Church

The National Monuments Service's description

Situated in the centre of the village with Augustinian priory (TN022-070002-) located 60m to the S. The poorly preserved remains of the N wall of a possible rectangular church building composed of roughly coursed limestone rubble (Wall T. 1m; L 24.8m) with a possible priest's chamber at the W end. The wall is orientated on an E-W axis. The site has been greatly altered by clean up schemes in the area. A flat-headed doorway and window embrasures have been altered so as to make it impossible to determine their original form. A double-ope stoup inserted in the E jamb of a destroyed doorway is the only architectural feature visible (Timoney 1971, 77). The stoup is decorated with a foliage design and an angel holding a shield. The wall construction different from that of the nearby priory suggesting a different date for the construction of this building. It may have been a late medieval parish church associated with the village of Toomevara. It is listed in the ecclesiastical taxation of the Diocese of Killaloe in 1302 (CDI, vol. 5, 302). A cross-inscribed slab (TN022-070004-), now lost, was recovered from the vicinity of the church (Gleeson 1951-2, 133). Killanin and Duignan mention that until recently there was a ninth/tenth-century gravestone (TN022-070004-) near the E doorway of the church and that this church was possibly built on the site of St Donán's monastery (Killanin and Duignan 1967, 443). It is also possible that this was a domestic building associated with the nearby abbey complex. The site is separated from the abbey by a modern roadway. This building is depicted as a church on the first edition of the Ordnance Survey six-inch map. According to the OS Namebooks there is a belief that the graveyard (TN022-070003-) extended from the abbey to the present building. According to Gleeson this building may have been the remains of 'O'Meara's castle of 1541, or the 'ruined chambers thatched' of 1597' (Gleeson 1951-2, 134). In 1597, Archbishop Miler Magrath had a grant of 'the site circuit and precinct of the late Priory of Thome' with a 'butt of a ruined castle with certain ruined chambers thatched' (Gleeson 1951-2, 133).

The above description is derived from 'The Archaeological Inventory of County Tipperary. Vol. 1 - North Tipperary' compiled by Jean Farrelly and Caimin O'Brien (Dublin: Stationery Office, 2002). In certain instances the entries have been revised and updated in the light of recent research.

Date of upload/revision: 22 September 2008

References

Gleeson, D.F. 1951-2 Churches in the deanery of Ormond. North Munster Antiquarian Journal 6, 96-107, 130-35.

Cal. doc. Ire. - Calendar of documents relating to Ireland 1171-1307, ed. H.S. Sweetman (5 vols., London, 1875-86).

Timoney, M.A. 1971 A stoup from Clonlea, Co. Clare. North Munster Antiquarian Journal 14, 76-7.

Killanin, M.M. and Duignan, M.V. 1967 (2nd ed.) The Shell guide to Ireland. London. The Ebury Press.