Part of my childhood fades as the last monks leave Mount Melleray Abbey near Cappoquin at the weekend

Mount Melleray Abbey … founded in 1833, 6 km outside Cappoquin, Co Waterford (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

Part of my childhood came to an end at the weekend when Mount Melleray Abbey, near Cappoquin, Co Waterford, closed its doors after Mass on Saturday morning (25 January 2025).

The abbey has closed almost two centuries after it was founded in the 1830s by an Irish-born monk, Dom Vincent Ryan, returned to Ireland from the Cistercian monastery in Melleray in France, first settled in Rathmore, Co Kerry, and then became the first abbot of Mount Melleray in West Waterford.

The monks decided to close the abbey last November and agreed to form a union with Mount Saint Joseph Abbey in Roscrea, Co Tipperary, and Mellifont Abbey, Co Louth. The group, known as the Abbey of Our Lady of Silence, began to relocate to Roscrea on a temporary basis yesterday (Sunday 26 January 2025).

Throughout my childhood years, I was very familiar with Mount Melleray, which was the neighbouring farm to my grandmother’s farm at Moonwee.

The abbey bells rang across the farm and fields throughout the day. As children, we regularly traipsed through the fields at Moonwee, across brooks and stiles, to the farm and monastery at Melleray, feeling free to explore the abbey churches, buildings and farmyard, and to silently listen to the monks singing the daily offices.

I remember Moonwee and Mount Melleray, the fields around them and the streets of Cappoquin as my childhood idyll. In fact, Mount Melleray was even part of our postal address. However, I have been back to Mount Melleray only a few times since those childhood days, and my last visit was in August 2020. Twenty years earlier, I had decided against the idea of a pre-ordination retreat there in 2000. So, it was emotionally moving to return to Mount Melleray that summer five years ago and to reconnect with a spiritual tradition and monastic buildings I had once been familiar with more than half a century earlier.

Inside the monastic church at Mount Melleray Abbey (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

For almost two centuries, Mount Melleray Abbey has been a community of Cistercian or Trappist monks on the slopes of the Knockmealdown Mountains, about 6 km north of Cappoquin, Co Waterford. It was founded in 1833 on land donated by the Keane family of Cappoquin House at a nominal rent.

James Joyce mentions Mount Melleray in ‘The Dead,’ the final short story in Dubliners (1914), in which the monks of Mount Melleray are noted for their exceptional hospitality and piety. The poet Seán Ó Ríordáin’s celebrated the abbey in his poem ‘Cnoc Mellerí’ in Eireaball Spideoige (1952).

The Cistercian order was founded as branch of the Benedictines by Saint Bernard of Clairvaux in the 12th century, and the Trappists date from the mid-17th century. After the French Revolution and the suppression of monastic houses in France, some dispossessed Trappist monks arrived in England in 1794 and established a community in Lulworth, Dorset.

The symbol of the abbot’s crozier in the choir stalls Mount Melleray Abbey (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Following the restoration of the Bourbons, these monks returned to France in 1817 to re-establish the ancient Melleray Abbey in Brittany. During the July Revolution of 1830, the monks were forced to flee France once again and were sent by Dom Antoine, Abbot of Melleray, to found an abbey in Ireland.

The monastery was founded on 30 May 1832 at Scrahan, near Cappoquin, by a group of Irish and English monks from Melleray who had come to Ireland under the leadership of Father Vincent de Paul Ryan.

After many efforts to locate his community, he accepted an offer from Sir Richard Keane of Cappoquin House to rent 500 acres of mountain land, and this later increased to 700 acres.

The high altar and the sanctuary in the monastic church in Mount Melleray (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

William Abraham, Bishop of Waterford and Lismore, blessed the foundation stone of the new monastery on the feast of Saint Bernard 1833. The monastery was named Mount Melleray in memory of the mother house. It became an abbey in 1835, and Father Vincent was unanimously elected abbot. He received his abbatial blessing from Bishop Abraham, the first abbatial blessing in Ireland since the Reformation.

A small group of monks was sent from Mount Melleray to England in 1835 to found Mount Saint Bernard Abbey, near Coalville, Leicestershire. Abbot Vincent vigorously undertook the work of completing the abbey, but he died on 9 December 1845.

His successor, Dom Joseph Ryan, resigned after two years, and Dom Bruno Fitzpatrick became abbot in September 1848. Dom Bruno consolidated the initial work and the abbey and also devoted his energy to missionary work. During its earlier years, the monastery was directly subject to the bishop of the diocese, but in 1848 it came under the jurisdiction of the general chapter.

The life of Saint Bernard in a window by the Harry Clarke studios (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

The seminary at Mount Melleray began as a small school formed by Abbot Vincent in 1843, and was developed by Abbot Bruno and his successors.

When the Scottish essayist Thomas Carlyle visited Dromana House near Cappoquin in 1849, he also visited Mount Melleray and described the abbey in some detail, noting particularly the huge vats of ‘stir-about’ or porridge the monks prepared for the large number of Famine victims.

Abbot Bruno died in 1893, and was succeeded by Dom Carthage Delaney, who was blessed in 1894 and presided over Mount Melleray for 13 years. His successor, Dom Marius O’Phelan, was solemnly blessed by Bishop Sheahan of Waterford in 1908.

Dom Marius is credited with resuming the building programme at Mount Melleray in 1925. He bought the great cut limestone blocks from Mitchelstown Castle, 42 km west, after it was burnt by anti-treaty republicans on 12 August 1922. The owners of Mitchelstown Castle dismantled the ruins in 1925 and the stones were transported by steam lorry in two consignments a day over a five-year period.

The foundation stone laid by Cardinal McRory in Mount Melleray Abbey in 1933 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Dom Marius died as the abbey was being laid out, and his successor, Dom Celsus O’Connell, continued the monumental task. The monks ended up with far more stones than they needed and these were eventually stacked in fields around the monastery.

In March 1932, the community of English Cistercian nuns of Stapehill, England, moved to Saint Mary’s Convent, Lismore, which was bought and prepared for them by the monks of Mount Melleray.

The monastery celebrated its centenary in August 1933. Cardinal John McRory, Archbishop of Armagh, laid the foundation stone of a new abbey church on 17 April 1933, just 12 days after Dom Celsus was elected the seventh abbot and a few months before the abbey celebrated its centenary.

The public church and the monastic church are the main elements of the church building project undertaken by Dom Celsus, and building work began in January 1935.

The words of the canticle Magnificat carved on the wooden screen at the west end of the monastic church in Mount Melleray Abbey (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

The monastic church, where monks of Mount Melleray celebrated the Divine Office every day until last week, was completed and solemnly blessed on 26 November 1940. Later, a high altar and some 20 lesser altars – all in marble and the gifts of benefactors – were installed, and a magnificent stained-glass window was erected behind the high altar.

President Séan T O’Kelly paid a state visit to Mount Melleray in June 1946. However, it was not until the 120th anniversary of Mount Melleray that the abbey church was solemnly consecrated by Bishop Coholan of Waterford on 20 August 1952. During the consecration festival from 20 to 29 August 1952, over 100,000 people visited Mount Melleray, including President Séan T O’Kelly.

The abbey church is Gothic in architectural style and cruciform in plan. Although extended, it follows mainly the lines of the original chapel built by the first community.

In the Cistercian tradition, a massive crucifix was suspended over the nave and contained relics of Saint Bernard and many Irish saints. However, this was removed during the post-Vatican II liturgical reforms.

The east window in the monastic church in Mount Melleray Abbey (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

The east window is the work of the Harry Clarke studio. The central panel represents Christ the King crowning the Virgin Mary at the Assumption. Each evening at the Office of Compline, the lights of the Church were extinguished and, according to Cistercian tradition, the figure of the Virgin Mary was illuminated for the singing of the Salve Regina.

To the right of the central panel are Saint Catherine of Alexandria and Saint Carthage of Lismore; to the far right are Saint Robert, one of the three founders of the Cistercian Order, and Saint Patrick of Ireland.

