Praying in Ordinary Time 2021: 48, Saint Colman’s Cathedral, Kilmacduagh

The cathedral and monastic ruins at Kilmacduagh, Co Galway … sometimes referred to as ‘the seven Churches’ (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

Patrick Comerford

During this time in the Church Calendar known as Ordinary Time, I am taking some time each morning to reflect in these ways:

1, photographs of a church or place of worship;

2, the day’s Gospel reading;

3, a prayer from the prayer diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel).

This week, my photographs are from seven cathedrals or former cathedrals in the Diocese of Limerick and Killaloe. Earlier in this series, I have looked at Saint Mary’s Cathedral, Limerick, Saint Flannan’s Cathedral, Killaloe, and Saint Brendan’s Cathedral, Clonfert. My photographs this week are from Aghadoe, Ardfert, Emly, Gort, Kilfenora, Kilmacduagh and Roscrea.

The East End of Kilmacduagh Cathedral … the cathedral acquired its present shape in the 14th and 15th centuries (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

Since my appointment as Precentor of Limerick, Killaloe and Clonfert in 2017, I have tried to visit all the cathedrals and former cathedrals in the diocese. This morning (16 July 2021), my photographs are from Saint Colman’s Cathedral, Kilmacduagh, Co Galway.

Saint Colman founded his monastery at Kilmacduagh, about 5 km south-west of Gort, on land given by his cousin, King Guaire Aidne mac Colmáin of Connacht, in the early seventh century.

This site on the edges of the Burren District gave rise to the Diocese of Kilmacduagh and it has several churches and a well-preserved but leaning round tower that is over 30 metres high.

The site includes the ruined cathedral, Saint John’s Church, Saint Mary’s Church, the ruins of an Augustinian Church, the Glebe House, which may have been the residence of the abbots and bishops of Kilmacduagh, and Ireland’s tallest round tower.

The name Kilmacduagh means ‘the church of Duagh’s son.’ Saint Colman, the son of Duagh, was the first abbot or bishop of the monastery until his death ca 632. His feast day is celebrated on 29 October, but the date of the monastic foundation is uncertain.

The names of his successors, apart from Indrect, who died in 814, until the Anglo-Normans arrived, have not survived in the Annals.

Nevertheless, the site was so important in mediaeval times that it became the centre of a new diocese, the Diocese of Kilmacduagh, in the 12th century. The Diocese of Kilfenora and the Diocese of Kilmacduagh both had their territories defined by the Synod of Kells in 1132.

The ruins of the monastery are sometimes referred to as ‘the seven Churches.’ However, not all of these buildings were actually churches, and none of them dates back to the seventh century.

The present, cruciform cathedral is 29.2 metres long and 6.8 metres wide. It dates from the 11th or 12th century, but is the result of rebuilding much of the earlier cathedral in the 14th and 15th centuries. The building seen today is a mixture of Romanesque, Gothic and Tudor styles.

The west wall of the nave dates from the 11th or 12th century, but incorporates a blocked tenth century doorway below a three-light Tudor window with some zig-zag carving.

The rest of the nave was built in the 12th century when the cathedral was enlarged. The south wall has a Romanesque lancet, a Gothic arch leading to the south transept, a small lancet window and a low Gothic entrance door.

The north wall has a blocked flat-arch early doorway leading to the north transept has been blocked up but contains a small round-headed doorway.

A high Romanesque arch leads to the late 13th or early 14th century chancel, with an Early English East Window replacing a blocked Romanesque window.

The south wall also has a replacement Gothic window. Beside this, a doorway leads to what may have been a sacristy. It has one round-arch window in the south gable.

The cathedral became cruciform in shape when the transepts were added in the 14th and 15th centuries. The 15th century south transept has Gothic windows in the south and east walls.

The north transept was probably added in the 14th century. It has square Tudor windows in the east and west walls and a narrow window in the north wall. This transept is sometimes known as the O’Shaughnessy Chapel, and has a number of tombs, from the 16th to the 18th century, of members of the O’Shaughnessy family, who were lay patrons of the cathedral, including wall tomb of Sir Dermot O’Shaughnessy.

The cathedral is surrounded by a graveyard still used by local people.

Kilmacduagh Cathedral began to fall into disuse and disrepair in the religious strife that followed the Reformations in the 16th century.

When Roland Lynch arrived as the new bishop in 1587, he found all the buildings ‘spoiled and wasted.’ He was the last separate Bishop of Kilmacduagh. He also became Bishop of Clonfert in 1602, and the two dioceses were united in 1625.

The cathedral was reroofed in 1640s, but fell into disrepair and disuse and once again in the Cromwellian period.

Later, Saint Colman’s Church in Gort, built in 1814 to replace an earlier church, served in effect as the cathedral of the Diocese of Kilmacduagh. The Rectors of Gort were the Deans of Kilmacduagh, and the Rectory on Church Street, Gort, built in 1812, was also known as the Deanery House.

With the Church Temporalities (Ireland) Act 1833, the united see became part of the Diocese of Killaloe and Clonfert in 1834.

The last Church of Ireland Dean of Kilmacduagh installed in Kilmacduagh Cathedral was the Very Revd Christopher Henry Gould Butson (1817-1892). Butson was born in Dublin, a son of James Strange Butson, Archdeacon of Clonfert (1812-1845), and a grandson of Christopher Butson (1747-1836), Bishop of Clonfert and Kilmacduagh (1804-1834) and Bishop of Killaloe, Clonfert and Kilmacduagh (1834-1836).

