Clonmacnoise

Clonmacnoise , village, Co. Offaly, central Republic of Ireland, on the Shannon River. The monastery founded (548) on the site by St. Kieran became the most famous in Ireland. It survived 1,000 years of raids and invasions, until it was destroyed by the English in 1552. Notable ruins include a cathedral (built 904), several churches, two round towers, three sculptured crosses, over 200 inscribed stones, and a castle (built 1214). The ruins comprise a national monument. The annual feast of St. Kieran is held at Clonmacnoise.

Clonmacnoise the remains in county Galway, above the Shannon river, of one of the most important Irish monasteries, founded in the mid-6th century, which by the 8th century was a major centre of art and learning.

Clonmacnoise, Clonmacnois [Ir. cluain moccu Nóis, meadow of the sons of Nós]. Ireland's foremost early monastic settlement, founded by St Ciarán on 25 January 545. In the days of water transportation its location on the east shore of the Shannon was highly accessible, but today it lies on a backroad in Co. Offaly, 13 miles S of Athlone. As an ecclesiastical centre Clonmacnoise was rivalled only by Armagh, but it was peerless as a focus of early Christian art and literature. The great codex the Book of the Dun Cow [Lebor na hUidre] was produced here. Although ravaged countless times by native and foreign enemies, Clonmacnoise was not abandoned until sacked by English troops in 1552. Much remains, however, including portions of nine churches, five high crosses, two round towers, and more than 500 early gravestones, many with inscriptions. Seven ard ríthe [high kings] were buried here, including Ruaidrí Ua Conchobair (d. 1198), the last of that line. In more recent literature, Clonmacnoise is one of the most resonant names in invoking the lost glory of pre-conquest Ireland; See T. W. Rolleston's (1857–1920) ‘The Dead at Clonmacnoise’, translated from the Irish of Aongus Ó Giolláin. See also Doirin Doyle, Clonmacnois (Dublin, 1968).