To the left of the central panel are Saint Brigid of Kildare and Saint Columba; to the far left are Saint Bernard of Clairvaux, Doctor of the Church and the founder of the Cistercians, and Saint Malachy of Armagh, who invited Saint Bernard to send Cistercian monks to Ireland, leading to the foundation of Mellifont Abbey in 1142.

At the west end of the church, the words of the canticle Magnificat are carved in large letters on a wooden screen.

Inside the public church in Mount Melleray Abbey, facing the east end (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

The public church was consecrated at the same time as the monastic church, with Dom Benignus Hickey, Abbot of New Mellifont, consecrating the High Altar.

The public church was dedicated to the Assumption and Saint Philomena, and was once the National Shrine of Saint Philomena. Her statue was removed when her name was removed from the Roman Calendar.

The interior of the public church has five bays consisting of aisles on either side and double lancets above. The sanctuary is decorated in mosaic, both in the nave and the aisles. The walls surrounding the side aisles are decorated with angels.

The walls of the sanctuary have the instruments of the Passion in quatrefoils on the lateral walls, the east wall has images of the Sacred Heart on the north side and Saint Joseph on the south side, each with a monogram in the quatrefoil beneath.

Inside the public church in Mount Melleray Abbey facing the west end (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

The east window of the public church is in two levels. Above, in the central panel is the Assumption of the Virgin Mary with angels. Below, from left to right, are Saint Brigid, Saint Malachy of Armagh, who introduced the Cistercians to Ireland, Saint Bernard of Clairvaux, founder of the Cistercians, and Saint Patrick.

The seven main panels of this window were originally in the east window of the old monastic church.

Many of the stained-glass windows in the side aisles are also the work of Harry Clarke or the Harry Clarke Studios in Dublin.

Saint Peter and Saint Paul in a two-light lancet window by the Harry Clarke Studio in the public church in Mount Melleray Abbey (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

From its early days, the school at Mount Melleray educated both clerical and lay students until the boarding school closed in 1974. Another local landmark that is part of my childhood memories, the ‘Cats’ bar, also closed a number of years ago.

The Abbot of Mount Melleray, Dom Eamon Fitzgerald, became the first Irish Abbot General of the Cistercian Order in 2008. He returned to Melleray in 2022 after 14 years in Rome as abbot general.

The last abbot, Dom Richard Purcell, was elected the Abbot of Mount Melleray at the age of 33 in 2017. He had previously been Abbot of Mount Saint Joseph Abbey, Roscrea, and had already received the abbatial blessing in 2009.

In the past, Mount Melleray was involved in founding New Melleray Abbey, near Dubuque, Iowa, Mount Saint Joseph Abbey, Roscrea, Co Tipperary, and the Southern Star Abbey in New Zealand.

In recent years, the number of monks living in the community at Mount Melleray had dwindled from almost 60 in 1991 to six last week – and two of those six were away last week. Two had died within the space of two years, and another was living as a hermit near Saint Mary’s Abbey of Cistercian nuns in Glencairn, near Lismore, where he celebrated Mass once a week for the sisters.

The farm is now leased to a neighbouring farmer, while the monks hire contractors to fell trees from its extensive forestry. The monastery’s apiary, which once yielded an abundance of heather honey, has also disappeared, its hives long dismantled and the bees long gone.

The Lamb of God depicted in a Harry Clarke window in the public church in Mount Melleray Abbey (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Despite last week’s closing and move, the monks have not ruled out a possible return to Mount Melleray, according to Christina O’Flynn, who has been running the gift shop for the last 7½ years.

‘It’s not going to be a derelict building. It is not being sold … Some staff are being kept on to look after the grounds. It belongs to the monks. Anything else is just rumours,’ she told journalists. ‘They built a whole new wing that the order could walk right into it. Refurbishments are being carried out while they are away. If they do come back it will be different to how it was but we don't care about that. This is not about structures or buildings. What matters to us is having the liturgy back.’

‘We don’t see it as closing down,’ she said. ‘After 18 months they will make a decision about where they are going to live permanently. The hope is that it will be back here. All the monks want to come back.’

However, the present plans involve the monks from Mount Melleray remaining at the newly-formed Abbey of Our Lady of Silence in Roscrea for at least a year. The new community has 26 members, including three novices, with others interested in joining.

Meanwhile, the Cistercian order says its two other abbeys in Ireland – Bolton Abbey in Moone, Co Kildare, and Portglenone, Co Antrim – continue to operate autonomously.

The fields between Mount Melleray and Moonwee were my childhood idyll (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Praying in Ordinary Time 2021: 92, Mellifont Abbey, Co Louth

The ruins of Mellifont Abbey … the ruins of the largest and oldest Cistercian abbey in Ireland (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

Today is the Thirteenth Sunday after Trinity (Trinity XIII), and later this morning (29 August 2021) I am presiding and preaching at a Group Parish Eucharist in Holy Trinity Church, Rathkeale, Co Limerick.

Before the day gets busy, I am taking a little time this morning for prayer, reflection and reading. Each morning in the time in the Church Calendar known as Ordinary Time, I am reflecting in these ways:

1, photographs of a church or place of worship;

2, the day’s Gospel reading;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary.

My theme this week is Benedictine (including Cistercian) foundations. Already in this series, I have visited a number of Benedictine and Cistercian churches and abbeys, including and Mount Melleray Abbey, Cappoquin, Co Waterford (28 February and 1 March 2021), Ealing Abbey, London (27 April), and Glenstal Abbey, Co Limerick (28 April). This week’s theme begins at Mellifont Abbey, near Drogheda, Co Louth.

The ruins of the octagonal 13th-century lavabo, where the monks washed their hands before praying and before eating (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Mellifont Abbey, founded by Saint Malachy in 1142, was Ireland’s first Cistercian monastery, and its foundation marked the introduction of the European monastic way of life to Ireland.

These are the ruins of the largest and oldest Cistercian abbey in Ireland. The English name Mellifont is derived comes from the Latin Melli-fons, meaning ‘Font of Honey.’

Mellifont Abbey, on the banks of the River Mattock and 10 km north-west of Drogheda, was founded in 1142 at the suggestion of Saint Malachy, Archbishop of Armagh.

Four years after Saint Malachy died, the Synod of Kells held some of its sittings in Mellifont in 1152, and was attended by bishops, kings and the papal legate, John Paparo.

By 1170, there were 100 monks and 300 lay brothers at Mellifont. The abbey was a model for other Cistercian abbeys in Ireland, and remained the principle abbey in Ireland until the Reformation and the suppression of the monasteries in 1539.

Little of the original abbey survives, but the most unusual feature in the octagonal lavabo from ca 1210, where the monks washed their hands before praying and before eating.

It is possible to trace out the original walls of the abbey church, and the other remains on the site include interesting colonnades, some Romanesque arches and the 14th-century Chapter House where the monks met.

After its dissolution of monastic houses in 1539, the abbey became a private manor house. Here the Treaty of Mellifont was signed in 1603 and here William of Orange had his headquarters in 1690 during the Battle of the Boyne.

The Moore family, who later became Earls of Drogheda, remained the owners of Mellifont until 1727.

New Mellifont Abbey was re-established at Collon, Co Louth, in 1938 by monks from Mount Melleray Abbey who bought Oriel Temple, the residence of Lord Massareene. The land was originally owned by the old Mellifont Abbey. New Mellifont became an abbey in 1945. The monks run a farm, a garden and a nursery and a garden centre that is open to the public. In the Benedictine tradition the abbey offers a guest house for those wishing to stay.

The monks of New Mellifont held celebrations at the old Mellifont Abbey in 1998, marking 900 years since the Cistercians were established in Ireland, the 850th anniversary of the death of Saint Malachy, and the 60th anniversary of the re-establishment of the community. New Mellifont hosted Brothers and Sisters from Cistercian Communities in Ireland, and some from Scotland and England in 2019, celebrating the 900th anniversary of the first Cistercian charter of charity.

Today, the abbey ruins at Mellifont are a National monument of Ireland, accessible to the public.

