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Irish Forgotten Places, 67 Castle Dawson, Maynooth (2026)

27/05/2026

Formal education in Ireland began as far back as the 500s AD as I was reminded when looking for Mobhi‘s school on the banks of the Tolka in Dublin.
According to the historian Sir James Ware there were 164 famous schools in Ireland between 500 and 700 AD. For a population of about 600,000 there would have 4-5 higher institutions in every county.
Mobhi himself was a graduate of Finnian’s Clonard which was already drawing students from abroad. From Clonard came the ‘Twelve Apostles of Ireland’ who went on to found major centres of learning around the country.
By Mobhi’s time this ‘second generation’ were all Irish-born, steeped in the language and traditions of their own people. They continued with the ‘Desert Fathers’ training they had received from the pioneers and expanded the curriculum to include Latin and Greek classics as well as sciences such as astronomy, as understood at that time.
It was not unusual for young children to receive their earliest education from religious women before been sent at the age of six or more to a local monastic school. St Ita was among those who provided schooling for girls as well as boys (such as St Brendan).
Mobhí’s school was one of the ‘higher institutions’ and had about fifty students at a time. Scholars who received their initial training from one master often went on to another in order to learn from his speciality (post graduate study?). Among those who came to Mobhi for a period were Columba of Iona, Comgall of Bangor and Ciarán of Clonmacnoise.
Today only a road sign pays tribute to Mobhi in the area now better known as Glasnevin. The site of his school is occupied by a COI church that is seldom open. Even the Tolka River is now less visible. Once the huts of his pupils were on its west side and when the river was frozen they could walk on the ice over to the church on the east.
Glasnevin is now a tourist attraction thanks to its National Cemetery, opened in 1832 by Daniel O’Connell. 1.5 million people are now buried there. Many of them are national heroes but Mobhi is not among them. His grave is nearby, unmarked where his school once stood.
When will we see a monument raised to the early educators of Ireland?
Photos: The nearby National Cemetery, the lone Road Sign, Mobhi’s site.

20/05/2026

Why is Baltinglass in south Wicklow the ’Hill Fort Capital of Ireland‘ yet so few know about it?
I went to find out and searched for an entry point at the hill nearest the town. It is called the ‘Pinnacle’ and seemed the most accessible of the 13 prehistoric forts in the area.
For an obvious tourist attraction there were no signs for where to begin climbing (I found out the reason later).
A local simply told me ‘Take the path beside the graveyard and follow it’ but the path soon faded away. A thick wall of yellow gorse lay ahead between me and the summit, beautiful but impenetrable.
I spent an hour edging my way around the gorse looking for a gap and negotiating fences.
At the top there was nothing more ancient than a radio tower and a cross. On the hill behind was what looked like a stone fort. It was too early to give in but the grassy ground soon gave way to broken rock and each step had to be taken with care.
On the second summit there was a huge heap of stones. The shale was too unstable to climb and look inside so I missed what I had come to see. The stones in fact were the collapsed walls of a fort and inside was an exposed passage tomb.
Why would people live in a fort around a passage tomb? However the more urgent question was how to get back down the hill.
Unwilling to retrace the circular way by which I had come I set off in the opposite direction. More fences had to be negotiated but there was less gorse. Finally at the bottom only a locked farmyard remained between me and a road.
I shouted to attract attention and eventually an irate man appeared demanding how I had got there and did I not know this was private land? Who told me about the hill, how did I get in and what did I want there? Did I not see all the ‘no entry’ signs warning people off?
I tried to explain there had been no one to give me directions and I had seen no signs. Finally he conceded there was a road ‘two fields away’ and left me to cross a few more fences to get there.
It was only later I discovered that visitors to the hills are discouraged because they ‘vandalise the land’. How the rocky hillside could be vandalised was not explained but I took it that meant sheep had been stolen.
I then began to see why the ‘Hill Fort Capital of Ireland’ is so little known and visited. Probably because of strong local feelings Wicklow County Council makes no effort to advertise what could be a great tourist attraction. Building hillforts may have been a long-standing local tradition to ‘keep vandals out’ and now if there is a sudden revival of fort building in the ‘Hill Fort Capital of Ireland’ you can blame intrepid day-trippers like me.
Photos: View on the way up, the fort at the top, the Pinnacle behind the 1148 Cistercian Abbey.

