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THE YELLOW STEEPLE AND TALBOT’S CASTLE AT ST MARY’S ABBEY

December 30, 2022 by infomatique

TRIM COUNTY MEATH CHRISTMAS 2022

The Yellow Steeple, which does appear to be yellow in some of my photographs, is alleged to have been destroyed by Oliver Cromwell. The story of the tower’s destruction is based on local tradition. According to one account, the Yellow Steeple was actually used as a garrison against Cromwell’s troops until the tower was destroyed

St. Mary’s Abbey in Trim, County Meath, Ireland is a former house of Augustinian canons dedicated to the Blessed Virgin. The abbey was situated on the north bank of the River Boyne, opposite Trim Castle, on land given to St. Patrick who is often credited with founding the abbey.

The abbey was a prominent pilgrimage site, famous for the healing power of its statue of the Virgin Mary, until its dissolution under Henry VIII during the Reformation. Little remains of the abbey except for the Yellow Steeple, the ruin of the abbey bell tower named for the yellow color reflected by the stonework in the setting sun, and Talbot’s Castle, an abbey building converted to a manor house.

The 40 metres (130 ft) Yellow Steeple is the most prominent remnant of the abbey even though it is a ruin. The tower is thought to have been built shortly after the 1368 fire, but there is also a suggestion that it was built under Richard, Duke of York around 1450. The tower, constructed of punched and squared limestone, served as the abbey’s bell tower. The tower still retains the remnant of a spiral staircase, which was built without a newel. The eastern wall rises seven storeys and the southern wall reaches five, but little to nothing remains of the other sides of the formerly square tower. The eastern wall retains two clasping corner buttresses. The walls are mostly plain with a few windows and other simple decoration. The most elaborate feature is the double-pointed belfry window underneath a flower-let formed by a tracery pattern. The south wall is partly built of rubble suggesting that it was an interior wall. There are signs that a tall pointed object, such as a funerary monument, was connected to the south wall. The abbey church most likely was connected to the tower from the south.

While the Yellow Steeple is often considered the only extant remain of the abbey, some evidence suggests that Talbot’s Castle, a nearby manor house, may have been the abbey’s refectory. The size, shape, and internal features indicate the “Castle” may have served as a monastic building before being converted to a private residence.

THE YELLOW STEEPLE AND TALBOT'S CASTLE AT ST MARY'S ABBEY 001

THE YELLOW STEEPLE AND TALBOT'S CASTLE AT ST MARY'S ABBEY 002

BECTIVE ABBEY BRIDGE

December 29, 2022 by infomatique

A STONE BRIDGE ACROSS THE RIVER BOYNE RIVER

VISIT MAUDLIN CEMETERY IN TRIM

Bective sometimes known as Bective Bridge or Ballina is a small hamlet and townland in County Meath, Ireland. Bective is situated on the left bank of the River Boyne and on the Clady River which joins the former in the east of the townland, approximately 6 kilometres east of Trim, on the Athboy to Dunshaughlin road.

Bective is home to Bective Abbey, daughter abbey of the better-known Cistercian abbey at Mellifont in County Louth. The village was also home to the writer Mary Lavin, whose family moved there in 1925. Bective formed the setting for her first and most enduring collection of short stories, Tales from Bective Bridge. The Skurlocke (or Sherlock) family were the local landowners in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.

THIS MUST BE A COWPARADE COW SCULPTURE

December 29, 2022 by infomatique

LACKANASH ESTATE ON LINK ROAD TRIM

Lackenash from Leacain Ais meaning the hill-side of the milk. It is a small townland near to the town of Trim and there is little historical information available online.

I first saw this type of cow back in July 2003 and the story was not a happy one. A collection of life-size cows designed by Irish artists and public figures had to be taken off the streets of Dublin after vandals destroyed several of them. About 70 cows had been located on the streets of Dublin and Dundalk as part of the Bailey’s CowParade 2003, an international cultural art exhibition which visits cities all over the world. The initial 10 cows which were placed at city-centre locations were all damaged so badly that the organisers had no option but to remove them. Since then such sculptures are now usually installed at locations which are indoor or protected at night [I do not know if Dublin is/was unique].

CowParade is an international public art exhibit that has featured in major world cities. Fiberglass sculptures of cows are decorated by local artists, and distributed over the city centre, in public places such as train stations, important avenues, and parks. They often feature artwork and designs specific to local culture, as well as city life and other relevant themes.

