of a famous supernatural
being, Aibhinn " the pleasant," possibly an early war goddess
venerated (or adopted) by the Dalcassians as their tutelary
banshee.^ Her name is now corrupted into Aibhill ; one old Irish
version of the Dies Irae substitutes her for the Sibyl in strange
companionship with King David. From Craglea the banshee
Aibhinn used to sweep out to the battlefield with her weird train,
" satyrs, sprites, maniacs of the glen, witches, goblins, owls and
destroying demons of the air and firmament and the demoniac
phantom host." From it she flew to Dublin to appear to King Brian
the night before his death ; but for his fatalistic belief in this vision
he might have escaped to linger out a miserable old age instead
of dying with his best and bravest in the moment of victory .^
There is a great projecting crag, 20 feet high, on the western slope,
still reputed to be her residence, while on the eastern slope a
spring, pure, bright and unchanged by all the centia-ies, wells out
from a rock fissure among ferns and flows down the slope. Below
there is the Grianan of I^achtna, an early Royal fort. It is reached
by a torrent bed, on a shoulder of a hill, with a magnificent view.
The Grianan consists of a nearly levelled ring wall with a stone-
faced outer ring, and a fosse tufted with bracken and fox-glove.
We first hear definitely of the place in about 840. Lachtna, son
of Core, " a fair-haired man from Cragliath," had his fort there and
met the titular High King, Fedhlimidh, King of Cashel, at the now
vanished pillar stone of Liag na n-easain and made terms of friend-
ship with him. 3 This shows that Lachtna had a fort on the S. side
of Craglea, where the Grianan stands, and that the " received "
statement that it was only foimded over a century later by his
namesake, Lachtna, implies at most a restoration. In 877 Bor-
oimhe is incidentally mentioned, perhaps the ford not the liss. In 941
Muircheartach " of the leather coats " spent a night at the barren
Cell da lua, a night in the strong Cenn Coradh," which suggests that
Kincora then was a residence. One of Prince Brian's earliest
achievements was on the flank of this hill. He seems to have been
attacked by a Danish force, under a leader, Biorn, who fell, with
many of his soldiers, but at heavy cost to the Dalcassian army.
Mathgamhain, brother of Brian, is the first King of the Dal Cais
called " King of Boruma," but the title more especially belongs
to King Brian, and his well-known epithet is undoubtedly from
the place and not from the late story that he reimposed the
Leinster cattle tribute. The ^Thomond Borama or cattle tribute
he, like his predecessors and successors, received. Down to even
AT a' ^f '^"•^ ^^^^' ^^^- ^^^' PP- ^^' ^^^- ®^' ^Iso Itevut archeolofiique
A'.^. vol. xyiii, p. 1, for the war-goddess Catubodua in Gaul, and Dublin
Umvermty Magnzine, 1834, p. 463, and Pror. B. 1. Acad., vol x p 425
2 Warsi of the Gnedhil unth the GaUl (ed. Todd) p. 175 " '
3 Booh of Munsfer.
Romanesque Door (circa 1080). Killaloe Cathedral
32 BEAL BOEUMHA
1585 the " borome " tribute was paid to his successors, the Earh
of Thomond, under the ancient name, and continued in fact to
the present century, as under certain trusteeships its representa-
tive money composition had to be redeemed in recent sales. Part
of the tribute is recorded in the Book of Eights for Corcomroe.
Kincora is entirely levelled; 0 Donovan's' statement that part
existed in 1834 arose from the common confusion between it and
Boruma fort. It was a stone ring wall, with large wooden houses in
and about it, and with a well and salmon pond near it. We have
an early account, possibly (as it purports to be) by Brian's bard,
Mac Liag ; Brian's throne, in Beal Borumha, was on a raised dais to
the right of the entrance {i.e., to the west), and the position of the
tables and seats of the subordinate princes are fully described.
There were numerous gold cups (Brian s was preserved at least
till 1152) ; the pages wore rich embroidered coats, and hung up and
furbished their master's shields and weapons behind the chairs.
The food comprised beef, mutton, fresh pork, game and fish, oat
cakes, cheese and curds, honey, cresses and onions, fruit and nuts
in the season, the drink being wine, ale, mead and bilberry juice.
The meat was cooked in the centre of the hall, the smoke escaping
by a louvre in the roof. Music, recitation and chess were among
the pastimes.
Beal Borumha (now " Ballyboroo ") consists of a high ring mound
50 to 70 feet thick below, and 9 feet on top, rising 22 to 25 feet
over the fosse, and 10 to 14 feet over the garth, which is oval, 102
feet inside N. and S., 87 feet E. and W. The fosse is 650 feet
round the entrance to the north. There are pleasing views from
it up the lake to Craglea, and the great purple brown mass of
Thountinna (where Fintan is fabled to have slept so soundly that
he was not drowned by the Deluge) and down to the low Cathe-
dral tower and the weirs and bridge of Killaloe.
The history of Kincora is one of destruction and restoration,
little more. • In it took place the fatal game of chess from which
Msielmordha, King of Leinster, after his quarrel with Prince
Miirchad, in 1014, fled in wrath to organise his Danish supporters
for the battle of Clontarf . It was destroyed by the Connacht men
in 1016 and 1062, when the well was stopped and the " sacred "
salmon cooked and eaten in insult. It probably shared the destruc-
tions of Killaloe by fire in 1081 and 1084 by the same foe, and their
plundering raid, 1091. King Murchad rebuilt it in 1098, when he
dismantled the Grianan of Aileach, but his chief residence was then
at Limerick. Kincora was destroyed by lightning in 1107, and
after the death of its restorer, in 1119, Torlough 0 Conor, King
of Connacht, destroyed it, throwing the stones and timber into the
Shannon and dismantling Borumha; it was probably never rebuilt,
but the name appears in 1150.2 There is no true tradition of its site.
1 Exchequer Inquisition, July 27, 1585, Pub. Record Office, Dublin. " A
compulsory rent called a borome ... of certain cows or thirteen pence
per cow."
2 The name of the house called Kincora is very modern. The fort probably
stood on the brow of the plateau in the village.
'■'}?
^W-W>te,^
Doorway (Detail of Ornament), Killaloe Cathedral
34 KILLALOE
THE CHUECHES
The ecclesiastical foundation of Killaloe, as the name (Cell Dalua)
implies, owes its origin to a Dalcassian Prince, Lugaidh (Lua,
Molua, or Dalua), who died before a.d. 605; he was brother of Toir-
dhealbhach, a descendant of Eochaidh Bailldearg, baptized by
St Patrick. His nephew, St Flannan, was an energetic missionary
up the coast into Scotland, where the venerable boat-shaped oratory
and cells, on the Flannan Isles, are attributed to him.^ Like his
uncle, he was a bishop, and probably the small very primitive
church on Friar's Island was founded by Molua while he founded
a church (or churches) where the Cathedral and stone-roofed oratory
still stand. Flannan is said to have been consecrated by a Pope,
John (more likely John VI, at the close of the 7th century than
John IV, in a.d. 639); he died on Aug. 4th, the year being un-
recorded. The Cathedral was extensively rebuilt by Murchad,
titular High King of Ireland, about 1080, and many fragments of the
richly decorated early church and the fine Eomanesque archway
are built into the walls of its successor. The Gothic building is one
of the numerous foundations attesting the piety (or perhaps the
remorse) of the unscrupulous Domhnall mor Ua Briain, the last
King of Munster. In the church were buried King Murchad in
1119, and Conchobhar " na Cathrach," King of Thomond, a bene-
factor of Katisbon Abbey, who died in 1142, but no certain monu-
ment remains, though an early Irish cross-scribed tombstone (now
in the recess of the Eomanesque door) is shown as the tomb of the
former prince, or even as that of King Brian, who, in point of fact,
was buried at Armagh.
The stone-roofed oratory, called ** St Flannan's tomb," and
" Brian Boru's vault," is a fine specimen of its class, and resembles
St Columb's House at Kells and St Kevin's at Glendalough. It
is fully described in Lord Dunraven's work and other accessible
books, and consists of a church, to which a chancel was subse-
quently added; but this was later destroyed. The moulded east
door, with its billets and quaint capitals and the side windows,
suggestive of those in the best class of round towers, are interest-
ing; above the barrel vault is an overcroft in the steep stone roof
lit by windows to either end. The oratory measures 28 feet 8
inches by 17 feet inside, the walls are under 4 feet thick. Various
carved stones of the Eomanesque church lie in it.
The Cathedral is a cruciform building, dating about the same
time as Corcomroe Abbey, about 1185, in the second period of King
Domnall mor's foundations. It is a plain impressive old building
with tall narrow Gothic lancets and built of yellow and purple
sandstone, mellowed by time, and sheeted with variegated ivy.
The dimensions are briefly — the chancel, 65 feet by 30 feet, the
belfry, 30 feet square, the nave, 61 feet by 30 feet, the south
transept 32 feet 7 inches by 22 feet 7 inches, and the north 23 feet
8 inches by 19 feet 3 inches. The chancel has four Gothic lancets
] See Vka S. Flannani (compiled 1164 from earlier Gesta) Acta SS. ex
Codice Salmaticensi, 1881. For the cells sse JowrMorZ, vol. xxix., pp. 32S, 329.
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KiLLALOE. !St. Flannan's Cathedral.
KILLALOE 35
to either side, and rows of quaint, interesting corbels, a few modern
(copies of the older ones), support the roof timbers. The east
window is very curious, and probably (as so often) symbolizes the
Trinity, having 3 lights in one arch; the central light is round-
headed, with a pointed hght on each side under a heavy splay-arch
of late Romanesque detail, but pointed, with clustered colurnns
and shafts running up to the curves of the arch with worse design
than effect. In the corbels, the curious group of 6 little men in
kilts, kissing each other, was perhaps a much needed hint to the
warlike occupants of that part of Clare, if not to later times, that
brotherly love was necessary in Christians. A neat little carving
of a horse is also noticeable. The north transept has a large spiral
stair up to the tower, and has been divided into two floors as a
vestry. The upper part of the low massive old tower has been
twice rebuilt, once by Bishop Knox (1794 to 1803), again about 20
years since. The other transept calls for little notice save for an
elaborate window. A curious font of yellow sandstone in the
chancel, with a rather late and crude design of foliage, should be
noticed; it seems to have been left unfinished.
The object of most interest in the nave is the very rich, though
greatly damaged, Romanesque door of the older church with the
ancient tombstone already mentioned and the neat Gothic west door.
The designs of the first are of considerable beauty and delicacy, but
the whole is overcrowded with bead work, as is usual about 1100.
The history of the building from the 12th to the 16th century is a
blank. It was repaired in 1622 and 1676 ; the plate dates from 1624 ;
a font was set up, 1701 ; the screen rebuilt, 1707; the south transept
and nave repaired, 1708, and the south wall rebuilt. In 1725 the
gate and stone piers were made; 1728, the trees planted; 1741, the
chancel re-roofed; 1782, the first organ erected; 1820, repairs by
Bishop Mant, 1837; the bell put up, J. Fogarty, Limerick;
" No surrender, 1837 " ; 1841, marble font erected; 1852, chancel re-
roofed, plaster taken off corbels and windows, &c. ; 1853, ancient
oratory repaired; 1885, chancel restored, a screen wall removed;
1892, new glass screen put up lately, and upper part of tower
rebuilt.
The monuments are late — Bishop John Roan, 1692, outside of
the east end; Simon Purdon of Tinneranna, in the chancel; orna-
mental frame of a lost tablet and the curious coffer tomb of the
Redfields in the S. E. side of the graveyard, ** Redfield to ye
memory of his virtuous and loving wife Elizabeth Browne," Oct.,
1719, " years married, 44, aged 57, one husband, bless, and chil-
dren, eleven." If this is true she was married early, at the age of
13. The panels show a man growing like a tree, the Resurrection,
Angel (with trumpet and banner), a skeleton with a cherub's head
and a banner and the words " Dread and terrour Death doth be,
Death wears an angel's face. And that masked angel will advance
Thee to an angel's place." Among other quaint verses are *' My
dearest friends of Christ above them will I go and see, And all my
friends in Christ below shall post soon after me."
(The high cross in the Clarisford gardens was removed from Kil-
fenora by Bishop Mant in 1821 ; it shows the crucifixion and inter-
36 KILLALOE
laced ornament, and is probably of the first half of the 12th century ;
several carved stones from the older Eomanesque church lie near it.
The tiny oratory of St Molua on Friar's Island, opposite to Claris-
ford, is inaccessible. It resembles the large oratory in design, but
is only 10 feet 6 inches by 6 feet 6 inches inside, the walls 3 feet
to 3 feet 4 inches thick. The east window is round-headed, a
chancel arch was cut in the west end, and a nave with a lintelled
west door, with inclined jambs added, possibly in the 9th century,
but it was wantonly levelled soon after 1793.
CASTLECONNELL
Castleconnell is passed as we return down the east bank of the
Shannon to Limerick. The castle, though picturesquely seated
on a rock over the Shannon, just above the falls of Doonass, has
no features of general interest. Traces of circular towers remain
to the S. W. and N. W., with fragments of walls and well-built
arches; one fragment has been hurled into the field beyond the
road when the castle was blown up. The court measures 160
fe^ by 100 feet. Local tradition says that it was built by the
O Briens and destroyed by Cromwell. Briefly to tell its history,
it was the fort of the Ui gConaing or 0 Gunnings, to judge from
its name, where (it being then called Caislean Ua Conaing), in
1174, King Domnhall mor Ua Briain blinded two of his relations.
The bawn was burned in 1200 by the Connacht men, and King
John granted it next year to William de Burgo; " If he fortify the
castle and we desire to have it we will give him an exchange."
Kecords of its De Burgh Lords abound but tell little of the castle,
which was destroyed in 1261 by Conchobhar (" na Siudaine ")
Ua Briain, King of Thomond. It was for a short time, 1275-1279,
in possession of Theobald the Butler and Thomas de Clare, but
De Burgh, the Earl of Ulster, recovered it before 1285, and '' har-
boured " Toirdhealbhach, King of Thomond, before his destruc-
tive raid down eastern Co. Limerick and up northern Tipperary,
before 1287. Walter de Burgh enlarged and strengthened the
castle before 1299, but it was wasted by King Eobert Bruce and
his brother, Edward, who camped near it in 1315. In 1564 William
Bourke " of Kislany-connell " was created Baron of Castleconnell.
The castle surrendered to the Cromwellians, 1651, but was not dis-
mantled; in 1690 it was surrendered to King William; on his
retreat from Limerick the Jacobites reoccupied it, but surrendered
it to the Prince of Hesse, after 2 days blockade, Aug. 29th, 1691.
Ginckell subsequently caused it and Carrigogunnell, its sister castle,
to be blown up.
The parish church, though on an old site, is modem and has no
old monuments.
KILLALOE
^1
BIBLIOGEAPHY
W. Harris (Ware's Bishops), 1738, S. E. view of the Cathedral.
Grose's Antiquities of Ireland, 1793, view of Friar's Island, before
nave was levelled.
Bishop Mant, 1844, Down, Connor and Dromore Church Archi-
tecture Society, account and illustrations of exterior and Roman-
esque door.
Canon Philip Dwyer, Diocese of Killaloe, 1878.
John Frost, History of Clare.
Eugene O Curry, Manners and Customs, vol. ii, lecture vi. for
Beal Borumha.
E. R. Brash, Ecclesiastical Architecture, p. 9, Friar's Island,
p. 17, &c.
Lord Dunraven, Notes on Irish Architecture, vol. ii, oratory and
S. door.
T. J. Westropp, Journal, vol. xxiii, pp. S9S-201, KiUaloe, its
Ancient Palaces and Cathedral. Also, for the Forts: Froc. R. I.
Acad., vol. xxix, p. 186.
Lewis, Topographical Dictionary^ 1837, says of the Cathedral
that the " prevailing style " is all '* Norman," with his usual in-
accuracv.
St. Flannan's Oratory, Killalok,
SECTION IV
MAGH ADHAIR, MOGHANE, AND CAHERCALLA
The road from Limerick to Quin runs through the low grounds
beside the Shannon with the Cratloe hills to the right. Across the
river stands up the bold rock and castle of the 0 Briens at Carrigo-
gunnell. The tall peel tower of Cratloe next comes into view beside
the road. It was the chief of three castles of the name, belonging
to the MacNamaras, chiefs of the district of Clancuilean, or Ui
Caisin, and distinguished as Cratloe more (or Cratloe moyle). It
dates, like most of these towers, late in the 15th century, and has
been greatly defaced, large late windows having been opened in
the top story and the stair-case broken; the vaulted room in the
basement is a cattle pen. The little chapel beside it is of the
same period; the windows are destroyed, and only the fluted basin
of a stoup remains intact. Cratloe keale or Castle keale (the
narrow castle) is hidden by a grove of trees, and lies between its
larger neighbour and the river; it is partly inhabited, and only the
section with the stair-case, porch, and guard-room, and the small
bed-rooms above them remains; the main section with the chief
apartments is destroyed. The third Cratloe castle, Castle
Donnell, lay near the river, and is levelled to the ground. The
road now turns under the railway and passes close to a fine dolmen,
quite perfect, and apparently unopened; beside which are the grave-
yard and side walls of the church of Croghane, of the late 15th cen-
tury, a time of great building activity in Co. Clare, and indeed all
over Ireland. The only features are a small stoup, a pointed south
door and a window. The east gable had a broken pointed light,
but has since fallen. There seems no ancient record or tradition,
save that it is said to have been ** the ancient burial place of the
MacNamaras, before Quin Abbey" which is most unlikely, as
their settlements lay round Tulla, and the Tradraighe and Ui
Aimrid lay between them and Croghane.
The road passes over the edge of the hill below the great Cratloe
Forest, once famous for its oaks. Over this pass King Muirchear-
tach " of the leather coats," crossed in the winter of a.d. 941. His
historian expresses horror at the pass of Cratshallagh in his poem
on " The Circuit of Ireland "; they camped on the " cold Magh
Adhair " afterwards. In May, 1318, King Murchad 0 Brien, after
his fruitless peace conference with Sir Eichard de Clare at Lime-
rick, marched by Cratloe into Ui Aimrid, and on " past hazel woody
Ballymulcashel " and Cullaun to Tulla, while de Clare returned to
Bunratty on the high tide in bright moonlight, a statement which
Dr Joly (the late Astronomer Eoyal) verified by calculation and
found to be correct.
MAGH ABHAIR
39
Where the road crosses the river Eaite (or Owenogarnagh) is the
once prosperous little town of Sixmilebridge. It has no early his-
tory; the bridge was built by Donat " the Great Earl " of Thomond
in the reign of James I. The Confederate Catholics formed a camp
**1))CL0NR0A0
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Central Co. Clare
here during the siege of Bunratty, in 1642, and there is said to have
been a late Dominican cell near it. Those that go on by the
north road pass a striking peel tower, Baile Ui Maolchaisil, or
Ballymulcashel, or ^lountcashel, on a small abrupt rock, beside
the road. It was built by Conor na Srona 0 Brien, King of Tho-
mond, 1466-1496. It has some well cut windows, but the upper
40 MAGH ADHAIR.
part is inaccessible, its stair-case (as is so usual) having been broken
by certain commissioners who dismantled most of the castles in
East Clare in 1654.
Another road turning westward at the little village of Kilmurry-
negall (named from the Norman colony of 1275-1318, on the edge
of whose territory it stands) leads through a land of low ridges and
little lakes into the central plain, and passes the half -blown up
dolmen of Knappoge and the castle of the- Lords Dunboyne. This,
another peel tower, is still inhabited, forming part of the modern
mansion. The family is a branch of the Butlers, founded by Sir
Toby Butler, a leading lawyer, Attorney-General to Ring JamesII.
Beyond are the tower of Ballymarkahan and the village of Quin.
Another road leads over the high ridge from Eathlube to Cullaun.
Tom Steele's Turret is on the hill to the left, and the pretty castle
and lakelet of Creggane to the right. Quin " Abbey " is seen in the
distance.
MAGH ADHAIE
To the north east of Quin lies a remarkable site, a well preserved
place of ancient repute and ceremonial, where the Kings of Thomond
were inaugurated. Legend mentions Adhar son of Umor,
brother of Aenghus the Firbolg chief, who built the great stone
fort of Dun Acngusa, in Aran^ just before our era. Adhar gave his
name to the plain, and possibly the great mound was his reputed
tomb, and from its name, Aenach Muighe Adhair, was a place of
assembly. No record tells us when it became a place of inaugura-
tion; it may have been adopted by the Ui gCaisin, the ancestors of
the Mac Namaras,^ who seem to have established themselves be-
tween this place and Tulla as early as the 5th century. The ruling
line (afterwards 0 Briens) had their centre in south eastern
Co. Limerick, at Bruree and Dun Claire. It is possible that Aedh
of Cragliath, in a.d. 571, was a chief in eastern Clare. Lachtna,
his descendant, was perhaps the first King of Thomond, of Aedh's
line, recognised as such by any other king, when Fedhlimidh of
Cashel, titular High King, met him at Craglea, near Killaloe,
about A.D. 840. Perhaps Lachtna, or his son, Lorcan, was first
inaugurated here. When the High King, Flann Sionna, invaded
Thomond, in 877, he marched to " the green of Magh Adhair " and
played chess to insult the Dal gCais, " at the very place of inaugura-
tion." He had cause to regret his act. The surrounding inhabi-
tants attacked him, Macan of Lismacain, near Sodhmacain (pro-
bably in Ballymacloon, where a Balimaking is named in 1287) was
the first to attack and be slain, but stronger forces. arrived. Essida,
chief of Ui gCaisin, and Lorcan, King of Thomond, fell on him
before the game was played out. They harried him about the
woods and wilderness till, after three days, he was glad to surren-
der. Then Lorcan treated him with respect, escorting him out of the
territory, and winning King Flann 's chief poet, Flann mac Lonain,
I One of whom, Forannan, brother-in-law of King Guaire Aidhne (about
620) was actually the titular King of Thomond, or perhaps of the eastern
part round Tulla.
Creevagh Port, near Magh Adhair
Cahercalla Fort, Quin
42
MAOH ADHAIR
who, becoming Lorcan's ardent admirer and panegyrist, left a poem
in praise of Lorcan and " Essida of the Bay Steed," for their
bravery and generous conduct. To this event Prince Brian alluded
in A.D. 968, when rebuking his brother. King Mathgamhain, for
his submission to the Danes. The older records (beside a vague
allusion to a pillar) mention a Bile or venerated tree which the
High King Maelsechnaill cut down, and had the roots dug out, in
A.D. 981, to insult King Brian Boroimhe; who certainly had the
best in the controversy by deposing the destroyer in a.d. 998. The
Dal gCais planted another tree, which shared the fate of its pre-
decessor, being cut down and rooted out by Aedh 0 Conchobhair,
Magh Adhair (place of inauguration)
King of Connacht, in 1051. The long succession of Kings of Tho-
mond was inaugurated there (we are especially rich in the record
of such events from 1267 to 1313), down to the reign of Queen
Elizabeth; and '* Iraghts " of considerable local importance were
held, down to the great famine, and were remembered
even about 1890. In that year people only recalled
besides that the mound was a place where a king was buried. The
name is found in 1584 and 1652 as Moyree ; Tuanaghmoyre and
Tuanamoree(1683) being the townland of Toonagh, in which it
lies. In 1839 two fields near it were **Moyross" or " Moyri Parks,"
one was still called " Moyars Park " after 1890. The remains
consist of a flat-topped mote, pear-shaped in plan, 81 to 102 feet
across the top and 23 feet high, with a fosse and outer ring across
which a gangway leads to the summit on the west side. There are
CARROWGAR
O Calier
1909
7 K^ -—"BoacL.^ Stream.^ Bounds.
Magh Adhair Group of Ports
^o^V'^tAJjCev^J
BALLYMARKAHAN
THE BAUN
l90t-9
CREEVAGHMORE
Forts near Quin
80UTERRAINS
SECTIONS
10 20,
^W.]pft"tt«win>
44
MAGH ADHAIR
slight traces of the foundation of a drystone wall round the top,
and a rough slab of limestone. The mound stands in a small
plain, in a natural amphitheatre, formed by a low crag called
** the Beetle's Crag," or Cragnakeeroge, beside the strangely named
Magh Adhair and Cahercalla
" Hell Bridge " and " Hell River. ^ There are traces of a semi-
circular fence, between which and the mound lies a large block of
conglomerate (probably ice borne) of dull purple, with red and pink
pebbles of porphyry and quartz ; two basins are ground in it.
There seems no evidence to show what part it played in the cere-
monies.
I A Boolyree stream lies to the S.E., "the King's milking ground."
HOGHANE CaHER
ROAO TO QUtN
46 MAGH ADHAIE
Between the mound and the stream to the N.W. are a earn of
earth and a large block of stone, having an inclined way to the
south, the earn being 7 feet across on top and 10 feet high. Be-
yond the stream were two pillars; one had been broken, time
out of mind; the other a coarse slab of limestone, is 6 feet 3 inches
high, 3 feet wide, and 10 inches thick.
O Brien was inaugurated by the chief of the Mac Namaras in
presence of the chiefs of the other clans and the principal clerics.
In some cases, as at the inauguration of Cathal Craoibhdhearg
(O Conor), who died 1224, we learn full particulars of the cere-
monial.^ The cam or mound was palisaded, with a gate, guarded
by three chiefs, a fourth alone ascended the earn with Cathal
and gave him the w^hite rod. The other chiefs and the comharbs
stood below, holding the Prince's arms, clothes and horse. He
faced the north, and on stepping down from the inauguration stone
on the mound, turned round thrice, as is still the custom in Co.
Clare on seeing a new moon. He then descended from the mound
and was helped to robe and remount. Martin, in his account of
the inauguration of a Scottish chief 200 years ago ,2 describes a very
similar ceremony. The chief stood on a heap of stones with his
followers around, and his principal friend gave him his father's
sword and a white rod. " The chief druid or orator stood close
to the pyramid " and recited the chief's pedigree, achievements
and liberalty. We do not know what part the sacred tree or the
basin played in the ceremony, or where either stood originally.
