A peculiar cross at Askeaton Friary with contested origins

Askeaton Friary cross
Cross at Askeaton Friary, Co. Limerick (image © Irish Heritage News).

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Is this a modern funerary monument? Does it have anything to do with the cross depicted in the late 16th-century drawing of Askeaton? In this article, we explore the contested origins of this enigmatic monument.

Askeaton Franciscan friary is located beside the River Deel, to the north of the Co. Limerick town of Askeaton. Within its grounds at the south end, standing close to the stile that leads to the so-called “new graveyard”, is a large undecorated cross of simple form.

This cross measures about 85cm tall (less than 3ft), 67cm wide and 17cm thick. It is mounted on a tall cylindrical base, which stands on a low plinth. The lack of decoration and squat dimensions of this cross sharply contrast with the intricately carved iconic early medieval high crosses that are familiar to us all, as well as the 19th- and early 20th-century Gaelic Revival crosses that dominate so many Irish graveyards.

Added to this is its extensive use of concrete which is out of character for Irish mortuary monuments of any age. Today, deep cracks caused by weathering can be seen in the concrete-like rendered finish covering the cross, while the base and plinth are seemingly solid concrete elements.

The Pacata Hibernia sketch

A cross was depicted roughly in the current position of this monument in a drawing of Askeaton’s castle and friary included by Thomas Stafford in his Pacata Hibernia, published in 1633 (pictured below). This sketch is believed to be a reproduction of an earlier drawing by an unknown artist dating to before 1599 and “probably before 1584”, according to noted Limerick antiquarian T.J. Westropp.

Askeaton Friary and cross in Thomas Stafford sketch.
Extract from a sketch of Askeaton’s castle and friary (source: Pacata Hibernia by Thomas Stafford, 1633). Note the cross on a three-tiered base to the right of the abbey.

Westropp believed that the cross marked the southern boundary of the church lands, being sited between the friary and Desmond Castle. Of course, it also probably performed a penitential role. Read about another unusual medieval boundary cross here.

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In 1903 Westropp stated that the cross depicted in the Pacata Hibernia drawing had disappeared. So how could the cross in the illustration be the same monument that stands on the site today? Could this experienced antiquarian have overlooked it?

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At the time of his visits to Askeaton in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Westropp described the friary as being in a “ghastly state of neglect” and observed that “a bull had ‘horned up’ the graves in every direction”. Perhaps the cross really was missing but is it also conceivable that it had fallen or was concealed in overgrowth? Donal Flood believed so.

Donal Flood’s theory

In the early 1970s, Donal T. Flood, writing for the North Munster Antiquarian Journal, produced a short but convincing article arguing that the original cross still stood at Askeaton but had been encased in concrete render at some point in the recent past. Flood also observed that the cross had been recently painted.

Askeaton Abbey Cross
Cross covered in concrete render at Askeaton Abbey, Co. Limerick (image © Irish Heritage News).

Flood believed that its tall cylindrical base was the top tier of the three-tiered cross-base depicted in the Pacata Hibernia illustration, while the plinth formed the middle tier of the three tiers and he maintained that the bottom tier lay buried due to the cemetery’s rising ground level as a result of the high volume of burials over the centuries. He did not comment on the missing dome-shaped portion shown in the drawing between the top tier and the cross itself.

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

In the late 1980s, archaeologists John Bradley, Dr Andy Halpin and Heather King seem to have agreed with the general premise of Flood’s findings and included this cross in their Urban Archaeological Survey of County Limerick. The late Heather King was an expert in early and late medieval crosses.

Their survey entry describes the extant monument as a 16th-century cross set on a tall drum-shaped base and mounted on a concrete plinth; they also noted its appearance in the Pacata Hibernia drawing in a similar position.

Askeaton Franciscan Abbey
Askeaton Friary, Co. Limerick (image © Irish Heritage News).

As a result of their survey, this cross was added to the National Monuments Service’s Record of Monuments and Places (RMP). Consequently, it is protected under the National Monuments Acts. However, despite the archaeologists’ claims, many locals adamantly dispute the antiquity of the cross and have their own theory of how it came to be.

Mickey Magner’s cross

According to newspaper reports in the Sunday Independent and Westmeath Independent, octogenarian Michael Magner made this cross a few years before his death in 1954. Locals have also shared with us the story of Mickey (or Mike) Magner of the Quay in Askeaton. They maintain that the monument was constructed in the shed beside Mickey’s house to mark his future grave. Local tradition has it that he made the cylindrical base using a “barrel” (probably a steel drum, as wooden barrels have bowed sides).

Sunday Independent headline reads Octogenarian Prepared His Own Grave
This headline, “Octogenarian Prepared His Own Grave”, appeared in the Sunday Independent on 10 January 1954.

