Magdalene Tower is a landmark located at the highest point of the northern part of

Drogheda Drogheda ( , ; , meaning "bridge at the ford") is an industrial and port town in County Louth on the east coast of Ireland, north of Dublin. It is located on the Dublin–Belfast corridor on the east coast of Ireland, mostly in County Louth ...

County Louth County Louth ( ; ) is a coastal Counties of Ireland, county in the Eastern and Midland Region of Republic of Ireland, Ireland, within the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster. Louth is bordered by the counties of County Meath, Meath to the ...

, in

Ireland Ireland (, ; ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe. Geopolitically, the island is divided between the Republic of Ireland (officially Names of the Irish state, named Irelan ...

. All that now remains of the once important Dominican Friary is the belfry tower. Lucas de Netterville, then Archbishop of Armagh, founded the monastery in about 1224. The tower itself is of 14th-century construction. It springs from a fine Gothic Arch, above which there are two further storeys connected by a spiral staircase.. The importance of this friary is signified by the fact that it was here that O'Donnell, O'Hanlon, McMahon, O'Neill and the other Ulster chiefs acknowledged their submission to

Richard II of England Richard II (6 January 1367 – ), also known as Richard of Bordeaux, was King of England from 1377 until he was deposed in 1399. He was the son of Edward the Black Prince, Edward, Prince of Wales (later known as the Black Prince), and Jo ...

, at the end of 14th-century. The English novelist William Makepeace Thackery, who visited the Magdalene tower in 1842, described a manuscript at the British Museum 'which shows these yellow mantled warriors riding down to the King, splendid in his forked beard, peaked shoes, and long dangling scalloped sleeves down to the ground. They flung their skenes or daggers at his feet, and knelt to him and were wonder-stricken by the richness of his tents and the garments of his knights and ladies'. In 1412 its Abbot, Father Bennett, was the peacemaker in the conflict between the people on either side of the

River Boyne The River Boyne ( or ''Abhainn na Bóinne'') is a river in Leinster, Ireland, the course of which is about long. It rises at Trinity Well, Newberry Hall, near Carbury, County Kildare, and flows north-east through County Meath to reach the ...

leading to the uniting of

. In 1467 Thomas Earl of Desmond also conventionally called "Thomas of Drogheda" was beheaded on the 'north commons of Drogheda' for treason against the King. He had passed an Act setting up a university at Drogheda, but the project died along with him. The battlements of the tower were badly damaged by Cromwell's cannon during the siege of 1649. The tower was located near to the now-demolished St Sunday's Gate and was located just inside the northern walls of the town. The religious life of Drogheda was utterly transformed by the measures taken to progress the

Reformation in Ireland The Reformation in Ireland was a movement for the reform of religious life and institutions that was introduced into Ireland by the English Crown at the behest of King Henry VIII of England. His desire for an annulment of his marriage was known ...

. The great abbeys, priories and hospitals all disappeared and their lands were taken by the Crown.

References

{{commons category Buildings and structures in Drogheda Ruins in the Republic of Ireland Towers in the Republic of Ireland

See also

References