There is a basin cut in the rock of Dunadd in Argyllshire close to
the footprint which marks the inauguration place of the Dalriadic
Kings. The inauguration place at Riiaidh-bheitheacJi (or Roe-
vehagh, in Galway), was a venerable red birch tree in a ring wall;
another inauguration place was at Tullaghog, which had bileadha
or sacred trees.
Probably at Magh Adhair the gate was at the gangway and was
guarded by the subordinate chiefs, Mac Namara leading O Brien
to the summit, placing him on the rude stone slab, still remaining
there, and turning him round to see his new territory in sight of
the crowd in the amphitheatre. The panegyric may have been
pronounced from the earn and the chief then led to the Pillar and
addressed as " O Brien." From the analogy of Tullaghog, Roe-
vehagh, and other places, the Bile, may have grown on the sum-
mit of the mound. Such a position is not uncommon. Many
will remember a beautiful tree in such a position at Cloncurry,
near the ruined church, and there is a sacred tree and pillar in
Longstone fort, near Naas, and a sacred hawthorn bush and
cross in the fort of Skeaghavanoo, between Corofin and Kells, in
this county.
Cahercalla. — At no great distance there are in Cahercalla the
considerable remains of a fine Catliair, with three rings of wall.
The massive central cashel is about 100 feet inside, the walls 17
feet thick, and over 8 feet high; the gate is to the east. The
outer walls are 9 to 10 feet thick and 6 to 7 feet high. It is
1 O'Donovan's " Hy Fiaclirach, " p. 432.
2 Western Islands of Scotland (1703), p. 101,
3 Soc. Antt. Scotland (1878), p. 28.
MAGH ADHAIB 47
about 345 feet over all, but is featureless, and the outer ring is
levelled to the N.W. It was demolished by a local farmer, who,
being suddenly taken ill, desisted from the work of destruction.
Iron implements were found in the walls.
Curious earthern forts (with a circular earthwork and ring wall
and shield-shaped annexe beside it) remain at Creevagh and on
Drumbaun Hill in Corbally, not far away. There is a small dolmen
and cist, perfect, but of the most usual type, near Hazelwood House
We pass a nearly levelled ring wall, and an earthen liss on a hillock
between Magh Adair and Quin.
MoGHANE EoRT. — The Great Bronze Age hill-town (on a ridge
over a shallow lake, called Lough Ataska, and in the Dromoland
Demesne), is one of the largest forts of Ireland, and very remark-
able in every respect. As we pass over the railway bridge, after
leaving Quin, a lake and a low craggy knoll, cut by the line, are
seen to the east. In the latter, in 1854, when the railway was
being made, a cist was uncovered, just below the surface. A stone
fell out, and a mass of gold ornaments were discovered; of course
the workmen rushed upon them, a free fight took place, and " hats
full of bracelets " and ingots were carried away, hidden, given for
meal, or sold to goldsmiths, some escaped the melting pot and
eventually reached the hands of antiquaries, but the " Great Clare
gold find " was dispersed in every direction all over Europe. Even
the owners of the soil, the O'Briens of Dromoland, only got a few
specimens. The ornaments probably date over 500 years before
Christ. There can be no doubt that they were plundered from
the hill-town, and the enemy (probably finding themselves about
to be attacked in force by the local warriors) buried them, and were
no doubt subsequently defeated, if not exterminated, the hiding
place being never discovered by the victors. The town was entirely
overthrown, and so remained till, at a far later period, ring walls of
the usual type were built upon its outer and middle walls.
The great fortress probably long preceded the Tradraighe or any
tribe which occupied the district even within the range of the
earliest tradition, which never alludes to the fort. Indeed its first
record is an Elizabethan Map, about 1590, which gives a rough
sketch of the walled ridge and the name of Cahermoghna. Though
a fine and most accurate map was made in 1839 by the Ordnance
Survey the ruin was absolutely neglected by antiquaries. Drs.
Graves and Todd, in 1854, w^hen describing the gold find, call the
place an earthwork, so does Mr. Eobert O'Brien, in the notes on
Dyneley's tour, and (so late as 1890) Mr. Wakeman called it " two
large raths; " the first detailed account of it, and the very remark-
able '' palimpsest fort " of Langough, only appeared in the Journal
in 1893. The only previous antiquaries who examined it were
John Windele and W. Hackett, about 1856, but their account
(hidden in the vast mass of untidy notes by Windele) was overlooked
till very recently. They inspected only two of its walls, and hesi-
tated whether it was artificial, though the ditch and regular heaps
should have left no doubt. Elks' horns and antlers, they add,
were found near it.' It can be best understood by the map kindly
lent by the Eoyal Irish Academy.
I John Windele's Topographical Appendix, vol, i, p. 73^ R. I. A.
48 MAGH ADHAIE
Briefly it consists of three great rings of wall, the inner 20 to 22
feet thick, and 6 to 8 feet high, had gates to the W and E.N.E.
the interior is 312 feet N. and S., 342 feet E. and W. " Traverse "
walls run to the gaps, and a heap of small sandstone pebbles, near
the E. gate may be a midden. The second wall is irregular, so as to
fit on the platform, being from 159 feet to under 60 feet from the
central fort, it is 17^ feet thick, of good blocks, 3 and 4 feet long, and
has gates to the N. and E.N.E. ; some traces of the lining slabs
of the gate passages remain. The most imposing feature of the
fort is where this wall has fallen in an avalanche down the west
slope, and (before the trees grew up) this was clearly visible far
westward beyond the Fergus. Just outside this wall, to the north,
are traces of house rings. A cathair is built across its foundation
to the S.W. The great outer rampart is some 4,400 feet round,
it is usually 15 to 17 feet thick, and has a fosse, 15 to 18 feet wide,
3 to 5 feet deep, with an outer earthen mound, save where it
crosses two craggy knolls. It does not follow the contours but
plunges boldly into the amphitheatre to the west down to a gate
(partly rock-cut, with sloping ramps and a hollow way), and again
down the hill to the N.E. It measures over all 1,512 feet N. and
S., 1,118 feet E. and W. The middle wall being 705 to 664 feet,
and the inner 363 to 386 feet over all. A second later cathair
is built upon the outer wall to the N.W. The summit commands a
beautiful view. We see the Fergus Estuary and the Shannon,
with the long chain of lakes, from Finlough to Kilkishen; the grey-
terraced hills of Burren, and the blue flat-topped Mount Callan,
far away to the N.W. ; Aughty and Slieve Bernagh to the N.E. and
E., and the distant Galtees and Ballyhoura hills. The towers of
Ennis, Clare, and Quin " Abbeys," and the peel towers of
Moghane, Ballymarkahan, Eossroe, Lisoflfin, Creggane, and Dan-
ganbrack (so old to us and so modern compared with the ruin heaps
around), are visible. The town of Ennis is clearly seen, and the
picturesque towers of Dromoland in their deep woods. Far away
the church-crowned hill of Tulla is just visible, where St Mochulla
and his seven converts entrenched his monastery against the hos-
tile Kings, Forannan and Guaire Aidhne, thirteen centuries ago.
Even then Moghane Fort had already lain in weather-beaten ruin
for perhaps a millennium or more.
Moghane Castle. — The Castle of Moghane is so typical
and perfect an example of its class that it deserves a
somewhat fuller description than some other peel towers on
our route. It is a small tower, 44 feet long, and 29 feet
6 inches wide; hke most of these buildings it is of two
sections, one with the stair-case, porch and guard-room and small
bed-rooms over the two last, the other with the main rooms. The
door is in the north, with the spiral stair to the left, and the guard-
room to the right. The stair has 103 steps; the main floors are
at the 37th, 55th, and 79th steps; the cross passages at the 22nd
and 65th steps. The basement or store is a simple vaulted room
with a narrow slit and an attic. The porch has a neatly recessed
pointed door, commanded by a " murder-hole," as such trap-doors
are called in Co. Clare, to shoot and throw missiles and scalding
MAGH ADHAIE. 49
water on any assailants who had broken through the outer door of
the porch. The small rooms have doors from the stair-case, small
windows and ambreys or cupboards. There are 8 small rooms over
the porch, the lower vaulted, then two under the next vault; the
north windows are closed. The two cross passages run over the
ends of the main rooms. Of these latter the 5th floor is the
most interesting; it has a fine plain fire-place of cut limestone, with
a little shield bearing in raised letters the inscription " T. Mc MO .
Mc/ N(EMAEA). ME . FIEEI/FECIT . IN . A . D . /1610." The
curious subsidiary stairs running straight up the wall to the
spiral stair is unusual. In the south wall is a double-light, trefoil-
headed window with large flagged splay ; the window is modernized.
There is a curious corbelled recess in the N.W. corner. In the N.
wall is another large round-headed light, the west, trefoil, the east,
pointed. The large chimneys are late, probably of 1610, and crowd
up the water table; there are machicholations in the battlements.
A fine general view of the great fort was once attainable, but the
trees have grown up and are shutting it out. Beyond the fact
that the tower was a Macnamara castle, built about 1480, little
but the names of a few of its owners have been recorded. The
tower is girt by a small fortified enclosure, and overlooks a pretty
little glen. East Co. Clare is very rich in these towers, some 66
are said to have been built by the Macnamaras, chiefs of Clan-
cuilean, those of Castle Fergus (Ballyhanan), Eosroe, Cleenagh,
Dromline, Danganbrack, Mountcashel, and Kilkishen are nearly
perfect. Moghane owes its exceptional preservation to the fact
that it was one of the towers retained for the accommodation of
Parliamentary garrisons. These w^ere Ballyalla, Ealahine (a tower
like IMoghane, and not very far away), Cloghenabeg, Danganbrack,
Brian's Castle, Inchicronan, Inchiquin, Dysert, Smithstown,
Moghane, and probably Carrigaholt, Clare Castle, Clonroad, Bally-
car, and Bunratty.
I For a section of this tower, see Proc. li . I. Acad, ser. iii, vol. v. p. 353.
BIBLIOGEAPHY
Magh Adhair and Cahercalla Fort are described in Journal, vol.
xxi, p. 463, n, illustrations, p. 462, Proc. R. I. Acad. ser. iii, vol.
iv, p. 56, vol. xxiv, p. 438. Ihid., vol. xxvii, p. 381.
For IMoghane Fort see Journel, xxiii, p. 281, Ancient Forts of
Ireland, Fig. 19, section 79, Trans., R. I. Acade^ny, vol. xxxi,
p. 648; Proc. R. I. A., ser. iii, vol. vi, p. 140.
Ihid., vol. xxvi (c), pp. 218, Archaeological Inst. Journal, 1854,
No. 41, p. 181.
For the Gold Find see R. I. A. Catalogue of Gold Ornaments, pp.
31-3; Proc. R. I. A., vol. vi, p. 113; Journal {R. S. A. I.), vol. iii
(1854-5), p. 287; vol. iii, p. 181; Windele, Topographical MSS.,
Appendix, vol. i; M.SS., 7?. /. ^., p. 73.
SECTION V
CARRIGOGUNNELL, ASKEATON AND ADARE
CARRIGOGUNNELL.
This extremely picturesque castle (more like one on the Rhine
than like the average ruined castle on the Shannon) rises on a
bold volcanic rock in the angle made by the Shannon and the
Maigue. The buildings are of well cut limestone; the Keep is
to the N. W. and is over 50 feet high, with 5 stories and a spiral
stair, it had a great circular bastion, perhaps older than the rest
of the building, and a late (probably 16th century) house adjoins
the east. A long range of older buildings (part being so strangely
shattered by gunpowder that one stair-case turret lies blown in
one piece from its base) runs along the western flank of the rock.
The lower court is rou^h and over-grown, with a hall at the N. E.
angle and a gate and sloping way to the south; the only other
entrance is a small postern to the west.
The place is first named in 1209, when *' Carrac Ui Conaing "
was granted to Donnchad Cairbreach, King of Thomond. No record
remains for over a century ; then a branch of the O Briens seems
to have crossed the Shannon, settled there, and overspread the
old Norman Manor of Esclon,^ and southward, up the Maigue,
their territory being represented by the barony and name of Pubble-
brian; this is said to have been about 1336, but their chief's ancestor
of the later 0 Briens of Carrigogunnell, Tadhg na Glenore
(0 Brien), was King of Thomond in 1426, and it seems doubtfid
whether his descendants obtained the i)lace and built the castle
much before 1450. The castle first appears in history in 1536;
Lord Grey, the Lord Deputy, marched to " the very strong castle
called Carekogunyel, and in English Candell Rock," " it stands on a
high rock and .... is the key of all the county." The owner,
"Mat" (Mahon) 0 Byrne, surrendered it on condition that the
Government should hold it themselves. State pledges were broken
as easily then as now\ Grey was about to give it to one Donoth
0 Bryne, ignoring his promise, when by a plot of Edmond Sexton
and his wife (as their enemies alleged, but Grey acquitted them)
it was put back into the hands of " Matthew's " warder, so it had
to be attacked, and one of its towers was taken on the night of
August, 22; the keep surrendered next morning, and Edmond
Cahill, the warder, and all its garrison were brought to Limerick,
tried and hanged. The Crown claimed the castle, apparently on the
I Possibly the lands of a small tribe of the Tuath Luimneach group, the
Aes Cluana, otherwise unrecorded. I see no reason to regard Carrigogunnell
as the castle of Esclon. The castle and church of Newtown Esclon lay north-
ward near the Shannon.
ADARE
51
unfounded statement that the O Briens held from *' Lord Clerre,"
probably Richard De Clare, whose lands had reverted to the Crown.
Donough was established in it, but he abused his powers and was
deprived for extortion. Mahon used to claim a penny for each
barrel of wine, and 2 pence for every other barrel brought to Ijime-
rick. The older name was used, about 1580, being Carrig Gnnmncj
in the valuable " Hardiman map," 63, about that year, and
Caryhgonyn in Mercator's map. Donough's son, Brian Duff, was
confirmed in it and nearly all the present Pubblebrian. Much,
but of little interest, is told about him and his successors. The
castle played no part in the wars of 1640 to 1651 ; Capt. Wilson
took it over and built a stable there in that year. It had been
Carrigogunnell
prudently sold by its last owner, Donough 0 Brien, to Michael
Boyle (afterwards Archbishop of Dublin), and had a castle, bawn,
a few thatched huts, and a salmon fishery. In Aug., 1691, its
garrison of 150 men surrendered without resistence to S 'Graven-
more, and (rinckell had it blown up in the following September.
Ijegend (invented to account for the supposed meaning of its cor-
rupt name) told of a death-dealing candle whose light after night-
fall slew all that saw it. 8t Patrick, or one of Finn's warriors,
Regan, scaled the rock, destroyed the light, and sprang away just
in time from the irate sorceress of the candle. One late legend
made her hurl a huge rock (still called Clochregan) far to the S. of
the castle after the hero. Another made St Patrick pursue a demon
bull to Adare, where he slew it at the Ford of Ath Tairhh.
52 ADAEE
ASKEATON.
Co. Limerick is fortunate in possessing three such groups of ruins
as Adare, Askeaton, and Kilmallock, besides detached monasteries
and castles in great abundance.
Askeaton is first mentioned in the list of the royal forts reserved
to the King of Cashel in the Book of Rights. The document is prob-
ably dated about a.d. 900. The place is there called Geibhtine,
this is the name of a "pre-Celtic " race, the Grcbtini, who settled
on the south bank of the Shannon, according to early documents
cited by Duald MacFirbis. The Castle of Easgepthine was built in
1199, and was on a manor of Hamo de Valoignes (or William de
Burgo, who held it till it was restored to Hamo in right of inheritance).
The manor was called Hinniskefty (Inis Geibhthine) in 1203. It
belonged to Richard de Clare, Lord of Bunratty, in 1318, when be
fell at Dysert 0 Dea. The name occurs under many strange dis-
guises, in abundant documents, from 1200 onward — Iniskefly, Ines-
keftyn, Imkisti, Inisketty, Hineskefti, Hinchesti, Jyskefty, and
Iniskettin, Asgoptiny and Askettin — the meaning being the water-
fall {Eas) or island {Inis) of the Gebtini, not ''the cascade of the
hundred fires," or " the fall of the hawthorn fire," as certain pundits
(old and new) have rendered it. The place lacks the beautj' of Adare,
tnough its wide views to the hills of Co. Clare and the mote Castle of
Shanid are pleasing. The muddy tidal river and ugly little town
and quays spoil the otherwise handsome ruins. The church was
dedicated to St. Mary, and belonged to the Abbey of Keynsham, in
Somerset, to which it and many churches in the county had been
granted, evidently by Hamo. Lewis and other purveyors of
imaginary history state that it was a preceptor y of Templars, but
that hapless order only held a garden plot in Limerick City on their
suppression. Perhaps,, as at Adare, there was a hospital, and (as
the Hospitallers obtained much of the Templars' possessions) later
ages imagined that every hospital had been a Templars' priory. We
have a list of the families living at Iniskyfty, in 1348. The Nasshe
family were long connected with the place, and their tomb may be
seen in tbe Friary. The Geraldines appear as its owners about this
period. Maurice Fitz Maurice, late Earl of Desmond, had held the
manor till his death about ten years later ; and in 1367 John
Maltravers held it, presumably under the Earls. The Friary was
founded in 1389 (or 1420) for Franciscans ; the later date, given by
the Four Masters, probably, like so many of their "foundation
dates " (notably " 1402 " at Quin, which existed before 1350), re-
presents enlargement or repairs. The founder was probably Gerald,
"the Poet-Earl," whose mysterious disappearance has given him
a place among the enchanted chiefs of Ireland at Lough Gur, across
whose waters he rides, once in seven years, till his horse's silver
shoes are worn out and the spell broken. Many features of the
monastery, however, belong to the time of a later reputed " founder,"
really a restorer, James the 7th Earl of Desmond, to whom, about
1459, the keep of the castle may probably be assigned. The
54 ADAEE
;v
*' Abbey " was reformed to the Strict Observance in 1497 and
foimally given over to the Obser van tines in 1513. In 1541, as we
saw, the Knight of GHn gave Cappagh to the friars at a meeting
held in their chapter house under the presidency of John, Bishop
of Limerick. Of the manor and castle we have a full survey in the
curious Geraldine " Rental of Oconyll " in 1452.
In 1558, James Earl of Desmond, and in 1564, Joan, wife of
James Butler, 9th Earl of Ormond, and daughter of James, 11th
Earl of Desmond, were buried in the monastery. Russell (a 17th
century historian of the Fitz Geralds) tells a tragic tale to account
for the more tragic fall of the proud house of Desmond. The overseer
of Garrett, the hapless " Rebel Earl," used to harrass the monks
and distrain their cattle ; one day his own cattle strayed into their
lands and were impounded. In blind rage he rushed to the friary
and asked to see the Guardian, whom he stabbed mortally and fled.
The Countess was bribed by the outlaw's wife, with " plate and many
other fine and gay things, to intercede for the slayer." The weak
Earl, as ever, was wax in the hands of his masterful wife and forgave
the culprit. But the sacrilege cried to Heaven unappeased, so the
Earl was lured into rebellion to his ruin and the terrific devastation
of the province, and, men said, those who betrayed him to his
pitiable death in that lonely glen in Kerry were sons of the murderous
overseer. History does nothing to bear out the tale, which, like
most folk-stories, may, however, be partly authentic. The fi^rst
shadow of later ruin lay in the Crown coveting " the Earl's House
of Askeating " in 1569. The Earl's complaints to the local Ahabs
get bitter in 1573, and at last the weak, proud, vacillating man
played at treason with all the stronger malcontents and made half-
hearted efforts to cajole and blind the Government till the rising of
Sir John of Desmond in 1569. Tlie Earl and his force marched to
Tory Hill to witness the battle of Monasteranenagh (where Sir John
and the Papal Legate, Saunders, were defeated) so as to be able to
join with the victors at first heat. He again lost heart, would not
face the English, and fled back to Askeaton. He vainly tried to
outwit and conciliate the victor, Malbie, but his friend Sir William
Drury had just died and Malbie marched on Askeaton. Garrett shut
himself up in the castle (which Malbie had no artillery to take), and
saw the monastery, town and crops burned, and any of the monks
and his followers who had not fled in time ruthlessly slain. A monk
and a soldier were hanged as a warning, his ancestral tomb was
battered to pieces, and the devastator marched away from the blood-
stained ashes of the town. A month later Garrett was proclaimed a
traitor, and, unwillingly, forced into open rebellion four days after.
The Earl of Ormond, hereditary enemy of his house, raided to
x\skeaton, but (as so often) the Government sent him cannons, but
no munitions, so nothing could be gained save the Earl's stud of
horses. Only in the next year, after the siege of Carrigfoile, when
the terror of their cannon was fresh, the English appeared before the
stronghold of Askeaton, April 3rd, 1580 ; a few shots sufficed, as
soon as night settled down the gari:ison fled, too hurriedly to do more
than blow up a bit of wall and burn some out-buildings, and Askeaton
was lost to the Geraldines.
56 ADAHil
Not to follow the ghastly tale of the great Desmond rebellion, the
English repaired the castle and put it in charge of Captain Edward
Berkeley of the family of Bruton in Somerset. The new Castellan
had eventually to return to Bristol. His deputy secretly favoured
the rebels, Desmond even ventured back to Askeaton to consult
with the friars, but he attempted nothing, drifted away, and finally
met his tragic end in November, 1583.
The great Surveys of Peyton and the Desmond Roll give us a
minute accoimt, in execrable Latin, of the complicated estates, and
in some respects a more vivid impression of the vast ruin in their
dry cold entries, on the slaying, execution, or ruin of each tenant,
than the most oratorical histories. Edward Berkeley was Castellan
till 1589, then his brother Francis was granted the manor, called
now " Rockbarkeley , " along with the friary and the custody of the
castle. Here he was besieged by James " the Sugan Earl " of
Desmond, a nobler man and better soldier than Garrett, in 1598 ;
the siege was only raised by Essex in the following June, after the
battle of Rower, near Adare, and Berkeley was knighted for his
defence of the place. The castle was again blockaded by James, but
the latter was betrayed and taken in a cave in the south-east of the
county in 1601, and the Rebellion ended. Berkeley, a humane man
for those days, treated his tenants and " Irish " neighbours so well
that he fell under censure of the Government. It is interesting to
find that he befriended Philip the O'Sullivan Beare, the well known
historian, and employed Irish labourers.
Askeaton was incorporated by charter in 1612, and returned two
members to Parliament till the Union, save during the Common-
wealth. Berkeley's care brought back the place to some degree of
prosperity. On his death, 1615, his sons Maurice and Henry, and
eventually, 1625, their three sisters, who had marred William
Courtney, George Crofton, and John Taylor, succeeded to the estates,
some of which are still held by their descendants.^
The friars returned to their ruined convent in 1627, and the list
of Guardians from 1629 to 1650 is unbroken. Colonel Purcell be-
sieged the garrison in the castle, and they surrendered, under terms,
in 1642. Next year the friary was carefully repaired and the monu-
ment of the Stephensons dates three years later. In 1647 the bodies
of the monks slain in 1578 were reinterred with much ceremony.
The monks, of course, fled after 1651, and the next appointment of
a guardian was in 1661. The lists of Guardians from 1714 to 1872
are evidently merely nominal, as, unlike Quin and other friaries,
none of the brethren seem to have clung to the neighbourhood. If
tradition tell the truth, the Cromwellians (who dismantled the castle)
undermined the keep, propping it with timber, and then kindled a
great fire which, when the props burned away, brought down the
eastern half of the great tower. An attempt was vainly made to
get the Government to repair it as a barrack in 1712. From the
Taylor family the place passed by an heiress to the Barons Masney.
1 It must be understood that the Berkeleys of Killeenoghty, Ballycahane,
Tory Hill, and other places near Croom were a different branch, and were
settled in Co. Limerick nearly three centuries before their namesakes settled
at Askeaton,
^--m^
.^^ \
M
^
"Mf,«
Jm
_ji
m^ ' ma^
T
f
■1
'ff'
1-
i
AsKEATON Castle (G. Holmes, 1799)
ASKEATOJS EROM FlUARY
58 ADAEE
THE RUINS.
The Church of St. Mary. — Only the belfry and the chancel
remain, the latter crowded with the burial places of the Taylors of
Ballinort and HoUypark and the Westropps of Ballysteen. There
are no very old monuments ; tradition says that some in the old
church were stowed away in one of the vaults. The church in the
view in Pacata Hibernia seems to have had two parallel aisles, like
the Black Abbey at Adare. The belfry is square below and octagonal
above ; the upper part seems to have had large Gothic opes and
battlements, but was greatly defaced, and has lately been repaired.
The stonework of the east window of the chancel is removed. The
side window has a curious ogee head turning back in little crocket-
like leaves. This, the only feature, may date about 1450.
Desmond's Castle. — This occupies an oval islet, the ancient Inis
Geibhtine ; the earlier fort probably occupied the rock platform
at the keep. An old picturesque bridge crosses the Deel at the north
end of the islet. It is well described in the Desmond Roll (1583) as
"an excellent castle, formerly a chief house of the late Earl of
Desmond, in good repair, on a little island on a rock and surrounded
on all sides by a rivulet. It contains two separate coorts and one
balne (bawn) with divers strong buildings ... a large hall, a great
vaulted room, with three cellars ... a triangular garden, in which
is a fish pond, &c." The battlemented wall remains to the north-
west, but the gateway is gone. The great Hall, or '' Desmond's
Hall," is a stately structure of the 15th century, with several vaulted
rooms underneath and a small chapel at the south end ; above the
vaults is a stately apartment with large rich windows, now much
defaced, to the north end and the sides, with a corbelling to the
south. The keep stands on the rock-platform, and is about 90 feet
high, with a projecting west turret, in which are several vaulted
rooms, one with a massive, bolt-studded oaken door. The main
tower has two vaulted stories and an upper room, most of the stairs
are broken away. To the south was a large residence with an under
vault and two stories above it, one with a handsome fireplace. The
platform is reached by a ramp or sloping way, the gate of which is
destroyed. Beside it is the ruined club house, traditionally reputed
(like so many others, and probably on as baseless a tradition) to have
been a " Hell Fire Club " in the middle of the 18th century.