Dean Butson was educated at Trinity College Dublin. He was a curate in Clontarf (1844-1845), Vicar of Clonfert (1845-1882), Archdeacon of Clonfert (1856-1874), and Dean of Kilmacduagh (1874-1892).

When Dean Butson was installed in Kilmacduagh Cathedral in 1874, he reported, he ‘had to sit upon a tombstone amidst a luxuriant crop of stinging nettles, within the precincts of the roofless cathedral.’

His successor in Gort, Henry Varian Daly (1838-1925), was the Rector of Gort (1874-1925), Archdeacon of Clonfert (1881-1925) and Archdeacon of Kilmacduagh (1891-1925).

Since 1976, Kilmacduagh is one of the dioceses incorporated into the United Dioceses of Limerick and Killaloe, incorporating Ardfert, Aghadoe, Clonfert, Emly, Kilfenora and Kilmacduagh. Formally, the Dean of Killaloe and Clonfert is also Dean of Kilfenora and Provost of Kilmacduagh, although these appointments have not always been made formally in recent years.

Meanwhile, Saint Colman’s Church in Gort has become a public library, and there is no open Church of Ireland parish church within the boundaries of the former Kilmacduagh.

The seven other church buildings on the site at Kilmacduagh are:

The round tower, about 15 metres south-west of the cathedral.
Saint Mary’s Church, also known as ‘The Lady’s Church,’ on the east side of the road.
The Church of Saint John the Baptist, to the north of the cathedral.
The Glebe House or ‘Abbot’s House’, further north, beside the car park.
Saint Colman’s Church, south of the graveyard.
The ‘Monastery Church’ or ‘O’Heyne’s Church’, about 180 metres north-east of the cathedral.
An unidentified church beside O’Heyne’s Church.

Inside the cathedral ruins in Kilmacduagh (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

Matthew 12: 1-8 (NRSVA):

1 At that time Jesus went through the cornfields on the sabbath; his disciples were hungry, and they began to pluck heads of grain and to eat. 2 When the Pharisees saw it, they said to him, ‘Look, your disciples are doing what is not lawful to do on the sabbath.’ 3 He said to them, ‘Have you not read what David did when he and his companions were hungry? 4 He entered the house of God and ate the bread of the Presence, which it was not lawful for him or his companions to eat, but only for the priests. 5 Or have you not read in the law that on the sabbath the priests in the temple break the sabbath and yet are guiltless? 6 I tell you, something greater than the temple is here. 7 But if you had known what this means, “I desire mercy and not sacrifice”, you would not have condemned the guiltless. 8 For the Son of Man is lord of the sabbath.’

The north transept was probably added in the 14th century (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

Prayer in the USPG Prayer Diary:

The Prayer in the USPG Prayer Diary today (16 July 2021) invites us to pray:

We pray for those struggling with mental health issues. May we treat mental health as seriously as we treat physical health, and promote wellbeing across the contexts in which we operate.

Yesterday’s reflection

Continued tomorrow

The west end of Kilmacduagh Cathedral … the cathedral fell into disuse and disrepair after the Reformations (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicised Edition copyright © 1989, 1995, National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. http://nrsvbibles.org

The round tower beside Kilmacduagh Cathedral is Ireland’s tallest round tower (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

Praying in Ordinary Time 2021: 46, Saint Colman’s Church, Gort

Saint Colman’s Church in Gort, Co Galway, served as the ‘de facto’ cathedral of the Diocese of Kilmacduagh for much of the 19th century (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

Patrick Comerford

During this time in the Church Calendar known as Ordinary Time, I am taking some time each morning to reflect in these ways:

1, photographs of a church or place of worship;

2, the day’s Gospel reading;

3, a prayer from the prayer diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel).

This week, my photographs are from seven cathedrals or former cathedrals in the Diocese of Limerick and Killaloe. Earlier in this series, I have looked at Saint Mary’s Cathedral, Limerick, Saint Flannan’s Cathedral, Killaloe, and Saint Brendan’s Cathedral, Clonfert. My photographs this week are from Aghadoe, Ardfert, Emly, Gort, Kilfenora, Kilmacduagh and Roscrea.

Inside Saint Colman’s Church in Gort stands on a site donated by the Prendergast family and their descendant, Lord Gort (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

Since my appointment as Precentor of Limerick, Killaloe and Clonfert in 2017, I have tried to visit all the cathedrals and former cathedrals in the diocese. This morning (14 July 2021), my photographs are from Saint Colman’s Church in Gort, Co Galway, served as the ‘de facto’ cathedral of the Diocese of Kilmacduagh for much of the 19th century.

Gort is a pretty market town between Galway City and Ennis, and has been designated a heritage town, with its traditional street-plan and shopfronts. It is ideally located for exploring the Burren, south Galway and north Clare. Sites nearby include Coole Park, once the home of Lady Gregory and cradle of the Irish literary revival; Thoor Ballylee, once the home of WB Yeats; as well as Kilmacduagh Cathedral, the monastic site and the round tower.

