Dear Readers,
The writing of my January Blogposting will run into March; lots of facts to be checked and I have got way laid down other roads while double checking my facts.
As ever at such times I offer a nod of respect to all journalists who get ´print´out to daily or weekly deadlines.... I need a cup of tea just thinking of the stress that would bring on me. So do come back ´at a later date´. Please.
Well gentle Readers,
An interesting posting for you today; I had the great good fortune to be able to visit a kind friend, Eiley, in Kilmallock, Co. Limerick for a few days recently.
For those not in the know Kilmallock is a small town some 35km south of Limerick.
And well worth a visit.
Like many Irish towns and villages, Kilmallock started out as a small monastic settlement, founded in the 7th century by a monk going by the name of Moceallóg.
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Common with the lay out of many Irish towns, there is one main street with smaller streets going off the main artery. The houses are from different styles and eras.
As is wont to be the case all over Ireland these days, the town has many fine and well maintained houses all over the place. Then there are some properties, alas, even on the main street that have been unused for several years. - Let us hope the Irish Government´s new and way over due policies to encourage the repair and restoration of these gems for much needed homes for first time buyers.
Used
car sales! Well is that not a business plan worthy of review on a MBA
college course: Your man is dead, and buried, now we can help you sell
his car!
But I digress. Let me go back a few centuries....
The Successful Building Projects Started by the ´Failed King`.
Kilmallock has the remains of town walls, a collegiate church, and a monestary* Now here is a fierce interesting fact, I only found out when I was writing this blog posting. Here in Kilmallock as with many other towns around Ireland, these building projects would have been started as a result King John of England´s 2nd visit to Ireland between June - August 1210.
I kid you not! Many old buildings or remains of buildings you see around Ireland today were instigated during these three months. Or as in the case of the walls of this town, replacements of, or improvements on building projects instigated on King John´s beat.
In addition King John set up the boundries out the counties of Dublin, Kildare, Meath, Louth, Carlow, Kilkenny, Wexford, Waterford, Cork and Kerry.
- Not a bad days work in three months for a man who many historians identify as a ´failed king´. The aforementioned King John certainly did not fail in the progeny department either; he had eight children with his second wife Isabella of Angouleme, and at least as many with women who were not named Isabella of Angoulême!
Now for the sake of clarity, it must be added that John did not go out get all those buildings built in the summer of 1210, rather his Lord Justice in Ireland John de Gray, keep the building plan on course. - One of the few lord justices who made such a postitive impact over the centuries I would suggest.
Indeed for the remaining six years after King John´s visit to Ireland until his death in 1216, Ireland was in relative peace. ... Sur how could anyone have time to fight says you when they were building all those fine edifices all over the place.
Collegiate Church SS. Peter and Paul. Completed in 1241.
S.S. Peter and Paul Collegiate Church is my favorite building in Kilmallock.
A half alert eye will observe the Collegiate church incorporates the base of a round tower.
So clearly the site where the chuch was built would have been connected to Moceallóg´s monestery from years back.
Back in the day S.S. Peter and Paul Colliegiate Church would have been the centre of the local community.
Any local man of means in the middle ages who wanted to get into the good books of God, or his representatives on earth, would have contributed to the chuch so it was well endowed and expanded throughout history.
Some parts of the Collegiate Church were used in later years as a house of prayer by the Church of Ireland community in Kilmallock.
That was until 1935 when it was burned down.
So to think the church was in continious use for 694 years from 1241 until Monday the 22nd of July 1935.
T
That sad fact and the events happening that summer all over Ireland that resulted in the Collegiate Church in Kilmallock being burned down, you can read about here. https://www.theirishstory.com/2013/01/07/july-1935-remember-belfast-boycott-the-orangemen/ But a warning, not a happy read. And certainly not Ireland´s finest hour either.
That said it is a beautiful old church; as you wander around the church
grounds, one senses the centuries of prayer and peace and community that
were once lived inside these chuches walls.
Kilmallock´s Favorite - The Domican Priory
T
Talk to any Kilmallock native about their town, and they will always mention with (justifyable) pride the Domican Priory. On the wet old day I was wandering around Kilmallock, I could not get any photos do to justice to this lovely building. But I hope my story (ie juicy gossip or rather juicy conjecture) on the monestery to follow will make up for my paltry sampling of photos.
The priory was established by Gilbert Fitzgerald of the White Knights in
1291. After the priory was built the aforemention White Knight then
invited the Dominicans to man the monestary so to speak.
who then invited the Dominicans to the monastery, where his clan remained the key benefactors. Maurice Fitzgerald was the main patron of the friary when it was enlarged in 1320. Its community both grew and dwindled over the centuries, mainly due to changing land laws and wars, with friars eventually abandoning the venerable building for good in 1790.
The priory was build in 1291. It is only built a stone´s throw away from the Collegiate Church, completed some 50 years later. which was completed accross the River Loobagh from the Collegiate which 1291Collegiate 1251
For a small town Kilmallock has a very fine Catholic church, SS. Peter and Paul. - As you read on you will see that the Saints Peter and Paul are fierce popular in Kilmallock!
