Monasteranenagh Abbey: A Medieval Cistercian Monastery in Ireland
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- Ireland
- Primary era
- Medieval
- Eras represented
- Medieval
- Civilizations
- Irish
- Site type
- Religious
- Remains
- Monastery
On this page10 sections
History
Monasteranenagh Abbey is a former Cistercian abbey in Ireland, founded in 1148 in medieval Munster by Toirdhelbach mac Diarmata Ua Briain, or Turlough O’Brien, king of Munster. He established it for monks from Mellifont, Ireland’s first Cistercian abbey. The foundation was traditionally linked with his victory over the Vikings at Rathmore Castle. Dedicated to Mary, the mother of Jesus, the abbey later became one of Ireland’s wealthiest Cistercian establishments and is now a National Monument of Ireland.
Foundation and expansion
After Turlough O’Brien’s death, Domnall Mór Ua Briain became the abbey’s patron and probably completed the main monastic building campaign in the late twelfth century. The Cistercians were a reform movement within Western Christian monasticism that emphasized strict communal discipline and agricultural self-sufficiency. Monasteranenagh belonged to the Cistercian network connected through Mellifont and, ultimately, Clairvaux, one of the order’s principal medieval mother abbeys.
The abbey developed an extensive family of foundations during the twelfth century. It founded or was associated with Inislounaght, Abbeydorney, Midleton, Holy Cross, and Abbeyfeale. Abbeyfeale was founded in 1188 and became a cell of Monasteranenagh in 1209. The house was reputed to be especially productive in spiritual terms as well as prosperous materially, although by the end of the thirteenth century it owed 209 pounds to the Riccardi banking family of Lucca.
The Conspiracy of Mellifont
In 1227 and 1228, during the Conspiracy of Mellifont, Monasteranenagh was transferred to Margam Abbey in Wales. The revolt involved Irish Cistercian monasteries resisting increasing Anglo-Norman supervision and control. The Irish monks expelled the non-Irish members of the community, resisted a canonical visitation by Stephen of Lexington, and fortified the abbey against a possible siege. A canonical visitation was an official inspection of a religious house by an authorized church representative.
Stephen of Lexington excommunicated the community, formally excluding it from participation in the sacraments and communion of the Church, and accused the monks of having “drunk from the cup of Babylon.” Hubert de Burgh, bishop of Limerick, subsequently retook the abbey, restored the expelled monks, and pardoned those who repented. Monasteranenagh returned to Mellifont’s jurisdiction in 1274.
Dissolution and destruction
The abbey was dissolved in 1539 and 1540, although the monks were permitted to remain after its property was seized. By 1543, its possessions had been granted to Sir Osborne Echingham. The house may also have received Cistercian monks expelled from daughter houses between 1540 and 1542. Maurice MacGibbon, the abbey’s abbot, became archbishop of Cashel in 1567 and later served as a diplomat in Spain.
Monastic life ended during the Second Desmond Rebellion, a series of sixteenth-century uprisings in Munster against English authority led by members and supporters of the Fitzgerald earls of Desmond. Spanish and Irish insurgents took refuge at Monasteranenagh, but English forces under Sir Nicholas Malby defeated Sir John of Desmond and used artillery against the monastery. The cloister and refectory were largely destroyed, and the surviving monastic community was massacred. Tradition gives the dead as about forty monks, including the abbot, although the number forty is regarded as a later legend.
Sir Henry Wallop inherited the abbey in 1585, removed its valuables, and left the buildings to decay. The ruins suffered further damage during this period. From the sixteenth century, the south transept was adapted as a dwelling, while the church interior continued to serve as a burial ground until the 1970s.
Name and setting
The name Monasteranenagh is associated with a tradition that a fair took place on the site before the monastery was founded. Its Irish name means “monastery of the fair.” The Latin form Magium derives from the River Maigue, and other historical forms include Monaster-an-Aonagh, Eanach, Monaster-na-maighe, Maigue, Maio, Manister, Nenagh, and Nenay.
Remains
The ruins stand beside the River Camogue, an affluent of the Maigue, on a slight elevation set back from the river. The builders selected this position because they recognized the risk of flooding. The principal surviving feature is a cruciform Gothic abbey church, although elements of its design also retain Norman characteristics. The church was built between 1170 and 1220, and its surviving walls and gables preserve the central arrangement of the former monastery.
Abbey church
Cruciform church
The church retains its lateral walls, two gables, and the frames of its main windows. Its roof structure, vaults, and side aisles have been lost, and some windows were later blocked. Two round-headed windows remain in the west wall above the west doorway, preserving an earlier round-arched element within the Gothic building.
Three lancet windows were placed in the east wall, including the three openings that formerly illuminated the eastern end. These windows were later blocked. The original presbytery, the part of the church reserved for the clergy around the high altar, had a barrel vault that collapsed in 1874.
South transept
The south transept, an arm crossing the main axis of the church, was converted into a domestic dwelling from the sixteenth century. A tower over the crossing collapsed in 1806 and 1807. It has been interpreted either as the church’s crossing tower or as part of a sixteenth-century house built over the south transept. It may also have been connected with fortifications added during the conflict of 1227 and 1228.
Conventual buildings
The early Gothic chapter house survives among the conventual buildings. A chapter house was the monastery’s meeting room, where the community read its rule, conducted administrative business, and dealt with disciplinary matters. Like the original choir of the church, the chapter house was lit by three lancet windows in its east wall.
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