Lismore
medieval churches
Niall
C.E.J. O’Brien
A visitor to Lismore in
County Waterford would find ‘scarcely a stone remains upon a stone to mark all
those great schools and cloisters, founded by St. Carthage.’[1]
Five ancient gravestones, now inside the present St. Carthage’s cathedral, are
the few stones remaining.[2]
Foundation
of Lismore
The founder of the
monastery of Lismore was St. Carthach, also spelt as St. Carthage. He was born
in County Kerry and established a monastery for monks and nuns at Rahan in
Offaly. But the monastery was not liked by the neighbouring monasteries and St.
Carthach was told to leave the area. After the expulsion of St. Carthach from
his earlier foundation of Rahan in Offaly, the abbot and his followers went
south by way of Cashel. At Ard Brennuin on the River Suir, later renamed Ard
Finnan, he met Mael Ochtraig, king of the Deisi, and was offered a site by the
River Blackwater in the area of Magh Sciath where he built a lios and church –
the foundation of Lismore.[3]
Magh Sciath means the plain of the shield. Another older name for Lismore is
Dunsginne which means fort of the flight – possibly the flight of St. Carthach.[4]
Giving permission to
St. Carthach to establish a monastery at Lismore served to act as a buffer
against the bordering kingdom of Uí Liatháin and Fermoy. The monastery would
also serve as an economic centre beside the navigable Blackwater and along
ancient route-ways like the Rian Bó Phádraig.[5]
St. Carthach only lived
about two years at Lismore before his death in 638 but the monastery he founded
grew in size and acquired a reputation as a centre of learning over the
following centuries. But in the ninth century Viking raids of plundering and
burning seriously affected the fabric of the Lismore monastery. There were
plunderings in 833, 915 and 962 with serious fires in 833, 883. Further fires
occurred in 978, 1095, 1113.[6] In
1207 the Annals of Inisfallen recorded that an accidental fire consumed the
city of Lismore and many its parish churches.[7] By
1111 Lismore was recognised as one of new dioceses that were established in
Ireland with the monastery of Lismore providing the episcopal seat.[8]
Fabric
of the monastery
Little remains of the
fabric of the monastery at Lismore. The foundation story says:
Coemell, a holy woman,
was on Magh Sciath to meet Carthach and his community when they arrived from
Rahan. ‘What do you wish to do here, o servants of God?’ ‘By God’s will, we
plan to build a small atrium here around our possessions,’ answered Carthach.
‘It will not be a small atrium but a large one,’ said the holy woman. Carthach
replied, ‘It will be so, what you say … For from that name this very place will
forever be called Lismore [lios mór] in Irish, in Latin Atrium Magnum.’[9]
An old writer said the
place was ‘full of cells and holy monasteries’, yet few remains can be found.[10] In
the 1740s there was said to be up to twenty churches in and around Lismore
besides the cathedral. Charles Smith recounts in 1746 that many people then
living could remember the ruins of several churches but by that time the
churches were just a heap of rubble.[11]
Joseph Hansard seems to contradict this in 1870 when he said the ruins of seven
churches could be discerned.[12] Along
with the churches there were other buildings like St. Bridget’s leper hospital
and cells for the monks and possibly a round tower for which the location of
all these buildings is unknown.
The
cathedral
The most ancient
building now standing at Lismore is the cathedral. This building was destroyed
by fire and plundering over the centuries and at other times left fall into
ruin. In 1166 the ‘great church’ at Lismore was blessed and this may have been
the present cathedral. The fabric of the cathedral is much changed and altered
over the centuries with different styles of architecture. Reconstruction and
alterations took place in 1207, 1633 and 1815.[13]
Romanesque doorway at the north transept of the cathedral
The
stone church of 1051
It is likely that there
were many churches of varied size interspersed and surrounded by individual
cells for the monks and nuns as Lismore was a duel monastery. Many of these
buildings were possibly built of wood which was very exposed to destruction in
the many burnings which occurred. Although stone buildings could also suffer
from fire as in 1115 when the stone church at Ard Brecain was burnt and it full
of people.[14]
By 1051 there was at least one stone building at Lismore. In that year Fáelan
son of Báetán son of Brecc was killed by his cousin and newly elected king of
the Deisi, Máel Sechlainn ua Bruicc, in the stone church at Lismore.[15]
The Annals of Ulster called the stone church, a daimliac.[16] At
what time this stone church was built before 1051 is unknown.[17]
Oratory
of Máel Ísu ua Brolchain
In 1086 an eminent
poet, Máel Ísu ua Brolchain, died at Lismore and was buried there. There is a suggestion
that an oak church, dairtech, was
dedicated to Máel Ísu but this church could also have been located in Armagh
from where Máel Ísu came – the source is not clear on the exact location.[18]
In 1116 the oratory of Máel Ísu and part of Lismore was burnt.[19]
Cormac
Mac Carthaig churches
In 1127 Cormac Mac
Carthaig, King of Desmond, was deposed as king and entered the monastery of
Lismore. In that same year he two churches built at Lismore and another at
Cashel (the famous Cormac’s chapel). The Book
of MacCarthy said it was twelve churches that he built at Lismore but this
is said to be a copyist’s error.[20]
The
synod church of 1166
In 1166 a synod was
held at Lismore which was attended by twelve bishops from Leth Moga, Munster
and Leinster and presided over by the papal legate. While there a new church
blessed by the bishops. A major fire at in Lismore in 1157 could have
occasioned the building of the new church.[21] It
is not clear if this was the cathedral church or some church in the monastery
area.
