Temple Jarlath: a direct link with Saint Jarlath of Tuam

Temple Jarlath on High Street is said to mark the site of the earliest monastic settlement established by Saint Jarlath in Tuam (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2019)

Patrick Comerford

Tuam in Co Galway owes its origins to Saint Jarlath or Saint Iarlaithe mac Loga, a sixth century priest and scholar who is celebrated as the founder of the monastic School of Tuam and he is patron saint of the Archdiocese of Tuam.

The four main ecclesiastical sites in Tuam are Saint Mary’s Cathedral on High Street, at the end of the west town, Temple Jarlath, which is nearby, and the former episcopal palace, the Roman Catholic Cathedral of the Assumption and its campus of church buildings and schools at the east end of the town.

Although Tuam traces its origins as a church and diocese to Saint Jarlath, there is no surviving mediaeval life of the saint. The main sources are references in early genealogies, martyrologies, the lives of Saint Brendan of Clonfert, and a 17th century biography compiled by the Franciscan scholar John Colgan.

Indeed, Irish genealogies record the existence of two saints named Iarlaithe: Iarlaithe son of Lugh (Iarlaithe mac Loga), founder of Tuam, and Iarlaithe son of Trian (Iarlaithe mac Trena), third Bishop of Armagh.

Jarlath of Tuam is said to have belonged to the Conmhaícne, the ruling family in the greater part of what would become the parish of Tuam. The other Iarlaithe is said to have belonged to the Dál Fiatach in east Ulster. He is identified as the third Bishop of Armagh, succeeding Saint Patrick’s heir Benignus, and the Annals of Ulster and Innisfallen record his death in the year 481.

In John Colgan’s memoir of Saint Jarlath in his Acta Sanctorum Hiberniae (1645), Jarlath is said to have studied at Kilbennen under Saint Benignus, a disciple of Saint Patrick.

Later, he founded his first monastery at Cluainfois (Cloonfush), near Tuam. His monastic school is said to have attracted scholars from throughout Ireland, including Saint Brendan of Ardfert and Saint Colman of Cloyne. Despite his fame, Jarlath left Cloonfush to study under Saint Enda of Aran around 495.

A poem ascribed to Cuimmín of Coindeire recalls Jarlath’s generosity and piety: ‘300 genuflections every night, and 300 genuflections every day.’ In Ó Cléirigh’s Martyrology of Donegal, he is said to have predicted the names of his successors, including those of three ‘heretical’ bishops.

In the mediaeval Irish Lives of Saint Brendan of Clonfert, Saint Brendan is said to have visited Connacht to study under Saint Jarlath. One day, when Jarlath was in his old age, Brendan advised his mentor to leave the school: ‘Go and where your chariot wheels break, there shall be the site of your new monastery and the place of your resurrection.’

Jarlath’s travels did not take him very far: he had travelled 4 km east when the shafts of his chariot broke at Tuaim da Ghualann (‘Mound of two shoulders’), the site of present-day Tuam, ca 526-527. There Jarlath died, ‘full of days,’ on 26 December ca 540, aged about 90.

The curving enclosure wall to the east along Church Lane and to the south along Sawpit Lane probably preserves the line of an earlier ecclesiastical enclosure (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2019)

Temple Jarlath on High Street is said to mark the site of the earliest monastic settlement established by Saint Jarlath in Tuam. However, the Vikings may have plundered this foundation, and little is known about Saint Jarlath or his early church, although it survived in some form into the 11th century.

The exact location of the saint’s original foundation is not clear. The proliferation of religious houses and ecclesiastical foundations in the town under the patronage of the O’Connors of Connacht adds to this confusion and uncertainty.

According to the Archaeological Survey of Ireland, the curving enclosure wall to the east along Church Lane and to the south along Sawpit Lane probably preserves the line of an earlier ecclesiastical enclosure.

Tony Claffey, author of the Tuam Historic Towns Atlas, believes that the site of Temple Jarlath was probably chosen for a re-established settlement built by Áed Ua Conchobair (O’Connor), or ‘Áed of the gapped spear’ in the 11th century.

King Turlough O’Connor extended the site at Temple Jarlath westwards to provide space for the new Saint Mary’s Cathedral. Despite the legends and the myths, Tuam only became the principal see in Connacht only at the Synod of Kells-Mellifont in 1152, while Annaghdown became an independent diocese at the Synod of Dublin in 1192.

