The Residential Houses
With the exception of Kilshanny the history of the various Augustinian
houses need not detain us here, for it has already been extensively treated
by Dr. Gleeson in his History of the diocese of Killaloe, and
also by Thomas Westropp in two papers published by the Royal Society of
Antiquaries of Ireland.[21] The source material available to historians
is patchy in the extreme, and this is well illustrated in the case of
the Augustinian nunnery of Killone where, apart from the names of two
of its abbesses, scarcely an iota of its history has survived. Dr. Gleeson
has sifted the papal letters for the houses lying within the Co. Clare
portion of the Killaloe diocese – Clare Abbey, Canons’ Island,
Inchicronan and Killone – and takes their story right up to the
Dissolution. Westropp’s earlier accounts of the Augustinian houses
in Co.Clare is also most useful, if only for the excellent drawings and
ground plans which he provides. His work is somewhat incomplete however
as he makes no mention of the Augustinian abbey of Kilshanny. Indeed,
it becomes clear from his later reference to that church that he had totally
misread its history, believing it to be an affiliate of the Cistercian
monastery of Corcomroe.[22] His attempt at Inchicronan, too, must be read
with the proviso that it does not always accord with the material presented
by the published excerpts from the papal letters which have since become
available.
Kilshanny
There is no foundation charter available for Kilshanny but its Augustinian
credentials are put beyond question by several entries in the papal letters.[23]
Indeed it seems of interest to point out that, alone among the parishes
of Co. Clare, the feast of St. Augustine (28 August) is faithfully observed
in Kilshanny to this day. A date c. 1194 has been mentioned for the foundation
although the abbey does not appear in history until 1274 when the abbot,
Florence O’Tighearnaigh, was elevated to the bishopric of Kilfenora.[24]
Kilshanny was dedicated to Our Lady and St. Augustine, and though located
on lands assigned to the canons by the Clare Abbey charter, it remained
independent of that house right up to the Dissolution. The picture presented
by the papal letters is that of an important monastic institution whose
abbots were prominent in the ecclesiastical administration of the county.
The abbey of St Mary and St Augustine at Kilshanny. Photo: S. Schorman
In the later middle ages, however, the history of Kilshanny, in common with most of the monastic houses in the country, was sometimes clouded by the abuses which seem to have been the inevitable consequence of lay proprietorship. In 1468 the local ruling family – the O’Connors – sought to intrude one of their members into the abbey by alleging that the incumbent, Cormac O’Cahir (although he had held the position for many years and ‘was a good administrator’) had been irregularly installed. The precentor of Kilfenora, who was asked to adjudicate in the affair, was himself attacked by the O’Connors and accused of complicity by forging a papal document. Before the case could be determined however the intruder, Bernard O’Connor, decided to force the issue and
With the support of the lay
power went with his accomplices to the said monastery, broke open
the doors, and laying hands on the said Cormac, grievously wounded
him and slew one of his servants, carried off and wasted the goods
which they found in the monastery, and expelled the canons, after
which the said abbot and convent, fearing lest worse things should
befall them, consented through fear to an agreement by which they
pledged for a sum of money portion of the immoveable goods of the
monastery to the said Bernard, possession of which he still unlawfully
detains.[25] |
At the dissolution of the religious houses the abbey and its possessions were granted to Murrough O’ Brien, 1st earl of Thomond, and subsequently became the subject of much infighting between his descendants, the barons of Inchiquin and the O’Briens of Smithstown. Peace seems to have been restored by 1651 when Dermot O’Brien, 5th baron Inchiquin, made a grant to Honora Wingfield (nee O’Brien) of Smithstown of ‘the abbey and cloister of Kilshanny, with the old ruinous walls sometimes called the abbot’s house and the precincts and circuit of the abbey’.[26]
Augustinian Impropriations
As we have already seen, the Clare Abbey charter enables us to draw up
an estate map of the Augustinians, even if only in broad outline. No doubt
other rectories were assigned to them when their later foundations were
established; and in some cases we know in fact that this was the case.
The rectory of Kilmihil, for instance, is not explicitly mentioned in
the charter (though it may very well be included in ‘the village
of mc duane’), yet it paid tithe to Killone Abbey and afterwards
to the baron of Inchiquin when he acquired that abbey following the dissolution.[27]
With Killone Abbey Inchiquin also received its impropriate rectories viz.