After the exhibition in the city, which may last many months, the statues are auctioned off and the proceeds donated to charity.

There are a few variations of shape, but the three most common shapes of cow were created by Pascal Knapp, a Swiss-born sculptor who was commissioned to create the cows specifically for the CowParade series of events. Pascal Knapp owns the copyrights to the standing, lying, and grazing cow shapes used in the CowParade events.

THIS MUST BE A COWPARADE COW SCULPTURE 003

THIS MUST BE A COWPARADE COW SCULPTURE 002

PRIORY OF ST JOHN THE BAPTIST

December 28, 2022 by infomatique

NEWTOWN TRIM

Adjacent to the old Newtown Bridge that spans the River Boyne stands the ruins of the Priory and Hospital of St John the Baptist. The priory was founded for the ‘Crutched Friars’ (name is from the wooden staffs they carried which were topped by a cross) by Simon de Rochfort c 1202, about the same time as he founded the Cathedral and medieval parish church. The Friars were Augustinians who ran hospitals and guest houses.

The hospitals of the Crutched Friars were built similar to all Canons Regular monasteries, but with special facilities for caring for the sick. One of the buildings shows the remains of a chute disposing of waste material into the river.

Among the remains is a church with nave and chancel and a large three-light window in the east wall, see above. Part of a long two-storey building remains, as does a 15th–16th century enclosing wall with a corner turret. There is also a 15th-century three-storey tower which is vaulted above ground level and forms part of the defensive wall.

St. John’s Priory was established by Simon Rochfort, Bishop of Meath, c. 1202 for the Crutched Friars. The first record of the priory is in 1281 when there was a grant of alms from the manor of “Magathtreth.”

In 1513 Edmund Dillon was prior of this monastery; his brother Thomas Dillon was prior of Saints Peter and Paul’s at the time. Their brother Robert was granted the priory at the 1540 Dissolution of the Monasteries. At the time the priory consisted of a church, two towers, a hall, storehouse, kitchen, brewhouse, two granaries, a dovecote and a haggard (stackyard). There were 90 acres (36 ha) of arable land near the Boyne, land and a mill on the Leinster Blackwater, a castle and land at Longwood, County Meath and various other lands in the county.

He later sold it to the Ashe family. After they abandoned it, it was supposedly granted to the Catholic Bishop of Meath. After the Battle of the Boyne (1690) the building was granted to one of King William’s men. According to one story, on his first night in the holy spot he saw a “most horrid vision” and at dawn he rode away never to return.

The site was excavated by David Sweetman in 1984, who found the remains of a 15th-century rood screen and a doorway in the gable end of the nave.

MAEL SEACHNAILL MAC DOMNAILL A SCULPTURE BY JAMES McKENNA

December 28, 2022 by infomatique

CHRISTMAS 2022 IN TRIM COUNTY MEATH

This area on the banks of the River Boyne has improved since I last visited but it is still a bit untidy and the plaque has disappeared.

Máel Sechnaill mac Domnaill, also called Máel Sechnaill Mór or Máel Sechnaill II (949 – 2 September 1022), was a King of Mide and High King of Ireland. His great victory at the Battle of Tara against Olaf Cuaran in 980 resulted in Gaelic Irish control of the Kingdom of Dublin.

Máel Sechnaill belonged to the Clann Cholmáin branch of the Uí Néill dynasty. He was the grandson of Donnchad Donn, great-grandson of Flann Sinna and great-great-grandson of the first Máel Sechnaill, Máel Sechnaill mac Máele Ruanaid. The Kings of Tara or High Kings of Ireland had for centuries alternated between the various Uí Néill branches. By Máel Sechnaill’s time this alternating succession passed between Clann Cholmáin in the south and the Cenél nEógain in the north, so that he succeeded Domnall ua Néill in 980. This system had survived previous challenges by outsiders including the kings of Ulster, Munster and Leinster, and the Viking invasions.

In 980, Olav Cuarán, King of Dublin, summoned auxiliaries from Norse-ruled Scottish Isles and from Mann and attacked Meath, but was defeated by Máel Sechnaill at the Battle of Tara. Reginald, Olaf’s heir, was killed. Máel Sechnaill followed up his victory with a siege of Dublin which surrendered after three days and nights. When Maél Sechnaill took Dublin in 980, according to the Annals of Tigernach, he freed all the slaves then residing in the city.