E-Book, Englisch, 288 Seiten
Perris A Ramble About Tallaght
1. Auflage 2023
ISBN: 978-1-78849-471-7
Verlag: The O'Brien Press
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: 6 - ePub Watermark
History, People, Places
E-Book, Englisch, 288 Seiten
ISBN: 978-1-78849-471-7
Verlag: The O'Brien Press
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: 6 - ePub Watermark
Albert Perris is a native of Tallaght and has been prominent in the promotion and preservation of Tallaght's History and Heritage for 25 years. He has worked in a variety of professional roles in the voluntary, community and social care sector, including Independent Social Researcher- publishing a number of Social Research reports in the late 1990s; CEO with Respond Support, Head of Services with Alone and National Manager of Specialist Services with SVP. 1999 saw the publication of 'Since Adam was a boy: An Oral Folk History of Tallaght' (TWS), preserving for future generation, the oral histories and memories of some of Tallaght's oldest residents, collected over a two year period by Albert. The founder and Author of the popular blog, 'A Ramble About Tallaght', his articles have been read over 161,000 times in a two year period. He has recently been appointed to the role of Heritage Officer with Tallaght Community Council.
Weitere Infos & Material
At twelve noon on 12 June in the year of our Lord 1832, Patrick McDonald was at work in a field, digging a ditch in Bohernabreena, when he saw five strangers approaching at a distance from across the hills. The five men were barefooted and each carried a bale or bundle of turf under his arm. One of the figures was a balding, grey-haired man. The other four were stout and bareheaded. They approached McDonald and informed him they had been sent by the Catholic priest in Kilbride and told to deliver ‘blessed turf’ to local residents to protect their homesteads.
McDonald was advised that a ‘comet’ had dropped from heaven and that the town of New Ross, Co. Wexford, had been destroyed. The six men solemnly prayed over the sods of turf, saying seven Paters, seven Marias, a Gloria Patria and the Apostles’ Creed. They instructed McDonald to burn a sod of the blessed turf on the threshold of his cabin (where he lived with his mother Nelly), and to make the sign of the cross with it on the door.
The men directed that once this was done, he should then take some turf and visit seven other houses within seven miles and request that those residents do the same thing. McDonald was asked to inform the residents he met of the urgency needed in protecting all homesteads in the district with the blessed turf.
Map of Tallaght, 1654, by Robert Newcomen.
McDonald did as he was advised. Having protected his own home, he dutifully set off in the direction of the city to distribute the holy turf, requesting each man he met to likewise visit seven houses. He met with five or six labourers, with whom he shared his turf and instructions, before he arrived at Roundtown (Terenure), where he was taken into custody by the police. He made a sworn statement the following day, 13 June 1832, detailing the above account. He noted that the unnamed five men from Kilbride, all having visited seven houses, had returned in a homeward direction.
While Pat McDonald had been listening attentively to the five strangers in his field in Bohernabreena, in Ballymore Eustace the greatest confusion was sown among the townsfolk as a consequence of people running through the town carrying seven pieces of turf. At each house, they left a piece, with directions to burn the bit of turf at the door and say some prayers.
In nearby Rathcoole, hundreds of country people were seen running in all directions with pieces of peat turf in their hands. According to the Chief Constable at Rathcoole, ‘the priests of every parish from Wexford to Tallaght were blamed as the originators of the report about the comet … but on being asked by respectable persons whether this was true, [they] denied [it], and said it was all nonsense, that the people were really mad’.
Early Christianity in Tallaght
By 1832, the people of Tallaght had been devoutly Christian for over 1000 years. By the middle of the eighth century, the Christians of Tallaght had already concluded that the Irish Christian Church was losing its way and in need of reform. They found themselves at the heart of a reform movement, the Céilí Dé or ‘Servants of God’. What became the monastery at Tallaght in the eighth century was by no means the first Christian centre in the district. Monastic foundations had been laid long before then, in Glenasmole by St Sanctán and in Kilnamanagh by St Eoghan. There may have been others.
Kilnamanagh – Cell manach Eascrach
Some 200 years before a monastery was established in Tallaght, early Christian monks established churches and abbeys in the area. In the first half of the sixth century, St Eoghan established one of the first such foundations – Cell manach Eascrach, or Kilnamanagh, a mile north of Tallaght.
