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In the preceding chapters early churches and other Christian remains possessing characteristics distinctively Irish have been described. It has been stated that at the Anglo-Norman Conquest Irish architecture may be said to have ceased, the invaders having brought with them their own fashion of building, which was afterwards adopted by the Irish. How far the stone-roof style of building, which reached its culmination in King Cormac’s Chapel, could have been carried by builders working on their own free and independent lines we need not discuss. But never at any time could it be said that Ireland lay without the sphere of new influences, as we have tried to indicate in tracing this sketch of her pagan and early Christian remains. Irish-Romanesque work reached its highest development in the twelfth century; and during the latter half, to the beginning of the thirteenth century, a great change was witnessed in the style of architecture as applied to ecclesiastical edifices throughout the land.

The rapid growth of the great monastic orders in England in time affected Ireland. From the Norman Conquest to the close of the reign of Edward III. it has been computed that 1200 institutions were founded in England, and of these 228 were established in the reigns of Stephen and Henry II.​—​a development which was more or less felt in the sister kingdom. A complete change was made at this period in the old monastic system which had existed from the first days of Christianity in Ireland. This was due to St. Malachy O’Morgair, the friend of St. Bernard of Clairvaux, and who died there when on a visit to him in 1148. He introduced the Cistercian Order, the greatest builders of all the Orders, and founded for them the first of their great monasteries in Ireland. Mellifont was established by St. Malachy in 1142; and in nine years Bective, Newry, Athlone, Monasteranenagh, Boyle, and Baltinglas were founded and affiliated to it; and before 1172 we are told that twenty-five Cistercian monasteries were established in the land. This is sufficient to show that modifying forces were at work before the Anglo-Norman invasion touched Irish shores. As we have seen, for several centuries previous to it, Irish architecture had been gradually undergoing a development, and had in some measure become what in England is known as the Norman style. Towards the close of the twelfth century the Irish kings and chiefs, and the Anglo-Norman earls and barons settled in Ireland, appear to have vied with each other in the erection of abbeys, the ruins of which, to this day, attest the zeal and power of their founders. Most of the monastic structures of this period, in their larger arches, exhibit beautiful examples of the earliest Pointed style, while the doorways and smaller openings remain semicircular, and frequently exhibit pure Norman details. Almost the last traces of peculiarly Celtic architectural art appear to have died out in Ireland about the close of the twelfth century.

Jerpoint Abbey.​—​Jerpoint Abbey, belonging to the Cistercian Order, in the County of Kilkenny, whose foundation is attributed, as well as to others, to Donogh MacGilla-Patrick, Lord of Ossory, is, perhaps, the finest structure of this period remaining in Ireland. The plan of the church was cruciform, with aisles on the north side of both nave and choir. The greater portion of the southern wall has been destroyed. The western window consists of three lights, with semicircular heads, surmounted by a continuous weather-moulding. A fine range of clerestory windows of the same character appears in the north wall of the nave. The tower, though of considerable antiquity, is evidently of later date than the Transition period. The only entrance to the body of the church from the exterior appears to have been a small doorway in the south wall of the nave; and this is defended by a bartizan similar to those found upon the castles of the twelfth century. Of the battlements of the tower, so conspicuous a feature in many of the early buildings, Fergusson says they are ‘identical with many found in the north of Italy, but very unlike anything either in England or Scotland. They give a foreign look to the whole building, which is very striking.’

Chevroned Pointed arches occur in the nave of Dunbrody Abbey, which belongs to this period; it was erected for the same Order in 1182 by Hervey de Montemarisco, Marshal of Henry II., who became its first abbot.

The Transition style soon gave place to the Early Pointed, and the finest existing cathedrals and abbeys belonged almost exclusively to the latter. As early examples, we may mention portions of Christchurch and St. Patrick’s Cathedrals, Dublin; Kilkenny Cathedral; Gray Abbey, Co. Down; the Cathedral of Cashel; the Abbey of Newtown, near Trim; and Kilmallock Abbey, Co. Limerick. Perhaps the finest window of this style in Ireland is that of the Abbey of Kilmallock. It consists of five slender lancets, separated by shafts, upon which are two sets of the bands so characteristic of this period. A large and beautifully proportioned arch embraces all the lights, which, both internally and externally, are enriched with a bead moulding.

