Franciscan convents as they stood in Elizabeth's reign. Unfortunately, his researches in Clare had little success, nor did he, like Wadding and Bruodin, allude to the monuments. Entering Clare, he first went to Quin, where he only found the choir and transept roofed; and the two or three friars, "old helpless men who scarcely retain a memory of the state of the convent before the suppression," could only tell him that at that crisis they sent their gold and silver plate to Macnamara of Knappogue, after whose death his widow retained it, but she denied its possession when questioned by Mooney.

He then proceeded to "Inis cluain rauada, founded by the ancestors of the Earl of Thomond by the prince Lord Tirl. O'Brien. It is a convent sufficiently beautiful, and all kept in repair by the good offices of the said Earl, who, temporising, called himself a heretic and received the monastery as a gift from the Queen. The English have made it a court of justice for the county, and used for that purpose the hospice and other apartments: yet they have not altered the forms of the cells but keep them in their former condition, whence it is that not one room has been altered, and that worldly nobleman is used to preserve the convent to better times.1 The tombs of all his family are there. The monastery was very famous and full of friars, of whom at present one survives,2 who is there permitted to dwell in his gown among the English, and to celebrate the mass privately in his bedroom." Then, after a long account of the removal of the body of Daniel Nellane, Bishop of Kildare, from the Abbey in 1606, and the repentance of King Conor na Srona3 about 1470, Mooney continues: "The gold and silver vessels and furniture of this convent were converted to his own use by the present Lord, Donat O'Brien, perhaps with the intention that he or his heirs should thereafter restore them, when peace was given to the church."

Father Luke Wadding, in 1634, tells us that in Insch cluainramada "are buried all the Mac Giollabhraids, Clanceys, Nellanes, and others. In the chapel of S. Michael rises the mausoleum of the said Earls (of Thomond), constructed of polished marble under a vaulted roof. In the choir (which a noble lady Morina, daughter of the prince of that race (O'Brien), and wife of Mac Mahon, built) are seen the tombs of the same family, and that of the Barons of Inisicuin. Terence, the husband of Morina, made another tomb for himself and his family in the convent of

1

Repeated by Wadding, 1634, Allemand, 1689, and Stephens, 1722, misleading many not on their guard against the uncritical and careless quotations so common in "authorities." We know that extensive changes took place before 1615.

Our

2 Dermot Bruodin: see account of his life in " Propugnaculum." He is named, with five others (probably friars of Quin), in MSS. T.C.D., E. 3. 15:-" Franciscan simple friars, and verie old . the poore friars doe live only by begginge of corne and other almes, 1613." Bruodin died August 9th, 1617, in the convent.

He really died in 1496, after a reign of thirty years. Wadding calls his confessor "Fergallis O'Trean," possibly "O'Brien."

"Annales Minorum," vol. viii., pp. 46, 47.

the Minorites at Askeaton,' and a third in the church of the blessed Mary at Cluanderalaw."

3

Anthony Bruodin was a historian and antiquary by birth and descent: he was also a native of Clare, son of Miler Bruodin of Ballyhogan, near Corofin, and his wife Margaret Molony. He had good opportunities for learning the truth, for he studied in Quin Abbey under Eugene O'Cahan, a monk of Ennis, who was afterwards appointed guardian of the latter house. Bruodin left Ireland in 1643, and thus writes in 1669: "In the chapel of the Franciscan convent at Inisch, the founder had built a marble mausoleum which is called the tomb of the O'Briens, Lords of Inchiquin." He then mentions the "noble monument" of his own family near it, and continues: "In the same chancel the descendants of Bernard O'Brien, along with the illustrious family of Mac Mahon, have a very beautiful tomb, built in the shape of an altar, and decorated with various marble statues and pillars. In the same church, lower down, the chiefs of the various families, especially Clancy, Nellane, Gilriagh, Hehir, and Considine, have sumptuous marble monuments almost beside the altar walls. In the very ornate chapel of St. Francis is the sepulchre of the Earls of Thomond."

4

Thomas Dyneley, in 1680, gives no description of the abbey; his sketch shows that the transept and the extreme east end of the chancel were roofed, and that a lofty flagstaff crowned the belfry."

Lastly, Hugh Brigdale of Ennis, whose family had been connected with that borough from 1612, wrote thus, in 1695, in a letter now in Trinity College, Dublin. "In Ennis chancel is the ancient monument of grey marble whereon is engraved ye story of our Savior's passion, and belongs to the family of the Mac Mahons."s

Combining these accounts, we see that the nave (where his altar and statue remain) was dedicated to St. Francis, that the transept was very probably the chapel of St. Michael, being the only available space outside

1 Clearly identified in the old Latin Pedigree of the chiefs of Corcovaskin, p. 38 :— "Illus. Terent. Mac Mahon de Clondirala et ob. An. 1472 et sepult. est in mag mausoleo ipsi const. quodq. etiam nunc extat in monasterio de Askelin in Momonia (sic)." 2 "Propugnaculum," Book v., chap. xvii.