Gort (Gort Inse Guaire or An Gort) is just north of the border with Co Clare on the Galway-Limerick road. It is in the former territory of Uí Fiachrach Aidhne also known as Maigh Aidhne (‘the plain of Aidhne’), which was coextensive with the Diocese of Kilmacduagh.

The name means the meadow on the island of Guaire, referring to Guaire Aidne mac Colmáin, the sixth century King of Connacht and patron of Saint Colman MacDuagh of Kilmacduagh.

During the Middle Ages the chiefs of Cenél Áeda na hEchtge, the O’Shaughnessys (Ó Seachnasaigh) clan, had their principal stronghold in Gort, on a site that later became a cavalry barracks. The O’Shaughnessy lands were confiscated at the end of the 17th century, and granted to Sir Thomas Prendergast (1660-1709).

His son, Sir Thomas Prendergast (1702-1760), MP for Clonmel, presented 294 acres in the Gort area to the Very Revd Joseph Bradshaw, Dean of Kilmacduagh, in 1738. Two years later, the first Church of Ireland parish church in the town, with a wooden spire, was built in 1740.

Prendergast also donated a house and farm to the Very Revd William Nethercote, Dean of Kilmacduagh, in 1749, along with 53 acres of land near Gort known as Horse Park.

The sites for the two parish churches in Gort, the Church of Ireland and Roman Catholic parish churches in the town, both named Saint Colman’s, were donated by Prendergast’s son, John Prendergast-Smyth (1742-1817), 1st Lord Gort. Before being made a peer in 1810, Lord Gort was MP for Carlow (1776-1783) and Limerick (1785-1798); his paternal grandfather was Thomas Smyth, Bishop of Limerick, and his uncles included Arthur Smyth, Archbishop of Dublin.

The Deanery House on Church Street was built as the rectory in 1812, and a new Church of Ireland parish church, Saint Colman’s, was built in 1814.

This church is attributed to the Limerick-based architect, James Pain (1779-1877), who also designed the neghbouring Roman Catholic parish church in Gort, also known as Saint Colman’s (see HERE).

Saint Colman’s Church in Gort was built with a loan of £1,400 by the Board of First Fruits, and it was repaired in 1828 with a further loan of £600. Queen Street was laid out in Gort after this church was built, to allow it to be viewed to its best advantage from the east.

Fine craftsmanship can be seen throughout this building, particularly in the stone carving at the pinnacles, the crenellations and string courses.

This church has a two-bay nave, a three-stage tower at the west gable, full-height transepts, and a lower chancel at the east end. There is a crenellated canted porch at the north re-entrant corner of the chancel and the nave, and a similar annex at the south.

There is a pointed arch stained-glass three-light window in the east gable with a cut limestone block-and-start surround. This remaining stained-glass window is the work of Sibthorpe of Dublin and was a gift from a Mrs Lahiff.

There are pointed arch windows in the rest of the church, with replacement windows. The pointed arch door openings at the porch and the south side of the tower have chamfered limestone block-and-start surrounds. There are timber battened doors with cut limestone steps.

The gallery in the north transept of the church was allocated to the Gregory family of Coole Park, and the gallery in the south transept was reserved for the family of Viscount Gort.

The church has pitched slate roofs with cut-stone copings, and a tower with a spire and crenellations. There are crenellations also at the porch and annex, cut-stone finials and cross finials at the gables, and corner pinnacles.

The dressed walls have stepped corner buttresses, and there are cut-stone string courses on the tower. The top stage of the tower has pointed arch louvered openings.

Sir William Henry Gregory (1817-1892) of Coole Park, near Gort, was MP for Dublin (1842-1847) and Co Galway (1857-1872), and Governor of Ceylon, now Sri Lanka (1872-1877). He also paid for the restoration and recapping of the Round Tower nearby at Kilmacduagh, the tallest round tower in Ireland.

Gregory was also an advocate of the cause of Greece and sympathetic to the Philhellenes. In a speech deliverd on 18 March 1864, he called for the restoration of the Ionian Islands and Crete to the modern Greek state.

‘If there was one spot,’ he said, ‘in all Europe where the name of England was cherished before, it was in these Ionian Islands. Now there are few places where it is regarded with greater distrust and dislike. Had these islands belonged to us, and had we ceded them, or parted company with them in any way, it would have been an evil thing to destroy their fortifications; but we are actually blowing up now that which never belonged to us, and against the destruction of which the owners protest.

‘These islands were always independent, even when under our protection. The rights of the lonians to their fortresses were recognised in the sixth article of the Congress of Vienna.

‘When Lord Malmesbury made a proposal on 16 April 1863 that these islands should be neutralised, and their fortresses destroyed, Lord Russell reprimanded him, saying that the Ionian Islands were independent states, and that if they were united to Greece it would be for them to decide whether the fortresses of Corfu were to be kept up.

‘They have kept up these fortresses by heavy taxation since 1825, though I am quite ready to admit that they have not paid up the full amount of necessary contributions. The lonians were altogether ignorant of the terms of the treaty of 1863, by which their fortresses were to be destroyed. The whole affair arose from Austrian misgivings lest these islands should be seized by the Italians, and used as a basis of hostile operations; but, if so, let Austria take on herself the discredit of this act. Why should we be execrated, and our good faith impugned, to allay Austria’s apprehensions.’

Gregory spoke of ‘the lighting up of hope in the breasts of the oppressed at the deliverance of their brethren.’