The Catholic church designed in what´s known as Gothic Revival was built between 1879-1889. Architect was one J.J. McCarthy. https://www.buildingsofireland.ie/buildings-search/building/2
Something I found very interesting as I went looking for information on these buildings - these architects and artisans were designing and building churches all over Ireland around the same time.
Planning for these churches all seem to started around the 1830´s - which clearly is a follow on from the removal of the worst of the penal laws by 1829. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penal_Laws
Did these men sleep - I ask?
Might I suggest dear reader you peruse through the Wiki info here to get
a glance at what these men were up to. And I wager if you have an
Irish connection, you will note Messers McCarthy, Ashlin, Mayer and
Earley built something somewhere in your neck of the woods.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Joseph_McCarthy
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_AshlinThat said, the German company Mayer of Munich who designed and created most of the stain glass windows in the church, took the biscuit for productivity. The company was producing work not only for Ireland and England but the world over. But never mind sleep how did Franzy boy Mayers have time left over to make baby Mayers. I mean the company was working on big detailed commissions in places as far afield as the U.S., Canada, Australia and of course other parts of Europe. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franz_Mayer_of_Munich
Mayer of Munich were clearly in the business of stain glass windows, not the art of stain glass. But you can´t sneer at that - for the company is still in business today. God bless and all respect to them! https://mayersche-hofkunst.de/en
or centuries, the choir and chancel of the Collegiate Church of Saint Peter and Saint Paul served as the Church of Ireland parish church in Kilmallock. But, during a wave of sectarian attacks that swept across Ireland in the summer of 1935, the Church of Ireland parish church was destroyed in an arson attack on the 22 July 1935.
1897, 1918, 1921, 1934, 1936, 1940, 1973, 2018, 2020, 2021
S.S. Peter and Paul
Something I found very interesting as I went looking for information on these buildings - these architects and artisans were designing and building churches all over Ireland around the same time.
Planning for these churches all seem to started around the 1830´s - which clearly is a follow on from the removal of the worst of the penal laws by 1829. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penal_Laws
Did these men sleep - I ask?
Might I suggest dear reader you peruse through the Wiki info here to get
a glance at what these men were up to. And I wager if you have an
Irish connection, you will note Messers McCarthy, Ashlin, Mayer and
Earley built something somewhere in your neck of the woods.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Joseph_McCarthy
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_AshlinThat said, the German company Mayer of Munich who designed and created most of the stain glass windows in the church, took the biscuit for productivity. The company was producing work not only for Ireland and England but the world over. But never mind sleep how did Franzy boy Mayers have time left over to make baby Mayers. I mean the company was working on big detailed commissions in places as far afield as the U.S., Canada, Australia and of course other parts of Europe. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franz_Mayer_of_Munich
Mayer of Munich were clearly in the business of stain glass windows, not the art of stain glass. But you can´t sneer at that - for the company is still in business today. God bless and all respect to them! https://mayersche-hofkunst.de/en
An elaborate, monumental church of architectural importance, which was one of the later churches designed by the well known Gothic Revival architect, J.J. McCarthy. The contractor was Walsh from Foynes and the decoration was by Eugene Daly of Cork. The elaborate ornamentation belies its simple plan, having organ loft, nave and chancel beneath one continuous roof contrasting with the off-centre tower and spire. Very well maintained, the church presents an early aspect with most of the original features and fabric intact. There is rich internal carving and decoration, with ornate mosaics in the chancel, designed under the direction of George Ashlin, and stained glass by Mayer and Earley.
Joseph Gabriel Meyer (1808-1883) established an Art Institute in Munich in 1847, with royal patronage. By the mid-1850s he was operating studios and workshops in the Maxvorstadt area of the city. His aim was to promote and produce Christian artwork (religious carvings, altars, painted works etc.) inspired by the medieval era. It was very much a family business: after Mayer's daughter Therese married, a new stained glass department opened in 1862, managed by her husband, Franz Xavier Zettler (1841-1916). Then, from as early as 1865, Mayer & Co. begun setting up foreign branches, including one that very year in London. Adverts with the address 70 Grosvenor Street, London, can be found later on. Some stained glass windows in Britain are signed "Mayer & Co. London." William Wailes studied under Mayer in Munich (see "Core details"), and W. F. Dixon designed for the firm, moving to Munich in 1894.
In a six-story building in the city’s center, Michael and Petra Mayer run — and reside in — one of the world’s oldest and most celebrated architectural glass and mosaic studios.
and two tower houses - where taxes would have been collected*.
Blossom Gate and Town Walls
The name Kilmallock is the anglised version of the Irish name Cill Mocheallóg-Church of St Moceallóg. The existing town walls at Kilmallock are thought to belong to the late 14th/early 15th century. These walls replaced earlier town defences. There is evidence, on the west side of the town walls, of an early fosse (ditch) and earthen bank. This bank was probably topped with a wooden palisade. At present there are 1100 metres, of the original 1700 metres of stone wall, still surviving.
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| One of two Tower Houses. |