Mellifont Abbey, founded by Saint Malachy in 1142, was Ireland’s first Cistercian monastery (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Mark 7: 1-8, 14-15, 21-23 (NRSVA):

1 Now when the Pharisees and some of the scribes who had come from Jerusalem gathered around him, 2 they noticed that some of his disciples were eating with defiled hands, that is, without washing them. 3 (For the Pharisees, and all the Jews, do not eat unless they thoroughly wash their hands, thus observing the tradition of the elders; 4 and they do not eat anything from the market unless they wash it; and there are also many other traditions that they observe, the washing of cups, pots, and bronze kettles.) 5 So the Pharisees and the scribes asked him, ‘Why do your disciples not live according to the tradition of the elders, but eat with defiled hands?’ 6 He said to them, ‘Isaiah prophesied rightly about you hypocrites, as it is written,

“This people honours me with their lips,
but their hearts are far from me;
7 in vain do they worship me,
teaching human precepts as doctrines.”

8 You abandon the commandment of God and hold to human tradition.’

14 Then he called the crowd again and said to them, ‘Listen to me, all of you, and understand: 15 there is nothing outside a person that by going in can defile, but the things that come out are what defile.’

21 For it is from within, from the human heart, that evil intentions come: fornication, theft, murder, 22 adultery, avarice, wickedness, deceit, licentiousness, envy, slander, pride, folly. 23 All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.’

The remains on the site include colonnades, Romanesque arches and the 14th-century Chapter House (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

The Prayer in the USPG Prayer Diary today (29 August 2021, Trinity XIII) invites us to pray:

Living God,
may we embrace new ways of
worship and praise.
Let us balance tradition and innovation,
placing You at the centre of all we do.

Yesterday’s reflection

Continued tomorrow

A surviving Romanesque arch in the ruins of Mellifont Abbey (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

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

After its dissolution, the abbey became a private manor house and the Moore family, later Earls of Drogheda, were the owners of Mellifont until 1727 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Saint Mary’s Askeaton: priests and people, a journey through time

Saint Mary’s Church, Askeaton … if only these walls could talk? (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2020)

Patrick Comerford

Askeaton Civic Trust

Askeaton Tourist Office, Askeaton, Co Limerick

7:30 p.m., 19 February 2020

Introduction:

I imagine that as many of us pass by some of the older buildings in Askeaton, we find ourselves saying things like, ‘If only these walls could talk …’

The banks, the old RIC barracks, the library, the schools, many of the houses … and the two churches.

Perhaps you have said that about Saint Mary’s Church, the Church of Ireland parish church beside Colaiste Mhuire. Some of you may have been inside the church, some may have family members who are buried in the churchyard.

The interesting graves and burials in the churchyard include the Famine rector, George Maxwell, and his family; the interesting Sheehy family, with a coroner, bank manager and solicitor, and a flight-lieutenant who was killed in action in World War II; the poet Aubrey de Vere (1814-1902), the Famine Grave, and the graves of interesting families, including the Wybrants, Champagne, Fosberry, Langford, Griffin, Hunt and O’Grady families.

The grave of the poet Aubrey de Vere (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2020)

But how many of you know anything about the priests and parishioners in this church over the centuries?

It is an important part of the town, and their stories are part of the story of continuity in this community.

This evening I want to say something about these priests and people.

These are stories that take us from the tea plantations in Darjeeling to Bloemfontien in South Africa, from the Bahama Islands to Sorrento, to Finland and to Venice, at least twice, to Japan, Pakistan and Australia, to Zambia, Uganda and Lesotho in Africa, to Canada and to many parts of the United States.

These include priests who got in trouble with archbishops who made life difficult for them; and vicars who make life difficult for their parishioners and their neighbours with their own bigotry. There are rectors who stay with their people through the horrors of the Famine and who saw three children die later of diphtheria.

There are priests who are here part-time, who are here for a short time and some who may have been here for far too long time. Before the Reformation, some of the vicars were not even ordained, and one was ordained when he was only 20, after he had received a Papal dispensation – because he was the son of an Augustinian friar.

There was one whose family owned the ruins of Mellifont Abbey, and another who had an indirect link to Catherine Parr, the last of Henry VIII’s six wives, who married one of the richest banking heiresses on these islands and whose son managed to resurrect for himself an old peerage title that everyone thought had died out centuries before, and so got himself a seat in the House of Lords.

From the 17th century, most were educated at Trinity College Dublin, but there is a sprinkling of clergy who were educated at Oxford and Cambridge.

The east end of the mediaeval church, behind the present church and the tower Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2020)

Saint Mary’s Church:

But first let me say a little about Saint Mary’s Church itself.

The present church was built in 1827, but beside it stand the ruins of an earlier, mediaeval church, and on the south-east corner of the church is an unusual tower, associated in local legend with the Knights Templar.

The first recorded priest in the parish is Thomas de Cardiff in 1237, which means he was here before the tower and first recorded church on the site were built.

The church and tower are said to have been built in 1291 or 1298, which means they predate both the Desmond Castle, which was built in the 15th century on the site of an earlier ruined castle, and the Franciscan Abbey, which was founded in 1389 or 1420.

But if there was a priest here 60 years before the tower and that first recorded church, we can presume there was an earlier, perhaps even a pre-Norman church on the site. It is a raised site, a mount high above the flood plains of the River Deel, which indicates this may have been an early site of worship.

The church is said to have been built in 1291. In the Papal tax of 1306, the rectory of Ynsjskyfty is valued at 16 marks and the vicarage at 6 marks.

The tower is about six metres high with a base batter, built on a square plan at the base, but halfway up it becomes an octagonal tower, and the tower has a crenellated top. There is a similar ruined tower by the ruins of a former Augustinian Priory in Knocktopher, Co Kilkenny.

The adjoining mediaeval church is in a very ruined state, and only one window remains in the gable end. The church stands at about four metres in height, and is butted up against the present parish church, built in 1827.

The tower is said to have been built by the Knights Templar (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2020)

In his Topographical Dictionary of Ireland Samuel Lewis said in 1837 that the Knights Templars originally founded this church in 1298. However, this may not be wholly true, and Lewis mistakenly ascribes many early churches in Ireland to the Knights Templars.

The Knights Templar were one of the orders founded during the Crusades by warrior monks took monastic oaths to protect the Holy Land and pilgrims. Similar orders include the Knights Hospitaller, also known as the Knights of Saint John or the Knights of Rhodes or the Knights of Malta, as well as the Teutonic Order and the Order of Saint Lazarus.

The Knights Templar, or the ‘Poor Fellow-Soldiers of Jesus Christ and the Temple of Solomon,’ were formed in 1118 in Jerusalem. They later adopted the Cistercian rule and formally received Papal recognition from Pope Innocent II in 1130. The Templars spread throughout Christendom, with strongholds and estates in most parts of Europe and the in the Holy Land.

The story that there was ever a Templar Commandery here in Askeaton was first challenged by TJ Westropp in a paper in the Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquities in Ireland. Indeed, another local tradition claims that the church is one of three churches that were built by three sisters. However, the legend does not give the name of any saint or founder who is associated with the parish.

Whoever founded the church or built the tower, for centuries this tower also served as the bell tower of the mediaeval church. The bell-cote still has the bell in its place, and a bell rope still hangs from the bell into the tower.

A new church was built in 1827 and was consecrated on 23 August 1840.

The present Saint Mary’s Church was built in 1827-1840 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Rectors, Vicars and priests in charge:

1237: (Canon) Thomas de Cardiff:

An English canon, he was Vicar of Iniskefty or Askeaton 1237. He was probably the same as Thomas de Kerdif, Prebendary of Saint Munchin’s ca 1230 and Chancellor of Limerick ca 1223-1250.

1396: Richard Burchs:

He was the Vicar of Kilscannel a year or more by 1396 without being ordained priest, and was deposed. He was then Vicar of Iniskefty (Askeaton) for year without being ordained priest and the Calendar of Papal Letters show his appointment as Vicar was decreed void in 1396.

1418: Dermit MacGillapadrug:

He was born ca1399, a clerk or priest of Killaloe, ‘noble in his 20th year,’ when he received a dispensation for ordination, needed because he was the son of priest, an Augustinian friar, and an unmarried woman. He became Rector of Ynys Keptyng (Askeaton) in December 1418.

