Celtic Cross (or sepulchral monument) dating from 1607, outside the wall of Aghamore graveyard in which the old parish church (in ruins since the time of the Reformation) is located. The Cross and graveyard are within the perimeter of a Caiseal (or ringfort), which was once an important monastic enclosure.
Extract from Achadh Mór: Rich in Christian Heritage by Austin Tighe (R.I.P.).
After St. Patrick's time the Archbishop of Armagh deemed legal and ecclesiastical authority over the churches founded by St. Patrick. They paid tribute to them until other sees were founded. Then other Archbishops objected to this. The church of the monastery in Aghamore, having an abbot and refusing on account of not being subject to a bishop, the claims were made on any endowments or Glebes of lands or property held by the Church of Kilcrogan in Carrownedan which is- beside the blessed well. The tribute was sometimes not given. The demands on the two Aghamore churches proves they were both patrician churches, having been founded by St. Patrick. Appeals were made to the Popes to settle the dispute, but it dragged on until a hundred years or more after the schism of Henry VIII. The kings and Earls and barons of the English took unjust possession of all Catholic Church and monastery livings and lands, desecrated the churches, chapels, monasteries and many of the graveyards throwing down boundary fences. The effrorts to make Ireland non-Catholic and a protestant English country failed. The Celtic spoken in Ireland allowed him to have a good -understanding of the Irish people during the period of his captivity.
Ring Fort or Caiseal.
The caiseal or ringfort is shaped like a horseshoe. It is 530 feet by 380 feet. On the map it is a "Cashel". What used to be called the old cemetery is in the middle of it. About in the middle of that cemetery, there is the ruins of an old Parish church. This cemetery was enlarged about the end of the last or beginning of the present century and became about 2 acres in extent.
The extension to the cemetery is partly inside and partly outside the caiseal. It is evident that the defensive mounds or fences of the caiseal were thrown down, levelled or removed from the part within the cemetery. The width of the cemetery is approximately seventy yards. Outside the walls on either side there are parts of a second wall or mound. Whether the second fence was across the cemetary and round most of the caiseal when it was completed is only a guess at present. On the northwest there is an escarpment running from the mouth of the souterrain westwards. The material down the face of it gives the impression that it was put there after being taken from high ground within the caiseal, the removal of the earth giving it the appearance of a miniature plateau. The mixture of stones and gravel left over after being extracted during the excavation for the souterrain could easily be disposed of there. Since 1917, I have seen attempts being made to get sand and gravel from there. On each occasion only a mixture of soil, stones and gravel was found. Some of the excavations made on those occasions are to be seen now.
The old parish church was thrown down during the reformation, the same time as Kilcronan. The gable or end wall of the old church facing east and the wall at right angles to it on the southern side are still standing. There is a window frame of cut stone in the gable 3 ft. by 10 ins. Chamfered on the outside and dressed on the inside to receive or hold some kind of transparent material. The inside width is 17ft. 10 ins. The masonry is 3ft. 9ins. There is a recess four to four ft. six ins. wide and one foot deep in the northwest end of the gable. The return corner of the northern wall still has a small portion standing. It and the part behind the recess are liable to disintegrate. If this is allowed to happen it will help to complete the work of those who had so much of the church thrown down and the quoinstones taken away.
The western gable has disappeared and perhaps some of the southern wall too. Forty four feet of the southern wall is in fairly good condition. It is at least nine ft. high and has an opening or window near the east end. The opening measures three feet six inches high by five inches on the outside splayed to three ft. three inches on the inside. It is splayed more on the side near the gable apparently to allow the day light to shine from the two windows on the place where the Mass was being offered up.
On the outer side of this southern wall there is a circular opening approximately two and a half inches in diameter and two feet into the wall. The story has been handed down that a man in Westport or the Westport area, had a dream that there was a horn of gold in the old church or ruins of the old Parish church in Aghamore. That he had this dream on three different nights. He told some other man about it. He described where the gold was to be found from his vivid recollection of the dream, that the acquaintance came and found the horn of gold. The opening is to be seen twenty and one half feet from the arris where the east and south walls join and five feet from the ground level.
