School: Inch, Borrisoleigh (roll number 2836)

Location:
Inch, Co. Tipperary
Teacher:
Mrs Delaney
Browse
The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0550, Page 331

Archival Reference

The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0550, Page 331

Image and data © National Folklore Collection, UCD.

See copyright details.

Download

Open data

Available under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

  1. XML School: Inch, Borrisoleigh
  2. XML Page 331
  3. XML “The Abbey of Holycross”

Note: We will soon deprecate our XML Application Programming Interface and a new, comprehensive JSON API will be made available. Keep an eye on our website for further details.

On this page

  1. The Abbey of Holycross.
    Four miles south west of Thurles on the right bank of the river SUir stands the ruins of the once famous abbey or monastery of Holycross.
    About the middle of the 12th century two hermits occupied a cell in the immediate vicinity and while one of these holy men was engaged in prayer he was attacked by four robbers who believing that the poor hermits had an amount of money demanded that he should hand over to them his treasure. the poor hermit assured them that they possessed no wealth but the robbers demanded that he shows them some proof of his power with God "make that big tree bend down its top so as to tough the earth" said they. The hermit remonstrated with them but they swore that if the miracle was not performed the hermit would be killed. Scarcely had the words been said when the tree bent towards the earth threatening to crush the robbers beneath, who in order to save themselves from destruction put up their hand and clutched the branches.
    The tree instantly went back to its erect position and held the robbers suspended by their hands. They were unable to relax their hold and so they died. In a short time after Donald O'Bried arrived on the scene and ordered the bodies to be cut down leaving the eight hands (attacled) attached to the tree. This Donald O'Brien was a King of Munster and son of Murtough. Some years before the above event happened this Murtough received the gift of a piece of the True Cross from Pope Pacchal II. He decided to found a monastery in which to place the Holy Relic. But before he could carry out his purpose he died and it was left to his son Donald to found the monastery.
    Thus when Donald was told of the wonderful miracle of the tree he decided that this would be the most fitting place for a monastery
    (continues on next page)
    Transcribed by a member of our volunteer transcription project.
    Language
    English
    Collector
    Maureen Delaney
    Gender
    Female
    Address
    Palace Street, Co. Tipperary