Sligo Abbey () was a
Dominican convent in
Sligo
Sligo ( ; ga, Sligeach , meaning 'abounding in shells') is a coastal seaport and the county town of County Sligo, Ireland, within the western province of Connacht. With a population of approximately 20,000 in 2016, it is the List of urban areas ...
, Ireland, founded in 1253. It was built in the
Romanesque style with some later additions and alterations. Extensive ruins remain, mainly of the church and the cloister.
Name and location
The name "Sligo Abbey" is the generally accepted traditional name, but strictly speaking "abbey" is inappropriate as Dominican monasteries are led by
prior
Prior (or prioress) is an ecclesiastical title for a superior in some religious orders. The word is derived from the Latin for "earlier" or "first". Its earlier generic usage referred to any monastic superior. In abbeys, a prior would be l ...
s not
abbots
Abbot is an ecclesiastical title given to the male head of a monastery in various Western religious traditions, including Christianity. The office may also be given as an honorary title to a clergyman who is not the head of a monastery. The fe ...
: "convent", "friary", or "priory" would be more correct. The community was dedicated to the Holy Cross. The ruins are located in Abbey Street, Sligo, but when it was still functioning, the convent lay outside the town's limits and its location was then usually described as "near Sligo".
History
Sligo Abbey, was a
Dominican Friary, founded in 1253 by
Maurice FitzGerald, 2nd Lord of Offaly
Maurice Fitzmaurice FitzGerald I, 2nd Lord of Offaly (c.1184 – 20 May 1257) was a Norman in Ireland peer, soldier, and Justiciar of Ireland from 1232 to 1245. He mustered many armies against the Irish, and due to his harsh methods as Justicia ...
, who was
Justiciar of Ireland
The chief governor was the senior official in the Dublin Castle administration, which maintained English and British rule in Ireland from the 1170s to 1922. The chief governor was the viceroy of the English monarch (and later the British monarch) ...
from 1232 to 1245. His purpose allegedly was to house a community of monks to pray for the soul of
Richard Marshal, 3rd Earl of Pembroke
Richard Marshal, 3rd Earl of Pembroke (119115 April 1234), was the son of William Marshal, 1st Earl of Pembroke and brother of William Marshal, 2nd Earl of Pembroke, whom he succeeded to the Earldom of Pembroke and Lord Marshal of England upon hi ...
, whom he was rumoured to have killed. The Dominicans were a poor choice for such a task as their specialty is preaching rather than praying. FitzGerald built a substantial Norman abbey, with all the essential parts and endowed it with lands.
In 1414 the buildings were damaged in an accidental fire. The abbey did not have sufficient means for the reconstruction and appealed to the pope for help. At that moment three men competed with each other in the
Vatican Standoff:
Benedict XIII was pope in
Avignon
Avignon (, ; ; oc, Avinhon, label=Provençal dialect, Provençal or , ; la, Avenio) is the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Vaucluse Departments of France, department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur Regions of France, region of So ...
,
Gregory XII
Pope Gregory XII ( la, Gregorius XII; it, Gregorio XII; – 18 October 1417), born Angelo Corraro, Corario," or Correr, was head of the Catholic Church from 30 November 1406 to 4 July 1415. Reigning during the Western Schism, he was oppose ...
in
Rome
, established_title = Founded
, established_date = 753 BC
, founder = King Romulus (legendary)
, image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg
, map_caption ...
, and
John XXIII
Pope John XXIII ( la, Ioannes XXIII; it, Giovanni XXIII; born Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli, ; 25 November 18813 June 1963) was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 28 October 1958 until his death in June 19 ...
in
Pisa
Pisa ( , or ) is a city and ''comune'' in Tuscany, central Italy, straddling the Arno just before it empties into the Ligurian Sea. It is the capital city of the Province of Pisa. Although Pisa is known worldwide for its leaning tower, the cit ...
. As England supported John, this was the pope the abbey addressed. Their letter reached John at the
Council of Constance
The Council of Constance was a 15th-century ecumenical council recognized by the Catholic Church, held from 1414 to 1418 in the Bishopric of Constance in present-day Germany. The council ended the Western Schism by deposing or accepting the res ...
(1414–1418). John replied by sending an apostolic letter from Constance granting indulgences of ten years to all who would visit the church on the feast of the Assumption and the day of Saint Patrick and contribute to its restoration. The friary was rebuilt in 1416 by Prior Brian, son of Dermot MacDonagh,
tanist
Tanistry is a Gaelic system for passing on titles and lands. In this system the Tanist ( ga, Tánaiste; gd, Tànaiste; gv, Tanishtey) is the office of heir-apparent, or second-in-command, among the (royal) Gaelic patrilineal dynasties of Ir ...