The Franciscan Friary or " Rock Abbey." — This extensive
and interesting ruin stands on the east bank of the Deel, hi an
amphitheatre of crags, and commands a pleasing view of the river
and castle. It consists of a church and transejDt to the north, with
a beautifully arcaded cloister to the south, round which are vaulted
rooms to the east and west, the latter said to be the chapter house.
A projecting wing is possibly the refectory. The upper rooms are
reached by a staircase, partly modern, at the south-west corner ;
the little prison and garderobes are curious ; note an unusual cruci-
form window in the south vaulted room. The bells of the friary
were recently dug up not far from the south-east porch. The
cloister (save one bay, of which the pillars were removed to allow
the bringing of coffins into the garth) is in fine preservation. The
Desmond's Castle, Askeaton, from north
Desmond's Castle, Askeaton, from west
60 ADAEE
little crocketted niche with a figure of St. Francis, showing the
stigmata, will be found at the north-east angle in the north walk,
and in 1875 was reputed to cure toothache. The ornaments on the
base of the door piers leading into the cnurcii are well carved. The
church had a large battlemented bell-tower with string courses.
Unfortunately it has been entirely removed ; neither the view in
Pacata Hibernia, circa 1599, nor one in a 17th century map, make
certain where it stood. I incline to locate it at the space half way
up the church, where such towers are very frequently inserted, most
being later than the church. Mr. C. O'Brien considers that it stood
outside at the west end of the sacristy and next the transept, as it
does at Canon's Island Abbey in the Shannon.
Many fragments of an ornate altar tomb, with a richly groined
canopy, are heaped in the sedilia. There is a fine row of these seats
and panels beneath the south windows of the chancel, with the
Stephenson monument in the south-east angle. Its inscription reads :
" D. 0. (M.) Nobilissimo D(omino) Richardo Stephenson ejus
filio B. Olivero Stephenson ac posteris suis hoc bustum fieri fecer-
unt D. Margarita ni Brien et D. Elinora Browne Anno Domini 1646."
Under it was a " chronogram " :
" Epitaphium Ch{ronograp) hicum hie Oliverus ine {st genitu)s
genitorque Richar(c^2^5) Stephenson cl(m candor) uterque choro est
{Anno) 1642."
The bracketed parts were on the central stone, now lost, so the
chronogram letters cannot be entirely recovered as the copyist who
preserved it^ does not indicate them.
The altar is plain, the east Avindow is of the type so familiar at
Adare (so simple, and yet from its system of curved interlacings so
beautiful) ; the gable (like those of the Black Abbey of Adare) is
battlemented. The transept has a west aisle ; the north-east angle
and much of the adjoining walls and windows were evidently blown
up, and huge rock-like fragments lie outside. Note the richer device
of the window between the transept and the Sacristy. The latter is
a vaulted room with neat ornaments on its east window and an over
room, once reached by a stair, of which only the lower steps remain.
There are several interesting monuments of the 16th century, chiefly
Calvary crosses, one breaking into ivy leaves but without inscription,
and a figure of a saint set in the wall.^ Inside, in the west end of
the nave, is an interesting tablet. It is carved with the square and
compass, anchor and I.H.S. above, and has an inscription recording
that John O'Driscoll put it up in memory of his father, Edmund,
who died Jan. 3rd, 1780, and another Edmund, Nov. 15th, 1798.
Requiescat in pace. The Irish epitaph is rendered by John
0 'Donovan : —
" Alas, 0 flag ! good is thy treasured up companion
Though strong is man he must be one day weak in clay
There is no lord or chief in [the enjoyment of] action leap or agility
And the Shannon is barren since Edmond is laid under thee."
1 Ordnance Survey Letters, Co. Limerick, and Rev. J. Dowd's llonnd
about Co. Limerick.
2 It was popularly said to be St. Patrick, the elaborately curved edge
uf his robes being regarded as serpents.
The Cloister, Askeaton Fuiary (Dr. G. J. Fogerty)
62 ADARE
ADARE— THE HISTORY.
Adare, " the ford of the oaks," is one of the most attractive and
interesting spots in Ireland. Though lacking the noble settings of
mountains or any wide prospect, such as we find at Killaloe and in
the south of Co. IJmerick, it has it peculiar wealth of quiet beauty,
apart even from the picturesque ruins, which alone would lead us
to visit its fields. The venerable trees, the willows, osiers, and
shrubs along its banks (though one be too late to see them in the
glory of their gold, crimson and brown twigs, loaded with the soft
grey, silver, green and yellow catkins of later April), the smooth
rich fields, the coots playing on the surface, the great dragon flies
fanning the reeds — the leap of the fish — the still reaches — glassy
above the weirs — the chaos of tumbling waters falling below — make
a lovely series of pictures. Here down a glade, or across a bend
of the river, we see the lofty tower, stepped battlements and white
shafted windows of a monastery, the two quaint old bridges, the
strong keep and towers of the Desmond's Castle, or the fine Tudor
mass of the modern Manor House. Other ruins visited may be of
equal beauty or interest, but none are in such a princely setting.
Adare, standing at the 'head of the tideway, which flows up to
its castle walls, was, to the mediaeval traders, a port of call, though
commerce has long refused to turn up the narrow winding channel
between the deep mud banks, which the flat-bottomed ships of the
13th and 14th centuries found so congenial. I^ord Dunraven was
surprised at the huge mass of oyster shells found under the castle
walls, but it was very easy to bring in loads from the rich beds of
Poulanishery, down the Shannon, doubtless wine and spices, with
rich foreign clothing, came in to the burgesses of Adare, up to the
old timber bridge at the ford, whose piling was found below its now
venerable successor. It was natural that the English Government,
still energetic and masterfvd (before the paralysing reign of Henry
III had lasted long enough to weaken it), determined to build a
large castle to protect the ford and hold the recently subdued tribes
of Kenry in check. The first question, however, is what was the
earlier state of affairs, and was so notable a place without history
or antecedents before Geffry de Mareys decided to fortify it? It
is disappointing to say that, so far, no written record of an earlier
past is extant in the Annals. The venerable " Book of Rights "
in its list of royal forts in County Limerick names Geibhtine or
Askeaton, Ratharda, or Rathurd, near Limerick, and Aenach
Cairpre (or Rathmore), near IMonasteranenagh, but no fort at Adare
appears. The elaborate inquisitions of IMeyler fitz Henry, in 1201
and 1204, named nearly every parish church in the diocese exce]it
Adare. Had it therefore no past before 1220?
There was at least a fort, dug in the marshy bank of the Maigue,
and probably at least as old as the 9th century ; close to this was
a church, perhaps of the late 11th century, but its founder's name
was overlaid by the later dedication to St Nicholas, the favourite
patron of the Anglo-Norman traders and sailors, who settled in the
little *' port." All Irish tradition had vanished; unlike places in
Cloister, Franciscan Friary, Askeaton
Stephenson Monument and Sedilia, Askeaton
64 AD ABE
the adjoining counties, it may have been that there was no over-
lap even in the church authorities, and only the place names sur-
vived. One of these, the rising ground below the castle on the
Maigue, named Ardshanbally, implies that the older village stood
on the east side of the river, but it is certainly strange that while
the churches of Cluonsiebria (Clonshire), Kylcharli (Kilcurley) and
even the insignificant oratory of Kilgobbin, are named in the earhest
years of Norman rule, Adare never appears. The place lay in the
tribal district of Ui Cairbre, on the edge of the old, probably " pre-
Celtic " tribes of the C'aenraighe and Gebtini and of the Tuath
Luimneach, who surrounded the Ostmen settlements from Carrigo-
gunnell to Castlecoimell, the two fortified rocks which jireserve (in
corrupt form) the name of the chief family, the Ui gConaing or
O Gunnings. The Irish tradition was so lost (even among the
Irish) in 1830 that people rendered the name Ath tairhli, the " ford
of the Bull," and told of a demon bull, pursued by St Patrick from
the disenchanted rock of Carrigoginmell to the ford on the IMaigue,
where the Saint destroyed it.
In 1226, Geffry de Marisco got a grant from the Crown permitting
him to hold a fair on the 8 days after the Feast of St James, in his
Manor of Adare. This sign of settlement makes it probable that
he had already " encastled " the place. Whether, however, the
great stone keep rose on the earlier ring fort is quite uncertain;
more likely he dug the long baily, or annexe (till the river filled the
outer fosse) palisading its earthworks and erecting a bretasche or
wooden turret on the fort he had adopted as the " mote " of his
castle. Still the stone buildings of the Keep and the Hall near the
water tower seem very early (the Hall window indeed might be of
the later 12th century), but masons were conservative, and it is
imprudent to dogmatize. The importance of Adare certainly began
with the Normans. Ere long (but the alleged date, 1230, seems
unsupported by any record of credit), a monastery was foimded to
the west of the river for Trinitarian j\Ionks of the Order of the Ee-
demption of Captives, an excellent society for the humane object
of redeeming from the duress of the Moslem the captives taken in
war or by Pirates. Eventually fair houses of the Augustinians and
Franciscans and a Hospital were founded. A certain " Master
Tyrrell " was Vicar of Adare, between 1230 and 1250, he witnessed
a charter of Hubert de Burgh, Bishop of Limerick. Adare, how-
ever is plunged in deep obscurity till 1290, when we find it one of
a group of Manors, with Castle Eobert, Cromyth (Croom), Wyrgidy
(near Uregare, in the S.E of the county), and Grene (Pallas Green),
in the east. They were held by Agnes de Valence, the King's
cousin, wife of Maurice FitzGerald, and Juliana de Cogan, their
daughter, who enfeoffed John de Verdun with them. The
Geraldines had been granted Crumech Castle and lands so early as
1215 by King John. The chief local family, under the Lords of the
Manor, was a branch of the widespread Eussels, who bore the Irish
soubriquet " Creevagh," which, later on, in the shortened form
" Creagh," superseded their older name. In Elizabeth's reign one
of those family legends (which " darkened knowledge " till more
critical research discredited them) claimed that the Creaghs had
ADAEE 65
been 0 Neills, who, bearing branches in their helmets, in a vic-
torious battle, took the surname ** Creagh." Certainly, from about
1580 onward, the " branches " are conspicuous in their coat of
arms, where they now form the main device. The Cadewolys, the
Whites, and other Welsh and Norman families were among the
early burgesses of Adare.
Next to the church and castle, the oldest building is the Trini-
tarian Monastery. It is the only certain house of that noble order
AsKEATON Friary — West end of Nave
in Ireland. Unfortunately the historians^ of the order have sur-
rounded it with such webs of disproved legends (all contradictory)
that it is scarcely possible, even if worth the toil, to judge which
is the least unreHable. The least improbable statement tells how
its founder was Thomas Fitz Gerald, seventh Lord of Offaly, but
gives the dates at 1272, not 1230; probably no shadow of truth as to
its foundation reached the voluminous and unreliable writers of the
17th century, our only " authorities," falsely so called. It is said
I Especially Bonaventuia Baron (or Baronius) who enjoys vvndeseKved
reputation through being confuted with the really learned annalist. Cardinal
Baronius, living a century earlier.
66 ADAEE
that its monks were brought from Aberdeen. It was dedicated to
St James, and it will be recalled that the fair, established at Adare
in 1235, was connected with his feast. If the earlier alleged date
for its foundation, 1230, be correct, this is comprehensible, and I
incline to the view that 1272 represents a restoration of the earlier
building, as 1306 and 1433 (which some compilers gave as the foun-
dations of Ennis and Quin) in the monastic annals, certainly repre-
sent additions and repairs. Nicholas Sandford was its Prior in
Belfry, Askeaton Church.
1299; a later Prior, named Peter, with three monks, got into trouble
for taking goods from the Augustinians in 1319. This was pro-
bably not theft, as some state, but one of the frequent cases of ill-
defined rights and trespass which abound in the legal records of
that generation, where, for instance, the De Clahulls " steal " a
whale, or the Bishop of Ardfert a gallows and pillory. The Prior,
however, was actually robbed of lUO shillings by his own monks in
that year. The property of " Domus Beati Jacobi de Adare " was
assessed for tithe as worth 40s. in 1291 in the Papal Taxation of
1291, and is called " ]Monaster Bean " (the White Monastery) by
Peyton.
AsKEATON, St Mary's Church
50FEET
AsKKATOK Castle— The Hall
6g ADAEE
The Augustinian Monastery had been established near the bridge,
between the Trinitarian House and the castle, before 1315, by John,
Earl of Kildare; the " present " Earl Thomas confirmed and in-
creased his father's grant in that year. Lastly the Crown, after
prudent enquiry whether the burgages so granted affected its
interests, not only confirmed them but added other portions, then
held by Eichard of Adare,' John Madok, and Eobert le Blound
(White), and William de Byrne, to the Black Abbey of the Augus-
tin Hermits, on Aug. 13, 1317.
To conclude the foundation history of the monasteries, we must
pass on to the year 1464, when the most beautiful of the houses was
built by Thomas, Earl of Kildare, and Johanna, his wife, for the
Order of the Friars Minor of St Francis. They commenced it in
1464; it was dedicated to St Michael on Nov. 14th, 1464, but only
completed by ^lichaelmas, 1466, when the church, cloister, two
sacristies, and the cemetery were consecrated. The founders died
respectively in 1478 and 1486; the Countess Johanna was buried
that year in the monastery, but no monument is extant. ]Margaret
FitzGibbon, wife of Cornelius 0 Bea (probaly chief of Cinel Fer-
maic, in Thomond, the district round Dysert O Dea, Co. Clare),
built the great chapel of the Blessed Virgin in 1483. Next Cornelius
O Sullivan erected the graceful bell tower, he died in 1492 ; John of
])esmond and ^largaret (wife of Thomas) Fitz Maurice, built
the two beautiful lesser chapels; Bonough, the 0 Brien Ara, the
dormitory, he died 1502; Eory, ])onall and Sabina O Bea, the
cloister; Alarianus 0 Hickey, the Eefectory, the fine north panels
and stalls of the church. Thomas, Knight of the Glen, and his wife,
Honora, the infirmary (probably the house to the west), and the wife
of FitzGibbon the east end of the church. These entries were
copied by Father ^looney from the original Eegister of the Friary
in about 1608, when he also saw the plate and vestments, preserved
by the Franciscans at Cork. They are of great value from dating
not only the present building but also similar features in other
monasteries whose records are entirely lost, and the features can be
studied with advantage here by students of Irish Architecture.
The Hospital, or House of the Knights of St John, has left us
no ruin, nor (though the " Spital Band " appears on the curious
detailed map of the Abbey lands at Adare in the Bown Survey,
1651-55), is its site known. The curious little chapel in the church-
yard dates about 1460 to 1480, and is attributed to the Earls of
Besmond, whose connection with Adare was very brief. Nearly
a century later the visitations of Cornelius O Bea, Bis-hop of Lime-
rick, whose beautiful crozier and mitre are still preserved in that
city, allude to the parish church.
We will resume the history of the castle and town. Adare was
governed by a Bailiff in 1310, and he was granted, by patent, the
right to levy tolls for murage, or walling the town; no trace of the
fortifications is, liowever, extant. We have a description of the
castle in 1329-31 in an Inquisition, taken on the death of Eichard
Fitz Thomas, Earl of Kildare. The building consisted of a chapel
1 It will be remembered that "Robin Adair " in the well known ballad
was of Co. Lnnerick origin, if some " commentators " err not.
ADARE 69
and a chamber, each roofed with thatch or s'hingle, a tower, covered
with planks, a kitchen, covered with slates, and a chamber near it,
also slated. All was waste from the Irish war, and the surrounding
lands were uncultivated. The Close Rolls of 1334 show that
John Darcy, guardian of the lands of the said Richard, during the
minority of Richard, Earl of Kildare, got a grant to repair the Castles
of Kildare, Adare, Cromyth and Esgrene, with their houses and
other edifices. As we noted, the White family had been settled at
Adare in the previous century; again, in 1346, Thomas, son of
Robert White, and Thomas fitz John were appointed keepers of the
peace for the cantred of Adare and Cromyth for the year. In 1360
a tax of 2 shillings on each carucate of land in the cantred of Adare
was levied for the Irish war. Adare must have suffered severely
a second time, as King Richard II, in 1376, remitted the subsidies
or tallages due from Adare till the town was rebuilt, as it had been
burned and devastated by the Irish in the war. The lower bridge
is said to have been built between 1390 and 1410; it was a strange,
narrow structure, 'hardly wide enough for a carriage to pass over,
and with recesses on the buttresses up stream for foot' passengers
to stand back on such occasions. The 15th century, which saw
such activity in the church visitations and buildings, has left little
record of Adare, the long residences next the Norman Hall in Des-
mond's Castle, and most of the Franciscan Friary date from it, and
there was great prosperity and considerable peace in Co. Limerick
during the period. The Creagh family of Adare enjoyed a large
share of that prosperity. When '' Silken Thomas " was executed in
1536, Adare was forfeited to the Crown; the lands surveyed in 1540
are Adare, Crome, Rachanan (Rathcannon, a conspicuous castle
on a rocky knoll near Bruree), and Tobemy. Another survey in
1559 made by Simon Barnwell gives much information, and he
seems to have consulted the Franciscans' Register; he mentions
" the old broken castle " and " the Abbey of Grey Fryers," as
founded by Thomas, late Earl of Kildare, " who gave two challeses
of sylver and bought a greate bell for 10 li ; his Countes was buried
under a stone in the quier in 1486." The monasteries were dis-
solved in 1539; the Trinitarians held 70 acres of land, the castle and
mill of Robertstown (between Adare and Croom), a mill and salmon
and eel weirs at Adare, with tithes on numerous lands. The Black
Abbey (Austin Hermits) had other weirs. In 1541, Adare and
Crome were granted to James, son of Sir John, Earl of Desmond;
this seems to be the only connection of these nobles with the place
in which popular names, like " Desmond's Castle," and '* Des-
mond's chapel," have given them such unwaiTanted prominence.
In 1566 the White Abbey (Trinitarian) was granted by Queen Eliza-
beth to Sir Warham St Leger, it was subsequently granted to John
Zouche in 1583, to Sir James Gould, the Attorney-General, in
1585, and to Sir Henry Wallop; the Abbeys passed so often to
different people that we gain httle by recording their destiny any
further. The Poor Abbey, though roofless, retained much of its
glass even in 1608, when jMooney saw it.
As to the castle, there is a statement in that most unreliable
work, Lewis' Topographical Dictionary, that Adare Castle was be-
sieged for 11 days in 1578, it was certainly garrisoned
70
ADAEE
in 1580, and the English cut down the woods near it on
either bank of the river. It was evidently dismantled
in 1599, for the Earl of Sussex garrisoned the Black Abbey near
the bridge to secure his rear when he advanced to relieve the gar-
rison at Askeaton under Sir Francis Berkeley, besieged by " the
Sugan Earl " of Desmond, and the castle is not then named. In
1641 the Confederates held the castle, but it has no warlike record,
nor was it held against the Cromwellians (Cromwell, be it remem-
bered, did not come farther into the county than to reduce Kilbe-
heney Castle on its southern border), though popular belief has in-
vented a siege and destruction by "Cromwell"; however, his
^7
Askeaton Friary
Government dismantled it in 1657. Under the Act of Settlement,
in 1667, Sir Edward Ormsby was confiiTned in part of the Com-
mons of Adare, the Black, White, and Poor Abbeys, the Spittle
land and the burgess lands of Stritch, Lee, Creagh, Lisaght and
others.
Adare continued in possession of the Earls of Kildare till one
of them, in 1683, granted the manor to Thady Quin for 1,000 years,
with the mills and the long established fair. The grant includes the
salmon weirs of IMundellihy, not far below the bridge, the Black
Abbey and its gardens, William Stretche's burgess lands, a moiety
of the White Abbey and the Poor Abbey (Franciscan) with its sal-
mon and eel weir. The Earl gave a grant of all these in fee-simple
in 1721. This Thady Quin was a member of an old family at Kil-
mallock, claiming relationship with John Quin, or Coyne, Bishop
of Limerick, about 1530. Whether they were more remotely
descended from the 0 Quins of Inchiquin, Co. Clare, has yet to be
Adare Castle
Trinitarian Priory, Adare
72
ADAEE
proved. Thady's great grandson, Valentine Eichard Quin, was
created a Baronet in 1781, and Baron of Adare in July, 1800; he
was further advanced to be Viscount Mount Earl in 1816, Earl of
Dunraven and Mount Earl and Viscount Adare in 1861, and lastly
Baron of Kenry in the peerage of the United Kingdom.
The family have been most munificent, whether as improving the
condition of their tenantry, or the buildings of their beautiful
demesne; they repaired the Black Abbey for the Established
Church in 1807, and its refectory as a school in 1814, and the
'i^ 1^03
AsKEATON Castle
White Abbey as the Eoman Catholic Church in 1811. They greatly
improved t-he village; the handsome fountain commemorates the
help given by the villagers in extinguishing a fire at the Manor
House. The present fine residence was commenced 1832, and only
completed after 1850; it embodies the walls of an old tower, attri-
buted to Thady Quin.
Antiquaries will not need to be reminded of the invaluable work
done for Irish Archaeology by Edwin, Earl of Dunraven, father of
the present peer; hhNotes on Irish Architecture was published aftei
his death. He and his mother compiled the Memorials of Adare, to
which all subsequent writers on the place must turn, and one of
the most complete studies of its period on Irish mediaeval Archi-
tecture.
AuGXJSTiNiAisr Priory, Adare
(Jloistek, Aucjustinian Priory, Adare
74 ADABE
THE EUINS,
We can only describe in general terms the various buildings, as
this handbook is intended for visitors who, having the originals
before them, only need to be told what is most worthy of note.
The " White " or Trinitarian Monastery. — The stately, low,
old tower and the south wall of the older church, with the north
wall of the chancel, and some portions of the domicile, remain,
also the curious low circular turret at the west side, which is the
Colunibarium., or pigeon-house, of the building. Other Columharia
remain at the Black Abbey and at Old Abbey in the west of the
county. The corbels of the arches under the central tower should
be noted. The rest of the building has been greatly modernized, and,
unfortunately, the original east end, with its triple light window,
has been replaced. The church stands in the middle of the pretty
little village, and is now the Koman Catholic church.
The " Black " or Augustinian Monastery. — This, now the
Protestant parish church, has been less altered than the
last, but (again unfortunately), the three plain Gothic arches
of the south aisle were destroyed and two new ones (with
a Norman capital !) replace them ; the picturesque stepped
battlements of the east gable were also removed, with a doubt-
ful taste. The tower is an after thought, and of rather displeas-
ing proportion; the church has many features of interest, chiefly
sedilia; the windows, with one exception, are of plain, interlac-
ing tracery, the west window of the aisle is more ornate. The
cornice along the south side, with its quaint crowned lions and
other ornaments, is curious and pleasing. The beautiful little
cloister to the north of the church has on each side three recesses,
under each of which are three cinquefoil arches. Along the
south walk, in the spandrels of the arches, are carved shields witli
Geraldine arms. There are no mediaeval tombs in the church or
cloister; the burial place of the Earls of Dunraven is to the west
of the latter. There are several rude vaults under the school-room,
its stepped gable will show the former appearance of that in the
church. There is a square pigeon tower, an archway with the K-1-
dare and Desmond arms, and traces of other buildings on the bank
of the Maigue.
Desmond's Castle. — The remains consist of a large square keep,
with slightly projecting turrets at each angle ; only the north side
is entire, but the lower vaults are intact. It stands (as we noted)
in a ring fort of normal size, and similar to dozens of earth works
in the surroimding district. The edge is fortified by a strong,
battlemented rampart, with semicircular bastions, and an imposing
gate to the south, with slides for a drawbridge. Looping into this
is the rampart of the outer ward; it has gates to each side, the
southern between a semicircular tower and the water tower with its
garderobe over the river. When one passes the massive arch, the
hall, with a Norman window, is to the right, various rooms with
double lights, cinquef oil-headed, and the kitchen and bakehouse of
the castle lie along the river. The east gate leads to an enclosed,
but unwalled, space within the outer fosse. This was evidently
111
i^
1
/\ LM
\ff4
AtMf^S'j ^^^^^^^^^K^
*'^^^M
1
Fbanciscan Friary, Adare, from south-east
Franciscan Friary from south
76 ADARE
included in the older baily, and was excluded when the stone wall
was built. Skirting the inner fosse one reaches the north gate
leading to the churc'hes. Between it and the parish church is a
massive fragment of wall. It is of some unknown building but
evidently once of some importance.
Church of St Nicholas. — This stands in a crowded graveyard,
which, contrary to Irish feelings and belief, is to the north of the
church. The round-headed choir arch and east window are early
Irish, the rest has been greatly modernized and patched; all its
features are defaced save a little double belfry. To the north is a
neat little chapel with trefoil lancets called the Desmond's chapel.
It had a gallery in the west end, the base is imusual in being boldly
battered or sloped.
The " Poor " or Franciscan Friary. — The most beautiful and
(in some ways) the most interesting building of Adare lies in a fair
meadow, near the old bridge and the Manor, with beautiful views
of the river and castle, and (till the trees grew up, and even till
1875), of the Augustinian IMonastery. It affords an unusually com-
plete idea of a monastery with its surrounding buildings and closes.
The plan is intact, though the outer walls of the northern buildings
are nearly levelled. Approaching by the ancient bridge, near the
Manor, one first sees the '' Kilmallock Gate," with the Geraldine
shield above it. There was evidently a fairly large enclosed space
to the south of the church, a second, and smaller, gateway remains
near the transept. A fine old yew tree grows near the S.W. angle
of the nave, and (as we shall see), another occupies the garth of
the cloister, and others grow outside the ruin. The church consists
of a nave and choir, divided by the plain arches of the pretty bell
tower. To the south is a transept, with a side aisle to the west
and two beautiful little eastern chapels, which an old man, Mor-
tough MacMahon, in 1875, told me were called the chapel of the
Virgin and the chapel of St Joseph, but from the Register it is
probable that the main aisle was the actual Lady Chapel. The
slab of the altar, with 5 incised crosses, lies in one, and there are
some finely cut finials with tufted oak leaves and other designs on
the sedilia. The nave had a coved roof, the choir a segmental one.