But the ruins in the enclosure at Temple Jarlath are of a much later date. They include the ruins of a late 13th century parish church with a fine pointed triple light transitional east window and a later tower to the west, all on the east side of a raised, D-shaped graveyard. A late mediaeval tower stands at the west end of the church.

Following the Reformation, the church at Temple Jarlath was neglected and fell into ruins. However, it as used as the Roman Catholic parish church of the town until a new church was built in Chapel Lane in 1783. The 18th century O’Connor Donellan chapel is attached to the north wall. The surrounding churchyard continued to be used as the town graveyard until it was been closed for burials in 1885.

A late mediaeval tower stands at the west end of the church (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2019)

A large steel and wooden tower has been built on High Street to enable access to the ruined church and graveyard. However, although a sign says the site is opened daily during the summer months, it was locked when I visited on Sunday afternoon. The sign said contact details for the caretaker were available through the Galway County Council offices ‘across the road’ … but it was Sunday, and they were closed too, of course.

Today, depending on your point of view, the graveyard and church look abandoned or like a haven of peace in the heart of the town, with its lines of large yew trees and worn gravel paths.

Saint Jarlath’s feast day is celebrated on 6 June, the date of the translation of his relics to a church specially built in his honour at the east end of Tuam. There, at Teampal na Scríne or the Church of the Shrine, his remains were encased in a silver shrine, and the church became a perpetual vicarage united to the Prebend of Kilmainemore in 1415.

It is said that the relics of Saint Jarlath were hidden after the Reformation but were unearthed by workers threshing corn in 1625. Later, Loughlin O’Connor and his descendants of Kilclooney, Tuam, were appointed custodians of the relics. They remained in the possession of this family ‘until 1831, when they disappeared and were never recovered.’

Saint Jarlath’s broken wheel has become the heraldic symbol of Tuam, and is used by many local organisations, including Tuam Town Council.

The graveyard looks like a haven of peace in the heart of the town, with its lines of large yew trees and worn gravel paths (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2019)

The former episcopal Palace in Tuam was once at the heart of church life

The former Palace of the Archbishops and Bishops of Tuam stands prominently in Bishop Street, Tuam, Co Galway (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2019)

Patrick Comerford

I was in Tuam, Co Galway, for a funeral late yesterday evening [26 May 2019]. Two of us parked in the grounds of the Roman Catholic Cathedral of the Assumption, and we had a few hours to explore the town with its square and Town Hall, the two cathedrals, some of the early church sites.

The former Palace of the Archbishops and Bishops of Tuam stands prominently in Bishop Street, facing the Cathedral of the Assumption. The Palace is now linked to the large Supervalu supermarket block to the west. But it was at the centre of Church of Ireland life in Connacht for more than two centuries while it was the official residence from 1723 until 1950 of the Church of Ireland Archbishops of Tuam, and later the Bishops of Tuam.

The Palace is a detached seven-bay, three-storey over basement Georgian palace, with a three-bay entrance breakfront. It was built by Archbishop Edward Synge (1716-1741) and remodelled in 1823 by Archbishop Power Le Poer Trench.

Although this is a Georgian house, its plain upright exterior suggests a link almost as close to the tower houses of earlier centuries as to the Palladian mansions that soon followed, such as the former Bishop’s Palaces on Church Street and Henry Street in Limerick.

Yet, the Palace in Tuam is a very handsome and substantial building, and was once the largest mansion in Tuam – larger even than the ruined castle of the mediaeval High Kings of Ireland.

The house is essentially from the first half of the 18th century but it was remodelled and given its present doorway in the first decades of the 19th century. Its large scale and formal design, with good limestone detailing, is typical of important religious residences.

The Palace was built by Edward Synge (1659-1741), who was Chancellor of Saint Patrick’s Cathedral, Dublin (1705-1714), and Bishop of Raphoe (1714-1716), before becoming Archbishop of Tuam (1716-1741).

Synge was born on 6 April 1659 at Inishannon, Co Cork, the second son of Edward Synge, Bishop of Limerick (1660-1663) and Bishop of Cork, Cloyne and Ross (1663-1678), and a nephew of George Synge (1594-1653), Bishop of Cloyne. He was educated at Christ Church, Oxford, and Trinity College, Dublin.

