Boyle Abbey
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Boyle Abbey () is a ruined Cistercian friary located in Boyle,
County Roscommon County Roscommon () is a Counties of Ireland, county in Republic of Ireland, Ireland. It is part of the province of Connacht and the Northern and Western Region. It is the List of Irish counties by area, 11th largest Irish county by area and Li ...
,
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 ...
. It was founded by Saint Malachy in the year 1161 but not consecrated until 1218 (work was interrupted by the
Anglo-Norman invasion of Ireland The Anglo-Norman invasion of Ireland took place during the late 12th century, when Anglo-Normans gradually conquered and acquired large swathes of land in Ireland over which the List of English monarchs, monarchs of England then claimed sovere ...
and it was burned in 1202.).


History

In the 12th century,
Saint Malachy Malachy (; ; Modern ; ) (11th century in Ireland, 1094 – 2 November 1148 in Ireland, 1148) is an Irish saint who was Archbishop of Armagh, to whom were attributed several miracles and an alleged vision of 112 popes later attributed to t ...
became aware of two new monastic orders in France, the
Cistercians The Cistercians (), officially the Order of Cistercians (, abbreviated as OCist or SOCist), are a Catholic religious order of monks and nuns that branched off from the Benedictines and follow the Rule of Saint Benedict, as well as the contri ...
and the
Augustinians Augustinians are members of several religious orders that follow the Rule of Saint Augustine, written about 400 A.D. by Augustine of Hippo. There are two distinct types of Augustinians in Catholic religious orders dating back to the 12th–13 ...
, and he decided to introduce both orders to Ireland in an effort to reform the old Irish church which he felt had fallen out of line with much of the rest of Christian Europe. The first Cistercian Abbey was founded at Mellifont, County Louth in 1142. St Malachy made arrangements that young aspirant Irish men who want to become Cistercians should be trained in St Bernard’s own monastery of Clairvaux or one of its daughter houses. The Cistercians were invited to found an abbey in
Moylurg {{Use dmy dates, date=April 2022 Magh Luirg or Magh Luirg an Dagda, anglicised as Moylurg, was the name of a medieval Irish kingdom located in modern-day County Roscommon, Republic of Ireland, Ireland. It was a sub-kingdom of the kingdom of Connach ...
as a daughter house of Mellifont. In 1148 Peter O’Mordha and twelve companions were sent to
Connaught Connacht or Connaught ( ; or ), is the smallest of the four provinces of Ireland, situated in the west of Ireland. Until the ninth century it consisted of several independent major Gaelic kingdoms ( Uí Fiachrach, Uí Briúin, Uí Maine ...
.<1148> They tried Grellachdinach, Buniffi and Drumcunny before settling at Boyle. The monks being vegetarian required an amount of arable land adjacent to a monastery as well as the facility to be able to channel running water to the establishment. They were offered the Celtic monastery called Eas Mic nEirc or Assylin near a major river crossing called of Ath-Da-Larg or ‘the ford with two forks’, where roads leading north, south, east and west all converged. This monastery had either very few monks or none at all. Little is known of this monastery, beyond two references in the various annals and a visit by Saint Columba in 560. So Taoiseach McGreevy, a local chieftain, negotiated and gave this Celtic monastery in "pure free and perpetual alms" (no strings attached) to the Cistercians. (Documentary evidence shows that the McGreevy's were still in this district one hundred years later, ca. 1258.) The Cistercians were welcomed and over many years were given land grants of about 50,000 acres (200 km2) scattered west of the River Shannon in 27 out-farms called granges. The Cistercians found the site of Assylin unsuitable owing to its geography, it is a height above the river and eventually built on the present site a few kilometres to the east which was more conducive to their plans which dictated that running water should be on the site for cooking, washing and toilet requirements. It was also more suitable for essential ancillary facilities such as mills and fish ponds, one of which existed until relatively recent times. Boyle Abbey was founded in 1161. The monastery prospered in the initial period, they made two foundations: Knockmoy Abbey in
County Galway County Galway ( ; ) is a Counties of Ireland, county in Republic of Ireland, Ireland. It is in the Northern and Western Region, taking up the south of the Provinces of Ireland, province of Connacht. The county population was 276,451 at the 20 ...
, and Assaroe Abbey in
County Donegal County Donegal ( ; ) is a Counties of Ireland, county of the Republic of Ireland. It is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Ulster and is the northernmost county of Ireland. The county mostly borders Northern Ireland, sharing only a small b ...
. It had been raised to the status of Abbey by 1174. <1174> However the abbey buildings took much time and were not completed until ca. 1218 when the abbey was consecrated. This was due in part to the events of 1202 when during a war initiated over the succession to the kingship of Connaught, the abbey was occupied and very badly damaged. The evidence for this may be seen in the architecture, with differing styles in various parts of the church. The history continued to be full of incident, in the 1220s Boyle became involved in what was termed ‘The Conspiracy of Mellifont’ when that abbey and its various daughter houses attempted to break away from Norman control. After that was resolved the abbey was attacked on a number of occasions such as 1235 <1235> and 1284 <1284>. However with the advent of the various orders of friars in Ireland, the
Franciscans The Franciscans are a group of related organizations in the Catholic Church, founded or inspired by the Italian saint Francis of Assisi. They include three independent religious orders for men (the Order of Friars Minor being the largest conte ...
,
Dominicans Dominicans () also known as Quisqueyans () are an ethnic group, ethno-nationality, national people, a people of shared ancestry and culture, who have ancestral roots in the Dominican Republic. The Dominican ethnic group was born out of a fusio ...
, Augustinians and others, who offered a different style of life, more in keeping with the local culture, the number of lay brothers, who worked the granges, declined and this resulted in many of the granges being leased out. The life of the abbey seems to have gone on as normal, in the late 13th and early 14th centuries its abbots were regularly made bishops of Elphin. However, by the end of the 15th century, the family of the local chieftains appear to have taken control of the abbey, one of their number regularly becoming abbot. <1555> When the abbey was suppressed under Queen Elizabeth and the remaining assets given away, the new owner allowed the Cistercians to remain. The last abbot Gelasius Ó Cuileanáin was executed in Dublin in 1580.