His widow, the former Augusta Persse (1852-1932), is remembered as Lady Gregory, a key figure in the Irish literary revival, a founder of the Abbey Theatre, and the patron of William Butler Yeats, who often went to church in Gort.

Sir William Gregory lost much of his inherited fortune in gambling on the racetrack. It is no surprise, then, that he gives his name to the inspector in Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes novel Silver Blaze (1892). The story is based on the disappearance of a racehorse on the eve of a major race. Gregory was at Harrow with Sir Robert Peel and Anthony Trollope, and he may have been the model for Phineas Finn in Trollope’s Palliser novels.

Saint Colman’s Church is set in its own grounds, and the graveyard on the south side of the church, which is still in use, incorporates the former orchard of a neighbouring convent.

The church closed in 1970 and was handed over on behalf of the diocese to the people of Gort on 5 April 1972, when Bishop Edwin Owen of Killaloe presented the keys to Bishop Michael Browne of Galway.

Since then, the church has become the Town Library in Gort.

The former sanctuary of Saint Colman’s Church, now the town library in Gort (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

Matthew 11: 25-27 (NRSVA):

25 At that time Jesus said, ‘I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and the intelligent and have revealed them to infants; 26 yes, Father, for such was your gracious will. 27 All things have been handed over to me by my Father; and no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.’

The East Window is the work of Sibthorpe of Dublin (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

Prayer in the USPG Prayer Diary:

The Prayer in the USPG Prayer Diary today (14 July 2021) invites us to pray:

Let us pray for youth leaders across the world church. May they feel supported by their fellow Christians and valued as contributors to the life of the Church.

Yesterday’s reflection

Continued tomorrow

The gallery in the north transept was once allocated to the Gregory family of Coole Park (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicised Edition copyright © 1989, 1995, National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. http://nrsvbibles.org

Saint Colman’s Church is set in its own grounds and is now the town library in Gort (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

Saint Colman’s Church, once a ‘de facto’ cathedral and now the library in Gort, Co Galway

Saint Colman’s Church in Gort, Co Galway, served as the ‘de facto’ cathedral of the Diocese of Kilmacduagh for most of the 19th century (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

Patrick Comerford

After visiting the ruins of the cathedral and monastic sits in Kilmacduagh, Co Galway, at the weekend, two of us returned to the town of Gort to see the former Church of Ireland parish church, Saint Colman’s.

For most of the 18th and 19th centuries, this church served as the de facto cathedral for the tiny Church of Ireland Diocese of Kilmacduagh, and the Rector of Gort was also known as the Dean of Kilmacduagh until 1892. Today, this church serves as the town’s public library.

Gort is ideally located for exploring the Burren, south Galway and north Clare. Sites nearby include Coole Park, once the home of Lady Gregory and cradle of the Irish literary revival; Thoor Ballylee, once the home of WB Yeats; as well as Kilmacduagh Cathedral, the monastic site and the round tower.

Inside Saint Colman’s Church in Gort stands on a site donated by the Prendergast family and their descendant, Lord Gort (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

Gort is a pretty market town between Galway City and Ennis, and has been designated a heritage town, with its traditional street-plan and shopfronts.

Gort (Gort Inse Guaire or An Gort) is just north of the border with Co Clare on the Galway-Limerick road. It is in the former territory of Uí Fiachrach Aidhne also known as Maigh Aidhne (‘the plain of Aidhne’), which was coextensive with the Diocese of Kilmacduagh.

The name means the meadow on the island of Guaire, referring to Guaire Aidne mac Colmáin, the sixth century King of Connacht and patron of Saint Colman MacDuagh of Kilmacduagh.

During the Middle Ages the chiefs of Cenél Áeda na hEchtge, the O’Shaughnessys (Ó Seachnasaigh) clan, had their principal stronghold in Gort, on a site that later became a cavalry barracks. The O’Shaughnessy lands were confiscated at the end of the 17th century, and granted to Sir Thomas Prendergast (1660-1709).

The former sanctuary of Saint Colman’s Church, now the town library in Gort (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

His son, Sir Thomas Prendergast (1702-1760), MP for Clonmel, presented 294 acres in the Gort area to the Very Revd Joseph Bradshaw, Dean of Kilmacduagh, in 1738. Two years later, the first Church of Ireland parish church in the town, with a wooden spire, was built in 1740.

Prendergast also donated a house and farm to the Very Revd William Nethercote, Dean of Kilmacduagh, in 1749, along with 53 acres of land near Gort known as Horse Park.

The sites for the two parish churches in Gort, the Church of Ireland and Roman Catholic parish churches in the town, both named Saint Colman’s, were donated by Prendergast’s son, John Prendergast-Smyth (1742-1817), 1st Lord Gort. Before being made a peer in 1810, Lord Gort was MP for Carlow (1776-1783) and Limerick (1785-1798); his paternal grandfather was Thomas Smyth, Bishop of Limerick, and his uncles included Arthur Smyth, Archbishop of Dublin.

The Deanery House on Church Street was built as the rectory in 1812, and a new Church of Ireland parish church, Saint Colman’s, was built in 1814.

The East Window is the work of Sibthorpe of Dublin (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

This church is attributed to the Limerick-based architect, James Pain (1779-1877), who also designed the neghbouring Roman Catholic parish church in Gort, also known as Saint Colman’s (see HERE).