St. Patrick’s Cathedral.​—​The Cathedrals of St. Patrick and Christchurch, Dublin, were, for the most part, built about the same period, the former (commenced in 1190) upon the site of an older church, by John Comyn and his successor Henry de Loundres (1212–28), Archbishops of Dublin. Its prevailing style is Early or First Pointed, and it is remarkable as the only structure in Ireland having original flying buttresses. The nave, choir, and transepts are ascribed to London masons; and the graceful features of the Lady Chapel have a marked resemblance to contemporary work in the Temple Church. It was carefully restored by Carpenter in 1845. The Cathedral suffered many vicissitudes and rebuildings, so as almost to destroy all details of the original features. In 1869 it was restored at the sole expense of Sir Benjamin Lee Guinness, at a cost of £150,000. A recent restoration, under the direction of Sir Thomas Drew, includes the choir and lateral aisles, and the replacing of stone groining. Though in point of size and architectural grandeur St. Patrick’s cannot be compared with many structures of the same class elsewhere, it is, nevertheless, a very chaste and beautiful building.

Christchurch.​—​Christchurch was originally founded in 1038 by Sigtryg, son of Amlaf, King of the Danes of Dublin, in conjunction with Donatus, the first Danish bishop; the crypt beneath nearly all the church represents the original plan. The oldest portions of the ancient building, raised by Strongbow and St. Laurence O’Toole on the Danish foundation in 1170, are the transepts, some of the arches of which display chevron mouldings, and the Norman doorway, which forms the principal entrance. It was removed some years ago from the north transept, and placed in its present position, where it forms a conspicuous feature. The nave (circa 1230) has the distinctive features of the English mason work of Glastonbury; and, as in the case of Kilkenny Cathedral (thirteenth century) and other buildings, it is very probable that the designers and builders were brought from the south-west of England and South Wales. The arches of the nave are remarkably beautiful, springing from piers formed of clustered columns, and displaying in their capitals foliage of exquisite and graceful design. An ancient inscription, recently interpreted ‘John, Master Builder of the fraternity of Parma,’ seems to preserve the name of the reputed architect of the Anglo-Norman building. The ancient wrought stone of the two Cathedrals is a very durable Somersetshire oolite, but its particular source is not known. Christchurch, like St. Patrick’s, has been thoroughly restored by private munificence,​—​at the hands of the late Henry Roe, and at an expense of over £160,000.

Newtowntrim Abbey.​—​The Abbey of Newtowntrim, founded by Simon Rochfort, or de Rupeforti, for Augustine Canons, about A.D. 1206, and dedicated to SS. Peter and Paul, though now in a hopeless state of dilapidation, was originally one of the finest of the many establishments in this part of Leinster. This can be judged from the beauty of some of the details, such as the capitals, vaulting, and shafts, which have not been disturbed, and from the numerous fragments of its once noble windows and arches with which the surrounding cemetery is strewn. Broad strips of masonry, placed at a considerable distance apart, project from the walls of the church upon the exterior​—​a feature never found except in early work, and which is generally characteristic of the Norman period. But it is within the walls that we must seek for evidence of the former beauty of the building. Several chastely decorated corbel shafts remain, and support portions of the ribs by which the vaulted roof was sustained. The windows are of the lancet form, with piers between, and the mouldings which run round them are ornamented with beautifully designed bands. Sedilia, in the Norman style of architecture, may be seen in the wall to the right of the space once occupied by the altar. The ruins on the opposite side of the river and the ancient bridge at this place are worthy of notice, although they do not possess any striking peculiarity.

Bective Abbey.​—​The Abbey of Bective, in the immediate neighbourhood of Trim, was a Cistercian house, founded by Murchard O’Melaghlin, Prince of Meath, in A.D. 1146. The ruins exhibit, in a remarkable degree, a union of ecclesiastical with military and domestic architecture. Their chief feature is a strong battlemented tower, the lower apartment of which is vaulted, placed at the south corner of the quadrangular space occupied by the various buildings, and in the centre of which the cloisters remain in good preservation. The cloister arches are late in the First Pointed style, and are cinque-foiled. The featherings are mostly plain; but several are ornamented with flowers, or leaves, and upon one a hawk-like bird is sculptured. A fillet is worked upon each of the clustered shafts by which the openings are divided, and also upon their capitals. The bases, which are circular, rest upon square plinths, the angles of which are ornamented with a leaf, growing, as it were, out of the base moulding. Of the church there are scarcely any remains. As the northern wall of the cloister is pierced with several windows which now have the appearance of splaying externally, it is extremely probable that it also served as the south wall of the church, no other portion of which can at present be identified. Those buildings which were devoted to domestic purposes are, for the most part, situated upon the east side of the quadrangle. Their architectural details are of a character later than those of the tower and of the other portions; but additions and alterations have evidently been made. Several of the apartments have large fireplaces covered with flat arches, the stones of which are dove-tailed into one another. The flues are carried up through the thickness of the wall, and are continued through square tapering chimney-shafts, headed with a plain cornice. In its general arrangements Bective Abbey differs from every other monastic structure in Ireland. It is, in fact, a monastic castle, and, previous to the use of artillery, must have been regarded as a place of great strength.