Architecture

The monastery was laid out according to the usual Cistercian plan, a church on the north side of a roughly rectangular
cloister A cloister (from Latin , "enclosure") is a covered walk, open gallery, or open Arcade (architecture), arcade running along the walls of buildings and forming a quadrangle (architecture), quadrangle or garth. The attachment of a cloister to a cat ...
, with a
chapter house A chapter house or chapterhouse is a building or room that is part of a cathedral, monastery or collegiate church in which meetings are held. When attached to a cathedral, the cathedral chapter meets there. In monasteries, the whole communi ...
for meetings of the monks on the second side, a kitchen and a refectory on the third, and probably storehouses and dormitory above on the fourth. Only small parts of the cloister survive, as it was turned into a barracks by the Elizabethans in 1592, and again by the Cromwellians who besieged it in 1645. This, along with possible later stone quarrying, resulted in little of the cloister-garth surviving. Despite this, the ruins are impressive, dominated by a squat square tower that was added above the crossing sometime in the thirteenth century. The church adheres to the Cistercian canon in having a nave with side aisles, a
transept A transept (with two semitransepts) is a transverse part of any building, which lies across the main body of the building. In cruciform ("cross-shaped") cruciform plan, churches, in particular within the Romanesque architecture, Romanesque a ...
to the north and south of the crossing, each with a pair of chapels in the east wall, and a
chancel In church architecture, the chancel is the space around the altar, including the Choir (architecture), choir and the sanctuary (sometimes called the presbytery), at the liturgical east end of a traditional Christian church building. It may termi ...
, whose original windows were replaced in the thirteenth century. The design was influenced by styles from
Burgundy Burgundy ( ; ; Burgundian: ''Bregogne'') is a historical territory and former administrative region and province of east-central France. The province was once home to the Dukes of Burgundy from the early 11th until the late 15th century. ...
, from whence the Cistercians came to
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 ...
, but much of the detailing of the
nave The nave () is the central part of a church, stretching from the (normally western) main entrance or rear wall, to the transepts, or in a church without transepts, to the chancel. When a church contains side aisles, as in a basilica-type ...
and particularly the cylindrical piers of the south arcade has strong echoes of the
West of England The West of England is an area of South West England around the River Avon. The area has a local government combined authority that consists of the unitary authorities of Bristol, South Gloucestershire, and Bath and North East Somerset. The comb ...
. The decorated
corbels In architecture, a corbel is a structural piece of stone, wood or metal keyed into and projecting from a wall to carry a bearing weight, a type of bracket. A corbel is a solid piece of material in the wall, whereas a console is a piece applie ...
and capitals belonging to them were probably carved by local masons, some of them members of the so-called ‘School of the West’, creating some of the most inventive architectural sculpture of the early thirteenth century in the West of Ireland.


Today

The Abbey is now a
national monument A national monument is a monument constructed in order to commemorate something of importance to national heritage, such as a country's founding, independence, war, or the life and death of a historical figure. The term may also refer to a sp ...
in state care. Admission is inexpensive, with a family pass costing only 16 euro. It is located in
Boyle, County Roscommon Boyle (; ) is a town in County Roscommon, Ireland. It is located at the foot of the Curlew Mountains near Lough Key in the north of the county. Carrowkeel Megalithic Cemetery, the Drumanone Dolmen and the lakes of Lough Arrow and Lough Gara ...
.


Australian connection.

A small piece of stone from the Abbey was carried to the other side of the world and placed on the monumental headstone of an Irishman Bartholomew Higgins in the Rookwood Necropolis in
Sydney, Australia Sydney is the capital city of the state of New South Wales and the most populous city in Australia. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about 80 km (50 mi) from the Pacific Ocean ...
.


References


Notes


Sources


Boyle Abbey
at Ireland West * Annals of Boyle * Adammnan, Life of Columba. * Annals of Lough Cé. * Annals of Connaught * Annals of the Four Masters * Hogan Flannan, Gelasius O’Cullenan O.Cist., Martyr—Abbot of Boyle, From Hallel, A Review of Monastic Spirituality and Liturgy. * * Morgan Conal, The history of the Cistercian Abbey of Boyle, 1161-1584 (Roscommon Library 2017) * O’Dwyer B W, Letters from Ireland 1228-1229 (Kalamazoo 1982). * Sharkey P.A., The Heart of Ireland (Boyle 1927)


See also

* List of abbeys and priories in Ireland (County Roscommon)


Further reading

* {{Cite book , last=Kalkreuter , first=Britta , title=Boyle Abbey and the School of the West , publisher=Wordwell , year=2001 , isbn=1869857380 , location=Bray, Co. Wicklow


External links


Boyle Abbey
- official site at Heritage Ireland Buildings and structures in County Roscommon Religion in County Roscommon Cistercian monasteries in the Republic of Ireland Ruins in the Republic of Ireland National monuments in County Roscommon Religious museums in Ireland Romanesque architecture in Ireland