School: Christian Brothers, Athlone

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1. The Nunnery

   

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   About half a mile to the N.E. of the cemetary is the Nunnery, to which O'Rorke, in the 10th century, built a causeway along the river. Though the causeway cannot be traced, and though the Cairn of the Three Crosses, near the great church, to which the causeway extended, is no longer visible, two of the three crosses still remain in a well-preserved state.
   The remains of the original Nunnery, founded by St. Criellan in the 10th century, and destroyed by fire in 1180, were recently unearthed from the mounds which covered them.
   In the 18th century the Nunnery was repaired at great [?] by Dorrorgilla, the [ill frind....? of O'Honice of Breffin[i?]. She [?] at the Consecration of the [?] Mellifont, towards the [?] as a generous donor. [?] pilgrimage in [1183?], she [?] nried.
   The N[?] Church [of?] [?]
   remarkable as a magnificent remains of Celtic Romanesque Art. It consists of a nave and chancel only. Its length is over 50 feet. The arch of which is magnificent, measures some 12 feet by 15 feet. The ornamentation, consisting of grotesque heads and figures with interlaced work and zig-zag patterns, is very striking.
   The most striking feature of the nave is the doorway, which is 36 feet long and 20 feet wide. It is deeply recessed and of four orders; the two inner jambs are rectangular shafts, the outer are rounded into pillars with shallow bases. The jambs, according to a description given by Lord Dunraven, were richly ornamented with [p?]oised chevron and other designs. The [?]ter aroh was enriched with pellets; the [?]ter with chevron blocks; the third with [?]ds with rolls in their mouths, and the [?] face enriched with encised tracories.
   Clonmacnoise, the one-time Athens of our land, has borne the varying moods of 14 centuries since Diarmuid and Ciaran planted the first pole for a wooden church there. The bull-bosomed Shannon, which here on its waters saints and scholars of many lands, whose Alma Mater Clonmacnoise was bore the corpses of king and chief to their last resting place in the Clusin, and is the proud bearer of living pilgrim to the [?] of Claran on his feast day, [9?]th September. Here, among the desolate ruins, undisturbed by the traffic of modern civilisation, all pay homage to the memory of the saintly Claran and 'the Dead at Clonmacnoise."
   Would that the mystical tree [?] planted by shannon's banks should bear fruit as of yore, for the glory of God and the honour of Erin!

   

   Transcribed by a member of our volunteer transcription project.

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