churches historical ireland

The town grew up around the castle built by Richard de Burgo in the early 13th century. in 1396 it became a royal borough, and a stronghold of the English Crown. It became a wealthy trading centre ruled by the fourteen 'tribes' of Galway including the Joyces and the Lynches. The town was burned in 1473, surrendered to the Cromwellians in 1652 and suffered heavily in the Williamite wars.

St. Nicholas's Church:

In Market Street is the Church of Ireland church of St....

Better known as Kilnamanagh (the church of the monks) it was founded in the 13th century by the Premonstratensians of White Canons.

It was one of only 11 houses in Ireland. The buildings have recently been conserved and the headstones of one of the founders was discovered on the site....

Tablet memorials to 18th-century bards include Art McCooey (1738-73) and bandit poet Seamus Mor MacMurphy (1720-50).The church itself belongs to the Church of Ireland Diocese of Armagh. It was built in 1731. The tower on the church dates back from 1799....

The cathedral was founded about 1185 by Donal More O'Brien on the site of an earlier Romanesque church, the doorway of which is preserved in the south-west corner of the Cathedral. The Cathedral is in the form of a cross, and has three narrow lancet windows in the east gable. Beside the Romanesque door near the main entrance is one of the few stones in the country with a Viking runic inscription; it is unique in that it also has the same inscription in Ogham asking for a prayer for Thorgrim wh...

Drumsna's Catholic Church (1845) is situated in the village. A memorial just beyond the church is dedicated to Robert Strawbridge who was born in Drumsna in 1732. He founded the Methodist Church in the USA and died in Baltimore, Maryland in 1781. A small cemetery close by is the burial place of Surgeon Thomas Parke, who accompanied Henry Morton Stanley on his celebrated expedition to the African Congo.

Anthony Trollope, the English novelist lived here for a time when he worked with...

The only remaining wall of the original church stands, and walk the short distance to the mill. Founded by the Cistercians in the 12th century, the development of the waterwheels to provide mechanical power was mainly motivated by a desire to give this contemplative order more time for prayer and relection.

The derelict site was wonderfully restored by the Abbey Mills Restoration Trust when they acquired the property in 1989. Besides the impressive waterwheels, the centre now contai...

St. Kevin's Bed: A man-made cave dug into a cliff-face and overlooking the Upper lake from a height of 10 metres, it is probable that this cave predates Kevin's arrival. It is likely that the saint used it as his sleeping quarters, it being too small and cramped to be of further practical use. Centuries later it was used by St. Laurence O'Toole as the site of his annual Lenten penance and following the failure of the 1798 rising it was used as a place of refuge by Michael O'Dwyer, the famous...

Once a flourishing medieval town, Clonmines still contains the remains of some of its old buildings. The town was given a charter by William Marshall, Earl of Pembroke, early in the 13th century, and the Kavanagh family founded an Abbey here for the Augustinian Eremites which was 'beautified' and enlarged in 1385.

The town was destroyed in 1400, but rose again. Although it scarcely survived the 17th century, it continued to send members to Parliament up till 1800. Nevertheless, as l...

A 96 foot high Round Tower, missing original conical top, dominates this old monastic site whose early history is unknown. Near it stands a ruined church with flat-headed doorway and antae. The chancel and the rounded arch are later additions. The church may have been put to secular use in the 17th century tomb. In a field to the west stands a much work High Cross, possibly of 9th century date. Much of the cross is decorated with geometrical motifs. On the east face are representations of...

Occupying the site of an earlier built by St Mogue in the 7th century, the earliest surviving feature is a 13th century east window. Just inside the gate is a graveslab with a carved cross, which dates from the 9th century....