It should be noted that Donal Flood did not deny that this cross marked a modern grave but this did not stop him and others since from speculating about the antiquity of what lay inside its concrete shell.

The story of Mickey Magner’s cross raises many questions. We can’t escape the fact that this cross on its two-tiered base resembles the monument depicted in the Pacata Hibernia drawing in roughly the same position. Some believe that this drawing may have inspired Mickey’s work. But how well-known was the Pacata Hibernia sketch when he set about making his cross?

How difficult would it have been to transport this heavy concrete monument from his shed on the Quay to the friary in mid-20th-century rural Ireland, where lifting equipment would have been in short supply and funds were low? Making the monument in situ would seem to be a more practical option and indeed one local we spoke to believed that this is what Mickey did. One also wonders why Mickey, having gone to such trouble, did not include his name on the cross so he could be remembered in perpetuity. And finally, who was Mickey Magner?

Mickey was born in Askeaton on 27 May 1869. His parents were Patrick (Pat) Magner, a cooper and Ellen Magner née Griffin, both Askeaton natives from farming backgrounds who had married the previous year on 25 April 1868 in the town’s Roman Catholic church. Patrick’s father was named Michael and evidently, Mickey was named after his paternal grandfather.

Mickey had at least three siblings. This included Patrick, born 5 April 1871, who was presumably named after his father and maternal grandfather (Patrick Griffin). Sadly Patrick died at the young age of 18 on 4 October 1889 after a six-week battle with endocarditis; Mickey was with his brother at the time of his death. Mickey also had two sisters: Mary born 9 February 1874 and Catherine born 3 May 1883.

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More tragedy hit the Magner household when Mickey’s 48-year-old mother, Ellen, passed away on 12 March 1895 from “phthisis” (tuberculosis), which she had suffered from for 12 years – since about the time Catherine was born. Mickey was aged 25 when he lost his mother.

We could not locate Mickey in Askeaton at the time of the 1901 census but he may be the Michael Magner listed as “Visitor” in the Griffin family home at Kilcoole, Riddlestown, a few miles south of Askeaton (remember Mickey’s mother was a Griffin). Here he is recorded as a road contractor, which indicates that he would have often worked with concrete.

The Westmeath Independent stated that for most of his adult life, Mickey had been involved “in repairing and decorating houses and doing general handy work in Askeaton and adjoining parishes”, while he was described as a “jack-of-all-trades” by the Sunday Independent. Like his cooper father before him, he must have been a skilled woodworker as the late 1930s Schools Folklore Collection records:

“About twenty years ago barrel-making was carried on in Askeaton by Michael Magner. He also made keelers. He lives on the Quay.”

At the time of the 1911 census, Mickey was living at home on the Quay in Askeaton with his widowed father and was working as a general labourer. Their home was a fairly modest “2nd-class” dwelling owned by Robert Hunt, who owned all of the houses on the Quay. The Hunts had a large house and 500-acre estate called Inchirourke More, which is just south of Askeaton village.

Mickey’s father, Patrick, died on 8 March 1918 from “senile decay”; his age differs in the various records consulted but he was probably in his mid-70s to early 80s at the time of his death.

Mickey never married. Locals claim that he went to all the effort of preparing his grave and also paid for his funeral in advance because he had no family left locally to bury him. But when interviewed in 1951 by Westmeath Independent, Mickey explained that he had retired two years previous and had “erected the headstone to pass the time”. But he reassured the readers that he intended to “live for many years – even though he has his grave dug and headstone erected”.

Westmeath Independent headline Man Dug His Grave To While Time Away
This headline, “Man Dug His Grave To While Time Away”, appeared in the Westmeath Independent on 6 October 1951.

The report also states:

“He … lined the floors and the walls of the grave with bricks and erected a headstone of his own construction with cement and mortar.”

At age 84, Mickey died on 4 January 1954 in St Ita’s, the county home in Newcastle West, from pneumonia and cardiac failure. An article in the Sunday Independent printed a few days later tells us that he had suffered an accident shortly before he died: he was on his way to collect materials when he slipped and broke his hip.

This newspaper report refers to the “great Cross made of concrete” that Mickey created. It also informs us that the funerary monument was not yet complete but that Mickey had been laid to rest in the unfinished grave, which may explain why the cross does not bear his name.

The current status of the cross at Askeaton

The cross is recorded in the Historic Graves recent survey for Askeaton Friary, which states that “Michael Magner made this memorial himself”. Nonetheless, this cross – under the guise of the cross featured in the Pacata Hibernia – remains today a recorded archaeological monument protected by the National Monuments Acts. Despite uncertainty around its date and even if only as an example of a unique vernacular grave monument, it is, we believe, worthy of this protection. 