13/05/2026

In the 8th century a monk from Clonenagh visited nearby Coolbanagher in Laois and was inspired to write a ‘hugely influential book’ that scholars still draw on today. Who was he and why did he write the book?
His name was Oengus and as he passed the graveyard in Coolbanagher, ‘He saw a grave there, and all between heaven and the ground over the grave was full of angels. So he asked the priest of the church, “Who has been buried in yonder grave?”
“A wretched old man who was in the place," says the priest. “What thing at all used he to do?” says Oengus. “He recounted the saints of the world,” says the priest, “such of them as he remembered, on lying down and getting up each day.”
“O God of heaven,” said Oengus, “whosoever should compose in poetry a song of praise for the saints, surely great would be his guerdon (reward) thereafter, since yon grace came upon that man.”’
I wonder if this translation of ‘Old Irish’ came via Hollywood but in any case Oengus began his Martyrology there. It the earliest register of Irish saints with comments on them written in verse and in Irish. Much of what we know of that ‘Old Irish’ and of Ireland of the time comes from it.
Today copies are stored in the Royal Irish Academy in Dublin and the Bodleian Library in Oxford.
Oengus described himself as a mendicant and ’one of God's poor’. He became a monk at Clonenagh where the ‘Celi De’ reform movement was calling for a return to the simplicity and high standards of previous generations. The Vikings had begun ferocious attacks on monasteries and some believed it was God’s punishment for a Church and society that had lost its way. Oengus’ solution was to recall the personal example of the early pioneers who had inspired enthusiasm for Christianity in Ireland.
Coolbanagher itself was probably never an impressive place and when I visited there I could find no reminder of Oengus among its lonely ruins.
No angels hovered over the graveyard but I felt I should write something to ensure Oengus at least would not be forgotten. Will I earn a ‘guerdon’ for that?

06/05/2026

Over 60,000 people came to the annual Púca Festival in the Trim-Athboy area to celebrate the birthplace of Halloween. The ‘birthplace’ itself is on the Hill of Ward between the two towns and many of the visitors would have gone there late at night to join in the festivities.
It was an afternoon when I went recently to see what attracted them but the place was deserted (except for the sheep). Neither were there any signposts to inform me whether I had arrived at the right place and when I finally found the entrance it was firmly locked.
Like other famous hills in Meath, such as Tara and Loughcrew, the ‘birthplace of Halloween’ does not impress with its height as you approach. You have to get on the summit to appreciate their commanding view. Also what you find on the site itself might not, at first glance, live up to expectations. Rolling grassy mounds do little to indicate past glory unless you have a guide to explain or you have done your homework.
You could start by looking up ’Tlachtga’, the original name of the Hill of Ward (Ward was a landlord at a much later date). Tlachtga, the daughter of a legendary figure called Mog Ruith, died on the Hill while giving birth to three sons. There are similar stories about ‘sacred marriages’ that took place on monument complexes to ensure good harvests. The message is multi-layered like the hill itself which served different functions over the centuries.
Most famously, the hill is associated with Samhain, the Celtic ‘New Year’ festival on the evening of 31 October. It comes from the time when farming people paid close attention to the behaviour of the sun. As it weakened and the dark half of the year crept in, druids gathered on sacred high places to light bonfires and pray for the sun’s return.
At such ‘in-between’ moments, when one half of the year ended and people waited for a new year to dawn, inhabitants of the ancestor’s ‘other world’ could emerge and frighten people. Ways of appeasing or diverting them evolved and such customs continued into Christian times becoming Halloween (the Eve of the Feast of all Saints).
Tlachtga was not the only place in Ireland or the world to mark this important annual event but it was a major site in Ireland and so popular that Irish emigrants are said to have brought Samhain practices to the United States and beyond. Today many flock back to the Hill of Ward for the Samhain experience.
I did not know all this before my recent visit to the Hill but got help when returning the key.
I was fortunate in meeting the landowner and his wife. They welcome visitors but had been told by insurers they have to keep the entrance locked. As residents on the Hill they are well informed of its heritage and even conduct guided tours during the summer. The farmer himself was convinced that the hill not only has historical importance but a unique energy. He told me the most authentic relic there from ancient times was probably a half-submerged stone near the top. It has an intensity that many had felt and noted. Indeed it had impressed me enough to stop and take its photo when passing. On checking the photo the stone did seem to have an unusual glow. I agreed that a geologist should take a closer look to determine its origin and properties.
On the Hill its present day guardians, sheep not druids, gathered around to scrutinise me. I was reminded of a line from an old poem:
‘Tlachtga, proud and princely hill,
has seen the passing of many a stern king’.
Photos: The circling mounds, the Stone , the guardian sheep.

