Religious house - Franciscan friars

The National Monuments Service's description

A Franciscan friary was founded in 1462 by Phelim McMahon, but suggestions by Archdall (Gwynn and Hadcock 1970, 255) that it may have been on an older church site can be discounted (McKenna 1920, 1,3). Phelim McGuire was buried there in 1519 and Ruaraí Mac Redmond Mac Mahon was dragged from sanctuary there and murdered in 1539 (AU). The friary became Observant in 1567, and in 1589 it was sacked by English forces under the Lord Deputy, Sir William FitzWilliam, when the guardian and five others were killed. However, this is recorded under 1540 (AFM) when it might equally well have been perpetrated by a force under the Lord Deputy, Lord Leonard Grey. FitzWilliam left a garrison at the friary, but it was probably withdrawn after the battle of Clontibret in 1595 (Ó Mearáin 1956). Its lands were granted initially to Edward White, but these lands were granted to Edward Blayney in 1606 and confirmed to him in 1612 (Coyle 1980). He is said to have built a castle (MO009-060003-) from the materials of the friary, of which no trace remains.
An image of the friary survives on a map of c. 1590 (Mooney 1957, Pl. 12) which shows a simple rectangular structure with a tower attached on the N side of what may have been the junction of the nave and chancel. The tower has battlements and a pointed roof, but a cloister and other buildings are not depicted (Mooney 1955, 140-1) and probably did not exist. The ruins of the friary are also illustrated on Bartlett’s map of c. 1602 as a more complex building at a distance from the town, but this is probably fanciful about the relative locations of these features. In 1835 the OS recorded that in the rear of a large house on the Diamond opposite Glaslough St., which was thought to be Blayney’s castle (MO009-060003-), were ‘some old walls, said to be the remains of an old Abbey, whose burying ground in common with that of the church (MO009-060012-) would seem to have extended beyond its present bounds, as in levelling that open space before the old Gaol a quantity of human bones were dug up..’ (Herity 2012, 175). This account was followed by Lewis (1837, vol. 2, 384). These descriptions would place it between the Diamond and Convent Lake, probably in the vicinity of the Court house and the parish church. Archaeological testing (96E0025; 96E0293) over an extensive area here failed to produce any evidence of such a structure (Swan 1997a; 1997b).

The above description is derived from the published 'Archaeological Inventory of County Monaghan' (Dublin: Stationery Office, 1986). In certain instances the entries have been revised and updated in the light of recent research.

See the attached images from c. 1590 (MO009-060002-_1copy) and from Bartlett in 1602 (MO009-060_1copy)

Compiled by: Michael Moore

Date of revision: 14 December 2017

References

Ó Mearáin, L. 1956 The Battle of Clontibret. Clogher Record, vol. 1, No. 4, 1-28.

Swan, R. 1997a Dawson Street / Dublin Road, Monaghan. Urban. in I. Bennett (ed.) Excavations 1997: summary accounts of archaeological excavations in Ireland, 90, No. 317. Bray, Wordwell

Swan, D. L. 1997b Town centre carpark development, Dublin Road, Monaghan. Urban. in I. Bennett (ed.) Excavations 1997: summary accounts of archaeological excavations in Ireland, 90-1, No. 318. Bray, Wordwell

Coyle, M. 1980 (ed.) Letters Patent to Sir Edward Balyney dated 18th June 1612. Clogher Record, vol. 10, No. 2, 215-222.

McKenna, Rev. J. E. 1920 Parochial History of the Diocese of Clogher. 2 vols, Enniskillen, Author

Herity, M. (ed.) 2012 Ordnance Survey Letters: Londonderry, Fermanagh, Armagh-Monaghan, Louth, Cavan-Leitrim. Dublin, Fourmasters Press

AU (1983) - The Annals of Ulster to 1311, ed. S. Mac Airt and G. Mac Niocaill (Dublin 1983)

AFM - Annals of the kingdom of Ireland by the Four Masters from the earliest period to the year 1616, ed. and trans. John O'Donovan (7 vols., Dublin, 1851; reprint New York, 1966)

Gwynn, A. and Hadcock, R.N. 1970 (Reprint 1988) Medieval religious houses of Ireland. Dublin. Irish Academic Press.

Lewis, S. 1837 A topographical dictionary of Ireland, 2 vols. London. Lewis and Co.

Mooney, C. 1955 Franciscan architecture in Pre-Reformation Ireland, Part I. Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland 85, 133-73.