There is a souterrain or cave at the northern end of the caiseal. Where the entrance was is now filled in with stones. This may have been done by some owner or occupier of the land after the land had been taken from Catholic church authorities. The entrance or exit, it must have served both purposes, was on the outside of the wall or mound, led on to what might have been a road to another enclosure of cattle or other livestock. This souterrain was evidently constructed at the same time as the monastic enclosure. It is approximately forty feet by five feet six inches wide by five feet six inches high. About seven feet from the entrance there is a wall built - a dry stone wall. At ground level in the centre of this wall there is an opening just enough for a person to crawl or squeeze through. About the same distance from the terminal there is a wall similar to the one described. Between the two walls there is what appears to be an obstruction wall just high enough to make it difficult to get through especially in case of being defended inside if the caiseal was attacked. The ground over this gave no indication that there was a building underneath, the roof being megalithic or made of large stones. There are three rows of stones, the two outer rows along the length of the souteraain are laid with a little more than half their size on the wall and surrounding ground. Earth and soil was put on over the parts of the stones which did not protrude over the firm ground. This kept them in position until the third row of megaliths was placed in position. This last over-lapped the two outer rows. The covering earth is about eighteen inches deep from the surrounding ground and may have been tilled without it being known what was underneath.
About 1957 cattle from the land across the mearing having strayed on to the land and having a contest with ones already there, just over the terminal the last stones became loosened and fell into what appeared to be a break down in the land. That is how the souterrain was rediscovered. The old people in the town1and used to say that there had been a monastery in Janey's field. Mrs. Jane Corr was the owner of the land at that time. "There used to be friars there".
When being sent on a message to the shops in the village, which is at the other end of the town1and from where I live, we were told to bless ourselves as we passed by the "church" and again when we came to the chapel. By the "church" was meant the ruin of the old church in the cemetery. It is called the "church" or th_ "churchyard". By the chapel was meant the present parish church, which was built soon after catholic emancipation. After it was built, people called it the chapel, which some people still do. They looked upon it as replacing the old thatched chapel, which was used during the penal times and the name was handed down through the constant use of it.
At the west end of the caisea1 there is a raised portion 22yds. by 33 yds. It has the appearance of being terraced, but there is the probability that there were monks cells or clochans there. Within this there is a celtic cross or sepulchral monument which might be called an obelisk. The side with the inscription faces east. The inscription in Latin says it was erected to one of the Jordan family who died in 1607.
The ruins of Caisleán Rua na gCupan is about a mile north across the valley. Jordan Dubh Mac Costello of Rath na gCupan founded and endowed the Augustine Abbey of Ballyhaunis 900 to 950 years after the one at Aghamore was founded by St. Patrick. The MacCostello of Castlemore founded one at Umlare two years after the friars came to the cabheen at Crossbeg. Eighty four yards west of the perimeter of the caiseal at the west end there is what appears to be formation or foundation of a building forty four feet by twenty four. There are stones there covering that area. It is rectangular.
It must have taken a considerable amount of labour and material to construct the caiseal and make it fit for habitation. The size of the Monastery, the erection of the cells or clochans, and the number of converts needed to do the work and provide the necessities of life as an indication of the ability of St. Patrick and St. Loam to organise and also of the enthusiasm of the local people.
At that time, monastic huts and buildings were mostly of wattle and daub which were available in the area. Hazel and willow grew in bogs and marshes, also rushes and sedge or cib. Some of the rods of wattle were put into the earth in a upright position. When sufficient of them were put in to set out the building, others were woven in and out to strengthen it and to hold the daub. The daub or clay was selected for being strong and durable. It was then well wetted, and worked into a pliable substance and mixed with cut and broken sedge or straw as a bond to hold it together. After it had been put amongst the wattle in such a manner as to make a wall and was given time to set, it was plastered with some of the same material as was placed between the wattles. This kind of building lasts a very long time in dry warm countries.
As time went on the monastery became noted for the learning and piety of its members. Its numbers increased, the people in the area for miles around attended the services. There was strict supervision over the monks. They worked diligently, provided for themselves and became an example for their agriculture and horticulture. In that time the roads, chariots and methods of travel and conveyance were as good as if not better than they were when the Normans came to Ireland.