– 1426: Edmund Micadam:

He was Vicar of Askeaton until 1426, when he resigned.

– 1426: Gillabertus Ykatyl:

He was Vicar of Askeaton a year in 1426 without being ordained priest

1427: James Oleayn:

He too had a dispensation for ordination being ‘illegitimate.’ A priest of Killaloe, he became Vicar of Inyskefyiny (Askeaton) when Edmund Micadam resigned and when Gillabertus Ykatyl’s appointment was annulled. He was presented to the parish by John Kyndton, Rector of Ballingarry.

There is then a gap through the years, including the Tudor Reformation, until the reign of Edward VI, when we find:

1552: Nicholas Brenan:
1552: Peter Downdown:
1552: Moroghe McCredan
1552: Donagh O’Madagan
1552: John O’Madagan

These five clerks or priests, possibly Vicars Choral in Saint Mary’s Cathedral, Limerick, are noted in Atheskethin (Askeaton) on 11 February 1552, during the reign of Edward VI.

The vicars choral of Saint Mary’s Cathedral, Limerick, may have served the parish of Askeaton during the Reformation period (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

1586-1615: Maurice ‘Oge’ MacPerson:

He was Vicar of Askeaton from 1586 to 1615, and possibly until ca 1617.

He was an Irish-speaker, and it is said that Sir Francis Berkeley, who was granted Askeaton Castle in 1610 after the Desmond Wars, used to employ Irish-speaking ministers, which is said to have made his tenants, whom he brought to church, very attentive.

1617-ca 1633: (Canon) Edward Holcombe (Halcomb):

Vicar of Askeaton and Lismakeery 1617-ca 1633; pres by Crown to Prebend of Saint Munchin’s 28 July 1618. Possibly the same as Edmund Halcomb, minister of Aste (Askeaton). He was still alive in 1637, when he is named as overseer of the will of John Maunsell. He may have been the father of Canon Edward Holcombe, ordained and appointed Prebendary of Croagh in 1626.

1633: Thomas Burtt (Birt):

He became Vicar of Askeaton and Lismakeery on 7 December 1633.

1640-ca 1663: Richard Jermyn:

He was educated at Oxford, and was ordained deacon (1621) and priest (1622) on Cork. He served in parishes in the dioceses of Cork and Cloyne in Co Cork before he Vicar of Askeaton on 4 March 1640. He may have remained in the parish throughout the Cromwellian wars, and was possibly here until ca 1663.

1663-ca 1668: Richard (Robert) Harlowyn:

He became Rector of Lismacderry (Lismakeery) and Vicar of Askeaton and Dromdelly (Dromdeely) on 12 February 1663. He was possibly here until 1668.

1668-1689: (Canon) Henry Royse:

Prebendary of Ardcanny (Limerick), 1661-1669; Rector of Kilcornan, Kildimo and Ardcanny, Limerick, 1663-1689; Rector of Lismakeery and Askeaton, 1668-1689. Died 1689. He was probably the father of the Revd Henry Royse, Rector of Kilcornan, 1689-1739.

1689-1731: (Canon) Solomon Delane (Delany):

Born in 1653 or 1654, he was Prebendary of Kilpeacon (Limerick), 1687-1692; Prebendary of Ardcanny (Limerick), Rector of Askeaton and Lismaleery and Vicar of Kildimo, 1689-1731; Rector of Tipperary (Cashel) and Prebendary of Lattin (Emly), 1691-1731; Vicar of Dromdeely (Limerick) ca 1693-1714. He died in 1731.

He married Anne Baldwin of Dublin in 1691.

1731-1734: Thomas Collis:

He was born at Lisodoge, Co Kerry, and a grandson of Canon Benjamin Cross, Precentor of Cloyne. He was Vicar of Kinnard and Minard, Co Kerry, 1728; Vicar of Askeaton, Lismakeery and Dromdeely, 1731-1734; Vicar of Dingle, 1734-1765; Rector of Ballynacourty and Stradbally, Vicar of Kilflyn and Kilshinane, 1747-1765; Vicar of Dunquin, Dunurlin, Garfinagh, Kilquane and Ventry, 1757.

He married Avis Blennerhassett, and they were the parents of 12 children, many dying in childhood.

1734-1747: (Canon) Henry Collis:

He also born in Co Kerry. He was Vicar of Askeaton and Dromdeely and Rector of Lismakeery (Limerick), 1734-1747; Prebendary of Effin, 1741-1747; Curate, Shanagolden, 1744-ca1757. Precentor of Limerick, 1747-1786. He seems to have died in 1786.

1747-1790: William Sprigg (Sprigge):

He was a son of Canon Nathaniel Sprigge, Rector of Newcastle. He Vicar of Askeaton and Dromdeely (Tomdeely) and Rector of Lismakeery, 1747-1790. He died in October 1790.

The Wybrants and Champagne monument in Saint Mary’s Church (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

1790-1824: Gustavus Wybrants:

He was born in 1758 in Dublin, the fifth son of Stephen Wybrants, son of the Revd Peter Wybrants, grandson of Peter Wybrants, Mayor of Dublin 1658. Joseph Peter Wybrants came to Dublin from Antwerp in 1622.

He was Vicar of Askeaton and Rector and Vicar of Lismakeery, 1790-1824. He was also Vicar of Castlelyons, Co Cork (Diocese of Cloyne), where he had a curate, but he lived in Askeaton.

In 1797 he married Mary, widow of the Revd Arthur Champagne, and daughter of the Revd Philip Homan. They were the parents of two sons and five daughters. Their children and grandchildren married into the Middleton, Herbert, Nash, Powell, Fosbery, Hobart and Dawson families.

Gustavus Wybrants died at Milltown House, Co Limerick, on 23 March 1824; Mary Wybrants died 24 January 1845 at the home of her son, the Revd Arthur Champagne Wybrants.

Ballindeel House, Askeaton … designed by James Pain and built as the rectory for Richard Murray (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

1824-1829: (Very Revd Dr) Richard Murray:

He born in Dungannon, Co Tyrone, in 1776/1777, the son of the Revd William Murray, headmaster of Royal School Dungannon. He went to his father’s school and then to TCD (BA, MA, BD, DD).

He was a curate in the Diocese of Armagh for 17 years, from 1802 to 1819. In 1809, the Archbishop of Armagh, William Stuart, refused him the papers known as bene decessit to move to the Diocese of Ardagh. When Murray took the Primate to court, the archbishop claimed Murray had not conformed to canon law in the Church of Ireland, and the King’s Bench ruled it could not compel the archbishop to issue the papers.

Eventually, Murray was Vicar of Askeaton and Rector of Lismakeery (1824-1829).

Ballindeel House, a detached, three-bay, two-storey over basement former glebe house, was built as the Rectory for Murray in 1827. The former rectory was designed by the architect James Pain (1779-1877). The present church seems to have been built at the same time (1827), although it was not consecrated until 23 August 1840.

Murray was the secretary of the West Limerick Bible Society, and while he was in Askeaton he was involved in what became known as the ‘Second Reformation.’ He stirred up considerable religious controversy because of his aggressive attempts to proselytise Roman Catholics and his polemical and his bruising debates, laced with claim and counter-claim, with his Roman Catholic counterpart, Archdeacon Michael Fitzgerald.

However, Murray’s parishioners were not happy with his approach and his attitude, and saw him as a disruptive intruder. Behind the scenes, moves were to find an alternative appointment for Murray. This became a reality in 1829, the year Catholic Emancipation was passed, when the Lord Lieutenant, the Duke of Northumberland, offered him the post of Dean of Ardagh in Co Longford.

Saint Patrick’s Church of Ireland parish church in Ardagh, Co Longford, was built as a cathedral in 1810-1812 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2018)

Later, in evidence to a Commission of Inquiry in 1837, Murray claimed his converts in Askeaton had numbered between 160 and 170 adults, as well as about 300 young people and children. In his evidence, he also expressed his disappointment with the Protestants in the Askeaton area for their lack of zeal in following his own example in proselytising.

Murray remained a member of the militant Protestant Association and was the author of several books, including tracts attacking the Roman Catholic Church such as Outlines of the history of the Catholic Church in Ireland (1840) Ireland and Her Church (1845).