29/04/2026

As a modern satellite of Dublin, Tallaght might not want to be remembered for its original name of ‘Taimhleacht Muintire Parthalóin’ meaning ‘The plague-burial place of the Parthalóns’. 9,000 of those early invaders are said to be buried there.
It became known as Tamhleacht Maelruan’ (Tallaght of Maelruan), when a reforming monk of that name arrived in 769. The monastery he founded soon became known as one of the ‘Two Eyes of Ireland’ (the other being Finglas, on the opposite side of Dublin). I went to Tallaght recently to see what that might mean.
As it turned out the only physical trace of Maelruan I came across was his ‘Losset’, a magnificent font that unfortunately dates from a different era. There are no statues of him or tourist boards to remind people of his achievements. However when walking past the nearby Dominican Retreat Centre a thought occurred to me.
Some years ago I was part of a challenging three-day Zen retreat there. Led by an American lady dressed in the robes of a Japanese Zen Master, it introduced us to strict Japanese Buddhist practices -- long meditations sitting on the floor, reciting scripture, silence, simple food and early rising. It was a comforting but not comfortable experience.
Although those activities had an exotic edge at that time, on my recent return to Tallaght I realised that they were not unlike what Maelruan was trying to restore at Tallaght over a thousand years earlier.
The Christianity that first came to Ireland had roots in the demanding spiritual discipline of the ‘Desert Fathers’ as described by John Cassian and others. Physical and mental restraint were taught through the same physical and mental practices found in Zen: long spells of communal and personal prayer, silence, fasting and a simple lifestyle. The example set by those monasteries inspired ordinary Irish people until Norman times and beyond.
Inevitably the more testing practices were relaxed and abuses began to creep in so a movement known as the ‘Celi De’ (People of God) emerged to restore the original spirit. Maelruan was one of its leaders and much of what we know about the group comes from documents such as his ‘The Rule of Tallaght’ that have survived in libraries and museums.
Finglas was the second ‘Eye of Ireland’ but there were other centres I had visited without realising their role -- Terryglass, Derrynaflann, Lorrha, Clones and Castledermot (Díseart Diarmada). Numerous ‘Diseart’ hermitages for ascetics sprung up around the country at that time.
Many questions remain about Celi De – who started it and how wide was its influence? Clues can be found in the Tallaght documents but also in an artistic expressions (as Zen had) that, for Ireland, were expressed in Round Towers, High Crosses and illuminated manuscripts.
Today little physical trace of Maelruan can be seen in Tallaght but his spirit lives on in the poems of his manuscripts:
‘Melodious music the birds perform
To the king of the heaven of clouds,
Praising the radiant king,
Hark from afar to the choir of the birds.’
Photos: The tower that is all the remains of a fortified house built over Maelruan’s site by an Archbishop of Dublin in 1324, St Maelruan’s Losset and the Retreat House.