St Eoghan (or St Eugene in Latin) is believed to have been born in Leinster. He was one of many young people, including Tiarnach of Clones and Cairbre of Coleraine, who were captured by pirates and brought to Britain. On gaining his freedom, he became a student at Candida Casa in Whithorn in Galloway, southern Scotland, founded by St Ninian. About 397, while the Roman legions still occupied Britain, St Ninian had established the first Christian mission north of Hadrian’s Wall. He erected a small stone church, the Candida Casa or ‘White House’, which was Scotland’s first Christian building. And this is where one of Tallaght’s earliest monks had his schooling.
On returning to Ireland, St Eoghan came to Tallaght and founded his monastery at Kilnamanagh. He spent about fifteen years here training young priests, several of whom would go on to be bishops. Among his students at Kilnamanagh was his nephew Caoimhín – later St Kevin, who would go on to found his own monastery at Glendalough, Co. Wicklow.
According to legend, Eoghan had a vision, a divine command, to travel north. He obeyed the command with great reluctance and against the wishes of his monks. It has been suggested, however, that he was invited north to the See of Ardstraw, Co. Tyrone, because of his reputation for learning and sanctity. He went to Ardstraw about 540 and established his second foundation, for which he is best remembered.
His foundation at Kilnamanagh continued to flourish after his departure. Saint Eoghan died on the evening of 23 August, while his monks were chanting their evening office. He is buried somewhere in Ardstraw graveyard.
Born about 498, Caoimhín had been baptised by Cronan of Clondalkin. Like his predecessors, there is a great deal of ambiguity and uncertainty about much of his life. His date of death is recorded as sometime between 618 and 622. Early Christian litanies suggest he lived for up to 120 years, perhaps more indicative of the veneration bestowed upon him by those who came after than his physical longevity.
What is more certain is his association with Kilnamanagh in Tallaght and Glendalough, Co. Wicklow. What is equally certain is that within 100 years of his death, the cult or veneration of Caoimhín had become established. In addition to the ‘Litany of Irish Saints’, he is invoked in the Stowe Missal. By the time monks came to establish a monastery at Tallaght, the reputation of St Kevin and his early formation under Eoghan at Kilnamanagh was already widely known. Relics of Caoimhín were taken on tour, along with those of Cronan of Clondalkin.
The foundation at Kilnamanagh likely endured for many hundreds of years, but given its proximity to Tallaght, its importance was perhaps overtaken by that of St Mael Ruain from the early ninth century. The monastery at Kilnamanagh may have been sacked by Vikings when they raided Tallaght in 811. The monastery at Tallaght was rebuilt and Kilnamanagh was later the site of a medieval church, a subsidiary church of Tallaght.
By the mid-thirteenth century, Kilnamanagh was occupied by Sir John de Caucer. It is mentioned in a list of Wax Rent dated 1256–66 as subject to a rent of 2lb of wax. In 1306, Rolph de Rathdowne released a portion of land in Kilnamanagh to John le Ken and his heirs. In 1366, Richard Gyfford recovered the Manor of Kilnamanagh and a castle was constructed here as part of the Pale embattlements, part of which would endure into the twentieth century.
Remnants of an old monastic site and medieval church at Kilnamanagh could still be seen in 1837, by which time they had been incorporated into what had, several hundred years earlier, become Kilnamanagh Castle. Adjoining the ancient church had been a burial ground, believed to have been used for many generations, though by the 1770s it had long been forgotten.
From 1778, Kilnamanagh was occupied by the Farrell Family. Jane Farrell, a daughter of the house, married Laurence Steen, a gentleman from Co. Meath, in 1880. About 1778, Mr Farrell attempted to make a vegetable garden at the site and he found the plot to be full of long-decayed human remains. Indeed for the next 150 years, ancient human remains would frequently be upturned close to what had once been Cell manach Eascrach. Human bones were found here in 1778, in 1886, in 1944 and again in 1956, when a concrete path was being laid, leaving little doubt that this was indeed an ancient burial ground.
Pilgrims and progress
In addition to human bones found in this neighbourhood before its development, large quantities of ancient oyster shells had also been unearthed. In 1960, an old tree close to Kilnamanagh Castle fell, revealing a great mass of shells underneath. Oyster shells were an important part of the early monk’s diet and indeed they have become a symbol of pilgrims travelling throughout Europe at that time. (In French, the scallop is called coquille Saint Jacques and in German Jakobsmuscheln, after St James.)
Later history of the site
In 1909, a young nephew of Mr and Mrs Steen, Ambrose Flood, found an old Irish pike head, seven inches by ten inches, in the ancient moat close to Kilnamanagh Castle. Their son Herbie inherited the property and lived there for some years. Herbie Steen’s wife Angela, better known as ‘Dolly’, a nurse from Thurles, died from pleurisy in 1929, at 32 years of age. They were only married a year...
