Askeaton Friary: the story of its foundation, operations and demise

Askeaton Abbey was founded in the late 14th or early 15th century by the Earl of Desmond for the Franciscans. It suffered greatly during the Desmond Rebellion and Cromwellian Invasion. Despite the hardships it endured, it preserves, today, one of the finest medieval cloisters in Ireland.

Askeaton Franciscan friary is situated on the east bank of the River Deel, to the north of the small Limerick town of Askeaton. Here, its impressive ensemble of buildings creates a dramatic impact on the landscape.

The founding of Askeaton Friary

The abbey’s extensive building campaign was financed by the Desmond Geraldines in the 14th and 15th centuries. More precisely, the friary may have been founded in 1389 by Gerald Fitzmaurice Fitzgerald (1335-98), 3rd Earl of Desmond and Lord Justice of Ireland; he was known as “the poet-earl” because he composed love poetry in the Irish language.

However, the friary may not have been completed until 1420 under the direction of Gerald’s son, James Fitzgerald (c.1380–1462), 7th Earl of Desmond. According to the annals, the Earl of Desmond commissioned a tomb for himself and his family within the grounds of the friary he had founded at Askeaton:

“The monastery of St. Francis at Eas-Gephtine [Askeaton], in Munster, on recte near the bank of the Shannon, in the diocese of Limerick, was founded for Franciscan Friars by the Earl of Desmond, who erected a tomb in it for himself and his descendants.” (Annals of the Four Masters 1420)

Certainly, the Desmond family were the principal benefactors of the foundation throughout the early centuries of its establishment. But the friary’s financial situation was not without its difficulties. In 1491, the friars of Askeaton were forced to take a case, for which they were successful, against the friars of Ennis whom they accused of hindering their potential to seek alms.

The daily affairs of the friars at Askeaton probably changed considerably when Fr Patrick Healy, the provincial, reformed the friary and gave it to the Observant branch of the Franciscans in the late 15th or early 16th century.

Turbulent years

The 16th and 17th centuries were particularly eventful in the history of Askeaton Friary although it seems to have survived the dissolution of the monasteries under Henry VIII. However, during the Second Desmond Rebellion (1579-83), forces under Sir Nicholas Malby, Lord President of Connaught, laid siege to the nearby castle in Askeaton but failed to overthrow it. Instead, Malby’s men went on to set fire to the town and the friary.

The religious community were expelled but those that remained were ruthlessly slain according to Limerick antiquarian T.J. Westropp. Among those killed were monks William Tenal and John Conolly (also recorded as John Cornelius or John Conor). Two more Franciscans, Patrick O’Healy (Pádraig Ó hÉilí), Bishop of Mayo and Fr Cornelius Rourke (Conn Ó Ruairc), were captured near Askeaton around this time and brought to Kilmallock where they were hanged.

About a week after the siege began, Malby and his men marched away from Askeaton town leaving behind a path of destruction.

“… the devastator marched away from the blood-stained ashes of the town.”

The fortunes of the principal patrons of Askeaton Abbey, the Fitzgeralds of Desmond, never fully recovered after the failed Desmond Rebellion. Nonetheless, the Franciscans returned to Askeaton a few decades later in 1627 and began making repairs to the abbey.

The community seemed to flourish during the period of the Confederacy in the 1640s when further repairs were carried out. Over 60 years after they had been hanged, the bodies of Bishop O’Healy and Fr Rourke were reinterred at Askeaton Friary in 1647 to great pomp and ceremony. Then in 1992, the two martyrs were beatified by Pope John Paul II.

By the mid-17th century, the friars had again abandoned Askeaton, this time because of the Cromwellian invasion. But, once again, some of the religious returned to Askeaton and guardians of the friary were appointed with some regularity between 1661 and 1714, and less regularly until 1872 by which time the abbey’s guardianship had long been a nominal position only.

Nevertheless, the site continued to be used for worship with Masses still held here up to the mid-19th century. It is reported that a thatched church within the site succumbed to fire in 1847. A new church was erected in the town soon after.

Askeaton Friary’s built heritage

All of the buildings within the grounds of the friary are of limestone masonry and the majority of the building work was probably undertaken in the 15th century. The church with its transept and sacristy, as well as the domestic buildings, are all arranged around a central cloister, with most surviving in fairly good condition.

The large single-aisled church was built in the Gothic style and is mostly intact. The eastern portion of the church is called the “chancel” and was reserved for use by the clergy and religious. Its simple altar at the east end would have been flooded with light from a beautiful five-light window with switch-line tracery; there are three more windows in the south wall of the chancel.

The nave, which is the western portion of the church, accommodated the lay congregation in a dimly lit space where light entered through a twin-light cusped window inserted in the north wall sometime after the erection of the church. The transept to the north of the nave was also a later addition and comprises a main space and a west aisle. More of the lay congregation would have been accommodated in the transept.