Some consecration crosses marked on the plaster when fresh have
been noted near the west end. The west window has three lights,
the east and south have graceful simple tracerj' of interlacing
shafts. The beautiful sedilia and stoups in the choir are of un-
usually good execution; some of them have traces of the original
painting; chequers of blue and dull red and green, bands of colour
and some traces of robed figures. The reredos was probably of
wood. The place was crowded with burials w^hen Lord Dunraven
restored it, but only a few late tombstones are visible. The cloister
lies to the north ; it has, like the rest of the building (save one pas-
sage) no vaulting. The north, east and south arcades are of plain
chamfered arches, the west, of more ornate ones, with bases, capi-
tals and clustered shafts. In the west wall is a slab with a figure
of a saint or monk, styled " St Brigid," in 1875. The south wajk
has a room above it absurdly called " the Abbot's room " in 1875,
but evidently for bell-ringers, as the sloped way for the bell-ropes
ADARE
11
leads from it to the tower. The only other rooms calling for more
than passing notice are the west room with fine late fire-places, one
with carved animals and a rose. Outside is a detached building
LIM.CRJCH
Adare
AuGUSTiJSiAN Convent, Adare
(probably the infirmary) to the west, kitchen, the steps of a cross,
and mill and garderobes and other ofiices, with the mill-race running
beneath them. Mr. George Hewson believed that the remains Df
78
AD ARE
an older building are visible, embedded in the later work, and sug-
gests that it is the House of St James; whether he was right as
to the first statement architects may decide, but the House of St
James was the Trinitarian Monastery.
In an antiquarian guide it is hardly in place to describe the jManor,
save to note a group of Ogham inscribed pillars from Kerry in the
garden. The tin chalice and paten (probably from a priest's grave)
GUEST
HOUSES
CROSS BASE
bfciM mg-
M»LL BACE
MILL
GAROEROBES
Franciscan FRiARir, Adare
found in the Franciscan Friary, the weapons and other ot
found in the inner fort of Desmond's Castle, a carved tombstone
from Iniscealtra, Lough Derg, with the name Chunn, claimed (with-
out a reason), as the tomb of an 0 Quin, and other archaeological re-
mains are in the little museum, and there are some fine specimens
of the great Irish Deer, " Elk," so called. Perhaps the most
curious architectural feature is the open work balustrade forming
the text, " Except the Lord build the house their labour is but lost
that build it," on the south side of the Manor.
<^Si
IVCRU55 -1-u^^^r^AOARt
Ecclesiastical Architecture, Co. Limerick
80
ADAEE
THE OGHAM STONES AT ADAEE.
A small collection of Ogham stones were brought together by the
late Lord Dunraven, and they are to be seen grouped in the grounds.
The following is a brief description of them.
Mangerton. — A stone 6 feet 9 inches in length, now broken in
two, found somewhere on the slope of Mangerton Mountain.
There is a wedge-shaped fragment lost at the point of fracture,
which ihas carried away part of the writing; and another tlake is
lost from the top of the inscribed angle. The letters remaining
KiLMALLOCK AND AdARE ChALICES
read ONEGGN ; possibly this was originally a name such as
BENEGGNI. There is a small cup or hollow on the stone near
the base, and some people have cut the initials DC FC on the B-
side of the stone.
EocKFiELD. — Four stones were found in a rath-cave at Eockfield,
Co. Kerry, and utilised in building a cottage. Three of them were
afterwards taken to Adare; the remaining one, a fragment alleged
to bear the unintelligible letters VNGULUM, is lost. The three
Adare stones are as follows : —
1. A fine tall pillar-stone inscribed on two angles. The right-
AsKEATON Castle, West
The Cloister, Askeaton Frl\ry
82 ADAKE
staircase turret, with five stories to the north. Mr. George
Hewson rightly points out that it was twice enlarged.
The church is called Templenakilla, and is a small pre -Norman
building of large uncemented masonry. The round-headed east
window is of limestone, the south lights plain oblong slits. The
west door has inclined jambs and a massive sandstone lintel. Lewis
says that the shafts of two very ancient crosses were near it. They
have not been recently noted, but the place is greatly ivied and over-
grown.
Garraunboy. — "The yellow garden," or "thicket," a castle of
the Wall, or Faltagh, family, from whom it was confiscated after
the Desmond Rebellion, in 1583. It was granted to Oliver Stephen-
son, from whose descendants it was again confiscated in 1651. It
is a bold tower, though small, with four floors under a stone vault.
It is of the late 15th century type, with ogee lights, so common in
Counties Limerick and Clare. The end wing has the usual spiral
stairs and five stories, the outer half is broken down. The tower
stands in a bawn with circular turrets at the corners.
Cappagh Kilmacluana. — Kyllmacluana church is first named in
1201 ; it was wasted by the war of 1302, wliich destroyed all the
country manors through southern Connello and up to the Castles of
Shanid, Askeaton and Adare, and " burned with fire the houses of
God in the land " "to the number of two and twenty." Cappagh
Kilmacluana appears in the 1336 rental, and was granted in 1541
by Thomas fitz PhiHp fitz John, the Knight of the Valley (Glin), to the
Friars of Askeaton. The church is a plain small Gothic building,
now lost in ivy. The castle was confiscated from the Brownes in
1583, blockaded by the Confederate Catholics, and surrendered to
them in 1642. " Cappagh, with a great bawn, a ruined castle and
a quarry," belonged to Nicholas Dowdall in 1655.
Cappagh Castle is a strikingly picturesque ruin, especially when
seen from the railway, whence its lofty tower and broken vaults,
with the boldly battlemented walls of the bawn, are very imposing.
The tower is about 70 feet high, with five stories and the usual
neat details of 1460 to 1480. The stairs and the southern half of
the tower are levelled. The north-east bastion is circular. It stands
on a bold ridge of crag. Tradition says that it belonged to the
Fitzgeralds of Ballyglehane. One of these granted it to his younger
brother, who (when the grantee's mischief -making wife had it re-
claimed) blew it up rather than surrender it.
GoRTEENAMROCK. — One of the best preserved stone forts in
the county (where the majority have been nearly "improved" off
the ground), lies not far to the north of Cappagh. The new maps
having marked it for the first time, I asked the Rev. John Begley,
P.P. of Cappagh, to visit it, and he kindly sent me the following
notes : — It is a fuiely built ring-wall, measuring from 82 to 98 feet
across the garth. The rampart is about 14 feet thick, and has a
reach of terrace 18 feet long to the north-east, 3 feet below the
summit of the wall, with possible traces of another lower down.
The gateway is defaced, like most of the eastern side, and faces
southward.
ABAEE
83
BIBLIOGRAPHY.
Memorials of Adare, by Lord and Lady Dunraven. Practical
Geology and Ancient Architecture of Ireland (1845), G. Wilkinson.
Askeaton, Gentleman's Magazine, vol. xvii, pt. ii, p. 544, J. H. Parker.
Architectural and Topographical Record (1908), Askeaton, C. O'Brien.
Journal Royal Soc. Antt., Ir., vol. i, n.s. (1856), note by R. R. Brash ;
Ibid., vol. xxiv, p. 181, G. Hewson. Journal Limerick Field Club,
vol. i, pts. 1 and 2, notes by same. Journal Roy. Soc. Antt., Ir.,
vol. xxxiii, p. 239 and xxxiv, p. Ill, Askeaton, T. J. Westropp. Proc.
Roy. Ir. Acad. t;ol. xxv. (c) Churches of Co. Limerick, pp. 392-3,
Askeaton ; pp. 375-379, Adare — same. Ibid., vol. xxvi (c) p. 21,
Castles of Co. Limerick, pp. 163-4 ; Adare, pp. 203-4, Askeaton —
same. Journal Limerick Field Club, vol. iii (1902), p. 206, Sir F.
Berkeley of Askeaton— ^ame . The Franciscan Tertiary {Dublin),
vol. V (1895), p. 354.
A. ^^
\
BilAiij
1
.!lj
MM :
AUGusTiNiAN Priory, Adare, from South-West.
SECTION VI.
QUIN, DROMOLAND AND BUNRATTY
Early History and Ethnology of Thomond
Once the Shannon is crossed from the city of Limerick by either
of the main bridges, we find ourselves in the territory of
Tuadhmhumha or North Munster, now the county of Clare. The
original North Munster, however, when it first emerges into the
light of history, comprised no part of that county, and was situated
altogether south of the Shannon.
According to Keating, the original Munster consisted of
two parts, viz., West Munster or the province of Curoi
mac Daire, and East Munster, the province of Eochaidh
Abhradhruadh, the dividing line between them running
north and south from Luimneach (Limerick) to Bealach Chonglais,
near the city of Cork. The tribe called Darini were the
dominant race in East Munster, which extended eastwards to
Cumar na dtri nuisce (near Waterford) ; while in West Munster,
between the dividing line and~ the Atlantic, the people named
Deirgthine held sway and were the chief progenitors of the several
clans known in later times as the descendants of Oilioll Olum, son
of Mogh Nuadhat. Sometimes, however, Munster is said to have
been divided into North Munster, the province of Tighearnach
Teidbhannach, and South Munster, the kingdom of Curoi. It
really meant much the same, for the dividing line ran from north-
west to south-east. At any rate, Dun gClaire, near Duntrileague,
and Dun eochair Mhaighe, on the Maigue, were the chief royal
seats in Curoi 's half.
The Deirgthine were destined to play a great part in sub-
sequent Irish history, but under other names, and seem to have
been identical with, or included the Clanna Deaghaidh, and to
have ultimately absorbed the Erainn or Erna. The Clanna
Deaghaidh must be further identified with the Ui maic Deichead,
" a subsept of the Ui Luchtai, who were the main sept of the
Ciarraighe."' The Clanna Deaghaidh was a highly interesting
tribe, and had wide ramifications, for the name in the early form,
Maqi Decceda (genitive), appears with slight variations of spelling
on five ogham stones in Ireland, and in tw^o Latin inscriptions in
Britain, as Maccodecheti in Devonshire, and IMaccudeceti in
Anglesea. The fame of the Clanna Deaghaidh as adepts in the cult
of ogham was well known to early Irish writers, and a curious
relic of this has reached us in the tale of the Death of Curoi — a
champion who was said to have overthrown in fair fight even
Cuchulainn himself. His treacherous spouse, Blanaid, in order
^ McNeill's "Ogham Inscriptions," Proc. E. I. A.,p. 339.
QUIN
85
to turn him over an easy prey to her lover, Cuchulainn, cunningly
coaxed Curoi to send away in all directions his subjects, the Clanna
Deaghaidh, to collect the standing stones of Ireland for the pre-
tended purpose of building a new cathair.
How the royal race of Oilioll became the dominant power in
Munster, and more than once attained the high kingship of
Franciscan Friary, Quin
Tara, is a matter of great historical interest. A battle was fought,
we are told, in a.d. 186 (F.M.), at a place called Ceanfeabhrat,
south of Kilmallock, by the sons of Oilioll 01 um, King of the
Deirgthine of West Munster, assisted by the Muscraidhe, the
Corcobhaiscinn, and the Dal Eiada, against the Darini of East
Munster, commanded by their King, Lughaidh mac Con, and his
druid, Dadera, and the Eama led by Neimhidh, in which Lughaidh
and his allies were routed, and himself expelled the province. The
86 QUIN
two Munsters, east and west, were there and then united, and the
Deirgthine, or race of Oilioll^ became firmly established henceforth
in the kingship of all Munster.
It is impossible to tell with any certainty what exact racial
affinities existed between the two chief divisions of the descendants
of Oilioll, the Eoghanacht and Dal gCais, but it is probable they
were closely allied in blood, if not actually identical. Both tribes
were free and paid no tribute or service to any king but their own.
The Dal gCais claimed an alternate right to the throne of Munster
with the Eoghanacht, and even when their own king possessed only
Tuadhmhumha or North Munster, " the northern side of the palace
of Caisil, from the extreme corner to the door, belonged to them "
by ancient right and usage. ^ Their claim to the kingship of Mun-
ster, however, w^as seldom realised, for it appear that only three
Kings of Thomond before Brian Boroimhe, viz., Cormac Cas, Gonall
eachluaith, and Mathghamhain, son of Cinneide, ever attained to
Caisil, although Lorcan son of Lachtna, is said by O Dubhagain to
have reigned over Munster for a year and a half after the death of
Cormac mac Cuileannain, a.d. 708. This statement, however,
is not credited by Keating. 2
It is also difficult to define with exactitude the territory south of
the Shannon which the Dal gCais occupied when first they became
a separate state. That portion of the Co. Limerick east of Ui
Chonaill Gabhra and Ui Chairbri Aebhdha, and the adjoining part
of Co. Tipperary, that is to say, the ancient district of Cliu Mail
mhic Ugaine, extending, it is said, " from Luchair to Caisil, 3 seems
to have been the cradle of the race. Dun tri liag, *' fort of three
pillar stones," three miles north of Galbally, barony of Coshlea, is
said to have been erected by Cormac Cas, and tradition has it that
the eponymous ancestor of the Dal gCais lies buried under these
pillar stones.
Taking the sagas and mediaeval pedigrees of the Munster clans
as our guide, which express the tribal ethnology of a very
jremote period, — distorted no doubt and blurred by the ages,
it is probable that the race of Oilioll Olum evolved from out the
welter of so-called " pre-Milesian " or Ivernian peoples, who in
prehistoric times occupied the south-west of Ireland. The pedi-
grees give the Eama, the Muscraidhe, the Corcabhaiscinn and
Dal Eiada, a common ancestor called Oilioll Earann. The
Dairini had among their alleged progenitors, two Daires, a Deagh-
aidh and a Deirgthine ; and we find in the genealogy of Oilioll Olum,
a Deirgthine, a Dearg, and a Duach dallta Deaghaidh., in whose
time, it is said the Earna were expelled from Ulster and settled in
Munster. All this clearly shows a sense of unity of race, or at
least a strong affinity between t'he several tribes, one erf which, the
Earinn, Earna, or Everni, had the honour of giving its name to the
whole island, because it w^as the first to come in contact with classi-
^ Keating, vol. iii, p. 191.
^ Vol. iii, pp. 196-200. O'Donovan, drawing from some other source, in
pedigree of the Dal gCais (Bat. of Magh Raith) gives Aenghus Tireach
Lughaidh Meann, and Aedh Caomh, in addition to Lorcan and the others
above mentioned, as Kings of all Munster.
3 ArcJh. Hih., vol. ii, 70.
Franciscan Friary, Quin, from West
QuiN Friary and De Clare's Castle from South-East
88 QUIN
cal Europe, Taking all things into consideration, the Deirgthine,
or race of Oilioll, first took shape in West Munster, and its evolu-
tion was ever eastward towards Leinster, and northward towards
Connacht.
Whatever views one may hold on this obscure subject, it is an
undoubted historical fact that in or about a.d. 400, the Dal gCais,
under their King, Lughaidh Meann, or Lughaidh Lamhdhearg (L.
Eedhand), crossed the Shannon and conquered the district now
known as Thomond, which, from time immemorial was part of
Connacht.
'* It was this Lughaidh Lamhdearg
Who lopped off from the fair province of Connacht
From Cam Fhearadhaigh, it was a choice,
To Ath Luchad abounding in valour."
Keating says that Lughaidh defeated the men of Connacht in
" seven battles," and killed *' seven " of their kings, " though he
had no host except mercenaries and attendants," and made sword-
land of Thomond, which was named after him " The rough land of
Lughaidh." He is said to have conquered the whole county of
Clare from Cam Fhearadhaigh, near Limerick, to Luchad, near
Tubber, and from Ath Boroimhe, i.e., the ford across the Shannon
at Killaloe, to Leim an Chon, now Loop Head. He moreover
colonised its eastern half with his own tribe, viz., the baronies of
Inchiquin, Upper and Lower Tulla, Lower Bunratty with the ex-
ception of Tradraidhe, and Upper Bunratty less a small district
called Magh Adhair. On the rest of the peoples a heavy annual
tribute was imposed — at least in theory — lasting in force to the time
of Brian Boroimhe. It is probable that the Ui Cormaic and Trad-
raidhe, which were Eoghanacht tribes, paid no rent. We find them
established in their respective districts as late as the reign of
Feidhlimidh mac Crimhthainn, King and Archbishop of Munster
(ob., 847, A. U.), when an abbot of Ui Cormaic (now barony of Is-
lands), appealed to that king, singing a poem accompanied with his
eight-stringed lute, for help for his kinsmen the Ui Cormaic and
Tradraidhe, who were ** from their friends far away," against the
Corcabhaiscinn, who had plundered his church." These tribes of
Eoghanacht stock, and the Corcabhaiscinn also probably helped
Lughaid Meann in his conquest, and may have been the ** mercen-
aries " alluded to by Keating. Guaire Aidhne, son of Colman,
King of Connacht, seems to have tried to recover the last part of
his kingdom, but always unsuccessful in his military undertakings,
he was routed in the battle of Cam Fhearadhaigh, near Limerick,
in A.D. 622.
Later on, at a date not known, the Tradraidhe were supplanted
by the Ui Neill buidhe, a Dal gCais sept, and the Ui Cormaic were
driven by the Ui Caisin across the Fergus into the barony of
Islands, where as O Hehirs (Ua ^hAichir) they are still numerous.
A further infiltration of Dal gCais families, 0 Briens and Mac
Mahons, about which history says nothing, took place into districts
QUIN 89
of the rent-paying tribes 4n the west of the county some time in
the 13th century, principally as a result, we believe, of the
Norman occupation of the Old Thomond in Limerick and Tipperary.
The last mention of an 0 Donnell, Lord of Corcabhaiscinn, by the
Four Masters is in 1158. In 1359 a Mac Mahon, heir apparent
to the lordship of that district, was slain by the O Briens. The
last 0 hAichir, Lord of Magh Adhair, was Donnchadh, whose death
is recorded in 1099. His title was, we think, merely honorific, for it
is probable the Ui Caisin had taken possession of Magh Adhair many
years before. The last O Conor mentioned in the annals is Diar-
maid, son of Eudraig'he, elected Lord of the Corca Modhruadh, in
1482. The last O Lochlainn, Lord of Corcomodruadh, is Trial, who
was slain in 1396. In the 13th century, O Briens were apparently
a long time settled in parts of Corcamodruadh and Ui Breacain,
and Mac Mahons in Corcabhaiscinn.
The Franciscan Monastery of Quin.
The monastery of Cuinche, anglice Quin (arbutus land), is dedi-
cated to St Francis of Assisi, and stands in the parish of the same
name, beside a small rivulet called the E,ine, and in the ancient
district of Ui Caisin, the tribeland of the Siol Aodha or Mac
Namaras. The first thing t'hat strikes the visitor is the wonderful
state of preservation of the various buildings. This is entirely due to
the fine quality of the stone, combined with excellent mason work.
Another thing that may surprise him is the obvious fact that the
monastery was built on the actual foundations of a great Norman
castle, whose date, 1280, is known with certainty. The whole, it
may be truly said, is a lasting monument to the piety and culture
of the men who built it, and at the same time a unique memorial
of their valour.
On January 26th, 1276, King Edward I. of England, out of his
bounty, graciously granted to Sir Thomas de Clare, younger son of
Eichard, Earl of Gloucester, the whole of Thomond, to be held in
tail. De Clare also came to terms with Brian ruadh, late King of
Thomond, who consented to give him the district of Tradraidhe,
even all the lands between Athsoluis and Limerick, if 'he would but
help him to regain his lost kingdom. De Clare, as we shall see,
foully murdered Brian in 1277, whilst his guest in Bunratty, which
he had built the same year.
The following year, 1278, the sons of the murdered king had their
revenge. They defeated De Clare in a fierce battle at Quin, burned
the church of St Finghin, in which some of his followers had taken
refuge, and De Clare had enough to do to save himself from the
carnage.
To guard his marches on the west, De Clare, in 1280, built a
castle at Quin, which was completed in 10 months. It was a for-
midable strorghold, some 122 feet square, with walls of great thick-
ness, and it was protected at three corners by projecting circular
bastions. During the progress of the work Domhnall the younger
brother of King Toirdhealbhach mor, came to Quin for the pur-
pose of buying wine, which shows the existence at that particular
time of unusually friendly relations between the Irish and De Clare.
90
QUIN
Domhnall was treacherously wounded by one of the masons em-
ployed— by a soldier, according to the 'historian Mac Craith — who
stabbed him in the back, but whom Domhnall slew before he was
carried away by his followers mortally wounded.
De Clare made a great mistake when he chose Quin as a site for
one of his castles, for it was part of Ui Caisin, the territory of the
Macnamaras, and outside Tradraidhe proper. Its erection in this
spot must have caused that sept great heart-burnings, and made
them his deadly enemies. In 1285, five years after it was built,
matters came to a head. A gentleman of the Irish, named
O Liddy, was slain by the English garrison. When "black-
browed " Cumheadha mor, son of Niall, Lord of Ui Caisin, heard
of his friend's death, he suddenly attacked the castle, and took it
T. Binely's view of Quin Fkiary, 1680.
by assault. " Its ditch was crossed, earthworks carried, great
gate battered in and hewn down, its strong walls were breached, its
English stammerers captured ; the place was cleared out of war like
stores, and in the actual great castle a huge pile of stuff was given
to the flames, that ran riot till the whole became a black-vaulted
hideous cavern. "' Everything inside the building was destroyed
in the conflagration, including De Clare's title deeds, and no at-
tempt to rebuild the castle was ever made.
Some years before this brilliant action Cumheadha's brother,
Sioda, son of Niall, " excellent with the spear," was slain
in ** Quin battle of swords," a surprise attack made in early morn-
ing on the camp of Donnchadh, son of Brian ruadh.
At the Synod of Eaithbreasail, a.d. 1110, both Tradraidhe and
Quin were included in the diocese of Limerick, of which the latter
place, and Crossa, now Glennagross, parish of St Munchin, were
the western limits. The change to Kill aloe was probably due to
the difficulty of its administration from Limerick — then a city of
mixed Normans, Danes, and English — after Donnchadh Cair-
1 Cath Toir,
QUIN 91
breach, King of Thomond (1202-1242), removed his seat of
government to Clonroad, near Ennis. However this may be, Quin
is given as a parish of the diocese of Killaloe in the Papal Taxation
of 1302.
The Four Masters tell us that the monastery of Quin was founded
in 1402, by Sioda Cam (son of Mac-Con) Mac Conmara, Lord of
Clanncuilein (ob. 1406) for friars of Saint Francis, and " that it
should be a burial-place for himself and his sept." It would
appear that previous to its erection the chiefs of Ui Caisin, alias
Clanncuilein, were interred in the monastery of Ennis, founded
about 1240, by Donnchadh Cairbreach. There are some archi-
tectural reasons, however, for thinking that the church of Quin
Monastery, as distinguished from the rest of the building, is of
earlier date than 1402. Wadding gives 1350 as the date of its
foundation.^ The Anglo-Norman settlers at Bunratty were not
completely cleared out of Thomond until 1355, or thereabouts, and
it is probable that it was not before this date the Franciscans were
established at Quin, a branch probably of the Ennis community,
with a church built for their use by Sioda's father, Mac Con, son of
Cumheadha, or some earlier chief. The years which immediately
followed the fall of Bunratty in 1354-5 were exceptionally peace-
able and prosperous — the time may, in fact, be called the golden
age of Thomond — conditions absolutely essential for the building of
a great and expensive work like the monastery of Quin. The
cloisters and residential part undoubtedly belong to the 1402 period.
The transept and belfry are of later date. According to the author
of MS. 24 D. 10, R. I. A. the south transept was built by Sioda
Cam's grandson, Sean finn, chief of Clanncuilein, who died in 1467,
and the belfry tower, which seems somewhat earlier, was probably
the work of his father, Mac Con, son of Sioda, whose death took
place in 1428. With these statements expert architectural opinion
is in perfect agreement.
In 1433, Pope Eugenius IV, granted a licence to Mac Con Mac
Conmara, Chief of Clanncuilein — " dilecto filio nobili viro Mac Con
Mac Namara duci Clandcullyen " — for the establishment of Friars
of the Strict Observance in Quin, which was the first convent in Ire-
land to adopt the strict rule of St Francis. The chief to whom the
licence was addressed was possibly Mac Con, son of Sioda, who
died in 1428, whom the Four Masters call " a charitable and truly
hospitable man, who had suppressed robbery and theft, and estab-
lished peace and tranquility in his territory," as they may not
have known of his death in Kome, travelling being then
slow and uncertain. If he was not the man, it must have been
Mac Con Ceannmor, a chief who died in 1433.
Nothing is known of the fortunes of the monastery between 1433
and its suppression in the reign of Henry VIII. Its annals and
records, if such existed, and it is practically certain that they did —
have perished long ago, like those of many other similar Irish
establishments. When the crash came the Quin Friars lost all
their worldly possessions, the only assets remaining to them — ^little
at any time — being the unchanging love and veneration of the
I Annahs M'tnorum.
92 QUIN
people, which never failed, as strong to-day as ever in their new
home at Inis an Laoi.
Henry dissolved the monastery in 1541, and one of the conditions
of the submission of .Murchadh, afterwards first Earl of Thomond,
was, his getting *' certaine Abbeyes lately suppressyd," to which
the astute King willingly complied, but, strangely enough, speaks
of them as *' to be suppressed by our commission and auctoritie,
as reason is."^ In 1547 the monastery was granted to Conor
O Brien, Lord Ibrickan, afterwards 3rd Eard of Thomond, probably
for only a year, for in 1548 it was leased for 21 years to Teig and Tur-
loug'h 0 Brien, of Dough. The property then consisted of — " One
acre, in which are one great church, now ruinous, covered with
slate, and a steeple greatly decayed, a churchyard and cloister, one
great hall, four chambers, two cellars, a ruinous dortor [dormi-
tory], with an orchard and other edifices, also a water-mill, ruinous
and prostrate, and ten cottages in Quin village." The townland of
Keevagh, or part of it, a short distance from the monastery, at one
time belonged to it.^ On 7th October, 1577, Queen Elizabeth,
among other church property, granted " the territories of Ince and
Cohenny " to Conor, 3rd Earl of Thomond, at a rent to be fixed on
survey. 3 A new grant of the monastery and its appurtenances, by
letters patent, was given on December 14, 1583, to Sir Turlough
O Brien, son of Domhnall mor, of Dough. 4 It is probable that the
friars did not regard these grants as altogether an unmixed evil,
but rather looked on the various grantees, who were of their own
faith, as useful buffers between themselves and Tudor intolerance
and rapacity.