15/04/2026

Where else in the world could you just go to a neighbouring house to get the key and then walk up the road into a chamber where your ancestors were placed 5000 years ago and is still well preserved because it was not uncovered until the 1950s?
The one I visited recently is Fourknocks, a passage tomb in the Boyne Valley, ten miles from the megalithics of Newgrange. Though less visited than its neighbour it has a larger inner chamber, indeed the largest in Ireland.
What it brought home to me is how much more we can know about our ancestors than I thought possible and also, they were smarter than I presumed.
When returning the key to its keeper down the road I got a copy of Anthony Murphy’s ‘Fourknocks: Archaeology, Astronomy and Mythology’. I recommend it to anyone with an interest in Ireland’s early years. It gives not only a detailed account of Fourknocks but also an easy-to-read introduction to life, monuments and art in early Ireland. His enthusiasm for the subject is heart-warming.
Fourknocks is from the same cultural period as neighbouring Newgrange but has no car park, interpretative centre or guides. You find the house of the key-keeper, park on the side of the road, walk up a tidy path and come upon a grassy tomb looking out over countryside that has not changed over centuries.
The entrance passage is short and low, and the chamber inside dark, but there is enough natural light to appreciate the size and to note three recesses in which most of the human remains were found. With a phone torch you can make out some of the wall carvings but it is difficult to see the detail Anthony Murphy describes so well in his book. One unusual figure seems to be that of a woman.
When the tomb was discovered in the 1950s, the Office of Public Works carried out careful archaeological examinations before doing an admirable job in preserving its character and atmosphere.
The reason the tomb and its contents were in good condition was because building an arched roof over such a wide chamber proved too much for the ambitious builders of that time and it collapsed at an early period.
Inside the remains of over sixty individuals were found, equally divided between men and women. There also were children. They were not royalty, just families in the community.
On the way out the passage you can glimpse Mullaghteelin Hill off in the distance. Anthony Murphy describes the alignment of the passage not only with stars but with other similar monuments in a northerly direction. Our past is far more sophisticated than we credit it.
If you want to experience Fourknocks it would be good to go soon. Anthony Murphy warns how unthinking visitors have damaged nearby sites with graffiti and garbage and that is beginning to happen at Fourknocks. The OPW who manages the site may not continue to consider it safe to leave it so available and vulnerable.

01/04/2026

Looking through photos taken at Carbury I was reminded that Ireland has ‘a mythology as rich and vibrant as that of Greece’.
I had gone to Carbury to find the mythical source of the River Boyne but was defeated by the locked gates of the demesne where the magic well of Segais, the source of the river, is located. I was so intent on finding the infant river that I almost missed the Fairly Hill of Neachtain (Sidh Neachtain) itself, on the other side of the demesne where it is open to the public. That was where Neachtain, guardian of the sacred well, lived with his wife Boann who gave her name to the Boyne.
Neachtain was a warrior lieutenant of the Dagda, the ruler and father figure of the Tuatha de Danann, the People of Danu who occupied Ireland before the Celts. Their super-human abilities did not protect them from the invaders who banished them into the fairy mounds (sidhe) to be found around the country to this day.
The Dagda put Neachtain in charge of the sacred well at Carbury with instructions to keep its location secret so that no one would drink of its wisdom. Of course Boann found the well and when she drank from its waters they broke out and rushed down to the sea at Drogheda. Boann was swept along, giving her name to the newly created river.
On the way to the sea Boann passed Brugh na Boinne (Newgrange) where the Dagda was waiting. He delayed her and they had a son, Aenghus Og, the Irish personification of youth, love and poetry who still lives at Brugh na Boinne.
When I got to the ‘Fairy Hill‘ I did not spot the two grassy rings on its top that mark the home of Neachtain and Boann. What caught my attention was the striking ruins of a Norman castle on the side of the hill and below it the enclosed graveyard of Teampall Do-Ath, a 19th century mausoleum of the Colley family that looks much older than it actually is.
The Normans took over the hill for strategic reasons. The old road beneath it was the Eiscar Riada, connecting the east of Ireland with the River Shannon and the West. Their stone castle announced their ownership of the area and showed no respect for what was there before. Rather the opposite, they were determined to stamp their own identity on the landscape.