Pain’s other churches include Saint Saviour’s Church (1816), Limerick, Chapel Russell Church (1822), Mungret Church (1822-1824), Co Limerick, Saint John’s Church (1814), Listowel, Co Kerry, Saint John’s Church (1826), Buttevant, Co Cork, Castletown Church (1830-1832), Kilcornan, Co Limerick, Saint Michael’s Church (1838-1844), Limerick, the Rectory in Askeaton (1826-1827), Pery Square, Co Limerick, and, perhaps, Saint Mary’s Church (1827), Askeaton, Co Limerick.

Pain’s other works include Thomond Bridge (1816), Athlunkard Bridge (1826-1830) and Baal’s Bridge (1830-1831), Limerick, Villiers Almshouse, Limerick (1826-1827), Tontine Terrace (1835-1838), Pery Square, Limerick, and the Courthouse (1843), Rathkeale, Co Limerick; rebuilding Saint Alibius Cathedral (1826-1827), Emly, Co Tipperary, and works on Saint Columba’s Church, Ennis, Co Clare, and alterations to Saint Mary’s Cathedral, Limerick, Saint Munchin’s Church, Limerick, All Saints’ Church, Stradbally, Co Limerick, Saint Carthage’s Cathedral, Lismore, Co Waterford, and Saint Brendan’s Church, Loughrea, Co Galway.

Pain also worked on Curraghchase House, Co Limerick, Elm Park, Clarina, Co Limerick, Glin Castle, Co Limerick, and the Erasmus Smith Grammar School, Tarbert, Co Kerry.

The surviving baptismal font in Saint Colman’s Church, Gort (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

Saint Colman’s Church in Gort was built with a loan of £1,400 by the Board of First Fruits, and it was repaired in 1828 with a further loan of £600. Queen Street was laid out in Gort after this church was built, to allow it to be viewed to its best advantage from the east.

Fine craftsmanship can be seen throughout this building, particularly in the stone carving at the pinnacles, the crenellations and string courses.

This church has a two-bay nave, a three-stage tower at the west gable, full-height transepts, and a lower chancel at the east end. There is a crenellated canted porch at the north re-entrant corner of the chancel and the nave, and a similar annex at the south.

There is a pointed arch stained-glass three-light window in the east gable with a cut limestone block-and-start surround. This remaining stained-glass window is the work of Sibthorpe of Dublin and was a gift from a Mrs Lahiff.

There are pointed arch windows in the rest of the church, with replacement windows. The pointed arch door openings at the porch and the south side of the tower have chamfered limestone block-and-start surrounds. There are timber battened doors with cut limestone steps.

The gallery in the north transept was once allocated to the Gregory family of Coole Park (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

The gallery in the north transept of the church was allocated to the Gregory family of Coole Park, and the gallery in the south transept was reserved for the family of Viscount Gort.

The church has pitched slate roofs with cut-stone copings, and a tower with a spire and crenellations. There are crenellations also at the porch and annex, cut-stone finials and cross finials at the gables, and corner pinnacles.

The dressed walls have stepped corner buttresses, and there are cut-stone string courses on the tower. The top stage of the tower has pointed arch louvered openings.

The monument to John Prendergast Vereker (1790-1865), 3rd Viscount Gort (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

The walls have interesting wall plaques commemorating former, distinguished parishioners, including the Ven Henry Varian Daly, who was Archdeacon of Clonfert and Rector of Gort for 31 years (although his plaque says 51 years) until he died in 1925 at the age of 87.

Archdeacon Daly is said to have saved the town of Gort from being burned by the Black and Tans in 1921.

Another monument commemorates John Prendergast Vereker (1790-1865), 3rd Viscount Gort. He was MP for Limerick (1817-1820) and Mayor of Limerick (1831-1832). His children named on this memorial include a son who died in Yangon (Rangoon) in Myanmar (Burma), and a son who died in Yokohama in Japan.

The memorial to the diolomat Hugh Gough (1849-1919), 3rd Viscount Gough (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

Hugh Gough (1849-1919), 3rd Viscount Gough, was a grandson of Field Marshal Hugh Gough (1779-1869), 1st Viscount Gough, who had bought Lough Cutra Castle near Gort in 1852.

The Gough family was descended from the Revd Hugh Gough, Rector of All Cannings, near Devizes, Wiltshire, whose three sons moved to Ireland and became Chancellor of Limerick, Archdeacon of Ardfert and Bishop of Limerick.

The 3rd Viscount Gough was a career diplomat from 1873 to 1909, serving as the British Minister Resident at the Court of the Kingdom of Saxony and the Duchy of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, and chargé d’affaires at the Court of Principality of Waldeck in the years immediately before World War I.

A brass memorial recalls his brother, Colonel George Hugh Gough (1852-1900), who was the private secretary to Viscount Wolseley and who died when during the Boer War in South Africa in 1900.

A brass memorial recalls Colonel George Hugh Goug, who died in South Africa (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

Sir William Henry Gregory (1817-1892) of Coole Park, near Gort, was MP for Dublin (1842-1847) and Co Galway (1857-1872), and Governor of Ceylon, now Sri Lanka (1872-1877). He also paid for the restoration and recapping of the Round Tower nearby at Kilmacduagh, the tallest round tower in Ireland.