Sir John Perrot, a reputed son of Henry VIII. — arrived in Ire-
land as Lord Justice on June 21st, 1584, and started on July 25th
to make a tour of the provinces. He first passed through Athlone
to Galway, and then with his retinue set out for Limerick, resting
the first night at Kilmacduagh, and the next at Quin, where he
received the leading gentry of Clare. While at Quin, the sheriff,
one Cruise, brought before him Donnchadh beag, son of Tadhg, son
of Donnchadh O Brien, whom he had in custody charged with
some serious crimes. This was Donnchadh of Dromfionnglaise,
a sub-denomination of Cragmoher, near Corofin.s His grand-
father, Donnchadh, second son of Toirdhe^lbhach donn, was Tanist
to his brother, Conchobhar (ob. 1539), but died before him in 1531,
and was buried in Dun na gall. The next brother, Murchadh,
then became Tanist, and after Conchobhar 's death, was King of
Thomond for three years, until he submitted to Henry VIII. in
1542, accepting the titles of Earl of Thomond for life, and Baron
of Inchiquin m tail. Donnchadh beag was implicated in the recent
Desmond rebellion, and even if he had not done anything else, that
1 State Papers quoted. Hist. Mem. of the OBriens, p. 517. It is probable
Murchadh knew little of the contents of the letter written in his name, as
Irish and Latin were the only languages familiar to him.
2 Inquis., 24 April, 4th year of James I. (1607).
3 Letter of Elizabeth to Sydney, Hist. Mem. of OBriens, p. 528.
4 Hist. Mem. of the OBriens, p. 213.
5 The castle of Drumfinglas, now in ruins, belonged in 1570 to Domhnall
Mor OBrien of Dough,
Cloister, Franciscan Friary, Quin
Cloister, Quin Friary
94 QUIN
was enough for Perrot to condemn him, but it seems he had.
In or about this time the English had put a garrison in the monas-
tery, and the friars no doubt had to leave. According to Wadding,^
the place was attacked by Donnchadh 0 Briain, who burned both
the part occupied and the garrison in one conflagration. The Four
Masters are very severe on Donnchadh, call him " the arch traitor
and the leader (uachtaran) of the plunderers of Connacht," and see
only justice in his cruel death, which he seems to have endured with
" as much resolution in suffering as before he had manifested
cruelty in his bloody actions."- Being sentenced by PeiTot, the
annalists thus describe the unfortunate man's execution, typical
of the times in its unnecessary cruelty : — " His evil destiny awaited
him, for he was hanged from a cart, and his bones were broken
with the back of a large and heavy axe; and his body, mangled
and half dead, was fixed, fastened with hard and tough hempen
ropes, to the top of the belfry tower (Clogas) of Quin [church],
under the talons of the birds and fowls of the air, that the sight
of him in that state might serve as a warning and example to evil-
doers." The peculiar nature of Donnchadh's offences may explain
the unusual callousness of the Four Masters, and it cannot be
denied that there was a certain poetic though barbarous justice in
manner of his execution.
The Macnamaras and other families friendly to the Friars, it
may be supposed repaired the damage done to the monastery by
the attack of Donnchadh beag, for the walls, owing to their excel-
lent quality, resisted the fire and were little injured
In 1601, Sir George Carew, Knight, President of Munster, sent
Captain George Flower, '* Sergeant-Major " of the Province, with
one thousand foot, into Connacht, " that he might doe some good
service upon the Eebels." On his way thither he spent the night
of the 20th of March at Quin, presumably within the monastery.
A skirmish in the neighbourhood soon after occurred between
Flower and the insurgents, in which many of the latter were slain;
and Tadhg, son of Sir Toirdhealbhach O Brian of Dough, who a
short time before had joined the " rebels," received a wound of
which he died within three days. 3
Father Donall O Haigshy had charge of the Quin community in
1615. John Eider, Protestant Bishop of Killaloe, complains in
his report to the Eoyal Commission of that year, that to divers
abbeys and monasteries of his diocese " many ffriars and priests
doe ordinarily resort, and sometimes in the year great concourse
of people publickely, as in the Abbey of Quin in ye County of
Clare. "4
Father Donall Mooney, writing in 1617, says that when he
visited the monastery some short time before, the choir and south
transept still had their roofs on, and that two or three of the Friars
dwelt in the building, — " old, helpless men who scarcely retain a
memory of the state of the convent before the suppression." The
1 Annales Minorum
2 Hist, of PerroVs Government.
3 Pacata Hihernia, vol. i, p. 223.
4 Dwyer's Killaloe^ pp. 140-3
.QUIN
95
younger Friars must have left the place, leaving the aged and
decrepid behind them, who stupified by their misfortunes could
not tear themselves away from their once happy home. The
church plate had been given to Macnamara, of Cnapog, for safe-
keeping {i.e., Sean finn, son of Tadhg, Lord of Western Clann-
coilein, ob., Feb. 24, 1602, who if living would not have wronged the
Friars), but his widow (Aine, daughter of Toirdhealbhach mac Ui
Bhriain Ara, sister of Muircheartach, Protestant Bishop of
Killaloe), denied all knowledge of it when questioned on the matter
by Father Mooney.
In 1626, Father Teig Mac Gorman was appointed Guardian of
Dormitory, Franciscan Friary, Quin
Quin by direction of Father Francis Mathew, Provincial of the
Franciscan Order in Ireland. The Friars were again forced to
leave, it is said, in 1637, but by the next year they had again re-
turned, and at a Chapter held at Quin on 15th August, 1638, under
the presidency of the Eev. Bernard Connius, Father Barnewall,
Professor of Theology at Louvain, being Reader, the Rev. Joseph
Everard was elected Provincial.
During the next few years, the Friars enjoyed comparative peace,
and things improved so much that in 1641, the year which started
the Great Rebellion, Eugene O Cahan (now Keane) opened a
flourishing college in the monastery, which attracted eight hundred
students to Quin. This happy state of affairs lasted for about ten
years. The Confederate forces drawn from Munster and Leinster
96 QUIN
in 1646 were mustered at Quin in that year, preparatory to their
employment at the siege of Bunratty.
While the Confederates were in power in Thomond all went well
with the community, until the occupation of the county by the
victorious Cromwellians, in 1651. About this time, John
O Molony, CathoHc Bishop of Killaloe, seeing no hope of relief
from the King's party, made an attempt to collect a force at Quin,
in th3 hope of opposing the Parliamentarians. He and his un-
disciplined followers, however, were dispersed by Edward Wogan,
and the Bishop himself was captured, but released soon after.
All the previous misfortunes of the Friars were as nothing to
what fate had now in store for them. The college in the
monastery was broken up, and the Principal, Eugene O Cahan, was
shot by the Puritan soldiery. Father Eory Macnamara son of
Donall Macnamara, and his wife, Mary Mac Mahon — one of the
professors, — was likewise shot, and then beheaded. ])onall Mac
Clancy, a native of Tradry, one of the lay-brothers, was hanged,
and another lay-brother, Dermod mac Inemey, who had entered
the Order in 1640, when Father Teig Mac Gorman was Guardian,
was also put to death. The people to this day have a horror of the
the very name of Cromwell, though they have no knowledge of the
foregoing particulars, and neither should we, were it not for a work
by Father Anthony Bruodin, printed at Prague, in 1669.^
After the Eestoration the Friars, or rather what was left of
them, had another respite, and returned once more to the monas-
tery. Father Murtough O Griff y was Guardian in 1670, and his
name occurs in connection with the condemnation of certain refrac-
tory members of the Order in that year. Thomas Dyneley, an
Englishman, visited Thomond in 1680, and in his Journal re-
marks:— *' The ruins of Quin Abbey lately 'harboured some Friars
of the Order of St Francis." This statement makes it probable
that at this date the monastery and church were completely un-
roofed, and the brethren housed elsewhere, although his rough
sketch shows the large ornamental crosses still on the gable tops.
Divine Service, however, may have been sometimes held in the
church when the opportunity offered. That the Friars still hung
round the place is certain, for occasionally they were left legacies
for JMasses. Daniel 0 Brien, 3rd Viscount Clare, in 'his will dated
20th October, 1690, among other bequests, leaves £20 each to the
Friars of Quin and Limerick, £50 to the Friars of Ennis, and £6
a piece to the communities of Askeaton and Adare. In 1760, one
solitary Friar haunted the cloister, and composed a moral poem
for the then Lady O Brien of Dromoland, who probably had be-
friended and protected him. What sad thoughts were his as
he wandered alone through the roofless ruins, thinking of the
ancient glories of the monastery. No wonder the subject of his
poem was Death. As late as the early 19th century, members
of the community resided in a cottage at Drim, a townland north-
west of Quin, and only a short distance from their old home.
I Propugnaculum Catholicae Veritatis.
Paved Hall, Bunratty Castle
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Cloister Walk, Quin Friary
98
QUIN
north end leads over an arch to a garderobe in a small detached
tower. The room to the north (58 feet by 28 feet), reached by a
winding stair in the south west angle, seems to have been a dormi-
tory, and the room on the west (50| feet by 20 feet), was perhaps
the hospital.
The tower, which is of the usual Franciscan type, square, com-
paratively slender, and broken by three string courses, is mounted
Tilt \bifVQ
Mac'Namara Tomb
by a spiral stair in the north-east angle. From the summit a fine
and extensive view is obtained of the ancient plain of Magh
Adhair, in which is the prehistoric mound of Adhar, two miles
to the north-east, on which the Kings of Thomond were inaugur-
ated by Mac Conmara. The gabled castle of Danganbrack is quite
near to the east. Ballymarkahan and Knapog are not far away to
the south-east. Distant Kimalta (Keeper) can be seen through
a gap in Slieve Bernagh if the air is clear. The remains of the
T3astions of de Clare's Castle on south-east and north-east can be
readily examined from the tower top, and if the sun is low and the
QUIN
99
grass short, the foundations of many houses — t'he ancient town
of Quin — are plainly visible in the field south-east of the monastery.
There are a few interesting inscribed tombs to members
of the founder's sept to be seen in the chiu'ch. Many must have
formerly existed, and were destroyed; for it is diflficult to imagine
that a clann, wealthy and numerous, and whose chief men possessed
the culture of their time, had not erected many tombs in this the
chief church of the race, built by the founder, as the Four Masters
f 1
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Window of East Upper Room
state, with the express intention that it should be the burial place
of his tribe.
In the north-east corner of the Choir — a section of the wall having
been removed for its reception — is a fine canopied tomb, said to be
of the late 15th century. On the levelled edge of the covering slab
is the following Latin inscription in well-cut antique lettering : —
Hie jacent Oid fili^ Laurentii filii Mathi m Comara et
covllina ni mic Comara uxor eis q me fieri fecerut.
There were neither Laurences nor Matthews among the Mac-
namaras of those days, so the inscription must be translated: —
Here lie Aedh, son of Lochlainn, son of Mathghamhain
mac Conmara and Coibhlin ^ ni mic Conmara 'his wife, who
H[both] caused here to be made.
I A diminutive of Cobhlaith or Cobhflaith, a woman's name once common.
100 QUIN
The owners of this monument must have been people of impor-
tance, yet no man of note of this name and ancestry has up
to the present been found among the records of the clann, at least
in the tune or suggested period of the tomb. If the pedigree which
prefaces Mac Curtin's copy of the Cathreim Thoirdliealbhach be
correct, Mathghamhain dall w^as a younger brother of Sioda Cam,
chief founder of Quin, in 1402. Assuming that the Mathghamhain
of the inscription was Mathghamhain dall, then his grandson,
Aedh, son of Lochlainn, must have erected this tomb, circa 1450,
which is the true approximate date. Under the canopy is a late
slab (18th century) with Macnamara crest and arms, w^hich reads : —
This monument was
Erected by Mahan
. Daul Mc Nemara and
Eepeired by Captain
Teige Mc Nemara of
Eanna, a.d. 1714.
Captain Teige Macnamara of Eannagh, parish of TuUa, was
the man for whom Andrew mac Curtin transcribed the Cathreim
Thoirdhealbhaigh, or " Triumphs of Turlough." He was of the line
of Lissofin, but his relatives having acquired Ayle, parish of
Feakle, in the 18th century, previously the property of the Ballina-
hinch line, were, in modern times, known as the Macnamaras of
Ayle. Rawdon Macnamara, of Dublin, one time President of the
Royal College of Surgeons, Ireland, w^as a member of this family.
It is plain Captain Thady made a mistake in assuming that this
monument was erected by Mathamhain dall mac Conmara, for
the inscription, a much better authority, plainly says the builders
were Aedh, son of Lochlanin and his good wife, Coibhlin.
In the curious little chapel in the south wall, entered from under
the belfry arches, which formed the porch of the Castle of Quin,
are the fragments of what must have been a fine box or altar tomb,
as is evident by the elaborate moulding on the edges of the slab.
The writer got the inscribed pieces put together some years ago.
The tomb seems to have been deliberately smashed at some
time or another, probably by the Puritan soldiery when they
garrisoned the coonty. Tne inscription, which runs round the edge
in raised letters, reads : —
* Hie jacit Johannes Capit [an]us macnemar[a] qui mortuus
est Anno * [Dom]ini : 1601 : pro : aia : ora *
Anna filia m I [Briejn Arra me fieri fe*.
These fragments are all that is now left of the tomb of 8ean,
son of Tadhg (ob., 1571), son of Cumheada, sou of Cumara, son of
Sean (ob., 1467, A. L. Ce.), son of Maccon (ob., 1428), son of Sioda
Cam (ob., 1406), the chief founder of the monastery. He attended
the Parliament of 1585 in Dublin, and the true date of his death
IS February 24th, 1602,' as given by the Four Masters. His widow
who erected the tomb, Aine, daughter of Toirdhealbhach mac Ui
Bhriam, of Ara, Co. Tipperary,2 followed the old style of com-
putmg the legal year, which was not changed until 1752.
1 1601-2 O. S. 2 ^,,,.g,,, ^/^9 599 g j^j
m.f^
svsa
ra castle: 1180 E3 luoi
IC- CENTURY, m l/«35
W^ OOUBTrui. GJ MODERN
10 0 10
liiiHiml i=
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sof:
n. Altars.
b. Piscin.ne.
c. Scdilia.
d. Monuracnls.
Quix Fkiahv — Plan.
e. Garderobe Tower,
/. Gate of Castle.
g. Bastions of Castle,
Monuments.
/i. Stucco "Work.
/. Fireplaces.
/. Broken Arch.
1. ]Macn.-imara, 1761.
2. Stone with Axe.
3. Macnamara, 1768.
4. Macnamara, r. 1750.
5. John Macnamara, 1601.
C, Priest's Vault.
7, Macnamara, 1722.
8. Canopied Tomb of Old
Macnan;ara, (. 1500.
0. Macnamara of Ranna.
10. John Hogan, the last
Monk, 1820.
;, -^:. ^.-.C---^ -fy ■^■'■r^-^
QUIN 101
In t'he choir are the 'following tombs: — James Carrig and his
wife, Margaret Macnemara, erected 1757, by their son James.
Another, Francis Mc Namara, of " Durree," to his brother James,
who died March 9, 1833. On a flag broken to make room for Bis-
hop Mc Ma'hon's vault, and now covered with a layer of cement,
is the following: — " [Here lies ye body of Michael] Mc Namara,
of Ballymarkahan, who died December ye 22nd Ano. Do. 1722.
May he rest in pace. Amen. Erected by his son, Michael, Ano
Dom., 1750."
The owners could not find this tomb for many years. At last,
in reply to an advertisement, one of the masons who built the Bis-
hop's tomb came forward, admitted it was he who broke off the end
of it, and offered to show where it was. It was found where it
ought to be, under about a foot of rubbish. The grave was not
used by the owners for about 130 years, since when the burial
place is in Coad, near Inchiquin. The father, the Michael who died
in 1722, was Donough, who in his will (1707, administration to his
son Michael, of Crevagh, 1711), desires his body to be buried in
" St Fynnan's Church in Quin."
In the Sacristy, north of the choir: — " Here lyeth the body of
Mary Creagh, otherwise Macnemara, wife of Andrew Creagh, of
the city of Limerick, merchant, and eldest daughter of Daniel
Macnemara of Ardcluny, in the county of Clare, Esqr., and Mary
Macnemara, otherwise O Callaghan, his wife, daughter and heiress
of Thady 0 Callaghan, of Mountall^", in said county, Esqr., de-
ceased, who died the 28th of June, 1756."
Thady 0 Callaghan, of Mountallon, parish of Clonlea, formerly
of Coolroe, Co. Cork, was, we believe, the son of Conor 0 Calla-
ghan, an officer in Clifford's regiment, transplanted to Clare in 1670.
His wife was Mary Mac Cart'hy (ob., 1721), widow of Donough
0 Callaghan (ob., 31 March, 1698, son of Donough, of Clonmeen,
Co. Cork, son of Cahir O Callaghan), who was a transplanted
papist, and whose father obtained large estates in Co. Clare.
Thady O Callaghan 's daughter, Mary, married Daniel (ob., 1768),
son of Finghin Macnamara, of Doon and Ardclooney (of the line of
Sioda Cam, of Rosroe, ob., 1444), and was admitted to Grey's Inn,
London, 24 June, 1713.
In the Sacristy also, half buried in the masonry, is a tomb of the
Macnamaras of Rannagh, but it cannot be decipered in its present
position. Under the belfry is a plain much-worn flag, which reads :
— Here lyeth the body of Daniel Mc Con[mara], 164 — , This may
possibly be the tomb of Donall son of Sean Ann, who died in 1643;
his wife was Lady Honora Burke, daughter of Rickard, 2nd
Earl of Clanrickard. In a recess near the belfry is the tomb of
Peter Mc Namara, who died in 1764, erected by his sons,
Conner and Michael; and in an Ogee recess in the north wall of
the nave is that of Edmond, grandson of Hugh Mc Nemara, of
Co[rb]allv, 176 — ; also the tomb of Donough Macnamara, who
died 1654.
In the family vault in the south transept are buried some of the
]\Iacnamaras of Moyriesk, who were descended from Donnchadh,
son of Tadhg, who was a younger brother of Sean finn, of Knapog
102 QUIN
(ob., 1602). This Donnchadh died in 1584, and the Four Masters
describe him as ** a man of all the Clanncuilein, the most dreaded
by his enemies in the field of battle." Major John Macnamara,
commonly called " Fireball," the noted duellist, about whose
name many legends cluster, and who called his pistols " Bas gan
"Sagart," (death without priest), died at Coogane, in 1836, and was
the last of the Moyriesk family.
The tomb of the Eev. John Hogan, last of the Friars of Quin, is
in the north-east corner of the cloister. The inscription on it has
a pathos of its own, which even the blunders of the stone-cutter
can not spoil, and tells its melancholy tale of the sad condition
to which this once flourishing community was in the end reduced.
It reads : — " Here lies the body of the Rev. John Hogan of Drim,
who departed this life Anno Domini 1820, aged 80 years, the last
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Quin Norman Castle and Friary from the Belfry.
of the Franciscan Friars who had their residents at Drim, the place
of their refuge when driven from the Abbey of Quin. He was
supported by the pious donations of the faithful, and served as an
auxiliary to his neighbouring parish-priests in the vineyard of the
Lord. He knew how to abound and how to suffer want as the
Lord was pleased to send. He died in holy poverty, respected
for his strictness in religious discipling, and venerated by all.
Qui seminat in lachrymis exultatione metet. Eequiescat
in pace. Amen."
CHURCH OF ST FINGHIN.
This, the parish church of Quin, dedicated to St Fing'hin, stands
quite close to the monastery, west of the little stream w^hich once
turned the " busy mill " owned by the Friars. An earlier church
104
QUIN
on this spot, of unknown design, was buraed over the heads of
Sir Thomas de Clare's followers in the fierce battle of Quin, 1278,
when the sons of Brian ruadh avenged the murder of their father
at Bunratty. It is probable that the present building is the work
of De Clare, and was built soon after the erection of the Castle of
Quin, 1280, and before its destruction, by Cumeadha mor, in 1285.
It is of Gothic design, consisting of a nave only, 79 feet by 27
feet, and has a triple lancet east window, and the remains of a
St Finghin's Church, Quin
richly-moulded south window. The north wall has fallen many
years ago. At the south-west angle is a small but graceful belfry,
with faces on its corbels, which is believed to be later than the
rest of the building. In Bishop Eider's report, Eoyal Visitation,
1615, curiously enough the description is " Church and Chauncell
downe." Perhaps a chancel was cut off from the nave at that
time by a wooden screen.
The neighbouring w^ell is dedicated to St Inghen Bhaoith
(daughter of Baoth), patron of Kilnaboy, near Corofin, an early
Dal gCais saint.
BUNEATTY 105
BUNEATTY.^
The townlands of Bunratty, east and Wiast, in the ancient dis-
trict of Tradraidhe, are so called, it is supposed, because they are
lands lying at the bun, " end " or " estuary," of the Raite, which
latter word means " passages " or " ways," a name given to the
tidal and very tortuous reaches of the Owen O Garney ((Amhain Ui
gCearnag'h), a river which is itself called after the Ui gCearnaigh, a
people who in former times inhabited the adjoining district
through which it flows. The extremely erratic and winding course
of this river can be well observed from the battlements of the castle,
which is built close to its right bank, about an English mile from
its junction with the Shannon. The low hill on which the castle
stands was at one time an island, or nearly so, connected on the
north with the mainland by only a narrow causeway ; and it would
again become an island at high tide if the protecting embankments
were breached. The place was admirably adapted for the erec-
tion of a fortress, being naturally well protected by the surrounding
marshes from sudden assault.
In A.D. 834, the Norsemen, always itching for loot, sailed up the
Shannon, plundering on their way Corcabhaiscinn and Tradraidhe
on the north bank, and the lands of the County Limerick on the
other side of that river. The author of " The War of the Gaedhill
with Gain " says that the foreigners proposed to make Tradraidhe
into ** one garrison " from which to conquer all Thomond, and that
to this end they " raised a fortifying bank all around Tradraidhe."
If for t'he latter place we substitute Bunratty, the statement may
be true, but not otherwise; for such a work was beyond their
power, and even if partially accomplished would leave some traces
behind, but none can be found. At any rate, Brian Boroimhe, when
he came to man's estate, gave them no respite, and in the end
cleared out the barbarians.
On January 1, 1248, about 250 years after Brian had expelled the
Norsemen, an Anglo-Norman named Eobert de Muscegros received
from King Henry III of England a fee-farm grant of the lands of
Tradraidhe in Thomond, at a yearly rent of £30. On May 2, 1251,
the King remitted to him two years' rent to enable him to fortify
his Castle of Bunratty, and another which he had erected at Clare-
castle. These were the first castles built in Thomond. That at
Bunratty was a bretesse or wooden tower, erected on a mote, and
protected with a palisade. The mote on which it stood is still to
be seen a little to the north of the castle, with traces of its bailey,
and it is reasonable to suppose the one at Clare Castle was similar.
The points selected by De Muscegros for his castles being
on the bank of a tidal river at both ends of his estate were well
chosen, and secured him free access to Limerick, then an Anglo-
Norse town. On Jime 21, 1252, the King further gave
I Bunratty is so full of history that all that can be done here is to note briefly
the principal facts concerning it. A pretty full historical and architectural
account of the place with authorities, will be found in the Journal of the North
Munster Archseological Society, vol. iii, pp. 220-327.
106 BUNEATTY
De Muscegros permission to draw 200 good oaks from the forest
of Cratloe — always noted for its fine timber — to fortify his castles.
Robert de Muscegros died in 1253-4, and his son John obtained his
father's lands. It was during John's occupation, in 1270, that
Brian ruadh. King of Thomond, destroyed the castle at Clare. The
property, as we might expect, did not prove a very profitable in-
vestment, and so we find the castles and lands surrendered to the
King by John de Muscegros' son, another Robert, in March 2, 1276.
Two years before this date, Sir Thomas de Clare, Knight,
Governor of London, 1273, and younger son of Richard, Earl of
Gloucester, had got licence to proceed to Ireland, where he landed
on May 23, 1274, and soon after was appointed Chancellor. On
January 26, 1276, the King granted the whole of Thomond to De
Clare, quite regardless of the rights of anyone else, and on March
3, following, he made him a further grant in tail of the Castle of
Bunratty, the cantred of Tradraidhe, and the theodurn of Ui Cor-
maic (now barony of Islands), late the estate of De Muscegros,
to be held in capite. The Castle of Clare evidently had ceased to
exist.
Brian ruadh, who had been deposed a short time before from his
Kingship by his nephew, Toirdhealbhach mor, now saw a chance
of regaining, his lost kingdom. He opened negotiations early in
1277 — or more probably in the end of 1276 — with De Clare, who
was then jn Cork. Brian met him in that city, and agreed, in
return for his assistance, to acknowledge him as owner of all the
lands lying between Athsoluis and Limerick The pair swore
eternal friendship to one another, " poured their blood into the
same vessel," and in addition " exchanged mutual vows by the
relics, bells, and croziers of Munster." They then returned to
Limerick, and to render their bond inviolable — at least in the eyes
of the Irishman — they " formed Christ-friendship " (gossipred),
De Clare standing sponsor for a child of Brian's.
Soon afterwards, De Clare and the exiled King, with an army
of English and Irish, suddenly invaded Tiiomond, and seized the
royal fort of Clonroad during King Toirdhealbhach 's absence in
West Clare; but the latter and his men soon turned on them, and
inflicted a severe defeat on the raiders at the battle of Magh-
gressain, in which Patrick fitz Maurice, brother of Lady de Clare,
was slain.
