Misplaced Pages

Revision as of 19:37, 28 July 2013

A Painting by Michael O'Flanagan of Cill Mhaighneann in the year 700 Kilmainham (Irish: Cill Mhaighneann, meaning "St Maighnenn's church") is a suburb of Dublin south of the River Liffey and west of the city centre, in the Dublin 8 postal district.

History

The area is Called after St. Mhaighneann. Saint Maighneann lived in the first half of the 7th Century. His father Áed died in 606AD. His mother was a sister of St. Senchill, Abbot of the area now known Co. Offlay. Maighnean had three brothers, Librén, Cobthach and Toa. He was Abbot of Kilmainham or Cill Mhaighneann, from which the area draws its name, and he is described on several occasions as Bishop Maighneann. All our information about Maighneann derives from the “vernacular” and it was only written down in Irish by Uilliam Mac An Leaga circa 1480. However the accounts are so specific and detailed that they are inherently credible. St. Maighneann was a contemporary of St. Maelruain of Tallaght, St. Finnian of Strangford Lough and St. Dublitir of Finglas all of whom he visited. He also went with St. Finnchu to the Aran Islands. St. Maighneann had a following of twenty seven monks at Kilmainham and they travelled with him on his various pilgrimages throughout the country. On one occasion Maighneann is said to have preached to “Dermot, King of Ireland.” Maighneann was described as being renowned from “ Shannon to Howth as a tower of piety.” However St. Maelruain regarded St. Maighneann as lazy because he was loath to engage in manual labour. St. Maighneann went to Tallaght to make his confession. Maighneann like many other Irish Saints made a prophesy as follows; “ A time should come where there should be daughters flippant and tart, devoid of obedience to their mothers: when they of low estate should make much murmuring, and seniors lack reverent cherishing; where there should be impious laymen and prelates both, perverted wicked judges, disrespect to elders; soil barren of fruits, weather deranged and intemperate seasons; women given up to witchcraft, churches unfrequented, deceitful hearts and perfidy on the increase; a time when God’s commandments should be violated and Doomsday’s token occur every year.” St. Maelruain is recorded as complimenting St. Maighneann and praising the perennial fire which he kept alight at Kilmainham as follows; “To thy successors’ see great prerogatives shall belong, and in Ireland thy fire shall be the third on which privilege shall be conferred, i.e. The fire of the elder of Lianan of Kivarra, the lively and perennial fire of Innismurray and Maighneann’s fire in Kilmainham.” The monks of Kilmainham lived on a highly fertile ridge with good grazing for cattle. The two rivers adjacent to the settlement, the Camac and the Liffey provided ample opportunities for fishing, fish being a staple of the Irish monastic diet. Besides the compliment of twenty-seven monks the settlement would have had tenant farmers and other lay people in residence. Maighneann’s monastery or Cill would not have been a large structure judging by other surviving ruins from that era. It was more likely to have been a small stone-built church with a stone clad roof circled by a scattering of wooden huts .Maighneann’s exact date of birth and death are not known but it is established that the monastery still existed in 780 AD when Lergus Ua Fidhchain died at Kilmainham. There are also records which show that a school existed in Kilmainham in the 7th and 8th centuries. ( from Kilmainham and Inchicore Local Dictionary of Biography)

In the Viking era, the monastery was home to the first Norse base (longphort) in Ireland.

In the 12th century the lands on the banks of the Liffey first belonged to the Knights Templar. Strongbow erected for them a castle about a mile distant from the Danish wall of old Dublin; and Hugh Tyrrel, first Baron Castleknock, granted them part of the lands which now form Phoenix Park. Here the Templars flourished, for nearly a century and a half, until the process for their suppression was instituted under Edward II, in 1308. Thirty members of the order were imprisoned and examined in Dublin and the order was condemned and suppressed. Their lands and privileges were given to the priory of the Knights of St. John of Jerusalem, who remained in possession until the dissolution of the monasteries in the 16th century.

Until the time of Queen Elizabeth, when Dublin Castle became the centre of English power, the Lord Lieutenants often held court at the manor of Kilmainham. In 1559, the earl of Sussex, on being again appointed Lord Lieutenant, found that the building at Kilmainham had been damaged by a storm, and had to hold court at the palace of St. Sepulchre. The following year Elizabeth ordered that Dublin Castle be upgraded to enable the Lord Lieutenant to reside there, and Kilmainham fell out of favour.

The Manor of Kilmainham formed a liberty outside the jurisdiction of the city of Dublin, with its own rights and privileges. The manor took in parts of James's Street and side-streets and stretched as far as Lucan and Chapelizod. After the Reformation, former lords (or chairmen, as they were later called) of this manor included Lord Cloncurry and Sir Edward Newenham. John "Bully" Egan, from Charleville, County Cork, was chairman from 1790 to 1800.

These manorial rights were abolished around 1840.

Local attractions

The area is best known for Royal Hospital Kilmainham, constructed on the site where the Knights of St. John of Jerusalem had their priory in Dublin. It now houses the Irish Museum of Modern Art. Nearby is Kilmainham Gaol, where the executions of the leaders of the Easter Rising took place.

Kilmainham holds one of a small number of Viking era burial sites (Old Norse haugr meaning barrow or mound), within Dublin, others including Bully's Acre and where College Green is now located.

Railway station

The Dublin Heuston railway station, one of Dublin's two main railway stations, is nearby.

References

1. Halsall, Guy. Warfare and Society in the Barbarian West, 450-900 (London: Routledge, 2003), p.156.
2. ^ Walter Harris: The History and Antiquities of the City of Dublin
3. D'Alton: History of the County Dublin. 1838. p. 301

53°20.52′N 6°18.48′W / 53.34200°N 6.30800°W / 53.34200; -6.30800

• Towns and villages in County Dublin
• Vikings