The Irish who realised what was happening wanted to preserve their heritage before it was too late. In 1632 scholars and monks in Donegal began recording the old stories in the ‘Annals of the Four Masters’. Thanks to them we still know about The Dagda, Neachtain and Boann.

Much of that history was from a pre-Christian world but the master scholars recognised it as an essential part of their cultural DNA. The world view in which humans and nature are linked, where life is not limited to a short spell and where actions can have lasting and wide effects was at the heart of Irish life from early on, Christianity took it up and continued it.

It’s not often that you get a chance to experience Ireland’s mythic past as you can at Carbury. The magic well of Segais, where Boann drank, is open to the public only one day a year (31 May in 2026). However if you find your way around to the far side of the demesne you can climb the Fairy Hill, see where the legendary couple lived, the ruins of the Norman Keep and ancient-looking Teampall Do-Ath beneath. There you can see for yourself what happened when the imaginative and idealistic Irish encountered the unsentimental and practical Norman. If we even think about such things today it is because we have ‘a mythology as rich and vibrant as that of Greece’.

Photos: The Hill and castle, the Teampall, the locked gate of the estate.

25/03/2026

Usually I avoid reminders of Ireland’s story after the Normans came as I would like to know more about Gaelic culture before then but occasionally I come across a place that draws me into the later period.

An example is Donacumper, just outside Celbridge on the Dublin Road. It is another of the ‘Domnach’ or’ ‘Donagh’ churches, an ancient name indicating it was founded by St Patrick.

There is little recorded of it early days (maybe because it was just a parish church) and it is best known locally for its cemetery. The ruins of an 1150 church stand half-hidden in trees in one corner. After the Reformation it was used by the COI until the mid-1700s. Parts of it are in comparatively good condition perhaps because it houses the vault of the Alen family. I did not recognise the name but I was to discover they played an active role in bringing an end to the old Gaelic order and changing the face of the country. They were pioneering Tudor ‘Planters’ advancing their family’s fortune in the Royal cause.

Until then English control had been confined to the Pale, a small area around Dublin. Even there many of the powerful families, such as the Fitzgeralds of Kildare, felt more Irish than English. The Reformation changed that and the Alens were to benefit from it.
John Alen came from a large Norfolk family, five of his brothers settled in Ireland. John started as a lawyer serving Cardinal Wolsey who sent him to Ireland in 1528 to promote the Cardinal's authority while acting as secretary to Alen's own cousin, the Archbishop of Dublin.

In 1539 he was appointed head of the Commission for the Dissolution of the Monasteries in Ireland, He had already received his reward, St. Wolstan's Priory near Celbridge, of which Donacumper was part (the two are joined by an underground tunnel). It was the first monastery in Ireland to be seized during the Dissolution of 1536. The Alen family held it for 216 years and lived in the priory for most of that time but eventually build a separate house.

From early on they were involved in a contest with the Ducal Fitzgerald family who had land just across the Liffey from theirs. John had a role in having Gerald Fitzgerald, 9th Earl of Kildare, arrested and sent for trial in London. This led to the Earl’s hot-headed son, Silken Thomas, launching an ill-fated rebellion in which John’s uncle, the archbishop, was killing in revenge by Thomas’ followers. That revolt and defeat of the great Irish families marked an end of the old Gaelic order.