Sir Thomas de Clare, this year (1277), realising the uselessness
of De Muscegros' bretesse, built a new castle at Bunratty,
described by Mac Craith as a fortress of ** dressed stone, girt with
thick outer walls, containing a roofed impregnable donjon, and
having capacious lime-whited appurtenances." This was the first
castle of stone built in Thomond.
Sometime in this year, while Brian ruadh was a guest in Bun-
ratty, De Clare, at the instigation, it is said, of his wife, Juliana,
daughter of Maurice fitz Maurice, who blamed Brian for the death
of her brother, foully murdered the man to whom he was bound
in friendship by every oath and every tie then considered the most
sacred. He caused Brian to be dragged to death behind a stern
steed, until death released him from his sufferings. The letter
BuNEATTY Castle from South
BuNRATTY Castle and Bridge
108 BUNEATTY
of the Irish chiefs to Pope John XXII gives fuller details of the
atrocious deed, and says that Brian was " dragged from the banquet
without warning, drawn at the tails of horses; his head also being
cut off, his body was gibbeted by the feet on a tall post."
In 1278, De Clare suffered a great defeat at Quin, as elsewhere
described, and two years later, 1280, built the castle of that name
to ward his territory on the west. He must have had a great force
at command to enable him to accomplish such a work in presence
of a hardy enemy, who during the same year attacked Bunratty,
when the garrison was so hemmed in that -the dead covild not
be buried, and an epidemic raged in consequence. In
1285, the castle of Quin fell to the victorious Cumeadha mor, who,
with King Toirdhealbhach, also laid siege to Bunratty. They
placed a boom across the Eiver 0 Garney to prevent supplies coming
from Limerick, and the garrison would probably have been starved
out were it not for the Eed Earl of Ulster, who persuaded the
besiegers to withdraw, and a temporary peace was patched up.
At last, on August 29, 1287, Sir Thomas de Clare met his fate
at a battle fought somewhere in Tradraidhe, between King
Toirdhealbhach mor and himself, in which he was defeated and
slain, with several of his gentlemen. According to the post
mortem inquisition taken after the death of Sir Thomas de Clare
at Bunratty, on Sept. 18, 1287, the place was then a prosperous
town of over 200 burgesses, holding 226 burgages.
During the minority of the sons of De Clare, Gilbert and Eichard,
Bunratty was held by the King. In 1289, £11 10s. 8d. was spent
in making about 140 yards of a fosse round the castle, with a
palisade, another fosse for the mill, and in enlarging the pool.
£5 3s. 9d. was allowed for the " covering of the big tower " and a
chamber near the Eiver 0 Garney, the buying of new locks for
the gate, the raising of a new tower beyond the gate, and repairing
houses within the precincts of the castle. The place was besieged
by the Irish in 1296, 1298, and 1299, with varying success, but
was never actually taken in any of these years. On the custody,
defence, victualling, and repairs of the castle for ten years 1289-
1299, while in the hands of the King, at least £230 7s. l^d. were
spent.
In 1308, Gilbert, elder son of Sir Thomas de Clare, being then 24
years old, died without issue male, and Eichard, the younger son
now in his 22nd year, became heir to the estate. Eichard got
seisin sometime between September 15, 1309, and Michaelmas
term, 1310. He was now Lord Eichard de Clare, having been
summoned to Parliament as a Baron by writ dated October 26,
1309.
The De Burgos and De Clares seem never to have been on friendly
terms. On May 20, 1311, Sir William de Burgo, assisted by the
men of Connacht and the English of Meath, defeated Lord Eichard
de Clare, now owner of the castle and all his father's lands, in a
battle fought somewhere, it is supposed, on the hill north of the
fortress; but De Burgo and some of his nobles who in the heat
of pursuit got separated from the main body of their forces, were
taken prisoners by De Clare, and lodged in Bunratty.
Chapel
Chapel. Stucco Work, Bunratty Castle {cirm 1619). By Dr. G. J. Fogerty
no BUNEATTY
In 1317 Lord Richard de Clare and his deadly enemy, King
Muircheartach, attended Parhament in " Dublin's wall-and-ditch-
protected city." In their absence the important battle of Corco-
modruadh was- fought, in which Diarmaid, the King's brother,
and Maccon Mac Conmara gave a crushing defeat to De Clare's
new ally, Donnchadh, grandson of Brian ruadh, and in which
Donnchadh and many of his gentlemen and followers were slain.
On Wednesday, May 10, 1318, the Feast of SS Gordianus and
Epimachus (Thursday, May 11, according to Clyn), Richard De
Clare received his coup de grace in the decisive battle of Disert Ui
Deaghaidh (Dysert O Dea), near Corofin. He himself, four of his
Knights, with eighty English and an unknown number of his Irish
allies were slain, and the enormous preys they had seized with the
intention of lodging them at Bunratty were captured by the vic-
tors. De Clare's body was soon after brought to Limerick and
interred in the monastery of St Francis. When the fugitives from
the battle arrived hot-foot at Bunratty, De Clare's widow, seeing
all was lost, put the " choicest of the town's wealth and valuable
effects " on board her galleys, set fire to the castle and town, and
sailed away never to return.
A post-mortem inquisition taken at Bunratty, on May 26, 1321,
to enquire into the estate of Richard de Clare's son, Thomas, who
had died a short time before, and who was the last male representa-
tive of the family, now wiped out, gives some interesting information
as to what kind of a building the castle built by Sir Thomas de
Clare was. It describes it as " a fortress, in which is a large tower,
the walls of which are sufficiently good, but not built up nor
roofed." It goes on then to give particulars of some of the appur-
tenances, but it is quite plain that the castle consisted of one large
tower only, the top of which, with the roof, was gone, doubtless
due to the conflagration of ^lay, 1318. The mill was only capable
of supplying the wants of the inhabitants of the castle. The lands
had lain waste during the preceding three years; " and neither are
there any free tenants nor others dwelling in Thomond, save only
the Irishmen who dominate therein, with the exception of a few
dwellers in the town, who are beginning to rebuild in the said
town, which was burned and destroyed on the day when Lord
Richard de Clare was slain; after whose death neither Englishmen
nor Irishmen paid any rent, nor did any service," The fish weirs the
rabbit warrens were worth twenty shillings yearly, and the entire
profits of Lord Richard de Clare out of the place from all sources,
in times of peace, were upwards of forty marks (£26 13s. 4d.), which
sum, and more, he expended on the lands. The jurors further
sav ** that no one can hold possession of anything in the said land
•without a new conquest," and that the castle cannot be guarded
for less than one hundred marks (£66 13s. 4d.) yearly. That the
Castle of Quin was overthrown during the lifetime of Lord Richard
de Clare, and the churches of " Cony hi " (Quin) and " Bonrat "
were then of no value, but in time of "peace were taxed at -610, and
De Clare had the presentation th-^reto.
The castle, now again in the hands of the King (Edward II),
must have been repaired soon after, for we find it granted by him,
"Earl's Study"
Earl's Study "
]12 BUNEATTY
to James Bellaiago, on December 9, 1326, at a yearly rent of £40,
to be held during his pleasure, together with certam other lands
in the Co. liimerick that belonged to Eichard de Clare, but lately
held by his sister Matilda and her husband, Eobert de Welle.
But at last after a stormy existence of fifty-five years Bunratty
fell on July 20, 1332, to the provvess of King Muircheartach and Mac
Conmara, probably Maccon, son of Lochlainn, son of Cumheadha,
mor. The particulars of its fall are not stated by the Annalists,
but the castle probably fell as the result of a sudden attack. Clynn
says it was " destroyed " (destruitur); Grace in describing its fall
uses a similar word diruitur; Henry de Marlburgh, writing in 1406,
says it was "laid waste" {vastatum fuit); and MS. Laud, 523
(Bodleian), asserts that it was '* thrown to the ground;" {ad terrayn
prosternitur). Clynn also makes the statement that the castle
was considered impregnable (inexpugnabile). The only conclu-
sion that can be drawn from these words is that Bimratty on this
occasion was utterly ruined, and practically rased to the ground.
In 1342, King Edward III received a report that Bunratty was
in the hands of his '* Irish enemies." So it apparently remained,
a confused heap of stones and rubbish, until 1353, in which year
the Justiciar, Sir Thomas de Eokeby, with a strong force of Eng-
lish troops, " caused both Thomond and Munster, with their rulers,
to wit, Mac Conmara and Mac Dirmuid [Mac Carthy] to submit to
him, and he rebuilt the Castle of Bunratty."^
This must have been to all intents a new castle, and the third
called Bunratty.
About 1355, while, it is supposed, Bunratty was still garrisoned
by the English, two men of the Clanncoilein were condemned there
to the stake, and executed for^' heresy," by Eoger Craddock, Bis-
hop of Waterford, a Franciscan friar, 1350-1361, translated to
Landaff in the latter year , without the knowledge or licence,
it seems, of his Metropolitan, Ealph O Ceallaigh, Archbishop of
Cashel (1345-1361). " A Prelate of great learning and approved
virtue. "2 Wadding, however, states that the crime for which
tliese unfortunate men suffered was not heresy but a " contumely
offered to the Virgin Mary." In any case, the Irish Archbishop,
incensed at such flouting of his authority, and probably horrified
at its cruelty, went to Waterford, and on the Thursday after the
Feast of St Francis, [Thursday, Oct. 7th, 1355], " entered pri-
vately into the churchyard of the Blessed Trinity at Waterford,
by the little door of St Catherine, guarded by a numerous troop
of armed men, and made an assault on the bishop in his lodgings,
and grievously wounded him, and many others who were in his
company, and robbed him of his goods. And all this was done (as
it is said) by the advice of Walter Eeve, who pretended to be Dean
of Waterford, and of Wilham Sendall, Mayor of the City. "3
Sometime in this year, 1355, the Irish again captured Bunratty,
1 Cotton MSS.—Vesip. B. ii, fol. 126 and Domit. xviii, fol. 856.
2 Vide Ware's BisJiops, p. 478 and Eubel Hierarch Calh.
3 Cotton MSS. Vesp. B. xi, 127 b. and Domit. xviii, 886. B.M. Vide also
Ware's Bishops, p. 533, and Wadding's Annal. minor.
r
I
o
114
BUNRATTY
for on September 4th of same, Edward III ordered the release ol
Thomas fitz John fitz Maurice, " who, for the loss of the Castle
of Bimratty was taken and detained prisoner in Limerick, bnt can-
not be indicted." The English connection with Thomond was
now completely severed, and from that year until the submission
of Murchadh O Brian to Henry YIII, — nearly 200 years — no Eng-
DoNAT Earl of Thomond (Portrait at Droniolaiul)
lishman set foot inside the castle, except pei'haps as a prisoner or
a peaceful vendor of liis wares.
The carved stone, 22 inches by 13 inches, inserted in the east wall
of the upper hall, was knocked oH the top of the castle over 40
years ago, and is of great interest, as bearing on the history of the
castle, for it belongs to a period during which the records are dumb.
On this stone, which seems to have been the key-stone of an ope,
are the raised figures 1397, or, as some would have it, 1357. It
seems to afford certain proof that Bunratty was occupied in that
year, when the whole of Thomond was in Irish hands.
The most reliable of those curious lists of castle-builders, copied
from an older document by Chevalier O Gorman, now in the
BTJNRATTY 115
lloyal Irish Academy Library/ positively states that Bimratty was
built by Maccon Mac Conmara, son of the chief founder of Quin
Monastery, who died, it is believed, in 1428, assisted by his second
son, Sean, whose death took place in 1467, both of whom were
chiefs of Clanncoilein. Curiously enough expert architectural
opinion favours this statement, as the present building shows no
features that can fix its erection earlier than the 15th century.
Whether we believe it to be the work of De Rokeby, in 1353, or
of the Macnamaras, some seventy years later, there are strong and
convincing reasons for rejecting the theory that it is the original
castle built by Sir Thomas de Clare in 1277. This latter, accord-
ing to Mac Craith, chiefly consisted of " a roofed impregnable
donjon, and in 1289, a sum of money was spent on it for the
" covering of the big tower." Again, in the post-mortem inquisi-
tion into the estate of Thomas de Clare, junior, in 1321, three
years after the place w^as set on fire by his mother, the jurors who
were actually in the building, or else looking at it, describe it as
a " fortress in which is a large tower, the walls of which are good
enough, but not built up [i.e., completed] or roofed.'' It is plain,
I think, that De Clare's castle consisted of one large tower only,
and some minor buildings, quite unlike the present castle, which
has four massive corner towers like De Clare's other fortress at
Quin. We should, moreover, expect a simple plan for De Clare's
first castle, for it was then put up under manifest difficulties, in
a hostile country,, and when time was everything.
The castle is undoubtedly of Norman type ; but there was not an
abbey in Ireland at the time that did not house a man capable of
|)rodueing such, did Mac Conmara so wish it. It was just as easy
to ]n'ocure a Norman plan for a castle, as to get a so-called
'' (lothic " plan of a church. The answer to this of course, is, that
no other castle of the type was built in Thomond, except, perhaps,
the Castle of Clare, a small part of which remains, but whose
founder, plan and date are quite unknown.
How and when Bunratty changed from Macnamara into O Brien
ownership will very likely never be ascertained. It certainly w^as
the property of Conchobhar, King of Thomond (ob. 1539), and pro-
bably his father, Toirdhealbhach donn (ob., 1528). Conchobhar's
third son of Toirdhealbhach (ob., 1557), possessed it in 1550, and in
1552, Conchobhar's second son, Domhnall mor, held the office of
" Steward of Boirenn and Tradry." It was not part of the lands
of Murchadh, King, afterwards first Earl of Thomond (ob., 1551),
for it is not enumerated among the castles and lands devised by
him in his will, of which, however, we have but a poor copy. It
remained the j)i"operty of the othei- Earls, the direct descendants
of Conchobhar, until alienated in 1712, by Henry eighth and last
Earl of Thomond.
Taking all things into consideration, it seems reasonable to con-
clude:—That Sir Thomas de Clare's castle, built in 1277, was de-
stroyed to the very foundations in 1332; that a really new castle,
on an entirely different plan, but on the same site, was erected by
the Justiciar, De Rokeby, in 1355; that the reputed building by
1 MS. 24D. 10.
116
BUNKxVTTy
the jMacnaraaras in the earl.y ITitli century was only a restoration,
ju'obably so extensive as to warrant Irish writers in saying it was
altogether their work; and lastly that it passed from ^facnaniara
into O Brien hands in or about a.d. 1500.
Bunratty was the seat of Barnaby (recte Brian)), 6th Earl of
Thomond, during the Great Kebellion which commenced in 1641.
He was a man of very weak character, and lived through those
liAKNAHY IvVItL OF ThOMONI) {PortlilJl iit I )|( )l IK .land )
troublous times with little credit to himself. The Earl was
governor of the county, and represented the King, to whom he pro-
fessed his profound loyalty, yet all through he was on the best of
terms wdth the insurgents, a great many of whom were his own
blood relations, and entertained them freely in Bunratty. Later
ion he surrendered his castle to the friends of the Parliament on at
least three different occasions, without firing a shot, and, strangest
thing of all, managed to pull through those difficult times without
material damage to himself or his estate.
BUNKATTY 117
lu November, 164'2, he allowed Lord Forbes — a bigoted iScotchinau
and an enemy of the King — who had been sent to Ireland with
a lieet by the Parliament to commit all the depredations possible,
to take possession of the castle. Forbes found in the
stables " about three score horses fit for service," and also dis-
covered £2,000 hidden in the walls of the castle, which he and his
friends, including the notorious Hugh Peters, his chaplain and
adviser, made their own of. In or about November, 1645, the Earl
delivered up the castle a second time without making the slightest
show^ of resistence to his masterful kinsman, Inchiquin, then also
the King's enemy, who found in Bunratty large military stores and
sufficient horses in good condition to remount his cavalry.
The castle was a place of great strategical importance, com-
manding the ])assage of ships to and from Limerick, and for this
reason its possession was coveted by all parties. On March 10,
1646, a Parliamentary fleet under the connnand of Bear- Admiral
William Penn — whose wife, Margaret, daughter of John Jasper,
supposed to be a Dutchman, w^as born in East Clare^eft Dingle,
having a large body of troops on board, sailed up the Shannon, and
anchored near Glyn Castle, at the opposite side of the river. Com-
munications having passed between the Earl and Penn, the latter
landed 700 men on one of the islands near the mouth of the
O Garney river, and that night quartered them in the castle, hav-
ing " found his Lordship willing in what he could to comply with
us." Thus for the third time Barnaby delivered up the place to
the deadly enemies of his friend, the King. Lieut. -Colonel John
Mc Adam, a brave and competent officer, was put in command of
the Puritan garrison, and everything possible was done to prepare
the place against a possible attack. For two months the Earl
remained in Bunratty, on the best of terms with Penn and Mc
Adam, while the garrison was raiding the surrounding country.
On the morning of the 9th of May Barnaby left Bunratty on Capt.
Grigg's ship, and arrived at Beagh, having sent on his luggage and
what Penn calls his " lumber " before him — how valuable now
that lumber would prove — and at 2 p.m. went on board Penn's
ship, a salute of five guns being fired in honour of the Earl. He
asked them to have a minister to preach before him, and after
the sermon dined with Penn. At 10 o'clock on the 11th May,
]3arnaby sailed away for England on Grigg's ship, never again, I
believe, to return to Bunratty.
The Supreme Council of the Confederates, being foiled in their
attempt to send 4,000 men from Leinster and Munster, and 2,000
from the other Provinces, to Britain to fight for the King, sent
some of the Munster forces to Clare, in order to stop the depreda-
tions of the Parliament troops lodged in Bunratty, and encamped
them at Quin. Lord Muskerry, son of the Earl of Thomond's
step-sister, was put in command of these men, who were raw
levies, and badly fed, clothed, and paid. Bunratty was now
closely invested, the besiegers attacking from the north. On May
12 the Confederates took Cappagh Castle, and soon after the Castle
of Eosmanagher fell into their hands, both not far from Bunratty.
All the ships of the Parliamentary fleet were, on June 27, moved up
118 BUNKATTY
the river O Garney and anchored close to the castle. The siege
dragged on with varying success until July 1st, when Mc Adam was
wounded in the knee by a ball from a small field piece, of which he
died the same night. Hardly was he dead when Penn discovered
the men grumbling over another hoard of the Earl's money and
plate found in some corner of the castle, after his departure, and
which the officers refused to divide with them, viz., '' 18 bags of
money and some plate," which they were " resolute '' in dividing
among themselves alone. The siege continued until July 13th,
when, after a prolonged and brave defence, the garrison was com-
pelled to capitulate, " for their lives only, and the officers their
swords, leaving the place, cannon, horses, ammunition, and pro-
visions to the Confederates ; and embarking their sick and woimded
men, returned by sea to Cork." Penn, who felt keenly his defeat,
was told by the officers that the surrender was due to the loss of tlie
corcass to the south-west of the castle, which fell into the bauds
of the Confederates, and that in any case they shoukl be forced to
yield in four days' time owing to the lack of food. He removed
Jiis sliips on the 12th to Beagh Koad, and sailing down the Shannon
on the 16t}i anchored at Scattery. Next day they entered Carriga-
holt ]3ay to obtain water and provisions, which Sir ])onall 0 ]3i'ien's
representative refused to sell them until they had threatened to
attack the castle. The fleet then moved back to Scattery, and
emptied all the wells on the island. Here the ships were cleaned,
and the soldiers, women, and children /put temporarily on shore,
" to pick, wash, and refresh themselves." At length, the fleet
weighed anchor, left the Shannon, and arrived in Kinsale on July
26th.
On September 8, 1651, General Ireton, finding Bunratty a suit-
able place for a depot, lodged in the castle a company of Foot and
a troop of Horse, under Ca})tain Preston, without receiving any
opposition, and persuaded Jjieut. -General Ludlow, who suffered
from what he himself calls a " dangerous cold," to rest in Bmu'atty
for two days.
On March 25, 1656, Earl Barnaby leased Bunratty to John
Cooper, of Meelick, " to be surrendered on a year's warning, if my
Lord or his Sone come to settle there." Henry, the last Earl of
Thomond (ob., April 80, 1741), leased the castle on October 4, 1709,
for 99 years, to one Robert Amory. On September, 26th, 1712,
a lease for ever of the castle, farm, and lands of Bunratty was
granted to Thomas Amory, reserving certain rights to the Earl.
In 1725, Amory sold his lease to Thomas Studdert, of " Arlo-
mount," Co. Limerick, but then of Kilkishen; in the senior line of
which family the place has since remained. The present owner,
Mr. Thomas Studdert, of Bunratty, has lately been in communica-
tion, I am informed, with the Irish Board of Works, with the view
of having the castle vested as an ancient monument; a consum-
mation devoutedly to be wished, but, I regret to say, as yet un-
accomplished.
The present castle, which in its general features is very plain and
of uniform workmanship, consists of four square coruer towels
joined by massive curtain walls rising nearly to the full height.
BUNK ATT Y
119
The towers are of great complexity of design, impossible to be de-
scribed in a few words, and on the north and south sides of the
castle are connected by lofty arches; under the northern one an
18th century addition has been built. On the west side a 17th
century terrace, connecting the towers on that side, has been in-
serted, on which has been built a modern police barrack; and
facing the river there is a similar one on the east side, from which
the castle is entered by a small door. Before the erection of the
terrace this door must have been reached by a flight of steps, or
perhaps by a ladder, as was usual in the round towers. The cen-
tral part of the castle consists of three large rooms, superimposed.
The lowest, having immensely thick walls, was probably a store
room, the entrance to which was in the south wall, but is now gone,
being replaced by a modern gate. The middle or tiled hall, pro-
bably used as a reception room, has a large plain 17th century
v.- ,^tj "^^ §'"••' *.'.,-'••#'')
,-«*'
/- -^
Table from Spanish Armada, Dromoland Castle
chimney-piece of limestone, and had windows oi)ening on the east
terrace. Over this is the once magnificent hall, on the wall of
which some of the original 17th century stucco work is still attached.
There were originally two recessed windows in the west side and
two similar ones on the east. The large splayed south window,
with four trefoil headed lights and cusped foliage, has been much
altered and disimproved, it is supposed, some time in the early 17th
century. The carved stones embedded in the east wall of this
room with inscription previously referred to, should be examined,
and also the interesting little chapel in the south-east tower, with
its pretty stucco ceiling should on no account be missed.
The room, traditionally called " The liadies' Drawing Room,"
rests on a vaulting between the corner towers on the north ; and
east of this is the room called " The Ladies' Chapel," which was
])robably an oratory.
The church of Bunratty stands about 250 yards west of the
castle, and is rather an iminteresting building. No reference to
a church in this place previous to the I)g Clare occupation has been
120 BUNKATTY
met with. The original church was probably built by Sir Thomas
de Clare, and was replaced by the present building about 1450-
1500, the work of Mac Namaras or O Briens. The churches of Bun-
ratty and Quin, " with their chapels," were valued " in times
of peace," at £10 yearly, and the De Clares held the presentation.
Donough, 4th Earl of Thomond, says in his wdll, Nov. 28, 1617,
that he had " newly edified " this church, and leaves sufficient
glass, out the store of that commodity in the castle, to glaze the
windows. A special interest is added to the place by its being the
last resting-place of Mr. James Frost, M.E.I. A., author of the His-
tory and Topography of the Co. of Clare, and for many years a
valued Fellow of the Royal Society of Antiquaries, Ireland.
]\loTE. — An oblong mote and traces of the bailey renjain to tlie
west of the castle. A great foyse and bane remain about 500 yards
to the 8.W. of the castle.
Q:
^ **• V ;
Detail of Spanish Table, Dromoland
BIBLIOGRAPHY, QUIN FRIARY
Tour in Ireland, ])r. Pococke, 1750.
Diucese of KiUaloe, Canon Philip ])wyer, 1878.
Fro. Roy. Ir. Acad., vol. ii, ser. ii. No. xxxiv, Thomas Deane,
1883.
Report of Board of Public Worhs, year 1881-2.
Handbook No. V., Roy. Soc. Anti., Ir., and Journal, vol. xxx,
p. 81, T. J. Westropp.
Journal Limericl: Field Club, vol. ii (1901-4), p. 109, Dr. George
U. MacNamara.
SECTION VII.
LOCH GUR AND KILMALLOCK.
LOCH GUR.
Loch Giir is a small but picturesque sheet of water situated about
three miles north of BrufE. It has long been famous for its arch-
aeological interest. The first account of value was contributed by
Crofton Croker to the Gentleman's Magazine for 1833.^ This is a
very useful record of the state of the remains as they were at the
beginning of the last century. The surroundings of the lake were
accurately surveyed by Sir Bertram Windle,^ who gives us a trust-
worthy account of the present state of the antiquities. It should be
remarked that there are several " circles " marked on the Ordnance
Survey map, which are mere fortuitous accumulations of boulders
of no antiquarian significance.
Apart from the mediaeval monuments, the castles and the church,
which have their own special interest, there are, according to Sir
Bertram Windle's list, seven standing stones, twelve stone circles,
two dolmens, and an alignment to be seen here. For a full descrip-
tion of these reference may be made to his detailed survey.
The most important is that on the east side of the road from
Limerick to Cork — called on the Ordnance Survey map, " Rannach
Cruim Duibh." This name is obviously both ungrammatical and
meaningless, and the variants that are to be found in the works of
Windele, Lenihan, and others, are equally so. It is hopeless to get
at the proper form of the name, now that the local traditions have
been contaminated by the meddlesomeness of amateur dabblers in
antiquarianism. Putting one form with another we may guess with
some probability that the original from which these corruptions
have been derived was Rothanna Chruim Dhuibh, " the wheels, or
circles, of Crom Dubh." In any case the name is not of much
importance. It shows every sign of having been the invention of
some hedge schoolmaster of the 18th century who had read the
story of St Patrick and the alleged pagan deity Crom Cruach.
The circle as it stands is different from any other circle known to
the present writer. It lines a hollow in the top of a low earthen
mound. The diameter of the mound at its base is 210 feet ; the
diameter of the circle is given by Sir B. Windle as averaging 153 feet,
and it is sunk to a depth of 3 feet below the top of the mound.