He was Dean and Rector of Ardagh (1829-1854) and Vicar-General of Ardagh. However, the post of Dean of Ardagh was largely nominal after 1839, when the dioceses of Kilmore and Ardagh were united.

Murray married Mary Miller of Moneymore, Co Derry, in 1813. He died in Exmouth, Devon, on 26 July 1854, aged 77.

Sir William Taylor Money died of cholera in Venice in 1834 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2018)

1830-ca 1833: James Drummond Money:

Murray’s more amendable successor as Vicar of Askeaton was the Revd James Drummond Money, who was vicar in 1830-1833.

Money was born in Bombay on 26 April 1805, a son of Sir William Taylor Money (1769-1834), MP (1816-1826), and a director of the East India Company, who died of cholera in Venice in 1834.

Money was presented as Vicar of Askeaton by Sir Matthew Blakiston (1783-1862).

Money married twice, and both wives have interesting stories. In 1832, he married Charlotte, daughter of Canon Gerard Thomas Noel (1782-1851), Vicar of Romsey Abbey, Hampshire, an evangelical hymnwriter. Her mother, Charlotte Sophia, was a daughter of Sir Lucius O’Brien. They had nine children, and she died in 1848.

By then, they had returned to England, and he was later Vicar of Sternfield in the Diocese of St Edmundsbury.

Money’s second wife Clara Maria Money-Coutts, originally Clara Maria Burdett, was a daughter of the banker Sir Francis Burdett (1770-1844) and a sister of the Victorian philanthropist Angela Burdett-Coutts, who eventually inherited the Coutts banking fortune.

Francis Money-Coutts … a poet and writer, who inherited an obscure title and a banking fortune

James and Clara were the parents of Francis Burdett Thomas Nevill Money-Coutts (1852-1923). He was educated at Eton and Cambridge, became both a barrister and solicitor, but spent most of his life as a poet and writer.

In 1913, by a genealogical sleight of hand, he became the 5th Baron Latymer through his mother’s family, when the title was called out of abeyance, although everyone thought the title had died out 336 year earlier at the death in 1577 of John Nevill, stepson of Catherine Parr, the sixth wife of Henry VIII. Now the son of a Vicar of Askeaton had a seat in the House of Lords.

The gate lodge at Townley Hall, Drogheda … the family home of the Townley Balfour family (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

1833-1837: Willoughby William Townley Balfour:

Willoughby Townley Balfour was born in 1801 at Townley Hall, Drogheda, the second son of Blayney Townley Balfour, of Townley Hall, MP for Belturbet, and Lady Frances Cole, daughter of the Earl of Enniskillen. The ruins of Mellifont Abbey had been owned by this family for generations.

He was Vicar of Askeaton (1833-1837), and later became Rector of Aston Flamville cum Burbage in Leicestershire (1837-1878).

Why did someone like this move from Askeaton to a rural parish in England, and remain there for half a century? The patron of the living was the Earl de Grey and the Countess de Grey was his aunt, formerly Lady Henrietta Cole, a sister of his mother. Lord de Grey was also Lord Lieutenant of Ireland 1841-1844.

Willoughby Balfour died on 29 June 1888, Fairy Hill, Rostrevor, Co Down.

Sorrento … Willoughby Townley Balfour’s nephew, Bishop Francis Richard Townley Balfour, was born here in 1846 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

His brother, Blayney Townley Balfour, was Governor of the Bahama Islands, and retired to Sorrento.

His nephew, Bishop Francis Richard Townley Balfour (1846-1924), was born in Sorrento on 21 June 1846. Like his uncle Willoughby, he went to Harrow, where his contemporaries included a future Archbishop of Canterbury, Randall Thomas Davidson (1848-1903), a future secretary of the Anglican mission agency, the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel (SPG, now USPG), Bishop Henry Hutchinson Montgomery (1847-1932) from Co Donegal, the slum priest Father Robert Dolling (1851-1902) from Co Down, and a much younger Bishop Charles Gore (1853-1932), whose parents were from Ireland.

Francis Balfour went on to Trinity College Cambridge, and trained for ordination at Cuddesdon College, Oxford. He moved to Southern Africa as a missionary with the Anglican mission agency SPG (now USPG) in 1875. When ill-health forced him to return home in 1900-1901, he acted as an honorary curate in All Saints’ Parish in Raheny, Dublin.

When Balfour returned to South Africa, he became the Archdeacon of Bloemfontein (1901-1906) and then Archdeacon of Basutoland (1908-1922). When he was consecrated in Cape Town as an Assistant Bishop for the Diocese of Bloemfontein in 1911, he was effectively the first Anglican Bishop of Lesotho.

He was proud of his Irish identity and heritage, and there is a wonderful photograph of him from 1914 in a mitre and cope decorated in shamrocks and ‘Celtic’ designs.

When Bishop Balfour retired in 1923, he returned to Ireland, but died shortly afterwards in Shankill, Co Dublin, on 3 February 1924. He is buried in the grounds of Mellifont Abbey, Co Louth.

Mellifont Abbey … burial place of the Balfour family of Towenley Hall (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

1838-1870: George Maxwell:

George Maxwell (1809-1870) is a real hero among the Vicars and Rectors of Askeaton. He spent all his ministry in this parish, first as curate to Balfour from 1832 or 1833, and then as Vicar Askeaton (1838-1870). While he was here he was also curate of Dromdeely (1862-1869).

He married Margaret Anne Hewson of Ennismore, Listowel, Co Kerry, who had deep family roots in this parish. These links continued when his son, John Francis Maxwell, married Laura, daughter of Edward Hewson of Askeaton.

The new church built in 1827 was consecrated on 23 August 1840.

During the Great Famine, George Maxwell worked tirelessly and ceaselessly in the parish.

He died 8 January 1870.

The grave of the Maxwell family in Saint Mary’s Churchyard, Askeaton (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2020)

1871-1874: (Canon) Edmund Lombard Swan Eves:

Maxwell’s successor was his son-in-law and former curate, Edumnd Eve (1840-1930), who was born in Carlow 1840.

He was ordained to be curate in Askeaton (1864-1865), and then worked as a curate and then rector in parishes in the Dioceses of Leighlin and Rochester, before returning to Askeaton as Rector (1871-1874).

Later he was the Rector of Maryborough (Portaoise), 1874-1916, and Prebendary of Tecolme.

He married Caroline Maxwell, daughter of the Revd George Maxwell. Three of their children, Anne, George and Catherine, died of diphtheria in 1880. Canon Eves died on 14 July 1930, aged 90. A surviving son, the Revd Herbert Lombard Eves (1881-1953) was a priest in parishes in Ireland and England.

1875-1884: James Ashe Sullivan:

He was a grandson of Canon William Ashe, Prebendary of Croagh. He was educated at TCD, but trained for ordination at Wells Theological College.

He was ordained in Armagh, but spent many years as an SPG missionary in Melbourne, Australia (1850-1854 and 1857-1862), and worked in parishes throughout Ireland and England before coming to Askeaton at the age of 60 in 1875.

He retired in 1884, and died in St Albans, Hertfordshire, on 22 July 1888.

1885-1896: (Canon, later Archdeacon) William Malcolm Foley:

William Foley (1854-1944), was a son of the Revd Peter Foley.

He was deputy secretary of the Irish Society 1883-1885, before becoming Rector of Askeaton (1885-1896). He later returned to this area as Rector of Tralee (1907-1922), when he was a canon in Saint Patrick’s Cathedral, Dublin, and Archdeacon of Ardfert. He later moved to parishes in Co Louth.

Two of his sons were ordained, while another son, Lieutenant Thomas Foley, was killed at the Battle of the Somme in 1916.

Archdeacon Foley died on 19 October 1944.

1896-1915: (Canon) Samuel John Hackett:

Canon Samuel Hackett worked in the dioceses of Down, Connor and Dromore before becoming Rector of Askeaton (1896-1915) and Prebendary of Dysart (1911-1915).

