Abbeys and Friaries

 

Mellifont Abbey, Co Louth

Mellifont Abbey was the first Cistercian Abbey in Ireland, and is situated on the bank of the River Mattock, a tributary of the Boyne, in Co. Louth. It was founded by St Malachy in 1142 with a group of Irish and French monks who trained in Clairvaux in France. The building passed through many different owners after its dissolution in 1539, and was eventually abandoned in the 18th century and left to decay. The surviving ruins at Mellifont are the Lavabo, a chapter-house and a late medieval gatehouse. Excavations have revealed the foundations of other church buildings and a vast amount of tiles. From examination of the tiles, several clear patterns have emerged. Some of these involve animal patterns and others show floral and foliage motifs.

Mellifont Abbey, Co Louth

Mellifont Abbey, Co Louth

Mellifont Abbey was the first Cistercian Abbey in Ireland, and is situated on the bank of the River Mattock, a tributary of the Boyne, in Co. Louth. It was founded by St Malachy in 1142 with a group of Irish and French monks who trained in Clairvaux in France. The building passed through many different owners after its dissolution in 1539, and was eventually abandoned in the 18th century and left to decay. The surviving ruins at Mellifont are the Lavabo, a chapter-house and a late medieval gatehouse. Excavations have revealed the foundations of other church buildings and a vast amount of tiles. From examination of the tiles, several clear patterns have emerged. Some of these involve animal patterns and others show floral and foliage motifs.

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The old Irish monasteries did not belong to any recognised religious order, but the twelfth and early thirteenth centuries saw the introduction to Ireland of a number of well-known continental orders, as part of church reform which was spearheaded by St. Malachy of Armagh. It was he who invited Augustinians and Cistercians from France to inject a new spirit into Irish monasticism. The Augustinians often took over and rejuvenated some of the centuries-old Irish monasteries, but also established their own houses, as at Athassel, Co. Tipperary, Kells in Kilkenny and Newtown Trim in County Meath (which once had what was probably the longest medieval church in Ireland). In contrast, the Cistercians confined themselves strictly to their own new foundations, starting at Mellifont  in 1142, which quickly established daughter-houses at places like Baltinglass in Wicklow and Boyle in Roscommon.

What was common to the abbeys of these new orders was an architectural lay-out of continental origin whereby a church stood tall on one side of an open square or rectangular cloister garth , the other three sides being occupied respectively by chapter-house, refectory/kitchen and domestic quarters for the monks. The churches were cruciform, having two transepts with side-chapels and with a chancel often vaulted in stone. The Cistercian churches were to be plain and severe, but Ireland was sufficiently far away from the order's French centres to ignore precepts and decorate its churches with geoemetric ornament and even human faces, as at Corcomroe in the Burren, Boyle in Roscommon and Knockmoy in County Galway. There, the Romanesque style continued to flourish into the 1220s, and spread to Augustinian houses such as Ballintober in Mayo. The towers at the crossing of these churches were usually an addition of the fifteenth century.

The Black Death of 1347-50 was one of the factors which led to the decrease in Cistercian building but, because of pilgrimage, Holycross  in Tipperary was afterwards rich enough to be almost entirely reconstructed and become the finest fifteenth-century church in the country. Its restoration in the 1970s, followed by that of Graiguenamanagh in County Kilkenny, gives us a wonderful idea of what these churches looked like in their heyday, with white-washed walls providing a bright interior. Jerpoint, Co. Kilkenny, had the fine addition in the fifteenth century of a cloister sculpted with almost life-size figures.

The Dominicans, too, built fine abbeys throughout the country, with Athenry in County Galway, Kilmallock, Co. Limerick, and Sligo town providing notable examples, while the mendicant Carmelites also created a number of friaries in Ireland, of which Loughrea in County Galway is a well-preserved specimen.

The Franciscans were among the continental religious orders which came to Ireland in the thirteenth century, but it was the fifteenth century which was to be the great period of Franciscan architecture in Ireland. Their friaries had a long church, usually with a tall and slender tower placed nearly half way along its length, fine traceried windows in chancel and transepts , as well as an impressive two-storey stone cloister, the whole complex making a very distinctly Irish contribution to European architecture of the Later Middle Ages. Fine examples include Ennis and Quin, both in County Clare, Muckross near Killarney and Kilconnell in Galway, while Mulltyfarnham in Westmeath distinguishes itself by being still active today.

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Loughrea Friary

Founded probably in the 13th century for the Carmelites by Richard de Burgo. The church consists of a nave, chancel, tower, south transept and a small south chapel near the west end of the nave. The chancel (not accessible) has a number of 13th century lancet windows in the south wall, and a 15th century window in the east wall. The tower was added in the 15th century.

Image courtesy of Dept. of Environment, Community and Local Government

Loughrea Friary - Image courtesy of Dept. of Environment, Community and Local Government

Quin Abbey

Quin Abbey in Co. Clare was built in the 15th Century in the tradition of Irish Franciscan friaries. It is built on the ruins of a Norman castle fortress from the 13th Century.

Image courtesy of Dept. of Environment, Community and Local Government

Quin Abbey - Image courtesy of Dept. of Environment, Community and Local Government

Corcomroe Abbey

This well-preserved abbey is picturesquely sited among the grey hills of the Burren, Co. Clare. The abbey is noted for its detailed carvings and other rich ornamentation, which are not commonly found in structures from this period. It features a typical cruciform church facing east, with a small chapel in each transept.

Image courtesy of Dept. of Environment, Community and Local Government

Corcomroe Abbey - Image courtesy of Dept. of Environment, Community and Local Government

Athassel Abbey

An Augustinian Abbey at Athassel, Co. Tipperary. Large parts of the church walls and central tower remain, along with foundations of the monastery cloisters and other structures. Grave markers within the church walls attest to the priory's former importance.


Athassel Abbey -

Holycross Abbey

A view of Holycross Abbey from across The Suir


Holycross Abbey -

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