John continued to be a capable servant of the English Crown, he held various offices and spent much of his later years in England. He is buried in Donacumper church (under the floor!).
The last of the Alens of St Wolstans made his mark in France as an officer in the Irish Brigade and fought at Fontenoy in 1754 against English troops. As a result he had to sell his estate in Ireland.
Donacumper may not impress today but not unlike many such places in Ireland it has a story worth discovering.

Photo:St Wolstans across the Liffey from Fitzgerald’s side.

18/03/2026

Ireland is not known for its high mountains, only a few top the 3,000 foot mark, but often their height provides ideal panoramic views and their closeness brings a familiarity. For instance, Nine Stones on the saddle between Mount Leinster and Slievebawn has a bird’s eye view over counties Carlow, Laois and the Wicklow Mountains and produced its own rural legends.
The Stones themselves are not impressive, they look more like road markers than megaliths. They are not aligned astronomically and have no artistic decoration.
Local accounts suggest they are the burial place of nine chieftains who died in a battle nearby or nine shepherds caught in the snow or nine rebels killed in the 1798 Rebellion.
The story I like is about Moling, a local Carlow saint. One day on his way over the pass he was hungry so when he met a man with a sack over his shoulder he asked for something to eat. The man was not in a generous mood and claimed he had only stones in the sack. The saint replied, ‘If they are stones, may they be turned into bread and if bread, may they be turned into stones.’ As a result we have nine stones on the mountain pass today.
Near the stones is a replica of a cell-hut such as early Irish monks like Moling lived in. However he was not the only revered person in the area. Down the road the village of Myshall claims two of Ireland’s most famous scholar-saints, Finnian of Clonard and Columban of Bobbio.
Finnian, around 520, went on to found the famous university-monastery at Clonard in Meath. It produced the scholar pioneers who went on to establish monastic schools all over Ireland. Columban however studied at the monastery of Bangor and in 590 at the age of fifty set out for Europe with twelve companion, founding major monasteries at St Gallen in Switzerland and Bobbio in Italy. They brought a respect for Irish scholarship on the continent.
Myshall is now a ‘pilgrimage village’ commemorating two famous sons but women are not forgotten either. There is a holy well with St Brigid’s name on it. Whether she ever visited there is uncertain but it is a reminder that women were also influential in the early Irish church. When the youthful Columban was trying to make up his mind about his future he visited a local wise woman for advice and she set him off on the right road. Her name may be forgotten but her wisdom is remembered.
The village is also proud of its Adelaide Memorial Church, a miniature version of Salisbury Cathedral. It was built in 1912 by a London businessman, John Duguid, in memory of his wife Adelaide who died shortly after the tragic death there in a horse riding accident of their daughter Constance.
Nine Stones is well worth a visit on a good day. Enjoy the view from the Stones, stroll down the mountain road to Myshall, visit the churches and enjoy the hospitality.
And if someone asks you to share your lunch bread with them, don’t tell them you have only stones in your bag.

11/03/2026

If you are adventurous and would like to walk in the footsteps of St Patrick, you don’t have to climb Croagh Patrick. His footprints may be closer than you think.
Commuters on the Sligo train to or from Dublin pass such a place every day and probably never notice it, not to say try to visit it.
On your right after you leave Maynooth for Dublin is a clump of trees on a low hill where Patrick once stayed and founded a church.
Its name, Donaghmore , tells a lot. In Irish it means ‘The Great Domhnach’ and domhnach refers to pre-6thcentury churches linked with St Patrick. Since Patrick is known to have visited Kildare there is added reason to believe he stopped there.
I decided to go and look for myself but had to make a number of trips. It was more difficult than I thought.
The ruins are on private land, with the train line and Royal Canal blocking off one side and tall hedges preventing entry (and view) from the others.
I had almost given up when one day I noticed a narrow stile in the wall that I had previously missed. I parked, checked there was no bull in the field and set off towards the clump of trees.
As I got near I was surprised to see a wooden platform-like structure ahead. Obviously I was not the only one to have found my way there. Were there other Patrick-searchers?
The graveyard there was not in good shape. The ruins did not seem particularly old, certainly not from Patrick’s time. Nor were the gravestones. The modern structure I had noticed looked more interesting. The platform and chairs suggested an outdoor meeting. Then I saw a reading stand and an altar.
Most parishes in Ireland have an annual ‘Cemetery Sunday’ when the relatives of those buried there gather but the cemetery at Donaghmore was more overgrown then usual and seemed to have few visitors. The platform structure looked neither temporary nor permanent. Had there been a special event commemorating St Patrick?
Later I discovered that a former president of St Patrick's College, Maynooth, Mons Matthew O’Donnell, had been buried there in 1996 in his family grave. That was almost thirty years ago, had there been a sudden renewal of interest in his memory?
The story of Donaghmore goes back to Patrick’s time though the present (ruined) walls and gable come from the 14th century. In 1902 Lord Walter Fitzgerald, of the nearby Duke of Leinster’s Carton House, discovered an Ogham stone there that dated back to Patrick’s era.
Today you will find no mention of the stone or St Patrick. Only a lot of questions.
If you are passing by on St Patrick’s Day, give it a thought.