The smaller churches of the close of the twelfth, and of the early half of the thirteenth, century, are not different in general form from those of an earlier age. In a few examples, indeed, transepts occur, as in the church of Clady, adjoining Bective; but they are not invariably evidences of comparatively recent work, being sometimes found in connection with very early churches, to which they have evidently been added, and from which, in their architectural details, they differ in every respect.

Down to the very latest period of Pointed architecture the original plan of a simple nave, or nave and chancel, was followed; and the chief or only difference observable in churches of an early date, from those of the sixth and seventh centuries, consists in the form of the arch-heads, the position of the doorway, the style of the masonry, which is usually much better in the more ancient examples, and the use of bell-turrets, the cloictheach or detached round towers having answered this purpose during the earlier ages.

A beautiful and very characteristic example of an Early Pointed church may be seen at Cannistown, not far from Bective, upon the opposite side of the Boyne. As usual it consists of nave and chancel; and there are the remains of a bell-turret upon the west gable, the usual position. The choir arch is represented in the annexed cut. There are numerous instances of churches in this style scattered over Ireland; but they are usually plain, and the choir arch is generally the least ornamented feature of the building.

As examples, we may refer to the churches of Kilbarrack, Dalkey, Kinsaly, and Rathmichael, all in the immediate neighbourhood of Dublin. The church at Dalkey indeed cannot be regarded as a very good example, as it has evidently been altered and remodelled at various times. A portion of the north nave wall, including the semicircularly arched window, may probably have formed part of an extremely ancient Teampull, dedicated to St. Begnet, which is recorded to have stood here. It may be observed that the piscinas, or stoups, do not occur in the early churches of Ireland; they appear to have been adopted during the latter half of the twelfth century, and churches of a later period frequently contain several.

St. Doulough’s.​—​The Church of St. Doulough, the origin of which is involved in obscurity, is unique, and the most remarkable example of Pointed architecture remaining in Ireland. Bishop Reeves was of opinion that St. Doulough lived about the year 600, and had a cell here. The church lies about six miles north of Dublin, and, owing to its incongruity, has received much attention from writers on the ecclesiastical architecture of Ireland. This church has generally been classed with the stone-roofed chapels and oratories of the early Irish saints; but in style it differs completely from those buildings; and numerous architectural peculiarities, evidently original, prove the structure to belong to the latter end of the thirteenth century. It is an oblong church, 48 feet by 18 feet, with a square battlemented tower in the centre. A projection on the south wall of the tower contains a passage leading from the lower part of the building to an exceedingly small chamber, in the east wall of which are two windows, one commanding the only entrance to the church, the other an altar in an apartment or chapel between the tower and the west gable. The body of the structure is divided upon the interior by a mass of masonry which was evidently intended to support the roof, and which contains a small semicircular arch now stopped up. The western apartment measures 10 by 7½ feet; it is vaulted, and was originally lighted by several windows with flat or trefoiled heads. The altar, or ‘tomb,’ as it is popularly called, rests immediately against the masonry which divides this apartment from other portions of the building. The chapel or eastern division measures 21 by 9½ feet. It was lighted by four windows, one to the east, two to the south, and one, now stopped up, to the north. The east window is larger than the others, and is divided into two lights, by a shaft, with shallow hollows at the sides and a semi-cylindrical moulding on its external face. Similar hollows, and a moulding, run round the arch, and meet those of the shafts. The north window is of plain early Lancet form. The windows in the south wall are unequal in size; the larger one is placed beneath the tower, near the centre of the building, and is divided by a shaft into two lights, the heads of which are cinquefoiled, while the space between them and the crown of the arch is left plain. The vaults of the lower apartments form the floor of a croft occupying uninterruptedly the whole length of the church. There are the remains of a fireplace in the centre of the north wall of this singular room, which appears to have been originally used as a habitation. It is lighted by small trefoiled opes in the end walls, and is higher by several feet, for a distance of about four yards from the west gable, than the other part. By this arrangement, and by a depression of the vault of the western division of the building, provision is made for a small intermediate chamber, to which a passage from the tower leads. The latter was divided by a wooden floor into two storeys, the lower of which contains a small fireplace. The roof of the church is formed of stones, well cut, and laid in regular courses. It has been suggested that the tower is more modern than the church; its upper portion is certainly different in style of masonry from the rest of the building, and appears to be an addition or restoration; but the body of the tower is clearly coeval with the church.

