The Standing Stone: Clonaslee, Cross Slabs, Co. Laois.

Original article can be found here.


Location – In Clonaslee, N of the Slieve Bloom Mountains on the R422 in the grounds of the RC church.
OS: N 318 112 (map 54)
Longitude: 7° 31' 28.71" W
Latitude: 53° 9' 1.4" N
See map at the bottom of the page.

Description and History – These two cross slabs are somewhat disappointing. I have no doubt that they were once spectacular and a clear rival to those cross slabs at Clonenagh, also in Laois. However, they are severely damaged. The damage does not obscure them completely but their poor location does. They have been located against a white washed wall outside a modern church and are set in concrete and tarmac and form part of a parking space. I do not know how much damage is being done to these slabs with car doors slamming into them every day of the week.  They are rectangular in shape and are sandstone with simple cross inscribed designs. There was a third slab but this has now been lost. If you have an interest in cross slabs go and see these before it is too late.

Difficulty – There are a couple of churches in Clonaslee so it took me a while to locate them. Plenty of parking.

For more ecclesiastical sites, click here.
For more sites in Co. Laois, click here.

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Mass in St. Abban's Doonane, February 2012

On 24th February, 2012, the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass was celebrated in the Gregorian Rite by Fr. Edmund Waldstein, O.Cist., in St. Abban's Parish Church, Doonane, Co. Laois. It was the first time in 50 years that Mass had been celebrated in the Gregorian Rite in that Parish. After Mass Fr. Edmund gave the first blessing of a newly Ordained Priest.

More pictures of the Church are available here.

St. Abban of Doonane, pray for us!

The Cistercians of Kildare and Leighlin - Introduction

In arranging Latin Masses in the Diocese of Kildare and Leighlin one is hit by a number of obstacles, not least the physical impossibility of such celebrations that seems to be a key element of the "liturgical requirements of Vatican II" as interpreted by the local ecclesiastical architects and authorities, as well as clerical intransigence. However, we are making best efforts to make pilgrimages to sites in the Diocese that bring us closer to various elements of our Catholic heritage. One of those themes has been the former Cistercian houses in the Diocese. We were blessed to have our annual retreat directed this year by a monk of Heiligenkreutz, who also celebrated Mass in Doonane, and we have been blessed to have organised Mass in Duiske Abbey, one of the few restored Cistercian Abbey Churches in Ireland, which is towards the south of the Diocese of Kildare and Leighlin. This series is going to trace those Cistercian houses in the Diocese.


Prior to the Norman Invasion of Ireland in 1169, the Cistercian Order had established 15 houses in Ireland: Mellifont, Bective, Inislounaght, Dublin, Monasteranenagh, Baltinglass (K&L), Newry, Kilbeggan, Abbeydorney, Boyle, Jerpoint, Holycross, Aghamanister. Of those, Baltinglass and is within the boundaries of the present Diocese of Kildare and Leighlin. Only St. Mary's at Dublin was not a filiation of Mellifont.

In the years following the Norman Invasion, 9 'Norman' Cistercian Houses were established: Inch, Dunbrody, Grey Abbey, Comber, Tintern, Graignamanagh (KNL), Abington, Abbeylara, Tracton. Of those, Graignamanagh (Duiske) was within the boundaries of the Diocese.

In the years following the Invastion there were also 10 'Irish' Cistercian foundations: Assaroe, Midleton, Corcumroe, Killeny (K&L), Kilcooley, Monasterevin (K&L), Abbeyleix (K&L), Abbeyknockmoy, Abbeyshrule, Macosquin. Both Abbeyleix and Monasterevin lie within the bounds of the Diocese.

To be exact, the Abbeys of Baltinglass, Killeny, Abbeyleix and Graignamanagh are in the Diocese of Leighlin and the Abbey of Monasterevin is in the Diocese of Kildare.

Baltinglass (1148) was a daughter house of Mellifont (1142) and mother house of Jerpoint (1160).

Killeny (1162), which was just to the north of Graignamanagh, was suppressed in 1228 at the time of the visitation of Stephen of Lexington.

Monasterevin (1172) was a daughter house of Baltinglass. It was a continuation of the monastic life of St. Evin at Rosglas.

Abbeyleix (1183) was established thanks to a grant by Conor O'More, Prince of Laois and, according to Sir James Ware (The Antiquities and History of Ireland), was a daughter house of Baltinglass.

Graignamanagh (1204) was a daughter house of Stanley in Wales.

Discipline in the Cistercian Houses in Ireland was a concern of the General Chapter, which, in 1216 sent the Abbot of Clairvaux to investigate the situation at Mellifont, its filiation. He was met by closed gates and rebellious monks. The same was true of the visitation of Jerpoint, where the abbot was supported in his dissent by the abbots of Baltinglass, Killeny, Kilbeggan and Bective. These houses were later to be involved in what was known as the Conspiratio Mellifontis. The Chapter General deposed the abbots of Mellifont and Jerpoint and new visitors were appointed but the issue of discipline in certain Irish houses continued until 1228, when the Abbot of Clairvaux appointed Stephen of Lexington, the Abbot of Stanley (mother house of Graignamanagh) as his deputy for the visitation. Stephen was to be elected Abbot of Clairvaux itself in 1249. He held a colloquium of abbots at Graignamanagh and a chapter of abbots at St. Mary's, Dublin.