He died unmarried at the Rectory in Askeaton on 10 October 1915. The Irish Ecclesiastical Gazette, later the Church of Ireland Gazette, described him as ‘a scholar, a gentleman, and an ideal clergyman.’

1915-1929: (Canon) Thomas Francis (Frank) Abbott:

Canon Abbott was a Vicar-Choral and Succentor of Limerick Cathedral, and a cathedral curate, before becoming Rector of Askeaton (1915-1929. He was also Prebendary of Ardcanny (1913-1919) and Treasurer of Limerick (1919-1940). He returned from Askeaton to Limerick as Rector of Saint Michael’s (1929-1940). He retired in 1940 and died on 8 May 1946.

1929-1963: (Canon) Frederick Alexander Howard White:

At an early stage, White was a curate in Rathkeale (1919-1924). He was Rector of Askeaton, Shanagolden and Loughill (1929-1963), Rural Dean of Askeaton (1940-1963) and Precentor of Limerick (1951-1963).

He retired in 1963 and died on 29 September 1965.

1964-1966: (Canon) Christopher Bruce Warren:

Dublin-born Christopher Warren trained as a teacher and was a curate in Waterford Cathedral (1962-1964) before becoming Rector of Askeaton and Foynes (1964-1966).

He married Karuna from Finland in 1973, and they later moved to Finland, where he was chaplain of the Anglican Church in Helsinki (1988-1994). He returned briefly to Co Galway, but retired to Finland in 1996, and died in 2002.

The grave of Canon George McCann in Castletown churchyard (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2017)

1966-1973: (Canon) George McCann:

A noted Irish-language scholar, he was born Lurgan, Co Armagh. He was Rector of Dingle and Ventry (1944-1954) and Rector of Kilcornan and Ardcanny (1954-1973). When Askeaton parish became vacant in 1966, Canon McCann was appointed priest-in-charge of Askeaton (1966-1973). He was also Prebendary of Donoughmore (1961-1973). He retired in 1973, and died in February 1974 at the Rectory in Kilcornan. He is buried in Kilcornan.

The grave of Canon Daniel Hevenor in Castletown churchyard (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2017)

1974-1977: (Canon) Daniel Miner Stearns Hevenor:

His grandparents were born in Kilcornan Parish and emigrated to the US during the Great Famine.

He was a priest in Olympia, Washington, and an honorary canon of Olympia. He was then curate-in-charge of Askeaton, Foynes and Kilcornan (1974-1977). He returned to the US in 1977 and died there.

1978-1980: John Luttrell Haworth:

He was business in Cork before he was ordained in 1967 at the age of 39. He held a number of positions, including Team Vicar of Tralee (1971-1972), before becoming Bishop’s Curate of Askeaton, Foynes and Kilcornan (1978-1980). He was Rector of Fermoy when he retired in 1996. He died in 2004.

John McKay was later the Anglican chaplain in Venice (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2018)

1982-1985: John Andrew McKay:

He worked in parishes in London and Southwark before returning to Ireland as Rector of Rathkeale, Askeaton, Foynes and Kilcornan (1982-1985). He was the Vicar of Saint Bartholomew’s, Dublin (1985-2000), Chaplain of Venice and Trieste (2000-2003), and chaplain, Saint John, Sandymount (2005-2006). He died on 29 July 2010.

1986-1989: (Canon) Patrick Leo Towers:

He was ordained in Japan in the 1970s while he was working there as a teacher. He moved to England in 1981, where he was a school chaplain. He was Rector of Rathkeale with Askeaton and Kilcornan (1986-1989). Later, he worked in Nenagh and Galway. He was Prebendary of Saint Munchin’s and Tulloh (1997-2000) and Provost of Tuam (2000-2008). He is now retired.

1990-1992: Kevin Samuel Dunn:

He studied theology in Canada and was ordained in the US. He was a priest in the Episcopal Church until 1990, before coming to Ireland as Rector of Rathkeale, Askeaton and Kilcornan in 1990. He moved to California in 1992.

1992-1996: Ronald Gaven Graham:

He moved from England to Ireland, and was ordained while he was working in Shannon and Limerick. He was NSM curate in Adare and Diocesan Information Officer before becoming Curate-in-Charge, Rathkeale, Askeaton and Kilcornan (1992-1996). He later moved to Wexford.

1996-2000: Sidney Eric Mourant:

He was born in Darjeeling in India in 1939, and studied theology in England. He was a CMS mission partner and lectured at theological colleges in Uganda (1975-1977) and Pakistan (1978-1981) and then at the Church Army College in London (1981-1988).

He was ordained in 1989, and was a curate in Cheshire and a Vicar in Douglas in the Isle of Man before being appointed Rector of Rathkeale, Askeaton and Kilcornan (1996-2000). He then moved to Nenagh, Co Tipperary. He retired in 2004, and lives in Co Armagh.

2001-2003: Iain John Edward Knox:

He worked in Northern parishes before moving to Clonmel in 1980-1996. He was priest-in-charge, Rathkeale, Askeaton and Kilcornan (2001-2003). He retired in 2003, and died in Cashel in 2012, where he is buried.

2003-2008: William Miller Romer:

Bill Romer was a school chaplain, teacher and assistant headmaster, and a priest in parishes throughout the US from 1960 to 2003, before moving to Ireland as the NSM priest-in-charge of Rathkeale, Askeaton and Kilcornan (2003-2008). Bill and Molly returned to the Diocese of New Hampshire in 2008 and retired in 2010.

2009-2016: (Revd Dr) Keith Brouneton de Salve Scott:

He was the Rector of Ardclinis, Tickmacrevan, Layde and Cushendun for about 14 years before going to Zambia for the first time as a CMS mission partner. He was the curate-in-charge, Rathkeale, Askeaton and Kilcornan from 2009 and returned to Zambia as a CMS mission partner in 2016.

2017-2022: (Canon) Patrick Comerford:

Retired 31 March 2022.

Inside the ruins of the east end of the earlier church (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2020)

Curates:

1714: (Canon) Simon Warner

1785: Alexander Hunter, died in Limerick, 1793

1795: Joseph Jones, later Vicar Choral, Limerick (1799), Vicar of Crecoragh (1803-1843), Rector of Brosna (1805-1843), died 1843

ca 1828: John C Miller

1833: George Maxwell, later Rector of Askeaton

1834: Nicholas Wilkinson

1836-1837: (Archdeacon) Edward Henry Brien (1812-1891), later Precentor of Waterford (1854) and Archdeacon of Emly (1858-1879)

1838: Nicholas Columbine Martin (1812-1888), died in Saint Clement’s Parsonage, Selkirk, Manitoba, Canada

1842: Frederick James Clark

1852-1854: Andrew Peard Nash (1825-1872)

– 1858: Bennet Dugdale Hastings McAdam

1860: J Watson

1860-1864: Richard Edward Fletcher (1836-1900)

1864-1866: Edmond Lombard Swan Eves, later Rector of Askeaton (1871-1874)

1866-1867: John Ormsby Stenson (1810-1870), the father of the Revd John William Stenson, SPG missionary in Southern Africa, including Bloemfontein and Kimberley; SPG Deputy Secretary, 1888-1890 and 1902-1905.

1867-1883: William Henry Darell Lodge (1841-1883), died while he was curate of Askeaton

1919-1921: (Canon) John Robert Campion (1893-1951), Curate of Shanagolden and Limerick, 1919-1921. His son, Revd Brian Hadden Campion, emigrated to Canada and is the father of Canon Peter Campion, chaplain of the King’s Hospital, Dublin, and Precentor of Saint Patrick’s Cathedral, Dublin.

In the 20th century, Askeaton has been united with Shanagolden and Loughgill, 1920-1961; Rathronan 1953; Kilcornan 1966; Rathkeale 1982; and Foynes.