(prince) of Tirerrill and Collooney. There were 20 friars at the abbey at that time.
When the
Dissolution of the Irish monasteries that had started in 1530 in the
Pale
Pale may refer to:
Jurisdictions
* Medieval areas of English conquest:
** Pale of Calais, in France (1360–1558)
** The Pale, or the English Pale, in Ireland
*Pale of Settlement, area of permitted Jewish settlement, western Russian Empire (179 ...
, began to menace monasteries in the West of Ireland, Donogh O'Connor Sligo in 1568 obtained a letter from
Queen Elizabeth that exempted Sligo Abbey on condition that the friars would become secular priests.
During
Tyrone's Rebellion (1594–1603) the abbey was damaged when George Bingham, brother of
Richard Bingham, president of Connaught, besieged
Sligo Castle in 1595, which was held by
Hugh Roe O'Donnell
Hugh Roe O'Donnell (Irish: ''Aodh Ruadh Ó Domhnaill''), also known as Red Hugh O'Donnell (30 October 1572 – 10 September 1602), was a sixteenth-century leader of the Gaelic nobility of Ireland. He became Chief of the Name of Clan O'Donne ...
's men. After the war, at the beginning of the 17th century, the abbey and its lands were given to Sir William Taaffe in consideration of his services to Queen Elizabeth. Sir William was the grandfather of
Theobald Taaffe, 1st Earl of Carlingford
Theobald Taaffe, 1st Earl of Carlingford (c. 160331 December 1677), known as 2nd Viscount Taaffe, of Corren and 2nd Baron of Ballymote between 1642 and 1661, was an Irish Royalist officer who played a prominent part in the Wars of the Three Kin ...
.
![Sligo abbey](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/19/Sligo_abbey.JPG)
In 1608 only one friar was left in the abbey, Father O'Duane, who died in this year. However, Father Daniel O'Crean arrived from Spain before O'Duane's death and built up a new community, succeeding so well that in 1627
Ross MacGeoghegan, provincial of the Dominical Order in Ireland, held a provincial chapter in Sligo.
During the
Irish Confederate Wars
The Irish Confederate Wars, also called the Eleven Years' War (from ga, Cogadh na hAon-déag mBliana), took place in Ireland between 1641 and 1653. It was the Irish theatre of the Wars of the Three Kingdoms, a series of civil wars in the kin ...
(1641–1653) the convent was attacked and burned by
Sir Frederick Hamilton in the summer of 1642. Some of the friars were killed.
In 1697 when
King William reigned alone, the Irish Parliament passed the
Banishment Act
The Banishment Act or Bishops' Banishment Act (9 Will 3 c.1) was a 1697 Act of Parliament, Act of the Parliament of Ireland which banished all ordinary (Catholic Church), ordinaries and regular clergy of the Roman Catholic Church from Ireland. B ...
, which specified that all
ordinaries (bishops) and
regular clergy (e.g. monks) must leave the country before 1 May 1698. It did not affect the parish priests, who are classified as
secular priests. The Dominicans of Sligo left Ireland for Spain, led by their prior, Father Patrick McDonogh. The abbey stood then empty.
![Sligo_Abbey,_Ireland,_ground_plan](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0f/Sligo_Abbey%2C_Ireland%2C_ground_plan.png)
In the 18th century some friars came back to Sligo and stayed in the abbey. In 1760 when Father Lawrence Connellan returned from Louvain to Sligo, he found that the buildings had deteriorated so far that it was necessary to find other accommodation. In 1783 he obtained a lease in High Street and moved there. In the second half of the 18th century, the friars built a chapel in Pound Street. In 1803 a new friary was built. In 1846 Father B. J. Goodman, prior of the friary and provincial of the order, built the
Neogothic
Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic, neo-Gothic, or Gothick) is an architectural movement that began in the late 1740s in England. The movement gained momentum and expanded in the first half of the 19th century, as increasingly ...
Holy Cross Church in High Street, and in 1865 another residence for the friars was built behind that church in Dominick Street.
The abbey grounds were used as cemetery. The buildings were quarried for reusable stone. In 1893
Evelyn Ashley, to whom the abbey had come from
Lord Palmerston
Henry John Temple, 3rd Viscount Palmerston, (20 October 1784 – 18 October 1865) was a British statesman who was twice Prime Minister of the United Kingdom in the mid-19th century. Palmerston dominated British foreign policy during the period ...