25/02/2026

If you thought that Ireland lagged behind the rest of Europe until the Normans came you should visit Lorrha, Tipperary’s ‘Monastic Village’.
There is much to explore but before you go it would be useful to know something about Ruadan and the Stowe Missal.
Ruadán was born in Leinster in the early 500s and as a young man attended the famous monastic university at Clonard. Its students came from across Ireland and Europe to study languages, literature and philosophy while practicing the discipline of the ‘Desert Fathers’.
Ruadan graduated and is listed among the ‘Twelve Apostles of Ireland’, graduates of Clonard who went on to found major centres of learning around the country. Towns which carry his name survive in Ulster and Connaught but he finally settled in Lorrha.
His influence was legendary. One story tells how he cursed the King of Tara, Diarmuid Mac Cerbhaill, for taking a sanctuary-seeker by force from Lorrha monastery. He forecast that no future king or queen would live at Tara. The decline of Tara began from that time.
However, Ruadan’s lasting achievement was Lorrha’s reputation for learning which continued for a thousand years. No mean achievement.
Which brings us to the Stowe Missals, a unique record from the 10th century of contemporary prayers for the Mass and sacraments written in Latin and Irish. The missal was compiled in Tallaght, a center of the reform Celi De movement, around the year 800 and brought to Lorrha where it was annotated and rewritten in the mid-11th century.
The manuscript was highly regarded and around 1033 the King of Munster contributed to encasing it in a protective cumdach case. To escape destruction during the Reformation the manuscript and cumdach were hidden at nearby Lackeen Castle which had remained in Irish hands. They were found in a wall there in the 18th century.
They then came into the hands of the Duke of Buckinghamshire and ended up in his library at Stowe, hence ‘Stowe Missal’ rather than ‘Lorrha Missal’, now it is in the Royal Irish Academy, Dublin.
The monastic traditions of Lorrha was taken up in the 12th century with the arrival from Europe of Augustinians monks who built their priory near Ruadan’s site. In 1269, the Dominicans came and the remains of their Friary stand tall and long beside the present parish church.
The hybrid building now on Ruadan’s original site is unusual. An 1815 COI church is fused to the remains of an 11th century ‘Great Stone Church’. Nearby the base of 8th century High Crosses stand witness to earlier days.
With its three monasteries and a thousand years of preserving Ruadan’s legacy, Lorrha deserves the title ‘Monastic City’.
When a King of Cashel was dying on a pilgrimage to Rome he stated in his will, ‘My splendid cloak adorned with gold which was on the altar of Rome, bring it to Ruadan of Lorra, since we shall die this day’.
Even then the Irish were making pilgrimages to Rome and posting packages back home. They were not as backward as some think.
Photos: St Ruadan; ; the Augustinian monastery as it once was;; the hybrid church on the original site.

Irish Forgotten Places

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