Gregory was also an advocate of the cause of Greece and sympathetic to the Philhellenes. In a speech deliverd on 18 March 1864, he called for the restoration of the Ionian Islands and Crete to the modern Greek state.

‘If there was one spot,’ he said, ‘in all Europe where the name of England was cherished before, it was in these Ionian Islands. Now there are few places where it is regarded with greater distrust and dislike. Had these islands belonged to us, and had we ceded them, or parted company with them in any way, it would have been an evil thing to destroy their fortifications; but we are actually blowing up now that which never belonged to us, and against the destruction of which the owners protest.

‘These islands were always independent, even when under our protection. The rights of the lonians to their fortresses were recognised in the sixth article of the Congress of Vienna.

‘When Lord Malmesbury made a proposal on 16 April 1863 that these islands should be neutralised, and their fortresses destroyed, Lord Russell reprimanded him, saying that the Ionian Islands were independent states, and that if they were united to Greece it would be for them to decide whether the fortresses of Corfu were to be kept up.

‘They have kept up these fortresses by heavy taxation since 1825, though I am quite ready to admit that they have not paid up the full amount of necessary contributions. The lonians were altogether ignorant of the terms of the treaty of 1863, by which their fortresses were to be destroyed. The whole affair arose from Austrian misgivings lest these islands should be seized by the Italians, and used as a basis of hostile operations; but, if so, let Austria take on herself the discredit of this act. Why should we be execrated, and our good faith impugned, to allay Austria’s apprehensions.’

Gregory spoke of ‘the lighting up of hope in the breasts of the oppressed at the deliverance of their brethren.’

His widow, the former Augusta Persse (1852-1932), is remembered as Lady Gregory, a key figure in the Irish literary revival, a founder of the Abbey Theatre, and the patron of William Butler Yeats, who often went to church in Gort.

Sir William Gregory lost much of his inherited fortune in gambling on the racetrack. It is no surprise, then, that he gives his name to the inspector in Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes novel Silver Blaze (1892). The story is based on the disappearance of a racehorse on the eve of a major race. Gregory was at Harrow with Sir Robert Peel and Anthony Trollope, and he may have been the model for Phineas Finn in Trollope’s Palliser novels.

Sir William Henry Gregory inspired characters in novels by Arthur Conan Doyle and Anthony Trollope (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

Saint Colman’s Church is set in its own grounds, and the graveyard on the south side of the church, which is still in use, incorporates the former orchard of a neighbouring convent.

The church closed in 1970 and was handed over on behalf of the diocese to the people of Gort on 5 April 1972, when Bishop Edwin Owen of Killaloe presented the keys to Bishop Michael Browne of Galway.

Since then, the church has become the public library in Gort.

Saint Colman’s Church is set in its own grounds and is now the town library in Gort (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

Kilmacduagh Cathedral, its monastic churches, and Ireland’s tallest round tower

The cathedral and monastic ruins at Kilmacduagh, Co Galway … sometimes referred to as ‘the seven Churches’ (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

Patrick Comerford

Since I arrived in the Diocese of Limerick and Killaloe in early 2017, I have tried to visit each of the eight cathedrals that given their names to this long-named diocese.

I have visited and preached in the cathedrals in Limerick, Killaloe and Clonfert, I have visited the cathedral in Kilfenora, and I have visited the cathedral ruins in Ardfert, Aghadoe and Emly. But, until last weekend, I had not managed to visit the cathedral site in Kilmacduagh, in a tiny corner of Co Galway that is surrounded by the Burren District and Co Clare.

Saint Colman founded his monastery at Kilmacduagh, about 5 km south-west of Gort, on land given by his cousin, King Guaire Aidne mac Colmáin of Connacht, in the early seventh century.

This site on the edges of the Burren District gave rise to the Diocese of Kilmacduagh and it has several churches and a well-preserved but leaning round tower that is over 30 metres high.

The site includes the ruined cathedral, Saint John’s Church, Saint Mary’s Church, the ruins of an Augustinian Church, the Glebe House, which may have been the residence of the abbots and bishops of Kilmacduagh, and Ireland’s tallest round tower.

The name Kilmacduagh means ‘the church of Duagh’s son.’ Saint Colman, the son of Duagh, was the first abbot or bishop of the monastery until his death ca 632. His feast day is celebrated on 29 October, but the date of the monastic foundation is uncertain.

The names of his successors, apart from Indrect, who died in 814, until the Anglo-Normans arrived, have not survived in the Annals.

Nevertheless, the site was so important in mediaeval times that it became the centre of a new diocese, the Diocese of Kilmacduagh, in the 12th century. The Diocese of Kilfenora and the Diocese of Kilmacduagh both had their territories defined by the Synod of Kells in 1132.

The ruins of the monastery are sometimes referred to as ‘the seven Churches.’ However, not all of these buildings were actually churches, and none of them dates back to the seventh century.

The East End of Kilmacduagh Cathedral … the cathedral acquired its present shape in the 14th and 15th centuries (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

The main buildings at Kilmacduagh are:

1, The abbey church and former cathedral.
2, The round tower, about 15 metres south-west of the cathedral.
3, Saint Mary’s Church, also known as ‘The Lady’s Church,’ on the east side of the road.
4, The Church of Saint John the Baptist, to the north of the cathedral.
5, The Glebe House or ‘Abbot’s House’, further north, beside the car park.
6, Saint Colman’s Church, south of the graveyard.
7, The ‘Monastery Church’ or ‘O’Heyne’s Church’, about 180 metres north-east of the cathedral.
8, An unidentified church beside O’Heyne’s Church.