, vested part of it in the Board of Works and the rest followed in 1913, donated by his son
Wilfrid William Ashley. The Board then did work on the ruins, freeing them from ivy, bushes and trees growing on it.
Architecture
The abbey ruins consist of the walls of the church, inclusive those of the tower, three sides of the cloister, and remains of the sacristy, the chapter room, the refectory, and the dormitories. Most of the buildings seem to date from the 13th century, the time of the monastery's foundation and were built in a late
romanesque or more specifically
Norman Style. In the 15th century late Gothic additions and replacements were made and some others in the 16th century.
The church was never vaulted and, having lost its wooden roof, stands open to the sky. The church's walls are thick and their tops are covered with water tables and crowned with ruinous parapets that might once have been crenulated. The church is divided into the choir (or chancel) in the east and the nave in the west by the 15th-century cut-stone
rood screen
The rood screen (also choir screen, chancel screen, or jubé) is a common feature in late medieval church architecture. It is typically an ornate partition between the chancel and nave, of more or less open tracery constructed of wood, stone, or ...
, that consisted of a gallery across the church supported by ribbed groin vaults, three bays wide and one deep. This rood screen has been partially reconstructed from its surviving right and left abutments in the abbey's latest restoration (see photo).
![Nave of Sligo Friary, Sligo, Ireland](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9e/Nave_of_Sligo_Friary%2C_Sligo%2C_Ireland.jpg)
The tower is another 15th-century addition. It is thick-walled and square. It is placed on the main axis of the church just east of the rood screen and suspended over the church by the means of two lofty pointed and profiled arches forming an archway or tunnel that connects the two parts of the church. The underside of the tower is closed by a ribbed and groined fan vault. The tower has a door on its north side that was reached over the roof. With the roof gone, the tower has become inaccessible. The tower resembles those of
Kilcrea Friary
Kilcrea Friary () is a ruined medieval abbey located near Ovens, County Cork, Ireland. Both the friary and Kilcrea Castle, located in ruin to the west, were built by Observant Franciscans in the mid 15th century under the invitation of Cormac ...
,
Muckross Abbey
Muckross Abbey (Irish: ''Mainistir Locha Léin'' and ''Mainistir Mhucrois'') is one of the major ecclesiastical sites, found in the Killarney National Park, County Kerry, Ireland. It was founded in 1448 as a Franciscan friary for the Observa ...
,
Quin Abbey
Quin Abbey (Irish: ''Mainistir Chuinche''), in Quin, County Clare, Ireland, was built between 1402 and 1433 by Sioda Cam MacNamara, for Fathers Purcell and Mooney, friars of the Franciscan order. Although mostly roofless, the structure of the a ...
, and
Rosserk Friary, but none of those is as daringly suspended.
The church's east end is square. The terminal wall holds a large late-Gothic window divided into four lights by mullions. Its head is filled with reticular tracery. This window must have replaced one or several Romanesque windows in the 15th century. In front of this window stands the table of the high altar, the front of which is divided into nine panels decorated with late-gothic cusped arches and foliage in relief. This altar also dates from the Late Gothic.
The nave has the same width as the choir. Its western façade has been destroyed so that the western end of the church stands open. On the southern side the nave was accompanied by an aisle and a one-armed transept (or lateral chapel). Both are later additions. The aisle has been entirely demolished and the transept partially, so that the arcade, consisting of three pointed arches supported by octagonal pillars, is exposed. The transept once held two altars. The naves of Kilcrea Friary, Muckross Abbey, Quin Abbey, and Rosserk Friary have similar one-armed transepts.
The cloister lies to the north of the church as is also the case at Kilcrea Friary,
Moyne Abbey
Moyne Abbey () is a ruined medieval Franciscan friary in Killala, County Mayo, Ireland. Founded at some point before 1455, the abbey was suppressed in 1590.
History
It was founded before the year (1455) by McWilliam Bourke family as a Fr ...
, Muckross Abbey, Quin Abbey, and Rosserk Friary. The cloister's southern walk runs along the northern wall of the church's nave. Only three sides of the cloister remain standing; the western side has been demolished. The cloister walk is covered with rubble barrel vaults. Its arcades are supported by slender pillars reminiscent of double columns. The arches of the arcades and the barrel vaults are slightly pointed. The cloisters of Moyne Abbey and Quin Abbey have similar pillars and vaults. Despite of its Romanesque appearance the cloister is attributed to the 15th century.
