Religious house - Augustinian friars

The National Monuments Service's description

S of Tipperary town (TS067-004----) and immediately S of the River Ara, at the SE junction of Abbey Street and Railway Road. There is conflicting evidence of when this Augustinian Friary was founded, sources suggesting that this was either during the reign of Henry III (1216-1272) or later c.1300 by Stephen Butler, an ancestor of the earls of Carrick-on-Suir (Gwynn and Hadcock 1970 (1988 reprint), 302). In 1539 the friary was surrendered by the then prior, Donough O'Cuyrke (O’Quirk) and the possessions, consisting of ‘a church, chapter-house, dormitory hall, two chambers, an inner chamber, kitchen, stable, cemetery and garden, all said to be in ruins and not valued (ibid.). The jurors also stated that ‘the church has from time immemorial been the parish church of Typperare. There are no superfluous buildings, but all are necessary for the farmer, and with 2 gardens and other accommodations cont. 2 acr. And are worth nothing above repairs’ (White 1943, 327). The jurors appraisal was probably exaggerated to reduce the value of the property as one of the jurors, Dermot Ryan, subsequently gained possession of the abbey (Quane 1960, 40; Gwynn and Hadcock 1970 (1988 reprint), 302). In the 1680s the abbey was demolished and the materials were used to build an Erasmus Smith Grammar School (Quane 1960, 42). Only a pointed arch survived, with a soffit rib carried by pointed corbels, which is visible on at least two pre-1950s photographs. According to the OS Letters of 1840, ‘This arch is about sixteen feet [c. 4.8m] high, and is eight feet ten inches [c. 2.5m] wide. There is but a very small portion of the wall, which was four feet two inches [c. 1.2m] thick, remaining on each side (O'Flanagan 1930, vol. 3, 34 -35(103)). A survey of the arch in 1920 gives the width of the arch as 8 feet 10½ inches (c. 2.69m), the height to the spring of the arch as 8 feet 9½ inches (c. 2.67m) and the thickness as 4 feet 1¼ inches (c. 1.24m), with the soffit rib being 11 inches thick (0.26m) (OPW files, 15 April 1920). In 1958 an attempt was made to move the arch, however, this only resulted in its total ‘collapse and disintegration’ (Quane 1960, 75). No trace of the abbey survives at ground level.

Compiled by: Jean Farrelly

Date of upload: 9 June 2014

References

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

White, N.B. 1943 Extents of Irish monastic possessions, 1540-1541. Dublin. Irish Manuscripts Commission.

O'Flanagan, Rev. M. (Compiler) 1930 Letters containing information relative to the antiquities of the county of Tipperary collected during the progress of the Ordnance Survey in 1840. Bray.

Quane, M. 1960 The Abbey School, Tipperary. Journal of the Cork Historical and Archaeological Society 65, 40-75.