Inside the cathedral ruins in Kilmacduagh (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

1, The abbey church and former cathedral:

The present, cruciform cathedral is 29.2 metres long and 6.8 metres wide. It dates from the 11th or 12th century, but is the result of rebuilding much of the earlier cathedral in the 14th and 15th centuries. The building seen today is a mixture of Romanesque, Gothic and Tudor styles.

The west wall of the nave dates from the 11th or 12th century, but incorporates a blocked tenth century doorway below a three-light Tudor window with some zig-zag carving.

The rest of the nave was built in the 12th century when the cathedral was enlarged. The south wall has a Romanesque lancet, a Gothic arch leading to the south transept, a small lancet window and a low Gothic entrance door.

The north wall has a blocked flat-arch early doorway leading to the north transept has been blocked up but contains a small round-headed doorway.

A high Romanesque arch leads to the late 13th or early 14th century chancel, with an Early English East Window replacing a blocked Romanesque window.

The south wall also has a replacement Gothic window. Beside this, a doorway leads to what may have been a sacristy. It has one round-arch window in the south gable.

The cathedral became cruciform in shape when the transepts were added in the 14th and 15th centuries. The 15th century south transept has Gothic windows in the south and east walls.

The north transept was probably added in the 14th century (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

The north transept was probably added in the 14th century. It has square Tudor windows in the east and west walls and a narrow window in the north wall. This transept is sometimes known as the O’Shaughnessy Chapel, and has a number of tombs, from the 16th to the 18th century, of members of the O’Shaughnessy family, who were lay patrons of the cathedral, including wall tomb of Sir Dermot O’Shaughnessy.

The cathedral is surrounded by a graveyard still used by local people.

The round tower at Kilmacduagh is Ireland’s tallest round tower (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

2, The Round Tower:

The round tower, about 15 metres south-west of the cathedral, is 34.3 metres high and is Ireland’s tallest round tower. This tower probably dates from the tenth century. This is also a leaning tower, leaning 38.3 cm from the vertical towards the south-west.

The walls of the tower are almost 2 metres thick at the base, and the tower has a diameter of over 5.5 metres. But the foundations are only 60 cm deep. The doorway is 8 metres above ground level. There are a total of 11 angle-headed windows present in the tower, some of which have been restored.

The round tower was restored and repaired in 1878-1879 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

The conical cap collapsed in 1859 and was restored in 1878-1879, when the round tower was repaired under the supervision of Sir Thomas Deane, with financial support from Sir William Henry Gregory of Coole Park. The tower was repointed in 1979.

Saint Mary’s Church is on the east side of the road driven through the site in the 18th century (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

3, Saint Mary’s Church:

Saint Mary’s Church, also known as ‘The Lady’s Church,’ is on the east side of the road that was driven through the monastic site in the 18th century.

Saint Mary’s Church is a plain 13th century church, thought to have been builtca 1200, using blocks of stone from an earlier church.

Saint Mary’s Church is a single-chamber church (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

This is a single-chamber church, 12.6 metres long and 5.7 metres wide.

The doorway on the south side was inserted in the 15th century. There is a round-headed, single narrow lancet in the east gable.

The Church of Saint John the Baptist, to the north of the cathedral (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

4, The Church of Saint John the Baptist:

The Church of Saint John the Baptist, to the north of the cathedral, is a primitive tenth century church and the oldest building on the site. It is 22.5 metres long and 6.7 metres wide.

This is a simple nave and chancel church.

The small and much ruined chancel was added to Saint John’s Church at a later date (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

The small and much ruined chancel was added at a later date.

There are two single windows in the remains of the south wall: the east one is pointed and the west window is round.

The Glebe House has served as the bishop’s residence and for a small garrison (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

5, The Glebe House, ‘Abbot’s House’:

The Glebe House or hall house is known as the abbot’s house, and is at the north end of the monastic site, close to the car park. It was built in the 14th century as both a bishop’s residence and a seminary for the education of priests.

The structure was fortified sometime later and contains loopholes, a murder hole a guard tower.

The Glebe House has been restored in recent years (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

It is believed that sometime during its history, a small garrison was stationed at Kilmacduagh in this building.

The Glebe House has been restored in recent years, with windows and a new slated roof.

Saint Colman’s Church is a small church or oratory outside the walls of the cathedral and the graveyard (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

6, Saint Colman’s Church:

Saint Colman’s Church, or Tempuil Beg Mac Duagh, is a small church or oratory to the south of the cathedral, outside the walls of the surrounding graveyard.

The church seems to have been extended to the west and the south, but very little is known about the church.

Saint Colman’s Grave is in the graveyard behind the Cathedral/Templemore. Perhaps this oratory was a small tomb shrine that housed the relics of the saint. The remaining gable suggests it was much smaller originally.

The Abbey Church or ‘O’Heyne’s Church’ (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

7, The Abbey Church or ‘O’Heyne’s Church’:

The Abbey of Saint Mary de Petra, also known as O’Heynes Abbey, stands apart from the main site, about 180 metres north-east of the cathedral.

The local ruler, Owen O’Heyne (died 1253), founded the Abbey of Saint Mary de Petra as a house for Augustinian canons.

