Grangefertagh

Last updated

Grangefertagh
Gráinseach na Fearta
Fearta-Caerach
Grangefertagh Round Tower April 2021.jpg
Round tower
Ireland adm location map.svg
Red pog.svg
Location within Ireland
Monastery information
Other namesFertagh
Order Canons Regular of Saint Augustine
Establishedearly 6th century
Disestablished 1536
Diocese Ossory
People
Founder(s) Ciarán of Saigir
Architecture
Functional statusIn ruins
Style Celtic monastic
Site
LocationGrangefertagh, Johnstown,
County Kilkenny, Ireland
Coordinates 52°46′42″N7°32′41″W / 52.778459°N 7.544599°W / 52.778459; -7.544599
Public accessyes
Official nameGrangefertagh Round Tower and Church
Reference no.74

Grangefertagh is a former abbey located in County Kilkenny, Ireland. It is today a National Monument.

Contents

Location

Grangefertagh is located about 3.3 km (2.1 mi) north of Johnstown, County Kilkenny, near a crossing-point on the River Goul. [1]

History

Grangefertagh was founded in the sixth century AD by Saint Ciarán of Saigir, and known as Fearta-Cáerach ("Sheep's Tomb"). In 861 Cerball mac Dúnlainge killed a host of Vikings at Fertagh, taking forty heads. A round tower was later built. In 1156 the high king Muirchertach Mac Lochlainn burned the tower with the lector inside. [2]

The monastery was reopened by the de Blancheville family for the Canons Regular of St Augustine in the early 13th century. [3] In 1421 it was so destroyed and desolated that its religious could not 'remain therein, but must wander about and beg their daily bread' [4] but in 1455 it was rebuilt by Thady Megirid/Magriyd, a canon of Inchmacnerin. [5] The monastery was dissolved in 1541 [6] but the church of was in use until 1780 and now forms part of a Gaelic handball alley.


Buildings

Round tower

The tower is 31 m (102 ft) tall. It has nine windows: six angle-headed and three lintelled. Four of the angle-headed windows are on the top storey facing the four cardinal directions. The tower is complete to the cornice but only part of the cap remains.

The doorway faces northeast and is 3.3 m (11 ft) above the ground. Sometime before 1800, a local farmer removed some stones from the original doorcase because he believed that they had magical fire-resistant properties. The doorway as it appears now is a later repair job.

Fertagh 2021 (19).jpg

Church

Fertagh tomb.jpg
Fertagh handball alley.jpg

There is an Augustinian monastery church (13th century) west of the tower. A side chapel contains a 16th century [7] tomb said by Carrigan [8] to be that of Seán Mac Giolla Phádraig, King of Osraige. The tomb has effigies of a man in armour and a woman, said to be Seán’s wife Nóirín Ní Mórdha. [9] Carrigan claimed other members of the Mac Giolla Phádraig dynasty also rest there. [10] The chest is decorated with tracery and lierne vaulting in relief. [11] [12] A 2020 article [13] reviews various unusual aspects of the tomb that scholars, including Carrigan, [14] have found make it an exception compared with other similar tombs built by Ormond [15] sculptors.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kings of Osraige</span>

The kings of Osraige reigned over the medieval Irish kingdom of Osraige from the first or second century AD until the late twelfth century. Osraige was a semi-provincial kingdom in south-east Ireland which disappeared following the Norman Invasion of Ireland. A number of important royal Ossorian genealogies are preserved, particularly MS Rawlinson B502, which traces the medieval Mac Giolla Phádraig dynasty back through Óengus Osrithe, who supposedly flourished in the first or second century. and one in the Book of Leinster. Recent analysis of ninth and tenth century regnal succession in Osraige has suggested that in peaceful times, kingship passed primarily from eldest to youngest brother, before crossing generations and passing to sons and nephews.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Osraige</span> Medieval southeastern Irish kingdom

Osraige or Osraighe, Osraí, anglicized as Ossory, was a medieval Irish kingdom comprising what is now County Kilkenny and western County Laois, corresponding to the Diocese of Ossory. The home of the Osraige people, it existed from around the first century until the Norman invasion of Ireland in the 12th century. It was ruled by the Dál Birn dynasty, whose medieval descendants assumed the surname Mac Giolla Phádraig.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Johnstown, County Kilkenny</span> Town in Leinster, Ireland

Johnstown, historically known as Coorthafooka, is a small town in County Kilkenny, Ireland. Bypassed in December 2008 by the M8, the town lies at the junction of the R639, the R502 and the R435 regional roads. It is the home of the Fenians GAA hurling club. Situated 121 kilometres (75 mi) from Dublin and 131 kilometres (81 mi) from Cork, it lies in the agricultural heartland of the southeast.