Killow (Clareabbey parish), Clondegad, Kilfiddane, and Killofin together
with seven and a half quarters in Dromcliffe.[28] As Fr. Gaynor has noted,
the source of Inchiquin’s title in Corcabaiscinn is obvious; apart
from the pickings which he secured with Killone Abbey, he was never able
to lay claim to an acre of land in that territory.[29]
Killofin (Labasheeda) Church. Photo: S. Schorman
Even in the extreme western parts of Co. Clare the Augustinians held a portion of the rectorial tithe in the parishes of Kilrush, Killimer, Kilfearagh, Killard, Moyarta and Killballyowen; the remaining portions in these six parishes being impropriate to the Collegiate Church of Iniscathaigh.[30] In fact all the Augustinian impropriations in the deanery of Corcabaiscinn can be more conveniently seen, though from a reversed point of view, in the Loyal Answers concerning the state of Killaloe diocese given by the Protestant bishop, John Rider, to the ecclesiastical commissioners in 1622.[31] The bishop acknowledges that all sixteen rectories in the diocese were impropriate to ‘certain abbies’ [prior to the Dissolution]. He lists them as follows: Clondegad, Kilchreest, Kildysert, Kilfiddane, Killofin, Kilfarboy, Kilmurry-Mc Mahon, Killimer, Kilmihil, Kilmacduane, Kilmurry-Ibrickane, Killard, Kilrush, Kilfearagh, Moyarta and Killballyowen. In 1622 all were in the advowsan of the earl of Thomond with the exception of Clondegad, Kilfiddane and a portion of Kilmihil rectory, which were in the advowson of the baron of Inchiquin. The position described by bishop Rider in Corcabaiscinn, though unusual at first glance, is reducible to one simple fact: with the exception of the impropriations of Iniscathaigh referred to above, the entire rectorial tithe of the deanery was owned by the Augustinian houses of Clare Abbey, Canons’ Island and Killone, and in consequence had fallen into the hands of lay patrons with the possessions of these houses at the Dissolution. Whether by design (as we suggested earlier) or chance, the old diocese of St. Senan had in effect been assigned to the Augustinians, but with some ‘reprisals’ to the saint’s successors on Iniscathaigh.
Old Church at Kilchreest (Ballynacally). Photo: S. Schorman
Care of Souls
To what extent these Augustinian rectories were burdened with cure
(i.e. the obligation to provide a pastoral curacy or care of souls) is
not easy to be certain, for we have no contemporary parochial records
to guide us. It seems reasonable to assume that not all of them were so
burdened, since sinecure rectories were commonplace in the medieval Church,
especially where they were impropriate to monastic houses. Having regard
however to the strong pastoral traditions of the Augustinians, it can
be taken for certain that an active pastoral ministry was effected, especially
in the parishes contiguous to their monasteries; and in many cases we
know in fact that this was the case. In the case of the parishes of Inchicronan,
Killow (Clareabbey), Inisdadrum, Kildysert, Kilchreest, Clondegad and
Kilmurry-Ibrickane the evidence is again found in bishop Riders Loyal
Aswers in 1622. In those seven parishes the bishop found to his annoyance
that not only were the rectories ‘impropriat to certain abbies’
but, unusually, the vicarages as well.[32] The inference is only too clear;
all had been in the pastoral remit of the Augustinians, and, so, the rectorial
and vicarial advowsons had fallen to lay patrons at the dissolution
of the abbeys. Bishop Rider’s account, however, does not provide
us with anything like the full story since it reflects only the position
that existed at the actual date of the dissolution; and it is clear that
over the centuries other parishes, too, had passed in and out of the care
of the Augustinians as pastoral expediency required. In 1421, for instance,
a papal mandate authorised that the parish of Kiltoola (an old parish
now subsumed in Inchicronan) be served by a canon of Inchicronan priory;
and in 1455 the parish of Kilaspuglonane was assigned to the abbey of
Kilshanny.[33] (Indeed, the old church of Toomullin in the neighbouring
parish of Killilagh (Doolin) shares so many features with the church at
Kilshanny that Killilagh too may have been under the care of the Augustinians).
Still in the fifteenth century, there is evidence that the Augustinians
at Canons’ Island sometimes performed cure in the parishes of Kilnasoolagh
and Kilmaleary on the opposite side of the Fergus.[34] There is a strong
tradition in Kilfiddane parish that the church there was built by the
Augustinians of Canons’ Island,[35] and a similar tradition at Kilmaley
is emphasised by a plaque on the cemetery wall near the old church. At
Kildysert the church has a residential tower with several stories attached,
and there is a tradition there that it served as a ‘clearing house’
for Augustinian pastoral activities on the mainland.
Kildysert Church and residential Tower. Photo: G.U. Macnamara
Aside altogether from any pastoral contact,
it will be seen that the integration of the rectories in the formal parishes
at the institution of the diocesan system allowed the Augustinians to
play a role in the economic structure of all the parishes in
which they held rights, and thus to have an influence well outside the
areas of their pastoral remit. And there is at least oblique evidence
that residual traces of Augustinian tradition can still be found in the
religious customs observed today in some of their old rectories, and in
the ruins of some of our parish churches as well.