Such are the more remarkable features of this singular structure, in the erection of which the architect appears studiously to have avoided every principle of Gothic composition except variety.

The well of St. Doulough, which was probably also used as a baptistery, is quite in keeping with the curious character of the church. The spring, which is covered by a stone-roofed octagonal building, rises through a circular basin, cut out of a single stone, and was, down to our own day, thought to possess miraculous powers. According to tradition the interior was once decorated with pictures, and holes are pointed out as having been made for the reception of iron pins, or holdfasts, by which they were secured to the wall. Adjoining is a curious subterranean bath. It is supplied by the well; and even yet the water rises to some depth within it. According to J. D’Alton, the historian of Co. Dublin, the well was dedicated to the Blessed Virgin, and the bath was called ‘St. Catherine’s Pond.’

There are many interesting old Churches in Fingal, the name by which the North of the Co. Dublin was known long before the Conquest. Their history is told in Canon Robert Walsh’s careful work, Fingal and its Churches. To a few of these we briefly refer.

Howth ‘Abbey.’​—​The Church of St. Mary or Collegiate Church, more commonly known as the ‘Abbey’ Church of Howth, stands near the edge of a cliff, the base of which was formerly washed by the sea. The original foundation is said to be by Sigtryg the Dane in 1042; and a portion of this church still remains at the west entrance. This was enlarged, chiefly by the addition of a north aisle in 1235 under Archbishop Luke, on the removal of the prebendal church of Inis Mac Nessan from Ireland’s Eye to the mainland, a grant of land having been given by Almaricius, Lord of Howth, for this purpose. Placed upon a precipitous bank, considerably elevated above the water’s edge, and surrounded by a strong embattled wall, it presents a striking evidence of the half-ecclesiastical, half-military character of the time. Considerable additions were made to the east side in the fifteenth century. The church was practically a two-aisled structure, the north aisle being a little shorter than the south. The arches dividing the aisles are six in number; and with the exception of the two adjoining the east end, which are separated by an octagonal pillar, they spring from rudely-formed quadrangular piers. The three to the west end denote the earlier addition; those to the east are more pointed and show the later extension. The porch in connection with the south doorway is a very unusual feature in churches found in Ireland​—​a fact not easily to be accounted for, as they appear to have been common in England during mediæval times. A bell-turret with three apertures rose from the west gable; the bells are said to be preserved in the castle.

A tomb usually ascribed to Christopher, the twentieth Lord of Howth, who died in 1589, but which, from its style, is more probably that of Christopher the thirteenth Lord (d. 1430), stands in the nave not far from the east gable. It is a good specimen of the altar-tomb; but an inscription which it bears, owing to the neglected state in which the monument until lately was suffered to lie, has become illegible.

St. Fintan’s.​—​The little church of St. Fintan, situated upon the Hill of Howth, not far from the village of Sutton, cannot be of earlier date than the ‘Abbey.’ This singular building measures upon the interior but 16½ feet in length, by 7 feet 8 inches in breadth, yet it contains five windows: one to the east, two to the south, one to the north, and one in the west gable. These lights are of various forms: that to the east has a semicircular head with a multifoil moulding; one of the windows in the south wall is covered with a single stone, out of which a semicircular arch-head is cut, while the other is quadrangular. All the windows splay widely upon the interior. A doorway in the Lancet form is placed in the west gable, which supports a bell-turret of considerable dimensions, and strangely out of proportion to the size of the structure. It contains one small Pointed aperture for the reception of a bell. Of the origin of this church nothing is known; and there were twelve saints of the name of Fintan; but the date is very fairly indicated by its architectural peculiarities, which are characteristic of the close of the thirteenth or early part of the fourteenth century.