Brian Mac Giolla Phádraig was an Irish poet and priest. He is not to be confused with any of the Barons of Upper Ossory, his relations, several of whom bore the same name in Irish.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Galmoy (barony)</span> Barony in County Kilkenny, Ireland

Galmoy is a barony in the north western part of County Kilkenny, Ireland. It is one of 12 baronies in County Kilkenny. The size of the barony is 162.7 square kilometres (62.8 sq mi). There are 12 civil parishes in Galmoy. While it is named after the village of Galmoy, today the chief town of the barony is Urlingford. Galmoy barony lies at the north-western corner of the county between Fassadinin to the east, and Crannagh to the south. It is surrounded on two sides by counties Tipperary to the west and Laois to the north. The M8 Dublin/Cork motorway bisects the barony. It is situated 121 kilometres (75 mi) from Dublin city and 131 kilometres (81 mi) from Cork city. Galmoy is currently administered by Kilkenny County Council. The barony was part of in the historic kingdom of Osraige (Ossory).

Barnaby Fitzpatrick (c.1478–1575) was the last person to have claim to the kingship of Osraige; forfeiting his ancestral title in favour of being created the first Lord Baron Upper Ossory by King Henry VIII of England, by patent dated 11 June 1541, as part of the King's policy of Surrender and regrant. Barnaby Fitzpatrick was subsequently knighted on 1 July 1543.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Upper Ossory</span> Barony in County Laois, Ireland

Upper Ossory was an administrative barony in the south and west of Queen's County in Ireland. In late Gaelic Ireland it was the túath of the Mac Giolla Phádraig (Fitzpatrick) family and a surviving remnant of the once larger kingdom of Ossory. The northernmost part of the Diocese of Ossory and medieval County Kilkenny, it was transferred to the newly created Queen's County, now known as County Laois, in 1600. In the 1840s its three component cantreds, Clarmallagh, Clandonagh, and Upperwoods, were promoted to barony status, thereby superseding Upper Ossory.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cullahill Castle</span> Ruined castle in County Laois, Ireland

Cullahill Castle was the principal stronghold of the MacGillapatricks of Upper Ossory built around 1425 and destroyed around 1650. Cullahill Castle takes its name from an ancient forest that covered Cullahill Mountain and extended down to Cullahill village.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mac Giolla Phádraig dynasty</span> Descendants of the former kings of Osraige

Mac Giolla Phádraig is a native Irish dynastic surname which translates into English as "Son of the Devotee of (St.) Patrick". In the medieval period, the Mac Giolla Phádraigs were hereditary kings of Osraige; today, the anglicised version of the name is commonly "Fitzpatrick".

Óengus Osrithe son of Criomthann Mór and his wife Cindnit, daughter of Dáire mac Degad and Morand, was the semi-legendary first king and eponymous ancestor of the Osraige people of Ireland. His supposed floruit lies in the late first or early second century AD.

Florence Fitzpatrick, 3rd Baron Upper Ossory, was the third son of Barnaby Fitzpatrick, 1st Baron Upper Ossory and his wife Margaret Butler, and inherited the title upon the death of his older brother Barnaby Fitzpatrick, 2nd Baron Upper Ossory in 1581. He married Catherine O'More, daughter of Patrick O'More of Abbeyleix, and had six children, including his son Teige, who succeeded as 4th Baron, and Joan who married John Butler of Dunboyne, by whom she was the mother of Edmond Butler, 3rd/13th Baron Dunboyne.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Teige Fitzpatrick, 4th Baron Upper Ossory</span>

Teige Fitzpatrick, 4th Baron Upper Ossory (d. December 1627) was the son and heir of Florence Fitzpatrick, 3rd Baron Upper Ossory, by his wife Catherine O'More. He married Joan Butler, the daughter of Sir Edmund Butler of Cloughgrenan.

Barnaby Fitzpatrick, 5th Baron Upper Ossory was the son and heir of Teige Fitzpatrick, 4th Baron Upper Ossory.

Barnaby Fitzpatrick, 6th Baron Upper Ossory, was the heir and successor of Barnaby Fitzpatrick, 5th Baron Upper Ossory. The eldest son of Barnaby Fitzpatrick by his wife Margaret Butler, he took his seat in Parliament on 16 March 1639. He married Catherine Everard, daughter of Sir Edward Everard, and his heir was his eldest son, Barnaby.

