School: Scoil na mBráthar, Cathair na Mart

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1. Murrisk Abbey (continued)

   

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   It was handed down to us by our fathers the O’Malleys 100 years ago. It was handed down to us that neither sin nor sorrow should ever cross it, it is within the bounds of
   Tir-na-Oughvale whose queen knows no foreign rule. On hearing this Clutchwell seized Fr. Gibbons and the soldiers (if they be called such) rushed the building. They overpowered Fr. Malachy, another friar, who was praying in the penitential chamber at the time and was shielding a treasured picture of the Blessed Virgin. Two other friars escaped from the place. Hooliganism was then let loose. The chalices and all other valuables were then collected and removed. The picture referred to was broken and trampled on and the “Stations” were torn down from the walls, books, etc. were taken from the archives and all placed in the middle of the church and burned. Any silver or such as was not burned, was carried away. The desecration did not end then. Priestesses (a number of oyster girls from London) who had accompanied the soldiers from London were put up on the High Altar and “preached” to the mob. The wines in the cellar were distributed freely among scenes of drunken revelry. In the midst of the fracas (?) the two friars escaped, Fr. Gibbons by an underground passage. It is told that during the “celebrations” a number of the soldiers and some of the lewd women were blown to atoms by the accidental explosions of a barrel of powder that got ignited in the nave of the church. Still there were enough left to finish the job for in the morning there was nothing to be seen but the blackened and roofless walls of a holy monastery.

   When Fr. Gibbons got away, he set out at dusk to seek the aid of Grace O’Malley at her castle on

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   Transcribed by a member of our volunteer transcription project.

   History Edit

   Topics

   1. objects
      1. man-made structures
         1. historical and commemorative structures (~6,794)

   Language

   English

   Collector

   C. J. Ó hAoláin

   Gender

   Male

   Informant

   Mr Fay Murrisk

   Gender

   Male