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fore abbey church and town gates

Fore Abbey Church And Town Gates

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Delvin
Westmeath
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An Early Christian monastery was founded here around 630 by St. Feichin who died of the plague in 664-5. At one time there were 300 monks in the monastery. It was burned in 771, 830 and again in 870, and a number of times in the course of the 11th and 12th centuries. From this old monastery one church - St. Feichin's - survives, standing in a graveyard above the road. Originally it was a simple rectangular building with antae, and with a Greek corss in relief over the flat-headed doorway. A chancel was added around 1200. There is the small carved head of a monk on the north side of the chancel arch. The two east windows were inserted in the 15th century.

A font and the remains of an altar are preserved inside. Around 1200 a Priory was founded by the De Lacys for the Benedictines down on the plain, and dedicated to St. Feichin and to St. Taurin - the patron saint of the monastery in Normandy from whence the Benedictines were brought. Because it was dependent on a French monastery, it was confiscated by the King when the English were at was with France in 1340.
It was then granted to William Tessone, who pocketed the revenue for himself. It was taken over by William Englond who was appointed abbot by Pope Martin V in 1418. It was he, or his successor, William Croys, who turned the monastery into a fortification.

When the monastery was suppressed around 1540 it was leased to Christopher, Baron of Delvin, and remained in the hands of the Greville-Nugent family until early this century. The rectangular church was built early in the 13th century; it has three round-headed east windows, but the north wall is largely a modern reconstruction. At the western end is a tower erected as a fortification in the 15th century. Over the sacristy to the south end of the church is another tower of the same date, and each tower formed a residence in itself. The eastern and western sides of the domestic buildings around the clositer have been much modified, and portions of the 15th century cloister were re-erected in 1912. About 40 yards to the north-east of the church are the remains of a columbarium or dove-cot, while remains of an old earthwork, possibly attached to the monastery, can be seen beside the nearby hill. In fields not far away are gates which formed part of the medieval wall of the town.
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