3 Bruodin considers that King Torlough built the convent in 1284. Brian Catha an Eanaigh (1370-1399), as he afterwards explains.

5 I presume the nave wall near the altar of St. Francis.

Wadding's "St. Michael" is better in accord with the remains. Bruodin had been absent for twenty-six years of thrilling history, and had been just writing of the "altar walls" of St. Francis.

7 See our Journal, 1864, p. 187, and Mr. Frost's "History of Clare," p. 534. Its perspective is vague, but shows the south sides of transept and chancel, and east side of transept, with projecting chapel, clearly enough.

866 Commonplace Book relating to Ireland," MS. T.C.D. I. 1. 2, pp. 234-5. This, it will be noticed, is the only certain identification of the "Mac Mahon tomb' with the slabs and canopy described in this Paper. Brigdale says: "120 houses in Ennis, a score are slated, the rest thatched; 12 English families, the rest transplanted."

the chancel sufficiently honourable and spacious for the great canopied The chancel contained the MacMahon tomb used by

the descendants of Brian Catha an Eanaigh: the modern tomb of the Creaghs having annexed both its carved panels and the ground it stood

on. Facing it, in the south wall, was the grave of King Torlough, 1306, and the barons of Inchiquin; its canopy and sides still remain. Of Bruodin's long list of less important tombs, two only are extant. In the nave wall, near the altar of St. Francis, are plain incised slabs to Lawrence O'Hehir, of Dromkarhin (1622?) and Dermot Considine, 1631, while a later slab, replacing one which perished "in the war of raging Cromwell," was put up by Eugene Considine in 1686, and remains in the south wall. Probably a few blocks of groining (not

belonging to the shattered canopy of the "royal" or Mac Mahon tomb), and perhaps the Teige O'Brien slab,' alone remain from the monument of the earls of Thomond, which probably met the fate of their other monument in Limerick Cathedral, from the same hands, and was never restored.

The ruins consist of a church divided into chancel and nave by a lofty belfry, resting on two large arches, with a groined interspace.

1 This is now placed in a break in the transept wall, and reads "TEIG O'Brien)] (Da)NIEL O'(Brien). . . | . . (T)EIG MC... H Mc M... ... VELLYM.... OGG. It probably refers to Teig of Ballingown (died 1578), and his father-in-law, Daniel O'Brien.

The chancel has in the south wall three windows with double lights, a fourth with three lights, and a fifth closed by the belfry, all plainly chamfered, and probably of the 1240 period. In the east corner is a double piscina, with trefoil heads and bold mouldings, divided by a central pier with moulded cap and base, the shaft being modern. The west basin is quatrefoil; the east has eight flutings. Near this is the Inchiquin tomb, and opposite it the Creagh tomb, both hereafter described. The east window is about 37 feet high, of five lights, the three central being included in one splay, 12 feet 6 inches wide, lights 31 inches each, and divided by shafts of unusual lightness only 9 inches wide. The splay has a moulded head, on one side of which, by some freak of the masons, a single leaf is boldly cut. The sides have round shafts with filleted caps and bases, and four blocking pieces. The splays of the side lights are 4 feet 6 inches and 4 feet 8 inches wide, lights 24 inches, and quite plain. Indeed, though the structure is very graceful, its mouldings are of the simplest type.' The north wall has only a pointed door leading into the sacristy, and near its western end a window partly built up. Similar opes appear in the same wall, one closed by the belfry and one in the nave, its upper part destroyed when the church walls were lowered. The sacristy, or, perhaps, rather the Chapter House, is a fine room, with a barrel vault, relieved by two large chamfered ribs

springing from a cornice and low pillars; between the latter are arched recesses. The pier and sill of the large double east window were destroyed between 1780 and 1793,2 probably in the works connected with the repair of the belfry, but the central block of the heads has been recovered.

An interesting question turns on the probability of Bruodin having used the words "vaulted refectory," by a slip of the pen, for "vaulted sacristy." Certainly it would clear up his account how "Richard Bengem (Bingham), Governor of Connaught . . . destined the convent for the use of the public courts in the vaulted refectory. . . below

1 Much was done for its preservation by Dr. Cullinan about forty years ago. The late Mrs. Stamer had the ivy cut back from it at regular intervals.

2 I base this and similar statements on the Stamer view of Ennis Abbey, 1780, and a copy done from it in 1817; compared with Grose's "Antiquities of Ireland, vol. ii., in 1793; and one of uncertain date, earlier than the last, by "Mr. H. B.," published 1841, Irish Penny Magazine, No. 15.