Stephen reported to Pope Gregory IX that everything of Cistercian life had disappeared from the Irish monasteries except the wearing of the habit: "Nam in abbiciis Hiberniae censura et ordo noster excepto habito vix in aliquo seruabitur."

One of the outcomes of the visitation was that most of the Irish monasteries were given new mother houses outside Ireland. Baltinglass, (Jerpoint) and Monasterevin were to be daughter houses of Fountains Abbey in England, where Eva, the daughter of Diarmuid MacMurrough, was patroness and was buried. After his visitation, French and Latin were to be the two languages of all Cistercian houses in Ireland. While discipline markedly improved after 1228, the Chapter General of 1271 referred to the "quaestio taediosa" of Irish indiscipline and by 1274 the houses in Ireland had been returned to the supervision of their original mother houses.

St. Malachy of Armagh, pray for us!
St. Bernard of Clairvaux, pray for us!

The Standing Stone: Kilmanman Church, Co. Laois.

Apologies for my absence. Life has been very busy and still is. Here is a small church near Clonaslee in Co. Laois. The original article can be found here.

Location – Not far from Clonaslee in the foothills of the Slieve Bloom Mountains.
OS: N 305 124 (map 54)
Longitude: 7° 32' 38.26" W
Latitude: 53° 9' 40.49" N
GPS: N 30474 12351 (Accuracy – 5m)
See map at the bottom of the page.

Description and History – Named after St. Manman this church was the centre of a late medieval parish and the ruin dates to the late 16th century. It’s fairly large for a parish church and is nearly 20m in length and 10m wide. The church is largely featureless but does have the remains of a bellcote. There is a small barrel vaulted chamber which appears to be much later in date than the original construction.  This is a very picturesque church. There was a holy well nearby also dedicated to St. Manman but I could not find this. It was disused in the 19th century so I think all traces of this well have disappeared.

Difficulty – Easy enough to find and get to.

 The remains of the bellcote.

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Mass in St. Abban's Church, Doonane, Co. Laois

Holy Mass in the Gregorian Rite will be celebrated in St. Abban's Church, Doonane, Co. Laois, at 12 noon, on Saturday, 25th February, 2012.


St. Abban of Doonane, pray for us!

Strawberry Hill in Kildare and Leighlin - Ballyroan

This Church almost made it into 'The ones that got away' because, as you can see from the shot of the plans below, it was recently proposed to 're-arrange' the Church but, despite having been happily held up by the planning authorities, the re-ordering went ahead. If this Church could run it should have run faster!

When I visited the Church there was a mesh over the ceiling but there is a fine plasterwork ceiling there somewhere, probably a worthy match of the eastern wall, which is in a fine 'Strawberry Hill Gothic'. Once I have completed the series on the ones that got away, I intend to look at the ones that didn't, beginning with those that have 'Strawberry Hill' features.

By Strawberry Hill Gothic I understand a style of decoration established by Horace Walpole at his London residence of that name. Walpole wrote in 1794 that "every true Goth must perceive more the works of fancy than imitation" about his house, for which Walpole coigned the word 'gloomth' (as in warmth) that typifies 'the gothic' as a literary genre, which he also pioneered through his novel The Castle of Otranto, that established 'the gothic novel' as a primary prose form for a generation and which continues to resonate in our own day.

As an architectural form, Strawberry Hill Gothic (often spelled with a 'k' to distinguish it from the other forms of neo-gothic architecture) is a flamboyant and decorative gothic in the architectural sense of those words, broadly based upon the English perpendicular, even to the extent that the triforium is completely absent.

Without denigrating the form, it strikes me as more superficial and decorative in the romantic sense of picturesque, in contrast to the more archaeological methods of Ruskin and Pugin the elder, and the total immersion of the Arts and Crafts and pre-Raphaelite movements. Strawberry Hill Gothic aims for sensual effect rather than the material and social change that the Gothic Revival would later espouse. There is no clear transition from the Palladian to the Gothick, in that classicists such as Robert Adam and Charles Barry were equally comfortable providing decoration in either for a demanding patron and can be seen as a form of the roccoco.

The decorative effect of the spandrel, the thinner mullion, the ogee and the pendent are used to maximum effect. As an easier medium for delicate and complicated decoration and, I think, as typical of the style, wood is more common in this 'gothick' than in other forms of gothic. Thus we see on the eastern wall at Ballyroan a riot of wooden decoration and also in the nave windows. The form of the wooden mullions here can also be in Churches in various parts of the Diocese where those windows have been retained. For example, they can still be seen in the Church of the Assumption in nearby Vicarstown and older images of St. Conleth's in Newbridge show the same form in the windows of the nave, well into the 20th cent.





















It was our Catholic heritage. Why couldn't they leave it alone?

The ones that got away - Mayo