The sacristy, vestry, and chapter room are in the ground floor of the east range. Excepted the western extension of the chapter room, they are part of the 13th-century core of the abbey. They are covered with rubble barrel vaults similar to those of the cloister. The refectory occupied the first floor of the north range. Only its southern wall above the arcade of the cloister is preserved. From this wall protrudes a ruined oriel window giving light to the reader's desk where a friar would read aloud from the scriptures during mealtimes.
Monuments
The church contains two noteworthy funeral monuments: the "O'Craian altar tomb" and the mural in remembrance of "Sir Donogh O'Connor Sligo". O'Craian's tomb is the oldest surviving monument in the church. Its Latin inscription dates it from 1506 and states that it is the tomb of Cormac O'Craian (or Crean) and his wife Johanna, daughter of Ennis (or Magennis). It fills a niche in the northern wall of the nave next to the rood screen. It consists of a stone table, similar to the altar in the choir, and a canopy consisting of a high pointed arch with tracery. The style is late Gothic.
The O'Connor mural is on the wall of the choir to the right of the altar. It shows reliefs of O'Connor and his wife kneeling in prayer in an architectural frame, decorated with heraldic and religious motives. Sir Donogh O'Connor obtained the letter from Queen Elizabeth that saved the abbey from dissolution, mentioned above. He died in 1609. His wife,
Eleanor Butler, daughter of Lord Dunboyne, erected the monument in 1624 in a late Renaissance style. Before O'Connor she had been married to
Gerald FitzGerald, 14th Earl of Desmond
Gerald FitzGerald, 14th Earl of Desmond ( – 1583), also counted as 15th or 16th, owned large part of the Irish province of Munster. In 1565 he fought the private Battle of Affane against his neighbours, the Butlers. After this, he was for so ...
, who was killed in 1583.
In popular culture
Sligo Abbey appears in two short stories by
William Butler Yeats
William Butler Yeats (13 June 186528 January 1939) was an Irish poet, dramatist, writer and one of the foremost figures of 20th-century literature. He was a driving force behind the Irish Literary Revival and became a pillar of the Irish liter ...
: ''The Crucifixion of the Outcast'' and ''
The Curse of the Fires and of the Shadows''. In both stories, the head of the monastery is called the abbot. It is also the subject of what is possibly the oldest surviving painting of any building in Ireland.
See also
*
List of abbeys and priories in Ireland (County Sligo)
File:Sligo Abbey Friary - Cloisters.jpg, alt=A dark barrel-vaulted corridor with an arcade on the left, Inside the cloister-walk
File:Sligo Priory of the Holy Cross Choir East Window 2015 09 08.jpg, alt=A late gothic window with tracery, The late Gothic east window
File:Sligo_Priory_of_the_Holy_Cross_Refectory_Window_2015_09_08.jpg, alt=A late gothic window, Refectory window above the cloister
File:Sligo Priory of the Holy Cross O’Craian Tomb 2015 09 08.jpg, alt=a late gothic canopy tomb in a niche of the wall, The O'Craian monument
File:O'Connor_Mural_in_Sligo_Abbey.png, alt=A mural monument in late renaissance style showing a man in armour and a woman kneeling in prayer, The O'Connor Mural
Notes
References
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External links
*http://monastic.ie/history/sligo-dominican-priory/
*http://heritageireland.ie/visit/places-to-visit/sligo-abbey/ – Official site at Heritage Ireland
*http://irishantiquities.bravehost.com/sligo/sligo/sligofriary.html – Sligo Friary on the Irish Antiquities website
*http://www.ecclesiasticalireland.org/sligo/index.htm – Sligo Abbey on the Ecclesiastical Ireland website
{{Coord, 54.270809, N, 8.470091, W, region:IE_type:landmark, display=title
1253 establishments in Ireland
13th-century establishments in Ireland
Archaeological sites in County Sligo
Buildings and structures in County Sligo
Christian monasteries established in the 13th century
Culdees
Dominican monasteries in Ireland
National Monuments in County Sligo
Religious museums in Ireland
Religious organizations established in the 1250s
Roman Catholic churches in County Sligo
Ruins in Ireland
Ruins () are the remains of a civilization's architecture. The term refers to formerly intact structures that have fallen into a state of partial or total disrepair over time due to a variety of factors, such as lack of maintenance, deliberate ...