Irish Christian Heritage: Photos and Discussion

[Memento Mori]

This is something I have a great interest in and over the years I have collected loads of photos of old churches and the likes. I thought we could have a thread to share photos and discuss things. There is a real danger that the history and meaning of Ireland's Christian heritage, be it ruins, devotionals etc. could be lost as the older generation dies out, with many young people either moving away from their home areas or just having little interest in the subject. In the future, I can forsee this being the subject of considerable regret by those interested in local and social history.



The above is of the church ruins in the graveyard at Dysart in Louth. This is a fairly typical example of a late 15th/early 16th-century church (although the history of the site goes back many hundreds of years before) in the area, made of greywacke, with some roughly coursed limestone. The main give-away for the date is the double bell-cote, as are the directly opposing doors in the sidewalls of the church, both of which are tell-tale hallmarks of later medieval churches in Ireland. It is in ruins since at least 1682.



Above we can see the worked door (note how the ground level has risen) and below, we can see how the stoup just inside the door has vanished, but the surrounds remain.



It is a nice, atmospheric place to visit and unlike many graveyards is immaculately kept. There is also a lovely small Marian grotto in the corner of the graveyard, which was erected in the year 2000 (somewhat unusually recently) to the memory of those interred in this ancient graveyard.



Just up the road is the more modern Catholic church which is still in use (https://www.buildingsofireland.ie/build ... unty-louth), built in 1766. Across the road from which are the almost ruinous remains of the national school of the mid 19th century (great photos and detail here: https://endaoflaherty.com/2016/10/11/d ... -co-louth/). All of this being on the former Barmeath estate, the castle of which remains intact and lived in nearby by the Bellew family: http://www.ihh.ie/index.cfm/houses/hous ... h%20Castle

Generations of history, life, death, persecution, hope and joy told by a handful of buildings within a very small area.

[Memento Mori]

For the last three summers, extensive excavations have been carried out at Beamore in Co Meath (minutes outside Drogheda). The excavations have uncovered a fascinating Cistercian Monastic Grange (basically a farm connected to a mother monastery, presumably Mellifont in Louth in this instance) confirming long told but almost forgotten local claims that the extant remains on the site were monastic.



The husband and wife team of Geraldine and Matthew Stout have a great record of publishing excellent books, including one in recent years on their excavations at Bective Abbey in Meath, another Cistercian monastic site. Hopefully, they will write a book about these excavations too! They have published a daily blog, linked below, with plenty of great pictures and information. The photo above is taken from this blog.

https://beaubec.home.blog/

https://www.irishtimes.com/news/environ ... -1.4630248

The Cistercians are a Catholic Monastic Order who live under a strict rule. They were founded by Benedictine monks in France in the 11th century who felt that the rule the Benedictines lived under had grown lax, so they left and set up their own more severe order, which proved extremely proper. They were very influential in Ireland - they can still be found in Louth today at "New" Mellifont Abbey which was set up in 1938, around 400 years after their original foundation was seized and suppressed. The ruins of the original Mellofont Abbey are now a popular tourist destination.

[Mr Daniel F. O'Leary]

This is going to be quite different to the previous posts on this topic, but it's still interesting.

French Church Street in Cork City is named after the Huguenots, who moved there in the 17th and 18th centuries. Here's a picture of their burial ground.



The Huguenots were French Calvinists (Protestants) who were heavily persecuted by the French government. After the French Wars of Religion, the Edict of Nantes (which previously allowed for religious tolerance) was revoked.

This event made the Huguenots emigrate for religious freedom. They settled in a few different areas, including what is now the United States, the UK, Netherlands, South Africa and Ireland, as can be seen in this picture.

Theobald Wolfe-Tone's parents were Huguenots.
Famous People descended from Irish Huguenots include Walt Disney, Kurt Cobain and Sean Lemass.

They also introduced Blaa's to Waterford, which are bloody tasty with rashers and ketchup or brown sauce!

[Mr Daniel F. O'Leary]

Sort of following on from the theme of the last post, this is the Palatine Centre in County Limerick.



The Palatines were 18th century Protestant German immigrants that came from what is now Rhineland-Palatinate in Germany. They left because there local areas were destroyed between wars with France and the Spanish war of Succession. The British Government offered them refuge and they settled in Britain, America, Canada, Australia and Ireland as seen in this picture.