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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
existence, was founded by Donald O’Brien, King of Limerick, the son of
the Murtogh above named, as late as the year 1182, at which time it was
richly endowed with lands for its support by its founder. These grants
were confirmed in 1186, by King John, then Lord of Ireland, who further
ordered that the monks of this abbey should enjoy all chartered liberties
and freedoms, as appears from the following record of the 20th Edward I.
A.D. 1320:--

“EDWARD, by the grace of God, King of England, Lord of Ireland, Duke
of Aquitain, to all to whom these presents shall come, greeting. Know
ye that brother Thomas, Abbot of the Church of Mary of the Holy Cross,
near Cashel, came into our Chancery of Ireland the day after the feast
of Michael the Archangel, in the 13th year of our reign, at Cashel, and
exhibited in our said Chancery a certain charter, not cancelled, nor in
any respect vitiated, under the seal of John, formerly Lord of Ireland
and Earl of Morton, in these words:

‘JOHN, Lord of Ireland and Earl of Morton, to all justices, barons, &c.,
as well French as English, Welsh and Irish, and all other liege men
of Ireland, greeting. Know ye, that, for the love of God, and for the
salvation of my own and the souls of my predecessors and successors, I
have granted and given, and by these presents do grant and give, to God
and the blessed Mary of the Holy Cross, and to the Cistertian Monks
serving God there, in free, pure, and perpetual alms, the under-written
lands, as fully and freely as Domuald O’Brien, King of Lymberick, gave
and granted, and by this charter confirmed to the Cistertian Monks of the
Holy Cross; to wit: Kelkaterlamunu, Ballydubal, Ballyidugin, Ballygirryr,
Ballymyoletobin, and Ballytheloth, Gardath, Ballaschelagh, Balythougal
et Ithologin. These lands I have given for the salvation of my soul, and
those of my predecessors and successors, and for the souls of my soldiers
who lie there, to enjoy peaceably, with all liberties and free customs,
without any secular exactions in fields, ways, forests, fisheries, &c. I
have also granted that they shall be free from all mulcts in my courts,
for what cause soever they shall be amerced, and also free of all toll
whatever; they shall sell or buy, for their own use, throughout my land
of Normandy, England, Wales, and Ireland; and that their lands be not put
in plevine.--Witnesses, a Bishop of Ferns; John de Courcy, de Angulo,
Riddel, Chancellor, and David of Wales.’”

It appears also that in 1233 the above charter of King John was confirmed
by King Henry III, who took this monastery into his protection, which
protection he again renewed in 1234; and that it was again confirmed by
King Richard II. in 1395, and that in 1414, James Earl of Ormond, and the
Lord Deputy Thomas le Botiller or Butler, prior of St John of Jerusalem,
further granted the protection of the crown to this house.

Thus protected and fostered by royalty, the Abbey of the Holy Cross
became one of the most magnificent and wealthy in the kingdom, and its
mitred abbot was styled Earl of Holy Cross, the lands belonging to the
abbey constituting an earldom. He was also a baron of parliament, and
usually vicar-general of the Cistertian order in Ireland. The abbey was
originally a daughter of the Abbey of Maig, or Monaster-Nenagh, in the
county of Limerick, and was subjected to that of Furnes in Lancashire by
the Abbot of Clarevaux, in a general chapter of the order in 1249. After
the dissolution of the monasteries in Ireland, Holy Cross Abbey with its
appurtenances was granted by Queen Elizabeth in 1563 to Gerald Earl of
Ormond, _in capite_, at the annual rent of £15, 10s. 4d.; and we believe
this constitutes at present the estate, by purchase, of a worthy and
deeply learned fellow of Trinity College, namely, Dr Wall.

As a monastic ruin, the Abbey of Holy Cross ranks in popular esteem as
one of the first, if not the very first, in Ireland. But though many of
its architectural features are of remarkable beauty, it is perhaps as
a whole scarcely deserving of so high a character; and its effect upon
the mind is greatly diminished by the cabins and other objects of a mean
character by which it is nearly surrounded. Like most monastic structures
of considerable importance, its general form is that of a cross,
consisting of a nave, chancel, and transept, with a lofty square belfry
at the intersection of the cross; but it is distinguished from other
structures of the kind in having in both of its transepts two distinct
chapels beautifully groined--a feature which imparts much interest and
picturesqueness to the general effect. Between two of these chapels
and the south transept there is a double row of three pointed arches,
supported by twisted pillars, each distant about two feet four inches
from the other, and having a similar pointed arch in front. The object
of this singular feature has given rise to much conjecture, but the more
rational opinion seems to be, that it was designed as a resting place
for the dead bodies of the monks and other persons previous to interment
in the abbey, or its cemetery. In addition to this, the interior of the
church has another very unique and remarkable feature, namely, that the
choir arch is not placed as usual beneath the tower, but thirty feet
in advance of it, thus making the choir of greater length by fourteen
feet than the nave, which is but fifty-eight feet long, the entire
length of the church being one hundred and thirty feet. This peculiarity
appears, however, to be an after-thought, and not the design of the
original architect, which was evidently to limit, as usual, the length
of the choir to the arch in front of the tower, and the second arch is
unquestionably of more modern construction. The steeple rests on four
beautifully groined arches, the supporters of which are connected in the
centre by a great variety of ogives passing diagonally from their angles;
and the roof of the choir, as well as those of the side chapels, is
similarly enriched. The nave appears to have been of meaner architecture,
and has lost its roof; but it has aisles formed by four pointed arches
on each side, and which lead into the transepts. Of the windows in this
church we may observe generally, that they are of very elegant taste of
design.

Thus much of the abbey church itself; but of the ruins of the cloisters,
which are of meaner architecture, and of all the other edifices
appertaining to a monastic establishment of this grandeur, though in
a tolerable state of preservation, it would be tedious to the general
reader to give a detailed account, nor would our present space permit
it. Neither can we describe what is of higher interest, the magnificent
monumental remains for which this abbey is so eminently distinguished.
But we shall return to the subject in a future number, and in the mean
time we shall only add, that this abbey is well worthy the attention of
the antiquary and architectural student, and that to the pleasure tourist
of cultivated tastes it is of the most delightful interest.

                                                                       P.




THE ITALIAN ORGAN BOY.

