Ardpatrick

View of Ard Pádraig

Ardpatrick ( Irish : Ard Pádraig , literally translated Hill of Patrick , sometimes also called Ballingaddy ) is a small community with 387 inhabitants (as of 2011) in the Irish county of Limerick in the province of Munster . It is located on the east side of a hill that was the site of an early Christian monastery.

history

According to the information provided by John Colgan in his Trias Thaumaturga in 1647 and the Monasticon Hibernicum by Mervyn Archdall from 1786, Ardpatrick is one of the foundings of Saint Patrick . An exact year of founding is not known, but the reference to Patrick suggests the middle of the 5th century. It can be assumed, however, that the area was settled earlier, as recent research based on aerial photographs shows that the land around the hill was intensively cultivated very early on.

South side of the church ruins of the early Christian monastery of Ardpatrick

The chronicles report arson attacks in the years 1074 and 1114. In the 11th and 12th centuries the monastery must have had a certain supraregional importance, as the deaths of two visiting bishops are recorded: Suairlig in 1079 and Cellach Mac Aodh in 1129 Despite the Norman invasion and the construction of a castle in 1198, the monastery continued under the administration of the Ua Longán family. The lands were still managed as monastic property in 1590 and 1597.

Parts of the west side of the massive stone church from the 11th or 12th century on the hill and ruins of a round tower have been preserved to this day.

swell

• Annals of traps with the entries AI1074.8, AI1079.2, AI1113.2, AI1129.6 and AI1198.3.
• Chronicon Scotorum with the entry CS1113.
• Annals of the four masters with the entries M1114.12 and M1129.13.

Secondary literature

• Harold G. Leask, Irish Churches and Monastic Buildings , Volume 1, 1955, page 72. ISBN 0852210167 .
• Aubrey Gwynn and R. Neville Hadcock, Medieval Religious Houses Ireland 1970, Longman, London. ISBN 0582-11229-X .
• Lisa M. Bitel, Isle of the Saints, Monastic Settlement and Christian Community in Early Ireland , 1990, Cork University Press, 39. ISBN 1-85918-017-5 .

Web links

Commons : Ardpatrick  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Official website of the locality
• Excerpt from the topographical directory from 1837 (PDF file; 62 kB)
• Page on Ardpatrick as a parish in the Diocese of Limerick

Coordinates: 52 ° 20 ′  N , 8 ° 32 ′  W