Appendix 1: List of Rectors, Vicars and Priests in Charge, Askeaton:

1237: (Canon) Thomas de Cardiff

1396: Richard Burchs

1418: Dermit MacGillapadrug

– 1426: Edmund Micadam

– 1426: Gillabertus Ykatyl

1427: James Oleayn

1552: Nicholas Brenan; Peter Downdown; Moroghe McCredan; Donagh O’Madagan; John O’Madagan

1586-1617: Maurice ‘Oge’ MacPerson

1617-ca 1633: (Canon) Edward Holcombe (Halcomb)

1633: Thomas Burtt (Birt)

1640-ca 1663: Richard Jermyn

1663-ca 1668: Richard (Robert) Harlowyn

1668-1689: (Canon) Henry Royse

1689-1731: (Canon) Solomon Delane (Delany)

1731-1734: Thomas Collis

1734-1747: (Canon) Henry Collis

1747-1790: William Sprigg (Sprigge)

1790-1824: Gustavus Wybrants

1824-1829: (Very Revd Dr) Richard Murray

1830-1833: James Drummond Money

1833-1837: Willoughby William Townley Balfour

1838-1870: George Maxwell:

1871-1874: (Canon) Edmund Lombard Swan Eves

1875-1884: James Ashe Sullivan

1885-1896: (Canon, later Archdeacon) William Malcolm Foley

1896-1915: (Canon) Samuel John Hackett

1915-1929: (Canon) Thomas Francis (Frank) Abbott

1929-1963: (Canon) Frederick Alexander Howard White

1964-1966: (Canon) Christopher Bruce Warren

1966-1973: (Canon) George McCann

1974-1977: (Canon) Daniel Miner Stearns Hevenor

1978-1980: John Luttrell Haworth

1982-1985: John Andrew McKay

1986-1989: (Canon) Patrick Leo Towers:

1990-1992: Kevin Samuel Dunn

1992-1996: Ronald Gaven Graham

1996-2000: Sidney Eric Mourant

2001-2003: Iain John Edward Knox

2003-2008: William Miller Romer

2009-2016: Keith Brouneton de Salve Scott

2017- : (Canon) Patrick Comerford

Curates:

1714: (Canon) Simon Warner
1785: Alexander Hunter
1795: Joseph Jones
ca 1828: John C Miller
1833: George Maxwell, later Rector of Askeaton
1834: Nicholas Wilkinson
1836-1837: (Archdeacon) Edward Henry Brien
1838: Nicholas Columbine Martin
1842: Frederick James Clark
1852-1854: Andrew Peard Nash (1825-1872)
– 1858: Bennet Dugdale Hastings McAdam
1860: J. Watson
1860-1864: Richard Edward Fletcher (1836-1900)
1864-1866: Edmond Lombard Swan Eves, later Rector of Askeaton (1871-1874)
1866-1867: John Omsby Stenson.
1867-1883: William Henry Darell Lodge (1841-1883)
1919-1921: (Canon) John Robert Campion (1893-1951)

The Famine Grave in Saint Mary’s churchyard, Askeaton (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2020)

Updated: 9 March 2023

Viewing the cross at Balrath and the ruins at Mellifont before lunch by the beach in Bettystown

A table for two on the terrace outside Relish in Bettystown, Co Meath (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2014)

Patrick Conerford

Despite the light rain that descended on the east coas late today, four of us went for a brief walk on the beach in Bettystown, Co Meath, this afternoon.

As the rain eased and the tide continued to recede, it was possible to see as far north as the Mountains of Mourne on the Co Down coast, while out only a short distance to the east a cluster of small trawlers were working away in the shallow waters off the coast.

We had a late lunch in Relish, and even in the rain enjoyed the views out over the sandbank, down onto the beach and out to the Irish Sea.

Earlier in the morning, I was celebrating the Eucharist and preaching in Saint Bartholomew’s Church, Ballsbridge.

The east face of Balrath Cross is carved with a Pieta and inscriptions in Latin and English (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2014)

Later we drove north and stopped at Balrath to see Balrath Cross, a 16th century Wayside Cross, now located in Ballymagarvey Cemetery , close to the grounds of Ballymagarvey House.

The cross was moved to its present location several years ago because of road widening around the corner at Balrath Cross.

The east face of the cross is carved with a Pieta or image of a steaed, weeping Virgin Mary with the body of the dead Christ resting in her lap. Below this image is a Latin inscription asking for prayers for the soul of John Broin, and below that again is a later inscription in English saying the Cross was “beautified” in 1727 by Sir John Aylmer and his wife Catherine. This may be Sir John Aylmer, 3rd Baronet, of Balrath, who died in 1714.

The west face of Balrath Cross, is carved with a crucifixion and small knot carvings (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2014)

On the west face of the cross, a crucifixion is carved on the upper portion, with small knot carvings beneath. At the ends of both arms there are carvings of two masks, and there are several other smaller carvings on the cross.

The graveyard surrounds the ruins of Ballymagarvey Church, which dates back to 1658. Ballymagarvey Cemetery is probably much older and may have been more extensive before it was enclosed within its present walls.

Local lore says Ballymagarvey takes its name from a mediaeval bishop named Magarvey or McGarvey. Beside the cross, cemetery and ruined church is Ballymagarvey House, built in the early 19th century for a Mrs Osbourne who had been granted 444 acres. The nearby Somerville Estate extended to 8,000 acres.

The Aylmer family came to live in Ballymagarvey House in the mid-19th century, when they built a Corn and Flax Mill village, with a pond, millrace and the beautiful cut-stone buildings which once housed the granaries. Today, the house is a popular wedding venue.

Romanesque arches the octagonal lavabo in Mellifont Abbey, Co Louth (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2014)

From Ballymagarvey, we drove onto Johnstown, near Navan, and then through Navan, Slane and along the banks of the River Boyne before turning off to Tullyallen for Mellifont and the ruins of the largest and oldest Cistercian abbey in Ireland.

Mellifont Abbey, on the banks of the River Mattock and 10 km north-west of Drogheda, was founded in 1142 at the suggestion of Saint Malachy, Archbishop of Armagh.

Four years after Saint Malachy died, the Synod of Kells held some of its sittings in Mellifont in 1152, and was attended by bishops, kings and the papal legate, John Paparo.

By 1170, there were 100 monks and 300 lay brothers at Mellifont. The abbey was a model for other Cistercian abbeys in Ireland, and remained the principle abbey in Ireland until the Reformation and the suppression of the monasteries in 1539.

Little of the original abbey survives, apart from the octagonal 13th-century lavabo, where the monks washed their hands before praying and before eating, some Romanesque arches and the 14th-century chapter house where the monks met.

From Mellifont, we drove south through Drogheda to Bettystown for our late lunch in Bettystown. They were celebrating the seventh birthday of Relish, with balloons and a birthday cake. As usual, there was a warm welcome from the staff, the food was wonderful, and it was the perfect way to end the weekend ahead of what looks like being a busy week.

Walking on the beach in Bettystown, Co Meath, this afternoon (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2014)

The ‘Church History Road Tour’ visits Drogheda ... and goes on

Darkness closes in on Skerries Harbour at the end of today’s journey on the ‘Church History Road Tour’ (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2014)

Patrick Comerford

Winter came back with a sharp and bitter attack today, bringing with it heavy rain and dark clouds, without any glimmer of the bright sunshine that has broken through the clouds on most days of the week gone by.

Undeterred, five of us set out soon after breakfast, with one student proclaiming delightfully: “The Church History Road Tour continues.”

Our first stop was Drogheda, where we parked close to Abbey Street to see the ruins of old Saint Mary’s Abbey at the west end of West Street.

The site of the Old Abbey in Drogheda is looking forlorn and dilapidated (Photograph: Patrick Comerford,2014)

The Old Abbey or the Hospital of Saint Mary d’Urso was founded by Ursus de Swemele and his wife as a hospital for the sick and infirm about 1206. Flooding from the River Boyne in 1330 damaged much of the abbey, but it was restored mainly through the generosity of the Brandon family, and in 1349 the Prior was granted a royal charter with privileges. It passed into the hands of the Augustinian Friars later at the end of the 14th century.

Drogheda was an important walled town in the Pale in the mediaeval period, and frequently hosted meetings of the Irish Parliament. Parliament met in Drogheda in 1494 and passed Poynings’ Law a year later. This effectively subordinated the Irish Parliament’s legislative powers to the King and his Council.