Church
of St. John
In 1180, Felix, Bishop
of Lismore, while on his return from the Lateran Council stayed at the abbey of
St. Thomas in Dublin. As a gift of thanks and to keep in favour with the new
Anglo-Norman regime Bishop Felix gave the church of St. John at Lismore to this
Abbey, on condition that the Canons of St. Thomas should give yearly to Lismore
‘two wax candles, each weighing two pounds’.[22]
The abbey of St. Thomas was founded in 1177 by Fitz Aldelin de Burgo.
Christ
Church
In 1597 George
Sherlock, son of Peter Sherlock of Waterford, leased many properties from the
government that were formerly owned by religious monasteries. One of these properties
was ‘an old church called Christ Church with the cemetery adjoining it’ for 4s
per year in rent. The church was described as the ancient inheritance of the
crown.[23]
The
tomb of the bishops
In 1205, Laurence,
Bishop of Cloyne, ended his days at Lismore and was buried in the Bishop’s
cemetery, Reilig Espoc. This is said
to be located on the left side of the avenue leading to the present Lismore
castle.[24]
This was possibly the same tomb of the bishops where Ceallach, coarb of St.
Patrick at Armagh, was buried in 1129.[25]
St
Mary’s Church - Religmuire
This church is only
marked on the 1927 edition of the OS 6-inch map as adjacent to the back avenue
of Lismore castle and near to the original St Carthach's well. An archaeological
excavation near the site in 2010 uncovered evidence of medieval settlement and
of burials. It is said that the Romanesque arch at the entrance to Lismore
castle came from this church but the arch could have come from any of the
ancient churches of Lismore. Near the church was a holy well, called St.
Carthach’s well, which was venerated until about 1900 when the stream it served
was diverted from its course and the forge well (renamed St. Carthach’s well) on
the right side of the street heading towards the bridge became the new
venerated holy well.[26]
Romanesque archway at Lismore castle
Conclusion
There is a rich
religious heritage in and around Lismore but destruction over the centuries and
reconstruction of the town in the last four hundred years has removed all
traces of the medieval buildings. Archaeological investigations should discover
some remains but to date little in the way of certain structures have been
found apart from burials near a suggested church (St. Mary’s church site only
since 1927) site. Some early plans or maps may help pin down the old monastery
of Lismore as the present street pattern is a late eighteenth century
construction and it is hard to see the circular enclosure that is more obvious
in places like Kells in County Meath.[27] Yet
even in the days of the monastery, the Lismore churches proved difficult
subjects. In the 1140s a cleric at Lismore took objection to the new idea
crossing Europe of placing a substantial stone altar against the east wall of
the church. At a public debate with St. Malachy, Archbishop of Armagh, the
Lismore cleric lost the argument.[28] The
Second Vatican Council in the mid twentieth century repositioned the altar in
Roman Catholic churches and so maybe the Lismore churches may reposition
themselves at some future date from obscurity into the public eye.
Bibliography
Annals
of Loch Cé
Annals
of Ulster
Gough, M., St. Carthage’s Parish Church Lismore
1884-1984, Centenary Souvenir (Lismore, 1984)
Grattan Flood, W.H.,
‘Lismore under the Early Anglo-Norman Regime’, in the Journal of the Waterford & South East Archaeological Society,
volume V, 1899, pp. 131-145
Grattan Flood, W.H.,
‘Lismore in the 13th Century’, in the Journal
of the Waterford & South East Archaeological Society, volume V, 1899,
pp. 207-221
Hansard, J., History of Waterford, edited by Donal
Brady (Dungarvan, n.d.)