The Augustinian abbey is also attributed to Bishop Maurice Ileyan (died 1283). But the architectural evidence links only the later added east range of the abbey with Bishop Maurice.

When the north wall of the nave collapsed in the 14th or 15th century, a new wall was built inside, incorporating the original north doorway. Part of the old north wall remains, leaning out at an angle.

The abbey church is a nave and chancel church with a sacristy. Other ecclesiastic buildings extend from the south side. The east gable has two lancets, each flanked by thin pilasters. The gable also has matching pilasters at the north and south corners. There is a narrow round headed window in the south wall of the chancel and below it is a piscina. There is a rectangular window in the east wall of the sacristy.

Most of the other building that extends to the south is lit by narrow round headed lancets.

During the Reformation, the Augustinian abbey was granted to the Earl of Clanricarde.

An unidentified church south-west of the abbey church (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

8, An unidentified church:

About 10 metres south-west of the abbey church are the remains of another, unidentified building. All that remains of the north, east and west walls are the lower courses.

The south gable has a flat-headed doorway with a round-headed, 15th century window above it.

The west end of Kilmacduagh Cathedral … the cathedral fell into disuse and disrepair after the Reformations (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

The decline of a cathedral

Kilmacduagh Cathedral began to fall into disuse and disrepair in the religious strife that followed the Reformations in the 16th century.

When Roland Lynch arrived as the new bishop in 1587, he found all the buildings ‘spoiled and wasted.’ He was the last separate Bishop of Kilmacduagh. He also became Bishop of Clonfert in 1602, and the two dioceses were united in 1625.

The cathedral was reroofed in 1640s, but fell into disrepair and disuse and once again in the Cromwellian period.

Later, Saint Colman’s Church in Gort, built in 1814 to replace an earlier church, served in effect as the cathedral of the Diocese of Kilmacduagh. The Rectors of Gort were the Deans of Kilmacduagh, and the Rectory on Church Street, Gort, built in 1812, was also known as the Deanery House.

With the Church Temporalities (Ireland) Act 1833, the united see became part of the Diocese of Killaloe and Clonfert in 1834.

The last Church of Ireland Dean of Kilmacduagh installed in Kilmacduagh Cathedral was the Very Revd Christopher Henry Gould Butson (1817-1892). Butson was born in Dublin, a son of the Ven James Strange Butson, Archdeacon of Clonfert (1812-1845), and a grandson of Christopher Butson (1747-1836), Bishop of Clonfert and Kilmacduagh (1804-1834) and Bishop of Killaloe, Clonfert and Kilmacduagh (1834-1836).

Dean Butson was educated at Trinity College Dublin. He was a curate in Clontarf (1844-1845), Vicar of Clonfert (1845-1882), Archdeacon of Clonfert (1856-1874), and Dean of Kilmacduagh (1874-1892).

When Dean Butson was installed in Kilmacduagh Cathedral in 1874, he reported, he ‘had to sit upon a tombstone amidst a luxuriant crop of stinging nettles, within the precincts of the roofless cathedral.’

His successor in Gort, Henry Varian Daly (1838-1925), was the Rector of Gort (1874-1925), Archdeacon of Clonfert (1881-1925) and Archdeacon of Kilmacduagh (1891-1925).

Since 1976, Kilmacduagh is one of the dioceses incorporated into the United Dioceses of Limerick and Killaloe, incorporating Ardfert, Aghadoe, Clonfert, Emly, Kilfenora and Kilmacduagh. Formally, the Dean of Killaloe and Clonfert is also Dean of Kilfenora and Provost of Kilmacduagh, although these appointments have not always been made formally in recent years.

Meanwhile, Saint Colman’s Church in Gort has become a public library, and there is no open Church of Ireland parish church within the boundaries of the former Kilmacduagh.

The south door of Kilmacduagh Cathedral (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

In the Roman Catholic, Church, the Diocese of Kilmacduagh is now incorporated into the Diocese of Galway, which was established in 1831. The Diocese of Kilmacduagh was joined with Galway in 1883, and the Bishop of Galway was made the Apostolic Administrator of Kilfenora.

The Diocese of Kilfenora and the Diocese of Kilmacduagh both had their territories defined at the Synod of Kells in 1132. In 1751, the two dioceses were united but because Kilfenora was in the ecclesiastical province of Cashel and Kilmacduagh in the province of Tuam, the Bishop of Kilmacduagh was made the Apostolic Administrator of Kilfenora, and it was decreed that the next bishop would be Bishop of Kilfenora and Apostolic Administrator of Kilmacduagh. This system of alternation continued until Bishop Patrick Fallon resigned in 1866.

The Bishop of Galway, John McEvilly, was made administrator of Kilmacduagh and Kilfenora in 1866. In 1883, Thomas Carr was appointed bishop, the first to be appointed with the title of Bishop of Galway and Kilmacduagh and Apostolic Administrator of Kilfenora.

Having spent much of the afternoon in Kilmacduagh, and amusing myself wondering whether I am Precentor of Kilmacduagh as well as Precentor of the other cathedrals in the diocese, it seemed appropriate to return to Gort and to see Saint Colman’s Church, the de facto cathedral of Kilmacduagh for many decades.

The site at Kilmacduagh, seen from the Augustinian ruins (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)