The island was celebrated in Christian times as being the residence of St. Diarmid, or Dermot, the teacher of St. Ciaran, founder of Clonmacnoise, who lived about the year 500 A.D. It was repeatedly plundered and burned between 800 and 1300 A.D. It contains seven churches, the most remarkable is called the Clogas, or square belfry, which is attached to the main building. This is an unusual feature in that most churches of this era have round towers, which in every case with the exception of the one in Clonmacnoise, are separate from the main building. It is located on the north side of the island and is visible from the shoreline. There are six other churches within a cashel of stone and earth fortification. The smallest is Templedermot, evidently the primitive oratory of the founder and the name of largest church is Templemurry.
This is one of the diminutive buildings of the early Christians. It still retains in what is left of it, some peculiar features. The ends of the side walls project a foot and a half beyond the face of the gables, thus forming buttresses. The measurement from one outer extreme to the other is only 14 feet. The east window has disappeared, and there is no visible sign of an altar. The doorway in the centre of the west end bears evidence of having been slightly disturbed. The remnant of the gable over this door rises to a height of about 15 feet from the present groundline. There is little doubt that this church once possessed a stone roof, although no vestige of it now exists.
Teampall Mór
Within 12 feet of teampul Diarmada, to
the north, stands Teampul Mor. This monastery is by far the most important
ruin on the island. The church consists of a single nave 47 feet 7 inches
by 21 feet 5 incges. The plain masonry walls rise to about 13 feet and
are in fairly good preservation. There are two graceful lancet windows
at the east end which are long, narrow and well recessed, to all intents
similar on the inside, while on the outside, one being severely plain
and the other elaborately moulded.
The windows on the south side have the appearance of later additions and
are unsymmetrical in every respect. All traces of doors have vanished,
but the opes, which have been arched and protected by the Board of Works,
seem to indicate the position of a west door and an entrance on the north
side to the cloister.
An upper chamber exists and when perfect, covered the Chapter-house sacristy,
and the east cloister, the enternal walls of the lower apartments forming
intermediate supports for the flooring. It is worthy of note that the
interior walls of the church were once plastered.
John O'Donovan , in a note now preserved amongst the Ordnance Survey Letters,
refers to this building as two churches. He considers the monastic apartments
as one and the vaulted sacristy as a penitential prison . He even goes
as far as to label it "Deartheach.
This building is a fairly good example of the type of an early Christian churches in Ireland. The extreme dimensions of the rectangle being 23ft. 8 ins. by 15ft. 8 inches the walls have crumbled down and now are only a few feet high, and have lost their distinctive features of detail except the east window, which is similar in construction to that of the Tempal Clogas. The interior arch of the east window is circular, built of four stones. The exterior has only two stones forming a pointed arch.
| In this building we find the first
church forming the chancel of a more extended structure the nave being
a subsequent addition. The east window is relatively unharmed and
closely follows those of the Clogas and the Church of the dead. Underneath this window, stands the remains of an altar, rudely built of rubble work but minus the altar slab. The door in the south wall of the Nave has a circular moulding. The north door is only a gap. To the east of the chancel wall is a rough heap of broken masonry which is believed to have been a "saints bed". At the east end of the chancel church stands a large Irish Yew which overshadows the whole structure. This church is situated a short distance to the south of the cluster of churches, and consists of four walls varying in hight from 2 feet to 9 feet. It is entirely devoid of any worked detail. |
| The "altar" is composed
of the remains of some finely worked thirteenth-century clustered
columns, The building is more modern in appearance than any of the
others, and is braoder and not as strongly built. It may have been
the church of Saint Mary or the Church for the Women of the settlement,and
entirely devoted to their use and used as a burial place for women
only. At the north-west cornor of this church is a more modern chamber
with no visible entrance. Near this church, half buried with its face
downward is a stone bearing incised on its surface a Celtic interlaced
cross with an Irish inscription. It is a rough irregular slab of sandstone grit about 6 inches thick and about 26ins by 21ins in size. |
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Teampall Clogas
The Teampul Clogas stands isolated and
lonely, crowning the highest point of the island. It is remarkable for
possessing a square tower at the west end which gives the church its name.
On the plan the church is rectangular, being 34ft. 8ins. by 16ft. 8ins.
The tower is square in plan and bonded into the old gable to which it
has been placed as an addition, and was entered on the ground floor from
the inside of the church by a square and poorly formed doorway.
The tower has no windows on the first or second floors, the doors serving
both purposes, it has one window towards the west on the third floor,
and one to the south on the fourth floor. In the south wall close to the
east end is built a curious stone with a hole right through it large enough
to allow the hand to pass. The church is not of a very early type and
the stairway has certainly a post-Norman look about it.
INIS CHLOTHRANN
719 St. Sionach of Innis Chlothrann died on the 20th day of April.
769 Curoi, the son of Alniadh,
Abbot and Sage of Innis
Chlothrann,and of Caill Fochladha in Meath died.
780 Eochaidh, the son of Focartach, Abbot of Fochladha, and of
Innis Chlothrann, died.
1010 The men of Munster plundered Inis Clothrann and Inis Bo- finne
1050 Inis Clothrann was plundered
1087 The fleet of the men of Munster, with Mortog O' Brien, sailed on the shannon to Lough Ree
and plundredd the islands of the lake (inc. Inis Clothrann)
1136 Hugh O' Flynn, the Bishop of Briefny, died in Inis Clothrann
1141 Gilla na naomh O' Farral, chief of the people of Annaly, the most prosperous man in Ireland,
died at a great age and was buried at Inis Clothrann.
1150 Morogh, the son of the above,
the tower of splendour and
nobility in East Connaught died in Inis CLothrann
1160 Gilla na Naomh O' Duinn, Lecturer of Inis Clothrann, Professor of History and poetry
sent his spirit to the Supreme Father amidst a choir of angles on the 17th day of December in the year of his 58th birthday
1167 Kinneth o' Ketternaigh, Priest of Inis Clothrann died.
1168 Dubhcobhlach, the daughter of O'Quinn, wife of Mac Corgamna, died and was interred in Inis Clothrann
1170 Dermaot O' Braoin, Coarb of Comman, was chief senior of the east of Connaught,
died in inis Clothrann in the 95th year of his age
1174 Rory O' Carrol, Lord of Ely, was slain in the middle of Inis Clothrann
1189 It was at Inis Clothrann on Lough Ree that the hostages of O' Connor Maonmoy were kept at the time.
1193 Inis Clothrann was plundered by the sons of Costelloe and by the sons of Conor Moinmoy
1232 Tiapraide O' Breen, Coarb of Saint Coman, an ecclesiastic learned in History and Law,
died on his pilgrimage on the island of Inis Clothrann
1244 Donagh, the son of Finghin, who was the grandson of Hugh, son of Torlogh O'Connor Bishop of Elphin,
died the 23th of April on Innis Chlothrann,and
was interred in the monastery of Boyle.
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