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County Louth Archaeological and History Society The Franciscans in Drogheda by Patrick Conlan Review by: Moira Corcoran Journal of the County Louth Archaeological and Historical Society, Vol. 21, No. 3 (1987), p. 325 Published by: County Louth Archaeological and History Society Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/27729643 . Accessed: 16/06/2014 03:52 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp . JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. . County Louth Archaeological and History Society is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Journal of the County Louth Archaeological and Historical Society. http://www.jstor.org This content downloaded from 62.122.72.154 on Mon, 16 Jun 2014 03:52:15 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

The Franciscans in Droghedaby Patrick Conlan

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Page 1: The Franciscans in Droghedaby Patrick Conlan

County Louth Archaeological and History Society

The Franciscans in Drogheda by Patrick ConlanReview by: Moira CorcoranJournal of the County Louth Archaeological and Historical Society, Vol. 21, No. 3 (1987), p.325Published by: County Louth Archaeological and History SocietyStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/27729643 .

Accessed: 16/06/2014 03:52

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

.JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range ofcontent in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new formsof scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].

.

County Louth Archaeological and History Society is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extendaccess to Journal of the County Louth Archaeological and Historical Society.

http://www.jstor.org

This content downloaded from 62.122.72.154 on Mon, 16 Jun 2014 03:52:15 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

Page 2: The Franciscans in Droghedaby Patrick Conlan

Reviews 325

The period from the end of the Civil War in April 1923 to the evacuation of the barracks in late 1928 is dealt with

very extensively. In 1932 and 1934 parts of the barracks were given over to housing and industry. It is pleasant, and

worthy to see noted, mention of the late Captains Martin O'Donnell and Hugh Callan in the organising of the Volunteer

Force, two sons of the latter, Charlie and Gerry Callan holding commissioned rank in the F.C.A. of today thus

maintaining a tradition. These concluding chapters dealing with the Emergency (1939-1946) and onwards to 1983 are

very thoroughgoing as regards detail and authenticated with notes and many well reproduced photographs. It ends with the naming of the barracks as Aiken Barracks by An Taoiseach, Dr Garret Fitzgerald.

We are long used to superior historical work from a historian of the calibre of Harold O'Sullivan and any omissions or inaccuracies are mere trivialities in the overall context. The maps and sketches, as well as the appendices, are of

special interest. Likewise we can see a more than average excellence from Joseph Gavin in the wide and careful

selection, section by section, of some delightful photographs. The Dundalgan Press are the publishers from whom we

always expect and obtain a high standard of printing and binding. The book is uncommonly clothed in the map of 1594, the earliest of those shown.

O. G. Keenan

THE FRANCISCANS IN DROGHEDA. By Patrick Conlan, o.f.m. Pp 68. Drogheda : Franciscan Friary,

Drogheda, 1987. ?3.50.

Apart from scattered references in diverse sources there was a scarcity of information regarding the history of the

three main religious orders, Dominicans, Augustinians, and Franciscans, established in Drogheda in the century

immediately following the Norman invasion. The Dominicans and Augustinians remedied this situation in recent times

when eminent historians of these orders compiled commemorative booklets on the occasions of centenary celebrations

of their modern churches. A great deal of historic material long buried in their own archives came to light, much to the

benefit of local historians.

Now, the Rev. Patrick Conlan, O.F.M., a Franciscan friar and well-known historian, who has lectured to this

Society, has done a like service for the house of his order in Drogheda in his recently published The Franciscans in

Drogheda. Drawing from a wide range of sources, both published and unpublished, he has compiled a detailed history of

the community from its foundation c. 1240 up to the present. The founder's name incidentally is unknown.

From the chapter dealing with the medieval period and the Reformation many interesting items come to light. The

medieval friary was built close to the River Boyne and near the east wall of the town, in fact so near that Fr Conlan says that "part of the wall of the choir, including the east window" was incorporated in the wall of the town. This claim was

also made by Donatus Mooney, O.F.M. in his report of a visitation to the Drogheda house in 1613. If this is true, both

the wall and the church would have been very vulnerable in any assault on the town's defence works, as for instance

during the siege of the town by Sir Phelim O'Neill in 1641, when the main activity was in this area. However, no breach in

the wall at this point has ever been recorded.

In a long account of the Franciscans' dispute with Richard Fitzralph, the Dundalk-born archbishop of Armagh, the

author reveals that, in the 1350s, the latter "attacked especially the laxities of the citizens of the largest town in his

diocese ? Drogheda

? and even placed it under interdict for a while".

The visit to Drogheda in 1394 of Richard II of England, for the purpose of subjugating the northern Irish chieftains, is usually associated with the Dominican Friary of St Mary Magdalene where, among other chieftains Niall Mor ? Neill,

king of Tyrone, and his son, submitted to the English king. During the visit however it was in the Franciscan Friary that

Richard lodged for eighteen days. The wealth of detail in Fr Conlan's account of the affairs of the community as it was affected by the vicissitudes of

the times, during and subsequent to the Dissolution makes fascinating reading, especially when it deals with the

Cromwellian campaign and particularly the bloody siege of Drogheda. It will be the more recent history of the friary and its church, known affectionately for generations as the "High

Lane Chapel", that will most interest Drogheda people. While the friars were in and around the town, mostly hidden or

disguised, for centuries, little is known of where they lived, until 1798. In that year two friars bought an old corn store in

Keysers Lane, which adjoins the present church. The little store was set up and fitted as a chapel, which soon proved

inadequate. A Drogheda-born friar, Fr Nugent Dardis, appointed guardian in 1825, undertook the construction of a

new church on the site in 1828. New property adjoining in Laurence Street was acquired and the present church was

completed in August 1830, at a cost of ?430, which was totally collected by November ofthat year. During the building of

the church an old theatre on the north side of Laurence Street was adapted as a temporary chapel at a cost of ten shillings. Could this have been the "Crow Street Theatre" referred to in an advertisement for a drama in a Drogheda newspaper in

1796? Crow Street was then the present Palace Street,"which adjoins Laurence Street.

Fr Conlan's book is essential reading for anyone interested in the history of the town and especially for the

numerous Drogheda citizens who are so attached to the "High Lane Chapel". Moira Corcoran

THE HOPEFUL TRAVELLER: The Life and Times of Daniel Augustus Beaufort LL.D. 1739-1821. By C. C.

Ellison. Pp xvi + 139. Kilkenny: Boethius. 1987. ?15.95 (hardback), ?7.95 (paperback).

Daniel Augustus Beaufort was nicknamed DAB by his family, appropriately enough, for he was, in the parlance of

the time, a dab hand at so many things. He was known as an excellent farmer and he became a skilled cartographer and

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