Sir Edward Poynings had been appointed Lord Deputy of Ireland by King Henry VII in the aftermath of the Wars of the Roses, and his plan was to make Ireland obedient to the Crown. Poynings’ Law remained in place until 1782 when legislative independence was restored to the Irish Parliament.

The Observantine Friars reformed this monastery in 1519, but at the dissolution of the monastic houses the abbey was suppressed, and it was finally surrendered in 1543 by the last Prior, Richard Malone, to the Corporation of Drogheda.

The Corporation proceeded to dispose of the monastic properties, leasing them to local merchants. Today, all that remains of the old abbey is the central belfry tower, surmounting a Gothic archway, with another fragment supported on a similar arch to the east, and a gable wall to the west.

But the whole site is in a sad state of decay with shabby commercial premises abutting the old abbey walls, and it all looked neglected and lonely this rainy day.

The shrine of Saint Oliver Plunkett in Saint Peter’s Church, Drogheda (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2014)

From the old abbey we headed east along West Street, where our next stop was at Saint Peter’s Roman Catholic Church. It was designed in the French Gothic revival style by John O’Neill and William Byrne in the 1880s and the 1890s, and has survived almost unscathed from the post-Vatican II fashion for reordering church interiors.

The church is best-known for the elaborate shrine of Saint Oliver Plunkett, the Archbishop of Armagh who was martyred at Tyburn in 1681. The shrine on the (liturgical) north transept contains his preserved head, while a second showcase displays his shoulder blade and other bones as relics. The transept exhibition area also includes the door of the cell in Newgate Prison where he spent his final days.

The reliquary of the True Cross in Saint Peter’s Church, Drogheda (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2014)

In the opposite (liturgically south) transept is a reliquary said to contain a relic of the True Cross. This relic was presented to Drogheda in 2008 by the Bishop Ghent to commemorate the consecration of Oliver Plunkett as archbishop in Saint Bravo’s Cathedral, Ghent, in 1669.

Looking along Laurence Street towards Laurence’s Gate (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2014)

We continued east into Laurence Street, past the former Franciscan Friary, the former site of Drogheda Grammar School and the elegant Victorian Whitworth Hall to Laurence’s Gate, a barbican first built in the 13th century as part of the walled fortifications of the mediaeval town.

The gate was named in the 14th century after the Hospital of Saint Laurence on the Chord Road.

The gate consists of two towers, each with four floors, joined by a bridge at the top and an entrance arch at street level. Entry is through a flight of stairs in the south tower. A portcullis could be raised and lowered from a slot underneath the arch.

Why was such a major barbican built in the east of the town when the main artery through Drogheda was always along a north/south axis? A similar barbican in Canterbury is less than half the height of Laurence’s Gate. Yet, the top of the gate provides clear views across the estuary of the River Boyne and the four mile stretch of river from there to Drogheda, providing a vantage point for watching any potential attack from the sea invasion.

Twice the walls and gates of Drogheda held face against invasion, firstly when Edward Bruce, brother of Scotland’s King Robert Bruce, attacked the town in 1317 and again in 1642 when Sir Phelim O’Neill tried to capture Drogheda. A portion of the town wall remains to the south of Laurence’s Gate. North of the gate, the town wall ran up Palace Street and King Street, but the walls and gates fell into disrepair over the centuries.

The ‘cadaver stone’ from the tomb of Sir Edmond Goldyng and his wife Elizabeth Fleming in Saint Peter’s Churchyard in Drogheda (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2014)

We returned to the Tholsel and walked up Peter Street to Saint Peter’s Church, the town’s Church of Ireland parish church. The first Saint Peter’s Church on this site was founded before 1186.

In the Middle Ages, Saint Peter’s was an important ecclesiastical centre, and for centuries served as the Pro-Cathedral for the Archbishops of Armagh, who lived either in Termonfeckin, Dromiskin and Drogheda. The large mediaeval church had six chapels dedicated to Saint Anne, Saint Martin, Saint Patrick, Saint Peter, Saint John the Baptist and Saint George, each supporting its own chaplains.

The font by the west door of the church is all that survives from the mediaeval church. But the churchyard has many interesting monuments. A “cadaver stone” from the tomb of Sir Edmond Goldyng and his wife Elizabeth Fleming is built into the east wall of the churchyard. It probably dates from the early 16th century shows two cadavers enclosed in shrouds that have been partially opened to show the remains of the corpses in the tomb.

The grave of John Duggan ... a survivor of the Battle of Balaklava and the Crimean War (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2014)

A tombstone on the north side of the church marks the grave of John Duggan from Drogheda who survived the Charge of the Light Brigade at Balaklava and the battles of Alma and Sevastopol in the Crimean War. When he was discharged from the army, he worked as a sexton in Saint Peter’s until his death in 1881.

From the churchyard we had a glimpse too of the Magdalene Tower, all that now remains of the mediaeval Dominican Friary founded in 1224. There that O’Neill and the Ulster chiefs submitted to King Richard II in 1367.

We returned to Laurence Street for lunch in Relish on Laurence Street. We have often eaten in Relish in Bettystown, but this was my first time in their restaurant in Drogheda. We were warmly welcomed, and although the place was delightfully busy a table was soon found for all five of us.

After lunch, we went next door to the Highlanes Gallery, which opened in 2006 in the former Franciscan Friary as the town’s first dedicated Municipal Art Gallery and visual arts centre. The gallery houses Drogheda’s municipal art collection dating from the 17th century and the civic mace and sword, as well as visiting exhibitions.

The Franciscans donated the property to the people of Drogheda when their 760-year association with the town came to an end in 2000. The buildings date from the early 19th century, although some parts date back to earlier times and include the former Franciscan burial crypts. The main exhibition spaces are open plan and include the old church level and a new floor at the height of the old balcony so that, the character of the old building is not lost.

The gallery includes works by Nano Reid, Bea Orpen, Evie Hone, Mary Swanzy, Nathaniel Hill, May Guinness and Sarah Purser, as wells as a number of important 18th century works, including two views of Drogheda by the Italian artist, Gabriele Ricciardelli (ca 1743-1782).

The monastic site at Monasterboice dates from the sixth century (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2014)

From Drogheda, we headed north to the monastic site at Monasterboice. It dates back to the sixth century when the monastery was founded by Saint Buite. Although nothing remains of the original monastery, we saw the remains of two tenth century churches, the site’s three High Crosses and the Round Tower.

Saint Muirdeach’s Cross, the cross nearest the site entrance, is an outstanding example of Irish high crosses and probably finest of its type in Ireland. It is 5.2 metres high and its principle theme is Christ the King and the cross displays Biblical images from Adam and Eve and Cain slaying Able to the Last Judgment.

The West Cross is seven metres high, making it the tallest high cross in Ireland. It has an unusual crucifixion scene on the west face. The third cross, the North Cross, is less spectacular and is fenced off by low rails.

The South Church is the older of the two churches on the site, and includes the remains of the chancel arch. The smaller church beside the Round Tower shows has no trace of a chancel.

The Round Tower, about 100 ft high, is now missing its upper part and conical cap. A modern flight of steps leads up to the door, six feet above ground level.

In the ruins at Mellifont Abbey this afternoon (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2014)

From Monasterboice, we drove south-west to Mellifont Abbey, founded by Saint Malachy in 1142. This was Ireland’s first Cistercian monastery, and its foundation marked the introduction of the European monastic way of life to Ireland.

The most unusual feature is the octagonal lavabo from ca 1210. But it is possible to trace out the original walls of the abbey church, and the other remains on the site include the former Chapter House and interesting colonnades.

The beach at Bettystown in late evening lights (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2014)

Dusk was beginning to close in as we drove back though Drogheda and south to Bettystown. But of the five participants on this “Church History Road Tour,” I was the only one to get out of the car for a short walk on the expansive beach behind the original Relish. The tide was out, and darkness was beginning to fall.

We stopped again briefly to look at the Church of the Sacred Heart in Laytown, and then continued on our way along the coast through Balbriggan to Skerries, where we stopped for a short walk at the harbour and a glass of wine in Stoop Your Head.

It was about 6.30 p.m. when we got back to South Dublin. But the “Church History Road Tour” must resume.