Synge argued for religious toleration and believed Roman Catholics and Dissenters should not be prosecuted. A renowned preacher, many of his works were published. The Synge family was a dynasty of prominent church and literary figures that included the archbishop’s sons, Edward Synge (1691-1762), Bishop of Clonfert and Kilmacduagh (1730-1732), Bishop of Cloyne (1732-1734), Bishop of Ferns and Leighlin (1734-1740) and Bishop of Elphin (1740-1762), and Nicholas Synge, Bishop of Killaloe and Kilfenora (1752-1771), as well as the playwright John Millington Synge (1871-1909).

Archbishop Synge died in office on 23 July 1741, aged 82. His palace in Tuam was remodelled in 1823 by Power Le Poer Trench (1770-1839), who was Bishop of Waterford and Lismore (1802-1810) and then Bishop of Elphin (1810-1819) before becoming Archbishop of Tuam (1819-1839).

Trench was the second son of William Trench, 1st Earl of Clancarty, and a younger brother of Richard Trench, 2nd Earl of Clancarty. He was born in Sackville Street (now O’Connell Street), Dublin, on 10 June 1770, was educated at Harrow and Trinity College, Dublin, and was ordained deacon in 1791 and priest in 1792.

After ordination, he continued as the agent on his father’s vast estates centres on Ballinasloe, Co Galway. During the 1798 Rising, he was a captain in the yeomanry raised by his father to fight against the General Humbert’s invading French army.

Trench actively promoted a vigorous evangelical movement in Connacht known as the ‘Second Reformation.’ From 1818 until he died, Trench was president of the Irish Society. He strongly opposed the mixed system of national education and was one of the founders of the Church Education Society.

The carved limestone doorcase of the former Palace in Tuam has a correctly detailed Ionic order with fluted pilasters (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2019)

The Palace is said to have been built on the site of the castle fosse, and the castle ruins were quarried exhaustively for building material – a common practice in Georgian times.

The front entrance is approached by a limestone bridge across a basement area that is wide and deep enough to allow the basement rooms to be well lit. The basement area is protected by iron railings with classical piers that have urns and simple spiked railings in between.

The carved limestone doorcase has a correctly detailed Ionic order with fluted pilasters on high bases supporting a detailed entablature and open-bed pediment with the Trench coat-of-arms in the tympanum. The double-leaf timber door has raised and fielded panels.

The original, square-headed, six-over-six pane timber sliding windows have tooled limestone sills. There are roughcast rendered walls with a cut limestone band between the ground and first floors, and moulded limestone coping between the ground floor and the basement.

The rear elevation mirrors the front but without an entrance doorway. There are car parks to the front, rear and east side of building. It has a hipped slate roof with an eaves course and cast-iron rainwater goods.

The rapid development of architectural styles in the 18th century explains why s early as 1787 the architect and geographer, the Revd Daniel Beaufort (1739-1821) of Collon, Co Louth, described the Palace as ‘old-fashioned and ill-contrived.’

But half a century later, and more than a decade after the Palace was remodelled by Archbishop Trench, Samuel Lewis described the Palace as ‘large and handsomely built, though not possessing much architectural embellishment.’

However, it seems Lewis did not see that interiors of the Palace, dating from 1823, including the magnificent stucco ceilings.

The Palace was the official residence of the Archbishop of Tuam, whose diocese was then the largest in Ireland. It was also his administrative centre for rents, tithes and a consistorial court that adjudicated on wills, marriages, deeds and other matters handled by church courts.

This was the manor house at the centre of a large church demesne that included most of the town of Tuam and its surrounding districts. The demesne, first laid out by Archbishop Edward Synge, was once enclosed by elegant high walls and included gardens, stables and farmyard buildings.

The Palace grounds on the north-east side of the palace were laid out in a style associated in England with Capability Brown, with parklands, trees and walks. In 1844, the park was said to ‘add considerably to the appearance of the town.’

But five years earlier, on the death of Archbishop Le Poer Trench in 1839, the Ecclesiastical Province of Tuam lost its metropolitan status and became the united Diocese of Tuam, Killala and Achonry within the Province of Armagh.

By the time of the disestablishment of the Church of Ireland in 1869, many of the civil and legal functions of the Church had been transferred to the state.

The Palace was sold by the Church in 1950, and in 1951 the palace demesne was acquired by Galway County Council and broken up. Only the Palace, the quadrangular stables and the Palace grounds are recognisable survivals.

The Palace is clearly visible from the drive in front of the Cathedral of the Assumption, but the vista is marred by the supermarket car park between the two, and at ground level each side of the palace is often hidden behind stacked racks of supermarket trolleys.

The Trench coat-of-arms in the tympanum above the doorcase of the former Palace in Tuam (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2019)