Ó Carragáin, T., Churches in early medieval Ireland (New
Haven, 2010)
O’Keeffe, T., ‘Lismore
and Cashel: reflections on the beginnings of Romanesque architecture in
Munster’, in the Journal of the Royal
Society of Antiquarians of Ireland, Volume 124 (1004), pp. 118-152
Pollock, D., ‘Lismore
castle gardens, Lismore: Medieval settlement and graveyard’, in I. Bennett
(ed.) Excavations 2007: summary account
of excavations in Ireland, 2007 (Dublin, 2008) No. 1829
Sanderlin, S., ‘The
monastery of Lismore, A.D. 638-1111’, in Nolan, W. & Power, T.P. (eds.), Waterford History and Society (Dublin,
1992), pp. 27-48
Smith, C., The ancient and present state of the County
and City of Waterford, edited by Donald Brady (Dungarvan, 2008)
==============
End of post
=============
[1] Gough,
M., St. Carthage’s Parish Church Lismore
1884-1984, Centenary Souvenir (Lismore, 1984), p. 5
[2]
Sanderlin, S., ‘The monastery of Lismore, A.D. 638-1111’, in Nolan, W. &
Power, T.P. (eds.), Waterford History and
Society (Dublin, 1992), pp. 27-48, at p. 44
[3]
Sanderlin, S., ‘The monastery of Lismore, A.D. 638-1111’, pp. 27-48, at pp. 27,
28
[4]
Smith, C., The ancient and present state
of the County and City of Waterford, edited by Donald Brady (Dungarvan,
2008), p. 27
[5]
Sanderlin, S., ‘The monastery of Lismore, A.D. 638-1111’, pp. 27-48, at pp. 29,
30
[6]
Sanderlin, S., ‘The monastery of Lismore, A.D. 638-1111’, pp. 27-48, at p. 41;
Annals of Ulster, 832 gives year when
Lismore was burnt and not 833
[7]
Grattan Flood, W.H., ‘Lismore in the 13th Century’, in the Journal of the Waterford & South East
Archaeological Society, volume V, 1899, pp. 207-221, at p. 209
[8]
Sanderlin, S., ‘The monastery of Lismore, A.D. 638-1111’, pp. 27-48, at p. 44;
Annals of Ulster, 832 gives year when
Lismore was burnt and not 833
[9]
Sanderlin, S., ‘The monastery of Lismore, A.D. 638-1111’, pp. 27-48, at p. 44
[10]
Hansard, J., History of Waterford,
edited by Donal Brady (Dungarvan, n.d.), p. 229
[11]
Smith, C., The ancient and present state
of the County and City of Waterford, Edited by Brady, p. 29
[12]
Hansard, J., History of Waterford,
edited by Brady, p. 230
[13]
Hansard, J., History of Waterford,
edited by Brady, p. 230
[14] Annals of Loch Cé, 1115
[15] Annals of Loch Cé, 1051; Sanderlin, S.,
‘The monastery of Lismore, A.D. 638-1111’, pp. 27-48, at p. 42
[16] Annals of Ulster, 1051
[17] Ó
Carragáin, T., Churches in early medieval
Ireland (New Haven, 2010), p. 110
[18]
Sanderlin, S., ‘The monastery of Lismore, A.D. 638-1111’, pp. 27-48, at p. 43
[19] Annals of Loch Cé, 1116
[20]
O’Keeffe, T., ‘Lismore and Cashel: reflections on the beginnings of Romanesque
architecture in Munster’, in the Journal
of the Royal Society of Antiquarians of Ireland, Volume 124 (1004), pp.
118-152, at pp. 120, 121
[21]
O’Keeffe, T., ‘Lismore and Cashel: Romanesque architecture in Munster’, in the Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquarians
of Ireland, Volume 124 (1004), pp. 118-152, at p. 121
[22] Grattan
Flood, W.H., ‘Lismore under the Early Anglo-Norman Regime’, in the Journal of the Waterford & South East
Archaeological Society, volume V, 1899, pp. 131-145, at p. 138; Smith, C., The ancient and present state of the County
and City of Waterford, edited by Brady, p. 29, note 33
[23]
Tudor Fiants: Fiants of Elizabeth, no. 6169
[24]
Grattan Flood, ‘Lismore in the 13th Century’, in the Journal of the Waterford & South East
Archaeological Society, volume V, 1899, pp. 207-221, at p. 208
[25] Annals of Ulster, 1129
[26]
Pollock, D., ‘Lismore castle gardens, Lismore: Medieval settlement and
graveyard’, in I. Bennett (ed.) Excavations
2007: summary account of excavations in Ireland, 2007 (Dublin, 2008) No.
1829
[27] Ó
Carragáin, Churches in early medieval
Ireland, p. 264, fig 258
[28] Ó
Carragáin, Churches in early medieval
Ireland, p. 196