Thanks are due to the Askeaton locals who shared the story of Mickey Magner with us. If anyone has further information on the cross or Mickey, please comment below.

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Archaeological Survey of Ireland, RMPs LI011-092006; LI011-092014.
[https://maps.archaeology.ie/
HistoricEnvironment/]

‘Askeaton Franciscan friary’. Monastic Ireland. The Discovery Programme.
[http://monastic.ie/
history/askeaton-
franciscan-friary/]

Birth record, Catherine Magner, born 3 May 1883, registered Askeaton, Rathkeale, Co. Limerick.
[https://civilrecords.irishgenealogy.ie/
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02730/2004113.pdf]

Birth record, Mary Magner, born 9 Feb. 1874, registered Askeaton, Rathkeale, Co. Limerick.
[https://civilrecords.irishgenealogy.ie/
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Birth record, Michael Magner, born 27 May 1869, registered Askeaton, Rathkeale, Co. Limerick.
[https://civilrecords.irishgenealogy.ie/
churchrecords/images/
birth_returns/births_1869
/03390/2243156.pdf]

Birth record, Patrick Magner, born 5 Apr. 1871, registered Askeaton, Rathkeale, Co. Limerick.
[https://civilrecords.irishgenealogy.ie/
churchrecords/images/
birth_returns/births_1871/
03291/2206364.pdf]

Bradley, J., Halpin, A. and King, H.A. 1989. The Urban Archaeological Survey of County Limerick. Office of Public Works.

Census of Ireland, 1901, house 2 in Kilcoole, Riddlestown, Limerick.
[http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/
pages/1901/Limerick/Riddlestown
/Kilcoole/1513140/]

Census of Ireland, 1911, house 2 in The Quay, Askeaton East, Limerick.
[http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie
/pages/1911/Limerick/
Askeaton_East/The_Quay/640188/]

Death record, Ellen Magner, died 12 Mar. 1895, registered Askeaton, Rathkeale, Co. Limerick.
[https://civilrecords.irishgenealogy.ie/
churchrecords/images/
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Death record, Michael Magner, died 4 Jan. 1954, registered Newcastle, Co. Limerick.
[https://civilrecords.irishgenealogy.ie/
churchrecords/images/
deaths_returns/
deaths_1954/04452/4165337.pdf]

Death record, Patrick Magner, died 4 Oct. 1889, registered Askeaton, Rathkeale, Co. Limerick.
[https://civilrecords.irishgenealogy.ie/
churchrecords/
images/deaths_returns/
deaths_1889/06121/4747912.pdf]

Death record, Patrick Magner, died 8 Mar. 1918, registered Askeaton, Rathkeale, Co. Limerick.
[https://civilrecords.irishgenealogy.ie/
churchrecords/images/
deaths_returns/
deaths_1918/05191/4433951.pdf]

Flood. D.T. 1973–74. ‘An ancient cross at Askeaton?’ North Munster Antiquarian Journal 16, pp.88-9.

‘Franciscan Friary Moig South Askeaton, Limerick, Ireland’. Historic Graves survey.
[https://historicgraves.com/
graveyard/franciscan-friary
-moig-south/li-akff]

Marriage record, Patrick Magner and Ellen Griffin, 25 Apr. 1868, Askeaton, Rathkeale, Co. Limerick.
[https://civilrecords.irishgenealogy.ie/
churchrecords/images/
marriage_returns/
marriages_1868/11463/8213052.pdf]

Pupils of Askeaton G. N. S. ‘Old crafts’. Schools’ Collection, vol. 503, p.54. National Folklore Collection, UCD.

Ryan, M. 1940. Memories of St Mary’s secondary, Askeaton – A trip down memory lane.
[https://memoriesofstmarysaskeaton.
com/1940-2/]

Stafford, T. and Carew, G. 1896 (1st printed 1633). Pacata Hibernia: Or, A History of the Wars in Ireland, During the Reign of Queen Elizabeth. Vol. 1. S. O’Grady (ed.). Downey & Co.: London.

Sunday Independent, 10 Jan. 1954.

Westmeath Independent, 6 October 1951.

Westropp, T.J. 1903. ‘Notes on Askeaton, County Limerick. Part I. The history, A.D. 900 to 1579’. Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland 5th 3eries, 33.1, [5th series, vol. 13], pp.25-40.

Westropp, T.J. 1903. ‘Notes on Askeaton, County Limerick. Part II. The history after 1579 (continued)’. Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland 5th 3eries, 33.2, [5th series, vol. 13], pp.153-74.

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