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                        THE IRISH PENNY JOURNAL.

        NUMBER 38.      SATURDAY, MARCH 20, 1841.      VOLUME I.

[Illustration: HOLY-CROSS ABBEY, COUNTY OF TIPPERARY.]

In a recent number of our Journal we led our readers to the banks of that
beautiful river,

      “The gentle Shire, that, making way
    By sweet Clonmel, adorns rich Waterford;”

and we now return to it with pleasure to notice another of the beautiful
architectural remains of antiquity seated on its banks--the celebrated
Abbey of the Holy Cross. This noble monastic ruin is situated in the
barony of Eliogarty, county of Tipperary, three miles from Thurles, on
the road to Cashel, and seven miles north-east of the latter.

The origin as well as the name of this celebrated monastery is derived
from a piece of the holy cross for which it was erected as a fitting
depository. This relic, covered with gold and ornamented with precious
stones, was, as O’Halloran states, but without naming his authority,
a present from Pope Pascal II, in 1110, to Murtogh O’Brien, monarch
of Ireland, and grandson to Brian Boru, who determined to found a
monastery in its honour, but did not live to complete it. But, however
true this account may be as to the gift of the relic, there is every
reason to doubt it as far as the date of the foundation of the monastery
is concerned, which, as appears from the original charter still in