I Part I., p. 105; reprinted, but without the illustrations, in Stock's
(ienthmaiCs Magazine TAhrary, Part ii of the *' Archaeology " section, p. 117
-' " On Cei-tain Megalithic Remains immediately surrounding Lough Gur,
Co. Limerick," Pror. R J . Arad., vol. xxx, sect. C, p. 117. All other papers
on these remains should he used only with the r/reatest possihle taufion.
122
LOCH GUR
Some of the stones are of large size, others are smaller lining
stones.
Unfortmiately this circle was " restored " some time ago, and
the exact extent of that work is not fully recorded. A writer is
quoted by Sir Bertram Windle as reporting the statement of the
restorer (since deceased) to the eftect that " very few stones were
introduced into the circle, and all the rest had fallen from their
upright position and had been covered by the earth from the sur-
* I^LMf
m ^
Double Circle at Knockroe, Loch Gur
rounding mound." This hardly squares with the account in Crofton
Croker's description, and that of some previous writers cited by him.
These are as follows : —
Twiss, Tour in Ireland (1775). — ■"' Three circles of stones . . .
near a small lake called Gur, the principal of which is about 150 feet
in diameter, and consists of forty stones, of which the largest is
13 feet by 6 broad and 4 thick."
Wesley, Journal (1785). — ^" I found ... a large Druidical
temple. I judged by my eye that it was not less than 100 yards in
diameter, and it was, if I remember right, full as entire as that at
Stonehenge or that at Stanton IJrue."
LOCH GUK
123
Trotter, Walks Through Ireland (1817). — " A large circular
Druidical place of worship ; the diameter was 60 yards and the
circle was formed by large upright stones ; one very large one, much
higher than the rest, about 18 feet, stood in it."
Fitzgerald and McGregor, History of Limerick (1826). — " Beyond
the village of Grange, close to the public road from Limerick to
Cork, on the left, are three curious stone circles. The first is
45 yards in diameter, and consists at present of sixty-five large
mm
■ ■«•!(
-^
M.. ^
M'M
W?;"^
kW^fgi0-^''-
*15
■\^
y. "r'f-f -,- ■ "■■■
4
-.: i-"»^,^,:'
, ■» »
'♦Vi^
I^- ^"'■''*
^
i ""'• ''
rm
f-'\.
*'-i-^ *■..
'^
... ;• ,^
- -A ' ' '
^^^1
i
'■^IpHB
i
Monolith in Great Circle, Loch Gur
upright stones, but there were formerly many more. One of these
stones is 13 feet high 7 feet broad and 4 feet thick. Tlie entire
circle is surrounded by a sloping bank about 12 feet in breadth
and 6 feet in height."
Croker himself accepts the last description as '' pretty accurate,"
but gives his own measurements " without asserting that mine are
the more correct of the two." They are — circumference 165 yards,
diameter 46 yards, height of largest stone 9 feet 6 inches, circum-
ference of same 20 feet 10 inches, breadth and thickness 7 feet and
124 LOGH GUli
5 feet. According to Windle the largest stone in the circle measures
7 feet 9 inches high, 4 feet 3 inches thick, and 7 feet 10 inches broad.
One very peculiarly shaped weathered stone stands on the bank
opposite the entrance to the enclosure. It is, as Sir B. Windle says,
suspiciously like a modern addition ; and it could hardly have
escaped the notice of the earlier writers had it been visible in their
time. In point of fact they are all silent about it.
In the field to the north were two other circles. One, which con-
tained sixty-nine stones in 1833, has been practically destroyed.
The other about 55 yards in diameter, is intact. It contains fifteen
stones. Some distance to the north -north -west is a conspicuous
standing stone, 10 feet 2 inches high. Yet another circle is, if
possible, even more remarkable. It is known locally as Lism (pro-
nounced lisheen, the little earth -enclosure). It consists of a circular
earth bank lined with stone slabs on each face, 182 feet in diameter
and 14 feet 6 inches thick, and an inner circular mound, likewise
faced with stone slabs on its circumference, 48 feet in diameter.
Close by is a smaller circular mound of the same kind, faced with
slabs 3 feet high and 33 feet in diameter.
Tlie two dolmens may now be described. One is alleged to be
called Leaba na Muice, the " Pig's Bed " : this may be a trivial
name, perhaps derived from the dolmen having been used at some
time as a rude pigstye ; but more probably it is a mere corruption
of the commonplace name Leaba Dhiarmada, picked up by someone
with an imperfect ear, a vivid imagination, and (worst of all !) good
intentions. It has three uprights and one capstone ; the latter is
now poised on one of the uprights. The other dolmen (called by
Croker " La big yermiddagh a Grana," a hideous corruption, but
still more hideously translated " Ned and Grace's bed ! "), though
much injured, is a most remarkable cistvaen, 12 feet in length and
5 feet in width, lined with flat slabs and covered with three or four
stones now displaced. A peasant living near by, one Garrett Punch,
told Crofton Croker that an old woman had resided in it for many
years, and " on her death the covering stones were thrown of! and
it was left in its present state by ' money diggers,' who, to use my
informant's words 'only found some burned bones in an old jug,
that surely was not worth one brass farthing.' "
Loch Gur was thus the centre of a great cemetery in the Bronze
Age ; and we can hardly be wrong in assuming that it was a sacred
lake. Whether the cemetery was there on accoimt of the original
sanctity of the water, or the loch was consecrated by the presence
of the cemetery, is a question on which we can but speculate with
no data to go upon. Ilie former, on the whole, is the more probable
supposition. The numerous antiquities that have been found in
and around its waters are an additional testimony to the sacredness
of the lake ; such fine objects as the gold -chased bronze spearhead,
now in the British Museum,^ were most likely votive gifts cast into
the waters of the lake, as the Continental Gauls cast gold and other
precious objects into the sacred ponds of Tolosse.
1 EvaiiB, Anrient Bronze Impleinentd, p. 312.
Great Circle, Loch Gur
Xt^»>:
->^ft'
Leaba Dhiakmada, Locu G\jk
LOCH GUE, 125
In Irish literature tlie lake appears as Loch Gair. Among the
references to it may be cited the following : —
En the weird poem on Finn's horse-race in the Book of Leinster
(edited by Stokes in Eevue Geltique vii. 289. under the title " Find
and the Phantoms," we find the stanza : —
" A black horse belonging to Del mac Da-crech
Was in every game that he played :
To the rock over Loch Gair
He won the three prizes of the assembly."
Tli.e rock may have been Carraig an aifrinn, or else Carraig alln.
Tlie same stanza is quoted in the Agallamh na Senorach.
'' The white rocks of Loch Gair " lay in line of the mad rush of
the drunken Ultonians described in the Mesca JJlad (ed. Hennessy,
Todd, Lecture Series, p. 14) : where " they levelled every hill over
which they went so that they left it in low glens ; the iron wheels
of their chariots cut the roots of every forest through which they
passed, so that they left it an arable plain. The streams and fords
and pools were dry, bare flagstones for long after them, for the
quantity that their bodies carried away from the contents of water-
fall, ford, and pool."
Dun Gair, the fortress on the top of Cnoc an Duin (the promon-
tory that projects into the lake), is mentioned in the Leabar na
gGeart and in the poem of Benen among the dwellings of the King of
Caiseal. (See O'Donovan's edition of the Leabhar na gCeart, pp. 86,
92.) Only the very slightest traces of the fortress remain.
An army was led by Domhnall mac mic Lochlainn, King of
Ireland, and the people of the North of Ireland with him into
Connacht ; and Ruaidhri Ua Concho bhair. King of Connacht, gave
him the hostages of all Connacht. Both proceeded with their forces
into Munster, and they burned Luimneach (Limerick) and plundered
Machaire na Mumhan (the plain of Munster) as far as Imlcach
lubhaire (Emly) and Loch Gair, and Brugh Righ (Bruree) and Ddn
Ached (Dunachip, near Croom [O'Donovan]) and Druim Ua Clercen
(Drummin), and they took with them the head of the son of Caileach
ua Ruairc from the hills of Saingeal (Singland), and broke and
demolished Ceann Coradh (Kincora), and obtained eight score
hostages : Annals F.M., 1088 ; Ghronicon Scotorum, 1084.
A war broke out among the Fitz Geralds, and James son of Maurice,
the heir to the earldom, laid siege to Loch Gair. The chiefs of
his army were Mac Carthaigh Cairprecli (i.e., Domhnall mac Finghin),
Corbmac 6g mac Corbmaic mic Taidhg, Corbmac mac Donnchaidh
6ig mic Carthaigh, lord of Ealla (Duhallow), the White Knight,
Ridire an Gleanna (the Knight of Gl}^^), and Ridire Ciarraigheach
(the Knight of Kerry), Mac Muiris, O Concho bhair, and the tower
of strength of the army, Mac Carthaigh mor — i.e., Corbmac Ladhrach.
Sean mac an larla came to complain of his distress to the Dal gCais,
for there was friendship and affinity between them — for M6r,
daughter of Donnchadh mac Briain Dubh, was wife of that Sean.
Ua Briain arose with love and respect and assembled the men of
Tuad Mhumha and Piaras mac Seamuis Butler joined him and others
126
LOCH GUR
of his party and they came to the FitzGerald army. When Mac an
larla saw the nobles of the great army of the race of Brian approach-
ing him he resolved not to come to an engagement with them, but
to leave the town unharmed, and so they parted : Annals F.M., 1516.
Captain Malby, with the English forces, having destroyed the
Monastery of Eas Geibhtine (Askeaton), proceeded to Ath Dara
^* •■ '
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Loch Gur Castle from S.W.
(Adare), where he remained, subjugating the people of the neigh-
bourhood till the new lord justice, William Pelham, the Earl of
Kildare, and the Earl of Ormond came to strengthen him, and they
all encamped together in the Conaille. Tlie Earl of Deas-Mumhan
did not come to meet them on this occasion, because his territory
had been ravaged and his people destroyed, although it had been
promised him that these should not be molested. When the Earl
had joined his relation, the resolution which the English adopted
was to station their warders in his castles, among them that of Loch
Gair : Annals F.M., 1579.
I.OCH GUK
127
In 1599, according to the Annals, Loch Gair was taken by the
Earl of Desmond from the Queen's people, and O'Donovan in his
note in the passage quote the following description from Pacata
Hibernia : " The five and twentieth [of May, 1600] the army
passing neere Loghguire, which was as yet held by the Rebels, the
President, attended with a Troope of Horse, rode to take a particular
L(>( II (Ji'H Castle irom Wksi
view of the strength thereof, as also by what way he might most
conveniently bring the C'annon to annoy the same. Hee found it to
bee a place of exceedhig strength, by reason that it was an Hand,
encompassed with a deep Lough, the breadth thereof being, in the
narrowest place, a caliever's shot over ; upon one side thereof standeth
a very strong Castle [Garrett's Castle, entirely demolished for
building stone about a hundred years ago], which at this time was
manned with a good Garrison, for there was within the Hand lohn
Fitz-Thomas, with two hundred men at the least, which showed
themselves prepared to defend the place."
128 KITvMALLOCK
KILMALLOCK
The Cliurch of Kilmallock, cil mochealloc (1050), or cil dachelloc
(1028), is said to be derived from a very misty St Celloc, said to have
died about a.d. 639. His very vagueness left him at the mercy of
the pseudo antiquaries, who, in their frantic search for Phoenician
remains in Ireland, derived it (as they did Kilmalchedor in Kerry
from '' Moloch, horrid king," the " abomination of the Ammonites '"
and Phoenicians. The alternative form Da-Chelloc (apart from other
rational reasons) should have taught them better. The place may,
or may not, be the Makolicon^ of Ptolemy, a.d. 150, which some
identify with Cashel. Leaving speculation, the place (as we see)
is named in 1028 and 1050, and it was a parish church in 1201.
King John ordered an enquiry to be made whether Kilmallock Castle
and the Cantred of Karbry belonged to the Kingdom of Cork or
to Limerick, in 1206. Lands in its neighbourhood at Ardpatrick,
Eleuri (? Claire), and in Fontemel (or Fontymchyll,° the district
covered by Kilquane, Effin, Darach-Mochua and Dungadmond
parishes, round its walls), were granted to W. de Burgo in 1199.
The place must soon have developed into a town of some standing
under Norman rule. Fairs were licensed at it in 1221, and we have
a list of the chief citizens, in an agreement with them 1222 to 1230.
The mill was restored in 1248, and there are in the Black Book of
Limerick a number of important deeds relating to it, about 1280 ;
these mention the " main street " to the Church of the Apostles
Peter and Paul, the Via Regalis towards Emly, the Cross, Mill,
John's Street, Flemyri Street, opposite to the Cross ; Blapat Street
(Blossom St), Water Street, Botherbalmakene to the east, Fotislac
to the south, Martynlake to the north, Kokytlach, Fotisland and
Aroldishyl. Nicholas Stoppel was then provost, and it had a harper
named Sandyr who lived at Fotisland. In 1361 the perpetual
vicarage of SS Peter and Paul, Kilmallock, is named in the Papal
Petitions. The church was enlarged by Maurice FitzGerald in 1420.
In 1594 the Collegiate Church of St Peter had a cloister, hall, build-
ings and orchard. This church, a few years later, was the scene of
the humiliating submission of the imfortunate James FitzGerald,
the " Sugan Earl," and it was the place where the attendance of
the equally hapless " English Earl," his rival, at the Protestant
Church service led to so serious a riot anumg the citizens.
Tlie beautiful Dominican Convent was founded about 1291. In
October that year the friars were given a plot of land by the burgesses,
but Kilmallock was a valued appanage of the Bishops of Limerick,
and the Bishop's retainers violently expelled the Dominican
Preachers and burned their house. As so often, we have divergent
accounts of the foundation,^ the more probable (and tallying best
with the record) is that it was founded that same year by Maurice
1 See "Identification," Proc. 7?. 7. Amd., vol. xxiii (c), pp. 87-88.
2 'fhe fourteenth century works were probably made by Maurice, the first
" white knight."
130
KILMALLOCK
Lord Offaley ; but De Burgo says by a second son of " John of
Callan," in 1260. William, Bishop of Emly (these prelates and their
officials frequently made trouble by intruding on Kilmallock and
Fontemel) was accused of having taken a silver box out of the
Church of the Friars Preachers in 1318. There is very little history
of the house, which must have been restored, and additions, such
as the belfry and transept made to it in the 14th and 15th centuries.
Dominican Friary Chancel, Kilmallock
On the dissolution it was granted to the burgesses, and, in 1598, had
a church, cloister, room, buildings, orchard, three gardens, 11 acres
in Kilmallock, and a water mill.
There was another " Abbey," called Flacispaghe, named as
demohshed before 1586. The house of the Regulars of St Augustine
sometimes identified with the Collegiate Church, but given separately
from it in 1410, may be intended. The strange name may perhaps
be " Lackanaspike " (Leac an easpuig), or " Parcell of the Bishop
near the hill of Kilmallock," probably where the nearly levelled
Church of St Mocheallog can be traced on the rising ground. In
1318 Nicholas Kerdiff fled for sanctuary to the Church of St.
Blossoms Gate, Kilmallock
Dominican Priory, Kilmallock
132
KILMALLOCK
Myhallok ; it is called '" S. Mathologus on the hill of Kilmallock " in
1410. As to the town, it suffered severely in the two Desmond
rebellions, having then hardly began to recover from a cruel disaster.
In 1574 it was plundered for three days by James Mac Maurice, the
Sweenys and Sheehys ; the houses, both of wood and stone, were
broken and burned, and it " became a receptacle and abode of
wolves," which fierce beasts must have abounded in the dense
forest of Kilquaig in Aherloe and the Ballyhoura mountains. The
terrible story of the surprise of Gerald Earl of Desmond and his
SS. Peter and Paul, Kilmallock, South
Countess in it in the depth of winter and their escape, after spend-
ing the night up to their chins in water under the bushes of the river
bank, will be recalled, 1 need only add that Lord Castlehaven, in
1645, used the castle as his chief arsenal, and in 1651 the Crom-
wellians took it over for the same purpose and for a hospital. There
were some other " castles " (or rather stone houses, some fine
remains of which remain in St. John's Street) : one was called
" Lauerey," and was once the house of the Earl of Desmond ; it was
seized by the Crown 1583, and lay near the castle. Another belonged
to the Fox family in 1607 and 1655, and was named " Parostie ";
a third was " Miagh's Castle " to the west cf the street adjoining
the town wall : another castle of the same family was near the last.
In High Street were George Miagh's Castle, Francis Creagh's, Grreto
l34 KlLMALLOCK
Miagh's Castle (granted to Colonel Randall Clayton) on the west of
the street. The " Vicar's " Castle (held by G. Talbott, 1653) was
in Limerick Street. James Fox held a castle and orchard in Blee
Street in 1607 ; James Lewis, Laurence Wall and Captain Stannard
held others in 1653. There was a castle adjoining the Water
Gate to the north, " Proppinge Castle " on the River Glen
(Coolagh).
CouRTNERUDDERY (the White Knight's Castle), north of the
Dominican Convent, on the east bank of the Glen. This was
granted to Thomas Bnrgeate in 1579, and restored to Edmund
FitzGibbon, the White Knight, though the Court was ruinous, in
1590. Maurice Hurley, of Knocklong, held it in 1617 ; the castle
and mill Avere ruinous in 1655. The town gates were St John's Gate
to the west ; (2) the Friars' Gate to the north ; (3) the Water-Port
to the east (near the bridge over the Loobagh Stream) ; (4) the Ivy-
Port to the east ; and (5) the Bla -Porte, or Blossoms Gate (still very
perfect) to the south : it can be well seen from the railway. The
deed of John fitzElie Juvenis (Young), circa, 1280, mentions Blapat
Street near this gate. None of the records name the Millmount
Castle, a low mote remaining in 1839, and to the east of the station
the railway embankment runs across its site. The town was
absolutely * denuded of its old inhabitants by 1655 — it was then
" totally ruined and uninhabited."
Collegiate Church of SS. Peter and Paul. — It is an interesting
massive building at the east end of the town beside the River
Loobagh. An imposing view of it and the Dominican Monastery,
with the town walls and the handsome new church with its lofty
spire, can be got from the bridge. It has a chancel 49 1 by 25| feet,
with a large window having five trefoil-headed lights, this part is in
use as the parish church. The nave is in ruins ; it has two side aisles
and massive plain pointed arcades, four arches to each side, measuring
80 by 65 feet. The west window has three lights ; below it is a well
moulded Gothic door of the 13th century. To the south side is a
broken porch with an inner door of the I5th century richly carved.
The transept or side chapel is an interesting patchwork with some
late insertions.
The round tower belfry, believed to be an Irish cloictheach, though
greatly modified, and the upper part rebuilt with stepped battle-
ments, is embedded in the west end at the end of the north arcade.
The monuments of John Verdun, "the Knight with the Spur "
(put up by Sir William Coppinger), 1614, and his wife, Alsona, 1625,
is elaborate and curious.
The other monuments best worthy of notice are Thomas Fitz-
Gerald and Joane Burke, 1630, Maurice, their son, and his wife Elenor,
1635 ; Elizabeth, daughter of Daniel Webb, in 1684.
Dominican Friary. — On the north bank of the Loobagh in an
open field is this beautiful ruin. The chancel is 66 J by 24 feet,
with a noble five light east window which, like tnat of tlxe south
transept (the tracery of which actually fell), was repaired by our
Society in 1889. llie south wall has a row of Gothic windows ;
there are some early 14th century recesses, sedilia, and an easter
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136 KILMALLOCK
tomb of good design. The Burgate monument is set in the north
wall, and the large slab of the White Knight lies in the centre of
the choir. Popular belief accredits it with a " drop of reprobation,"
a little wet spot marking the anger of Heaven with the White
Knight for the capture of the betrayed James of Desmond, the
" Sugan Earl," captured in a cave in Aherloe. The tall graceful
belfry is, as usual, at the intersection of the nave and chancel.
The south-west angle was destroyed by lightning. The west window
is of simple interlaced tracery so common in this country. As at
Adare, the side aisle is levelled, the south transept or chapel is of
ornate and pleasing design. The pillars are probably of the 13th
century, and later details of the two following centuries. The later
features are of the 15th century, and include a rich window with
reticulated tracery (like those at Holycross Abbey and Cloyne
Cathedral), and two altar windows of chapels to the east. One of
the corbels, a woman with upraised arms supporting the arch,
recalls one at Killone Convent near Ennis. The arches with the rich
ball-flower and nail-head ornaments of their capitals are pleasing
and picturesque. The two -storied sacristy, like those at Quin and
Askeaton, flanks the choir to the north. On the same side beside
the nave is the cloister with vaulted rooms to the north and east,
the former a kitchen with a large fireplace ; the day-room (so-called
" chapter house ") and dormitory are overhead. The vaulted north
aisle collapsed, wrecking the cloister, but, in the recent restoration
by the Board of Public Works under our late President, Dr. Robert
Cochrane, the whole was well repaired and part of the arcade re-
covered. When I first remember the place in 1877 it was unenclosed
and a filthy cattle shelter. The most interesting inscriptions are
those of the Burgates : " 1642 Tertia lux caesos memorat Septembris
in anno/quam legis. Heunondum tres tenet urna senes/Marte nepos
fratresque ruunt tria pignora justo/jus patriae causam rexque fidesque
probant/integer attritis reperitur candor in extis/Virginis et veri
purpura martyrii/Lilia purpureos inter sudantia fluctus/Tres meruere
trium nomina marmor habe — Fr(atr)es Georg. Edw. Nep. Alex.
Burgate "—That of the White Knight runs : " + I.H.S. Hie
tumulus erectus fu/it in memoriam illius ste/mmatis Geraldinorum
qui/vulgo vocantur equites Albi — /Joannes cum filio suo Edmundo
et Mauricio fi/lio prefati Edmundi/et multi alii eiusdem famil/
ise hie tumulantur prefatus . . . ."
The King's Castle. — It is a fine peel tower standing in the
street, and about 60 feet high, with some 70 stone steps and battle-
ment ed ; the large arch under it had been long used as a forge. It
was saved from demolition by the action of our Society in 1897.
PLACES OF INTEREST IN NEIGHBOURHOOD.
KiLFiNNANE Mote. — The ancient *' Treada na riogh," or triple
fort of the King, with " Drom Einghin," lies under the bold ridge
to the S.W. of Kilmallock. It is a fine earthwork, a flat- topped
mound, 34 feet 6 inches high over the field, 54 feet across the top,
and 337 feet over all N. and S., with three rings and two fosses,
f\TW~T,'' '
J^ij
2
138 KILMALLOCK
16 feet 4 inches high, and 26 feet wide, 10 feet 8 inches high, and
15 feet 6 inches thick, and 5 feet 4 inches and .9 feet thick. There
is no record of a castle at or near it till the fifteenth century, nor was
it a Manor. I
Ardpatrick. — This venerable church and round tower, on a
long grassy ridge south from Kilmallock, is confused by several with
its namesake (now Knockpatrick, near Foynes) in Ui Chonail. The
Agallamh calls it Tulach na Feinne, whence the Fianna marched
to the battle of Ventry in the third century. Lands near it and in
Fontemel appear in William de Burgh's grant, 1199. As a parish
church, it appears in all the ecclesiastical visitations from 1201, but
has no history of outstanding importance, though it subsisted as a
small reUgious house under a '* converb," " coarb," or ** comharb
of the 0 Langane family. The fact, its name, the connection of St
Patrick with it even in the Agallamh ,^ and in the popular legend
which shows an old entrenched road as " the slug of the saint's
cow's horns " when she ran away, bear out the evidence of its
round tower in marking it an early and once important church.
Tradition in the 11th century said that the hill was granted to
Patrick on condition that he removed the mountain of Cenn
Febraith (Ballyhoura, Bealach Febraith); his faith was equal to
the task, and left the gap of Belach Legtha. The ruins stand on
a high green ridge with bold mountains to the south. The ends
of the church had fallen before 1840, and it measured 85 feet
by 24 feet. The north door is the only architectural feature, with
a round-headed arch of sandstone, and a smaller, inserted, pointed
arch of limestone. A pointed low vault, or passage, is in the S.
wall. The masonry of the sides is of large sandstone blocks, form-
ing bold antae, or projections, at the west end. There was a south
wing, or residence, 25 feet by 18 feet, nearly levelled. The well-
is not far from the round tower, which is 39 feet from the N.W.
corner of the church. The Down Surveys gives a rough sketch of
the ruin in 1656 " Upon ye Ard Patricke are ye walls of a church
and watch tower," it adds : the tower was even then broken, but had
three stories ; it fell a little before 1827, and is now 11 feet to 6 feet
high, badly breached, but of beautifully regular masonry; it was
filled with rubbish in which pieces of amber and brass and many
oyster shells were found by John Windele.
BIBLIOGRAPHY.
The Black Book of Limerick (ed. Rev. J. MacCaiirey). The Down
and Civil Surveys, 1653-57. Forfeited Houses in Kilmalloch
among the " Limerick Terriers," P. E. 0. 1., no. 40. The 48 Officers'
Claims under Act of Settlement. Kilmallock and the White Knights.
Rev. James Graves, Journal Roy. Soc. Antt. Ir., vol. xii (1871),
1 P. J. Lynch, Journal B. S. A. I., vol. xli, pp. 387-389.
2 See Agallamli na Senorach in Silva Gadelica, vol. ii, p. 118, and the
Tripartite lAfe (ed. Stokes).
3 See above p. 13.
Round' Tower, Rosceea
St Cronan's, Roscrea
k
Plan of Manister Abbey, Co. Limerick.
Thomas J. Westropp, 1886.
SITE OF. NORTH AISLE
ENCLOSURE
^' >"■■■■■ I ■ ■ — — ^
A. Four Chapels. a,4. Used for Chantillon Vault.
B. 'Squint' in- later wall.
c, Wiildow (shown in Mr. Wakeman's drawing, now fallen).
D. Four Piers of Belfry. H. West Door.
B. Arch (Norman Transition). I. Fire-place.
p. Later Screen Wall. j. Gateway.
G. Confessional. K. Broken Walls.
Abbey Walls, tn Black. Later, Shaded. Foundations, Outlines.