Barnaby Fitzpatrick, 7th Baron Upper Ossory, was the eldest son, heir and successor of Barnaby Fitzpatrick, 6th Baron Upper Ossory by his wife Catherine Everard.

Riagan mac Dúnlainge was king of Osraige from 888 to 894 AD.

Diarmait mac Cerbaill was a king of Osraige from 894 to 905, and again from 908 to 928 AD.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Knocktopher (barony)</span> Barony in County Kilkenny, Ireland

The barony of Knocktopher is a barony in the west of County Kilkenny, Ireland. The barony is 46,765 acres (189.25 km2) in size. There are 16 civil parishes made up of 125 townlands. It is one of 12 baronies in the county. The chief town is Mullinavat and it contains the settlements of Stonyford, Ballyhale, Hugginstown, Knocktopher, and Dunnamaggan. The M9 motorway bisects the barony.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Monastery of Inisnag</span>

The Monastery of Ennisnag was an early Irish Christian monastery, and later a medieval prebendal church, located at Ennisnag, in County Kilkenny, Ireland. The medieval monastery and church are no longer extant. From the ruins, St Peter's church, of Protestant denomination, was established in the early 19th century.

Gilla Pátraic mac Donnchada was king of Osraige and the progenitor from whom all Mac Giolla Phádraigs (Fitzpatricks) of Ossory took their hereditary surname. Gilla Pátraic succeeded his father Donnchad mac Cellaig in 976. Donnchad mac Cellaig was the son of Cellach mac Cerbaill, king of Osraige and his wife, Echrad ingen Matudán. After a reign of 21 years, Gilla Pátraic was slain by Donnabhan, king of the Danes of Waterford, and Domhnall, king of the Desies. By his wife, Maelmuire, he had five sons: (1) Donnchad mac Gilla Pátraic, king of Osraige and king of Leinster; (2) Dunghal ; (3) Tadhg ; (4) Diarmaid ; and, (5) Muircheartach.

References

  1. Wallace, Martin (1 April 2009). Celtic Resource Book. Church House Publishing. ISBN   9780715141861 via Google Books.
  2. Rees, Elizabeth (1 May 2013). Celtic Saints of Ireland. History Press. ISBN   9780752492919 via Google Books.
  3. Archdall, M (1786). Monasticon Hibernicum: Or, an history of the Abbies, Priories, and other Religious Houses in Ireland. Dublin: Printed for Luke White.
  4. Twemlow, William (1906). Calendar of Papal Registers Relating To Great Britain and Ireland 1417-1431, p.181. Vol. 7. London: His Majesty’s Printing Office.
  5. Twemlow, William (1906). Calendar of Papal Registers Relating To Great Britain and Ireland 1417-1431. Vol. 7. London: His Majesty’s Printing Office.
  6. White, N (1943). Extents of Irish monastic possessions, 1540-1541. Dublin: Manuscripts Commission.
  7. Rae, Edwin (1971). "Irish Sepulchral Monuments of the Later Middle Ages. Part II the O'Tunney Atelier". The Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland. 101: 1–39.
  8. Carrigan, William (1905). The History and Antiquities of the Diocese of Ossory. Vol. 2. Dublin: Sealy, Bryers & Walker.
  9. CHI. "Grangefertagh Abbey, near Johnstown, Co. Kilkenny".
  10. Carrigan, William (1905). The History and Antiquities of the Diocese of Ossory. Vol. 2. Dublin: Sealy, Bryers & Walker.
  11. "Grangefertagh Round Tower & Church".
  12. "Travelmania Ireland - Fertagh / Grangefertagh Round Tower and Church Ruins, County Kilkenny". Archived from the original on 11 September 2016.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
  13. Fitzpatrick, Mike (2020). "Mac Giolla Phádraig Osraí 1384-1534 AD Part II". The Journal of the Fitzpatrick Clan Society. 1: 40–71. doi: 10.48151/fitzpatrickclansociety00320 .
  14. Carrigan, William (1905). The History and Antiquities of the Diocese of Ossory. Vol. 2, p.295. Dublin: Sealy, Bryers & Walker.
  15. Hunt, John (1974). Irish Medieval figure sculpture 1200-1600: A study of Irish tombs with notes on costume and armour. Dublin: Irish University Press.