There is a very ancient church remaining on Ireland’s Eye, a romantic islet, or rock, lying off the North side of Howth. The place was formerly known as Inis-mac-Nessan, from the three sons of Nessan, viz. Dicholla, Munissa, and Nadsluagh, who some time in the seventh century erected a little Teampull or Cill; the remains of Kilmacnessan still exist. It consists of a nave and chancel, and the nave is 1 foot narrower at the west end than at the east. The doorway has sloping jambs and a rounded head. An arch spanning the east end formerly sustained a round tower belfry​—​a later addition, and a curious feature, as the usual position is at the west end. The whole building was so restored in the last century that it is impossible to identify satisfactorily anything of the original structure.

FONTS.

A very considerable number of ancient baptismal fonts still remain within the walls of the ruined churches of Ireland, and others are found in graveyards where churches, of which no vestige remains, formerly stood. The fonts usually found in connection with the more ancient churches are extremely rude, and of small dimensions, being rarely large enough to allow of the immersion of infants. They are almost in every instance formed of a single stone, clumsily hollowed, and having a hole at the bottom of the basin; but in some instances no mode of escape for the water appears.

A very early font occurs in the ancient church of Killiney, Co. Dublin; and there is another in the equally ancient church of Kilternan, about six miles south of the city. An example, in which there is no passage by which the water can escape, may be seen in the church of St. John’s Point, Co. Down. There is a fine twelfth-century font of black marble in Kilkenny Cathedral; it rests on four columns and a central drum, and has fluted faces and incised spandrils round the bowl. The earliest fonts are generally somewhat circular in form; but the stone appears only to have been roughly hammered, and in no instance can be perceived any attempt at decoration.

Killeshin Font.​—​One of the oldest ornamented fonts remaining in Ireland is that which stands in the graveyard of Killeshin. It is of a bulbous form, and the base is cut into the figure of an octagon. After the twelfth century, fonts of greater size, and supported by a short column, appear to have become common. Their form is generally octagonal; but they are seldom enriched in any way, and when ornaments occur, they consist only of a few mouldings upon the shafts or upon the upper edge of the basin. From the absence of mouldings in the majority of instances, it is extremely difficult to assign a date to the numerous fonts of an octagonal form which remain in many parts of the country. During the period of debased Gothic architecture, a great many appear to have been erected in Ireland, particularly in the district comprising the old English Pale.

Kilcarn Font.​—​We have engraved an unusually fine example from the mediæval church of Kilcarn, near Navan, in the County of Meath, and now in the Roman Catholic Church at Johnstown close by. Placed upon its shaft, as represented in the cut, it measures in height about 3 feet 6 inches; the basin is 2 feet 10 inches in diameter, and 13 inches deep. The heads of the niches, twelve in number, with which its sides are carved, are enriched with foliage of a graceful but uniform character; and the miniature buttresses which separate the niches are decorated with crockets, the bases resting upon heads, grotesque animals, or human figures carved as brackets. The figures within the niches are executed with a wonderful degree of care, the drapery being represented with each minute crease or fold well expressed. They were evidently intended to represent Christ, the Virgin Mary, and the twelve Apostles. All the figures are seated. Our Saviour, crowned as a King, holding in His hand the globe and cross, is in the act of blessing the Virgin, who is also crowned the ‘Queen of Heaven.’ The figures of most of the Apostles can be easily identified: St. Peter, by his key; St. Andrew, by his cross of peculiar shape; and so on. They are represented barefooted, and each holds a book in one hand. In the Church of Clonard is another interesting font. The basin is octagonal, and the external panels are divided into two compartments filled with Scriptural subjects, such as the Flight into Egypt, the Baptism in the Jordan, etc.

A font almost precisely similar in design may be seen in the choir of the ruined church of Dunsany, near Dunshaughlin, in the same county; but it is of smaller size, and the figures and ornaments with which it is sculptured are less prominent than those upon the example at Kilcarn. It is 3 feet 6 inches in height, with an octagonal head. The panels contain representations of the Crucifixion, many of the Apostles, and other figures. The shaft is carved in heraldic and other devices. Its probable date is about the middle of the fifteenth century. A fine and unusually large font remains in Christchurch, Dublin; and in several churches referred to in this work, interesting specimens occur.