142 MONASTEEANENAGH
possessions strangely different from the older ones. The monks, as
so often, held out in the building after its spoliation though it was
granted more than once to English laymen. In 1579 Sir John of
Desmond, with the legate, Saunders, the Abbot of Monaster, and
2,000 horse and foot, camped near the Abbey. Garrett, the " Eebel
Earl " of Desmond, stayed near Tory Hill, or Dromassail, to watch
how the battle might go. The formidable Sir Nicholas Malby,
with only 600 foot, and apparently 450 horse, came up to the
place, camped for the night, and rested his force, writing to the Earl
to assist him, and waited for the attack. Sir John, his forces com-
manded by Spanish officers, came on resolutely on April 3rd.
Malby formed a square with his baggage inside; the rebels, despite
two volleys, actually brought their spearmen up to the English,
when at a third volley (60 being killed and 200 mortally wounded)
they turned and fled. The English having gathered a rich spoil
of arms turned their cannon on the Abbey, which was full of
refugees from the rebel army, and battered the cloister and refec-
tory ; at last they burst in and put to the sword the Abbot (whom
they beheaded on the steps of the high altar), and some 40 monks.
Manriquez, in 1642, tells how the one survivor, an aged monk, came
alone, as he thought, on the eve of the Assumption to the desecrated
charnel house, and, as he wept, the church filled with light and the
slain arose and sang the vespers^ He joined fervently till, when
he uncovered his face and looked, he only saw the gory chancel and
mangled corpses. I know of no record of any restoration of the
Abbey. Indeed Conor O Mulrian, *' Titular" Bishop of Killaloe,
under a papal bull granted it to two of the O Sullivans in 1590. The
belfry fell about 1807, and the lofty triple east window (which I
faintly remember as standing) fell in, or not long before, 1875.
Though only the church and the south aisle and fragments of the
side chapels, transept, chapter house, and other buildings remain,
the foundations are well marked in the field, and show the normal
Cistercian plan, a cloister with the church to the north, the Domus
Conversorum to the west, the refectory and kitchen to the south,
and the chapter house, parlour and day-room to the east. The de-
tails of the pillars are interesting, late Bomanesque work with
pointed arches in the arcades, and round-headed clerestory and
west lights. The demolition of the south chapel next the chancel
left the thrust of the massive stone vault unbalanced, so the whole
south side and vault with the noble window fell down.
The mason marks and a supposed carving of a squirrel should
be examined; there are no old tombs, and most of the
arches were built up to form an enlarged *' ritual choir "
instead of the limited chancel space sufficient for the austere
service of the earlier Cistercians. The building near the river is
said to have had a bell which was rung whenever a salmon got
caught in the net (attached to its rope) in the adjoining stream.
The fair, or rather assembly, aenach, from which the place was
named, was the ancient Aenach Cairbre, or Aenach Culi, the " Ena
I See also Journal R.S.A., vol, xix, p, 232; " Eocles. Archit. Ireland"
(R. R. Brash), p. 137, and Fitzgerald, History of Limerick (1827), p. 327.
Proc. F.I. Acad., vol. xxv, p. 382. Plate xi showing the chancel as sketched
by J. Windele. Here repeated, p. 79.
k
144
MONASTERANENAGH
culi " in John's charter. The first name appears in the list of
Royal residences claimed by the King of Cashel in the Book of
Rights, about a.d. 900. It possibly lay at the fort of Rathmore as
suggested by Mr. Orpen.^
Dromassel, or Tory Hill, is the Asail of the Book of Rights, and
said to be called from a Firbolg tribe ; a Magh nAsail is also men-
tioned there. It is a conspicuous land-mark in the flat country, a
natural mote of barren limestone, and in a folk-tale of the type
found at the Devil's Bit and Rock of Cashel is supposed to have
been raised from the neighbouring lake. An ancient gold diadem
was found at its foot in 1856.^
1 R. S. A. I., xxxiv, p. 34.
2 Revue Celtique, xv, p. 481. Agallamh, Silva Gadelica, vol. ii, p. 201.
Plea Rolls of Edward I and II, 1289-1311. O'Deas Visitation, 1418. Sir W.
Wilde's " Catalogue of Gold Antiquities," Royal Irish Academy, p. 24.
Dysart Round Tower, Croom
INDEX
Abbeys, see Monasteries.
Abbeyowney, view of, lOhO, 13.
Adare, 62 — arcient town, G4, 68 ; Augus-
tinian Monastery, the" Black Abbey,"
68, 74 ; Castle, 69, 74 ; Church of*^St
Nicholas, 62, 76 ; Franciscan Friary,
" The Poor Abbey," 68, 76 ; Hospital
of St John, 68 ; Manor House, 72, 78 ;
Ogham stones at, 80 ; Trinitarian
Friary, " The White Abbey," 65,
74.
Adhar, the Firbolg, 40.
Aenach Cairbre (or Culi), 142.
Aes Chluana, 5.
Aibhill, Aibhinn, banshee of the OBriens,
30.
Amlaibh of Limerick, 8.
Aradha, tribe, 5.
Armada, table from Sparish, 111), 120.
Arthur or A rture family, J 2-' 7.
Asail, tribe at Dromassel or Tory Hill, 5.
Askeatou, Eas Geibhthine, Itiis Geibhtiue,
Iniskeftif, 5, 52 ; Desmond's Castle, 52,
58 ; Church of St Mary, 52, 58 : Fran-
ciscan Friary, " Rock Abbey," 56, 58,
126.
Augustinians, see Adare, Limerick.
Baal's Bridge, Limerick, 22. |
Balbeyn family, 8 ; Thomas Corr, 26.
Ballymulcashel (Baile Ui Maolchaisil)
Tower, Clare, 39.
Barith, Prince of Limerick, 8. !
Barrington family, monumei t, 18, \
Battles — Caer:raighe, 2 ; Knocklorg, 4 ;
Cuillene, 4 ; Carnarry, Carp Fheara-
tlhaigh, 4, 88 ; Shanid, 4 ; Dysert
O'Lea, 20, 110 : Baal's Bridge, 22 ;
Magh Adhair, 40 ; Moghane, 47 ;
Monasteranenagh, 54, 140, 142 ; Quin,
89, 90, 94, 96, 97, 108 ; Traclraighe,
108.
Beal Borumha Fort, Co. CJare, 28.
Bells— Killaloc Cathedral, 35 ; Limerick
Cathedral (early), 18.
Berkeley family, Askeaton, 56, 70.
Borama, or cattle tribute of Thomond, 30.
Brian Boroimhe, 30, 42. \
Bruree, Bnujh-righ, 4, 40, 125. |
Budston, John, 16, 18.
Bultingfort, Richard. Mayor of Limerick,
17, 22.
Bunratty. 105 — Castle, \Q5 sqo. . Church, ,
119 ; Mote, 120 ; Stucco, 6', 108, ill. |
Burgate family, monument, 133, 136,
Burgh de, de Burgo, 25, of Castleconnell,
36, 52 ; Bishop of Limerick,. 64, 138,
Butler family, 40, 125.
Cahercalla Cathair, Co. Clare, 46.
Calraighe, tribe, 5.
Cappagh Kilmacluana, Castle and
Church, 82.
Carnarry, Cam Fhearadhaigh, 2. 4.
Carthann the Fair, King of the Dal gCais,
7. . .
Carn Chonaill, battle at (646), 4.
Carrigogunnell Castle, Carraic Ui gCoti-
aing, 5, 50 ; Legend of Candle, 51.
Castles — Adare, 71, 74 ; Askeaton, 58 ;
Ballymulcashel, 39 ; Bunratty, 105,
Cappagh-Kilmacluana, 84 ; Carrigogun-
nell, 50 ; Castleconnell, 5, 36 ; Clonlara
Group, 27 ; Clonshire, 81 ; Cratloe,
Creggane,; 38 ; Dunnaman, 81 ; Gar-
raunboy, 81 ; Kilmallock (lesser
Castles), 132 ; (King's Castle), 136 ;
Limerick (King's Castle), 20 : (lesser
Castles), 26 ; Loch Gur, 121, 127 ;
Moghane, 48 ; Peel Towers near Quin,
49 ; Quin (De Clare's Castle), 89 ;
views of castles (1580-1680), 15,
Castleconnell, Caisledn Ui gConaing, 5, 36
Castle Founders, early list of, in Co.
Clare, 114.
Cathair-chinn-chon (Rockbarton, Co.
Limerick), battle at (639), 4.
Cathedrals — St Mary's, Limerick, 10 ;
St. Flannan's, Killaloe, 34.
Ceannfeabhrat battle of (186), 85.
Cenel Mekin, near Monasteranenagh, 5.
Chalices — tin at Adare, 78 ; silver at
Adare and Kilmallock, 80.
Churches — see Adare (St Nicholas), 76 ;
Ardpatrick, 138 ; Askeaton iSt Mary),
58, 66, 67 ; Bunratty, 119 ; Cappagh-
Kilmacluana, 82 ; Clonshire, 81 ; Dun-
naman, 81 ; Friar's Island, 27. 3(.> ;
Inishlosky, 28 ; Killaloe, 34 ; Killeely,
Kilmallock (SS Peter and Paul), 134 ;
Kilrush (Old Church), 25 ; Kiltinanlea,
27 ; Limerick City, 25 ; (St John's). 24 ;
(St Mm chin's), 22 ; Quin(St Finghin's)
89, 104 ; views (1580-1680), 13..
Cistercians, see Abbeyowney, 13 ; Monas-.
ternenagh, 140.
Clanna Deaghaidh, 84.
Clanncuilein, Sioda cam Mac Conmara,
Lord of, 91.
145
146
INDEX
Clare — Richard de, 25, 51, 110 ; Thomas
de, 25, 89, 106.
Clonshire Castle and Church, 81.
CoUa son of Barith, 8.
Colla son of Imhar, 8.
Conall Eachluath, King (377), 2.
Connello, Co. Limerick, 5.
Corcamohide, Corca Muicheat, tribe, 5.
Corca Oiche, tribe, 5.
Craglea, near Killaloe, 30.
Cratloe Castles, Co. Clare, 38.
Creagh or Creevagh family, 12, 18, 24,
64.
Creggane (Cregganowen) Castle, Co.
Clare, 40.
Crimhthann, King (37'* ), 2.
Cromwellians — stable horses in Limerick
Cathedral, 20 : alleged plot, 21 ; at
Bunratty, see Penn ; garrisons in peel
towers, 49.
Croom, Cromadh or Crumech, manor, 64.
Cuillene, battle at (552), 4.
Dal gCais (Dalcassian), tribe, 2, 86 ; see
also O Brien.
Deirgthine, tribe, 84.
Deisi tribes, 5.
Desmond— Earls of, 52, 56, 69, 126, 127,
132, 140 ; Castles of, 56, 57, 69.
Dolmen — at Croaghane, 88 ; at Kil-
mallock, 1-0; at Knappoge, 40; at
Loch Gur, 124.
Domhnall, King 6f Munster (1170), 4.
Domiricans, see Kilmallock, Limerick.
Doonass, Leap of, 28.
Dromassel, Druim Asail (Tory Hill),
144.
Dromoland, portraits at, 114, 116.
Dunnaman, Church and Castle, 81.
Dunraven, Edwin, Earl of, 72.
Eas Danainne, see Doonass, 28.
Eas Geibhtine, see jAskeator.
Eochaidh Bailldearg, King (450), 34.
Failbhe Flann. 4.
Fedhlimidh, King of Cashel, 4, 88.
Fiachra, King, 2.
Fir Tamhnaighe (Mahoonagh, tribe), 5.
FitzGerald family, 64-69, 82, 125 ; see
also Desmond, Earls of ; Kildare, Earls
of.
Flann Sionna, King (877), 40.
Flannan, St, 34 ; his oratory. 37.
Fontemel or Fontymchyll, near Kil-
mallock, 128.
Forannan, King of Thomond, 4.
Forts, ancient (earthen) — Beal Boroimhe,
28, 32 ; Ceann Coradh (Kincora), 30,
32 ; Grianan Lachtna, 30, 40 ; (stone) —
Cahercalla, near Quin, 44, 46 ; Cree-
vagh, near Quin, 41, 43, 47 ; Gorteen-
amrock, 82 ; Moghane, hill town, 47.
Francis, St, figure of, Askeaton, 60.
Franciscans, see Adare, Askeaton,
Limerick, Quin.
Friar's Island, Killaloe, 36 ; oratory,
Galwey (De Burgo) family, 16, 19, 21 ;
defends bridge, 22.
Garraunboy Castle, 82.
Gates, City, Limerick, 26 ; Kilmallock,
134.
Gebtini, Geibhtine (tribe, Askeaton), t).
Ghosts — bull and horse, 27 ; carving
of, 27.
Gold diadem found at Tory Hill, 144.
Gold find, the " Great Clare," 47.
Guaire Aidhne, King (650), 4.
Gurteenamrock stone fort, 82.
Harold family, 8.
Heresy, execution for, 112.
Hlimrek, Limerick, 7, 8.
Hogan, Fr. John, last friar of Quin, 102.
Imhar of Limerick, 8.
Imhar (III) of Limerick, 8.
Inauguration ceremonies, 46.
Inchiquin — Lords, 12 ; Murrogh, Earl
of, 12.
Inishlosky, Church of, 28.
Kenry, CaenraigJie, 2.
Kildare, Earls of, 68-69.
Kilfenora, cross removed to Killaloe, 35.
Kilfinnane mote, 136.
Killaloe, 27 — St Flannan's Cathedral, 34 ;
Cross of Kilfenora at, 35 ; St Flannan's
oratory, 34 ; St IVlolua's oratory,
Friar's Island, 36.
Killeely Church, Limerick, 25.
Kilmallock, Cell mo chealloc, 128 —
Blossoms Gate, 130 ; Burgate Monu-
ment, 136 ; Collegiate Church of SS
Peter and Paul, 121, 134 ; " Church of
St Mathologus," 131 ; Courtneruddery,
134; Dominican Friary, 128, 134,
" Flacispaghe "Abbey, 130 ; gates of
134 ; King's Castle, 136 ; town castles,
132 ; Round Tower, 121, 134.
Kilrush (Old Church), 25.
Kiltinanlea Church, 27.
Kimalta, The Keeper Hill, 6, 28, 98.
Kmcora iCeann Coradh), Brian's Palace,
32, 125.
Krappoge, dolmen and castle, 40.
Knockfierna (Cnoc Firinne), 6.
Lachtna, King of Thomond (840), his
Griai an, 30, 40.
Limerick, — Origin and name, 7-26 ; old
maps, 9, 11 ; Augustinian Monastery
25 ; Baal's Bridge 22 ; bells of, 10, 16.
18 ; Bridge (Thomond), 8 ; Castle, 8,
INDEX
147
Limerick — continued :
20 ; Castle Chapel (St Andrew), 25 ;
Cathedral Church (St Mary), 10 ;
Chapel (St Anne's), 12 ; Chapel (Jebb,
or Arthur). 12 ; Chapel (St George),
17; Chapel (St James), 16; Chapel
(St Mary Magdalen), 16; Creagh
Chapel, 12 ; Galwey O'omb, 16 ;
" Miserere " seats, 17 ; Monument to
" Great Earl of Thorn ond," 14 ;
Sexten Chapel, 17 ; Stritch Chapel, 17 ;
Tombs in Cathedral, 12-18 ; Walls, 24 ;
Charters, 10 ; Church of Killeely, 25 ;
Church of St Brigid, 25 ; Church of St
John, 24 : Church of St Martin, 25 :
Church of St Lawrence, 25 ; (Round)
Church of St Mary, 25 ; Church of St
Michael, 25 ; Church of St Mainchin, 22 ;
Church of St Nicholas, 25 ; Church of
St Patrick fSingland), 26 ; City Cross,
25 ; City Gates, 26 ; Dominican Friary,
8, 24, 25 ; Filkin's Castle, 26 ; Fran-
ciscan Friary, 25 ; Galwey's Castle or
Ireton's House, 25, 26 : Hospital of St
Johr, 24 ; House of St Mary and the
Holy Cross, O.S.A., 14, 25, 26 ; House
of the Templars, 25 ; Monastery of St
Peter, 25 ; " Old Church " or Kilrush,
25 ; Old houses, 25 ; Kilmallock Gate,
24 ; St John's Gate, 26 ; Sieges, 10, 21,
25, 26 ; Stritche's Castle, 26 : the
" Black Battery," 25 ; the Shambles,
26 ; Thomcore Castle, 26 ; Thomond
Bridge, 8, 21 ; Thomond Gate, 21, 24 ;
Towers on the walls, 24 : " Treaty
Store," 21 ; West Watergate, 25.
Loch Gur, 1, 121 — Castles (Bourchier's),
126, 127 ; (Garrett's), 127 ; Rothanna
Chruim Dhuibh, 121 ; Stone Circle of
Knockroc, 122 ; Great circle, 121-124 ;
Leaba na Muice, 124 ; Leaba Bhiar-
mada, 124; forts near, 125; legend
of, 52.
Lua, Lughaidh, Molua or Dalua, of
Killaloe, 34.
Ludlow, Lt. -General, 118.
Lughaidh Meann conquers present Co.
Clare, 2, 88.
Luimneach, the Shannon estuary, 5,
7.
Mac Ceire, (of Lismakeery) 5.
Mac Conmara, see Mac Namara.
Mac Namaras, 5, 90 ; inscription on fire-
place, 49 ; tombs in Quin Friary, 99 ;
Cumheadha mor, lord of Ui Caisin, CO ;
Sioda (1369), 20, 140 ; Sioda cam, lord
of Clancuilein (1400), 91.
Magh Adhair — place of irauguration,
40 ; O Haichir, Lord of, 89.
Magnus (or Murus) of Limerick, 8.
Mainchin, St, 1, 7, 22.
Mairtinigh, tribe, 5.
Marisco, Geffry de (builds Adare Castle),
64.
Massy family of Doonass, 28.
Mathghamhain, King of Munster (980),
8, 30, 42.
Moghane (Bronze Age town or fort), 1, 5,
47 ; Castle, 49.
Molua, St, of Killaloe, 1.
Monasteranenagh or Aenach Cairpre, 62 ;
battle of, 10, 54 ; Cistercian Abbey,
149.
Monasteries (Augustinian) — Adare, 68,
71, 74, 83 ; Kilmallock, 130 ; Limerick,
25 ; (Cistercian) — Monasteranenagh
(" DeMagio "), 77, 140 ; (Dominican) —
Kilmallock, 129, 134 ; Limerick, 24 ;
(Franciscan) — Adare, 75, 76, 78 ;
Askeaton, 58, 70 ; Limerick, 25 ; Quin,
89, 97 ; (Trinitarian), 65, 71, 74.
Monuments — Arthur, 12, 14, 16, 17 ;
Averill, 16 ; Barrington, 18 ; Browne,
60; Budston, 16; Bultingfort, 16;
Burgate, 133, 136 ; Creagh, 12, 18, 24,
101 ; Dunboyne, Lords, 97 ; Durraven,
Earls, 74 ; Galwey, 16, 17, 19 ; Harold,
14 ; Hayes, 18 ; Jebb, 12 ; Earning,
12 ; Ferrar, 12 ; FitzGerald, 134, 136 ;
Pox, 14 ; Hogan, 102 ; Inchiquin, Earl,
12 ; Mac Mahon, 97 ; Mac Namara, 49,
97-102 ; O Briers, 14, 60 ; 0 Callaghar,
101 ; O Dea, 16 ; O DriscoU, 60 ;
Ogham, 80 ; Purdon, 35 ; Redfield, 35 ;
Rice, 12 ; Roan, 35 ; Roche, 24 ;
Stephen sor, 60 ; Taylor, 58 ; Thomond
Earls, 14; Verdur, 134, 135, 1^7;
Webb, 134 ; AVestropp, 16, 58 ; White
Knight, 136 ; Yorke, 18 ; Young, 22.
Mote (early) of Kilfinnane, 136 ; of Magh
Adhair, 40, 42, 44 ; (Norman) of
Bunratty, 120.
Muscegro!^, Robert de, 105.
IVJuscraighe Chuirc, 5.
Neassan, St, of Mungret, 1.
Normans, 4 ; see also Clare de ; Marisco
de ; Muscegros de ; mote, 120.
Norse, families of Limerick, 8, 81, at
Bunratty, 105.
Norsemen and Danes, 7, 8, 105.
Oak seats (" Misereres "), Limerick
Cathedral, 17, 23.
0 Brien — family, 2, 6 ; of Askeaton, 60 ;
of Carrigogurnell, 50 ; Brian ruadh,
King of Thomond, 89, 106 ; Domhnall,
King of Murster, 8, 34, 140 ; Domhnall
mor. King of Munster (1170), 10, 25,
34, 36 ; Domhnall, slain at Quin (1280),
89, 90 ; Donat, " Great Earl of
Thomond," 39 ; Donnchad beag
executed (1584), 92 ; Donnchadh Cair-
breach, " Donnoho Carbry," King of
Munster, 8, 25 ; Donnchadh, Bishop
of Limerick, 12 ; Muircheartach, " King
of Ireland" (lOSO), 8, 10, called
IM
INDEX
O "Brien— continued :
" IVlurchad," 34 ; Murchad, King of and
First Earl of Thomond, 92 ; Murrough
the Burner, Earl of Inchiquin, 12 ;
Toirdhealbhach, King (1275, 1306), 89 ;
inauguration of, 46.
O Brien's bridge, 28.
OCallaglian family, 101.
O Carryd makes mitre and crozier (1418),
17.
ODea, Cornelius, Bishcp of Limerick,
16, 17 — mitre and crozier of, 17 ;
Cornelius and his wife, 68.
O DriscoU, family monument, 60.
Ogham stones, Adare, 80.
O Gunning, see Ua gChonaing.
O Haigshy restores Quin Friary (1615),
94.
Oilioll Olum, ancestor of the 0 Briens,
■ 84, 85.
Olfin of Limerick, 8.
Dmphile of Limerick (Anthlaibh), 8.
Patrick, St, 1, 7— legends of, 51, 64, 138 ;
churches of, see Singland, Limerick,
Ardpatrick.
Penn, Rear- Admiral William, 117. ^
Perrot, Sir John, 92 — cruel execution
by, 94.
Peters, Hugh, 117.
Plans— Adare, 77, 78 ; Askeatcn, 67, 70, |
72 ; Bunratty, 113 ; forts near Quin,
43, 44 ; Kilmallock, 141 ; Limerick,
Siege of (161:0), 1 ; City (1590), 9 ; j
City (1610), 11 ; Moghai e Fort, 45;
Quii, 101, 103.
Ptolemy's Atlas, 5. ■
Purdon family monument, 35.
Quin, Cuinche, battle at, (1278), ^'9,
108 ; De Clare's Castle, 8£ ; Church of
St Finghin, 89, 102 ; Franciscan
Friary, 89, 91 ; stucco group of cruci-
fixion, 97 ; well of St Inghen Bhaoith,
104.
Quin, Thady, rf Adare, 70. '
Redfield family monument, 35.
Reymond le Gros, 8.
Rockbarton, CatJiodr-chinn-chonn, 4.
Round Tower of Ardpatrick, 13, 138
Disert (Carrigeen, near Croom), 14b
Kilmallock, 121, 134; Roscrea, 139
Singland, 13, 26.
Senan the Hoary, St, 27.
Senan's Well, St., 27.
Sexton family, alleged plot, 50.
Shanid, battle at (831), 4.
Singland, Saingeol, 7 ; Rourd Tower, 13,
26 ; Church of St Patrick, 26.
Sitric of Limerick, 8.
Square, early metal, at Baal's Bridge
(1507), 22.
Stacpole family, 17, 18.
Stephenson, family, monument, 56, 82.
Stijne monuments — (circles) — Loch Gur,
121, 124 ; ^ dolmens) — Croaghane, 38 ;
Leaba Dhiarmada, 124 ; Leaba ra
muice. Loch Gur, 124 ; Knappoge,
Clare, 40 ; Kilmallock, 140 ; (pillars),
123, 124.
Stritch family — of Italian origin, 17 ;
castle of, 26.
Stucco work — at Quin, 97 ; at Bunratty,
6, 108, 111, 119.
Studdert family, 118.
Taylor family, 56 ; burial place, 5S,
67.
Templenakilla (Clonshire), 82.
Thomond, Donat, the " Great Earl " of,
39 ; portrait of, 114 ; will of, 120.
Thomond — Barnaby, 6th Earl of, 116 ;
Murchad, 1st Earl, 92.
Thomond, Tuadh Mumha, North Munster
2, 84.
To mar son of Elge, 8.
Tor}^ Hill, Druitn Asail, 5, 144.
Tradraidhe, Tradraighe (Tradree), 5, 88,
89, 90, 105.
Trees — ancient chestnuts, 28 ; Bill Maigh
Ad hair, inauguration tree, 42, 46 ;
Kiltinanlea, holy hawthorn, 27.
Tuath Luimnigh, 5, '/.
Uaithne ^Wetheney, or Owney), 5.
Ui Aimrid (near Sixmilebridge), 4, 38.
Ui Chonaill (of Cornello), 5.
Ui CoJochur (near Crecora), 5.
Ui Cormaic (of Islands Barony), 88.
Ui Cuanach (of Coonagh), 5.
Ui I'airchealla (Frawley), 5.
Ui Fidhgheinte, 4, 5.
Ui gCaissin, 4, 5 ; see also Mac I^amara.
Ui gConaing (O Gunning), 5, 64.
Ui mBaithin (O Meechau), 5.
Ui mhaille, 5.
Ui Rcsa, Uibh Rosa ^Iveruss), 5.
Vandeleur, Vanhogarten and Vereker
families (of Dutch origin), 10.
Verdon family, 134-137.
Well— of St (Findclu) Inghean Baoith,
Quin, 104 ;.of St Senan, Kiltirai.lea, 27.
Westropp family, 16, 58, 67.
White Knights, 134-136.
Yorke, William (gives bells to Limerick
Cathedral), 18.
Yvorus, Imhar, founder of Limerick, 7.
Pbinted by John Falconer, 53 Upper Sackville Spree:
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