The two-storeyed sacristy to the north of the chancel was again a later addition. The ground floor has a barrel-vaulted ceiling and the upper storey is accessed via spiral stairs. Church furnishings, altar plate, vestments and other church treasures were probably stored here, while the room upstairs may have been used as a scriptorium.

There was once a large bell tower on the north side of the church, which appears in the Pacata Hibernia sketch (pictured below), but the structure is no longer extant. This drawing was published in 1633 but it is believed to be a reproduction of an earlier sketch dating to before 1599 and “probably before 1584” according to Westropp.

No trace of the tower remains and it is not clear from the drawing whether it was freestanding or attached to the church. Bells would have been rung from the tower at specific times to alert the religious community to the Divine Offices. In c.1914, three medieval bells were found by Con Kenneally when digging a grave near the entrance to the abbey; these are now in the National Museum in Dublin.

The cloister, which is located to the south of the church, is flanked by an east and west range. The cloister is in an excellent state of preservation and even retains much of its plasterwork. Each side of the cloister has 12 arches and each arcade was carved with handsome moulded bases and capitals – such fine stonework is not typically associated with the poverty of mendicant orders like the Franciscans.

In the northern cloister walkway, you’ll see a somewhat unusual medieval sundial with 24 gradations arranged in a circle.

>>> READ MORE: Sundials: telling the time in medieval Ireland

Another striking feature in the cloister walkway is the column in the northeast corner boasting a devotional sculpture of St Francis of Assisi, the patron of the Franciscan order. If you look closely, you’ll see his stigmata marks on the hands and feet (marks corresponding to the crucifixion wounds of Jesus Christ). The saint’s face is badly worn due to the tradition of kissing it out of adoration for the saint and in the locally held belief that this would cure toothache.

The cloister ranges are two-storeyed with barrel-vaulted roofs over the ground floors. The ground floor of the east range probably accommodated a kitchen as there is a large fireplace-oven at the north end.

The ground floor of the west range contained the chapter room (typically located in the east range of most friaries). At the south end of the west range, on the ground floor, is a room known as the “prison”. In this area there is also a small garderobe (toilet); a garderobe typically contained a long bench with a pit below into which waste fell.

The upper floors of the east and west ranges were probably used as dormitories for the monks. Upstairs, in the west range, there is a “squint” in the north wall providing a view to the altar of the church and also on this floor is a painted fresco of Christ as the Man of Sorrows.

The large two-storeyed refectory to the south of the cloister was a later addition to the site; it was the dining room for the whole community. The barrel-vaulted chamber to the west of the refectory probably dates to the same period and was likely used as a food cellar; the friars’ lavatory was above this.

The insertion of carved stone doorways with Renaissance-style decoration throughout the friary relates to refurbishments and repairs carried out in the 16th and 17th centuries. There is also a medieval hospice within the friary’s precinct. 

Notable burials at Askeaton

As well as important clergymen, some of the Fitzgerald Earls of Desmond and their family members were buried within the grounds of the abbey. For instance, James fitz John Fitzgerald, 14th Earl of Desmond, was buried here in 1558. In 1564, Joan, daughter of the 11th Earl of Desmond and wife of James Butler, 9th Earl of Ormond, was interred at Askeaton.

While a large number of grave-markers, predominantly of post-medieval and modern date, are visible within the grounds of the abbey, a small group of elaborately carved large 15th- and 16th-century grave-slabs are especially striking.

Another noteworthy, though damaged, monument is an inscribed wall plaque positioned over a triple sedilia in the south wall of the chancel of the church. It is dedicated to Richard Stephenson, a member of the Irish Confederate forces who died in 1646. Also within the church is a plaque commemorating members of the Driscoll family bearing the date 1780 and the headstone for the Dwyer family vault which bears a date of 1787 and carvings of their coat of arms, a lion and an inscription stating “Pass me, for I am strength”.

In the northern cloister walk is a remarkable engraving that reads “Beneath lies the pilgrim’s body, who died Jan^y 1784″. Another unusual feature of the friary is a large plain cross located near the entrance to the new graveyard.

>>> READ MORE: A peculiar cross at Askeaton Friary with contested origins

Askeaton Abbey today

Today, Askeaton Friary is a National Monument in State care and its maintenance is the responsibility of the Office of Public Works. Admission to the site is free and there is plenty of car and coach parking.

Subscribe to the Irish Heritage News newsletter and follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram for all the latest heritage stories.

READ NOW

➤ A peculiar cross at Askeaton Friary with contested origins

➤ Young Limerick man “killed by the Tories” in 1703

➤ Killinaboy’s disappearing and re-appearing tau cross

➤ The “Lady of the Lake”: Beezie and her island