The founding of Aghamore monastery by St. Patrick himself and St. Loran being there at the beginning of it, helped to make it very well known. The rulers of the Ciarraighe having their headquarters in what is the parish now. They ruled over Aughamore, Knock, Bekan, Annagh, Castlemore, Kilturba, Kilcolman, Kilmovee, Kilbea, and Knock in Roscommon, also a large district in County Roscommon. Aghamore was one of four or five most noted places in Connaught and is one of the very few with the same name still.
The ecclesiastical rules then were that a monk and a nun or virgin from different places and going to the same or a different place must not take lodging in the same house. Also they must not travel by the same conveyance. The monastery provided separate accommodation for them and arranged travel in separate conveyances.
The system of barter used to be carried on near the monastery, it being the place where people went to mass, devotions, religious duties and pilgrimages. In time whole families set up homes near it. As time went on it became a village or Bailmor. When there was danger of war, the clans went to remote places leaving grain and other valuables to the clergy to keep for them. The souterrain came in useful at such times. There are some mounds which have escaped the bulldozers. Perhaps some were roads and some fences to enclose animals kept for milk, meat and wool. Some chieftain probably endowed them with land. People talked about the good land beside the "church" sixty years ago and said, "there were friars there". Land which has been well husbanded and made more fertile is always referred to as if it produced bumper crops without the sentence of our first pains being obeyed, "the sweat of thy brow". The monastery was established on high ground four to five hundred foot above sea level. Thus it would have been habitable and perhaps inhabited thousands of years B.C.
Mayo Abbey and Aghamore
There was a diocese of Mayo or Mayo Abbey. It may be irrelevant but it has a history, and Aghamore was in that diocese. St. Colomcille built a church in Iona in the year 563 AD. Two nephews of the king of Northumberland were being educated by the monks in Iona. While they were there their uncle the king was killed fighting a pagan king. The nephews returned to Northumbria and with them monks came and founded a monastery at Lindisfarne. The older brother became king and was killed fighting the same king. The younger brother then king Oswy promised God he would endow another monastery if he defeated the old enemy. It came to pass, the pagan king was defeated and killed. In the thanksgiving, he endowed the abbey of Whit by in Yorkshire in 658AD.
Pope Gregory I sent St. Augustine as head of a mission to England in 597. Sixty years after, the Augustinians hearing the Irish monks and priests were well liked by the royal family in Northumberland, they let it be known that they considered the Irish monks and priests were not up-to-date. The way the Irish wore their hair was not conforming to the way in which the Augustinians did. The Irish refused to change. The newcomers were determined to make the Irish follow their rules.
After this, Wilfrid the Abbott of Ripon took up that which was the cause of a difference of opinion, all over the Christian world. This was the date on which Easter should be celebrated. The Irish were convinced it should be as it had been since St. Patrick's time. At this time the King and Queen of Northumbria celebrated Easter on different Sundays. The Queen fasted for Palm Sunday on the day the King celebrated Easter. There was a synod held at Whitby to decide this. King Oswy was in the chair and Wilfrid being an Orator, Oswy decided in his favour. St. Colman was the Irish abbot at Lindisfarne and with his monks and thirty English monks came to Innisboffin and founded a new monastery. Wilfrid was promoted, he became Archbishop of York. After a number of years Colman and some of his monks moved to Mayo and founded an Abbey, it was noted for its teaching. Young men used to come from England to be taught there. Later it became the diocese of Mayo and continued to be that until sometime after the O'Connor Don Kings of Connaught had their palace in Tuam and Tuam had become the diocese. In 1152 it became an Archdiocese with Cashel, Dublin and Armagh. Mayo Abbey church continued to be a Cathedral, Aughamore, Knock, Bekan and Annagh went in to Tuam and Tuam and Mayo were united. The date for Easter was decided by the astronomers, years after Wilfrid had gone to his reward. The difference of opinion and habit of hairstyles continued for hundreds of years.
Duach Galach, youngest son of Brian Orbsen, was King of Connaught. He was acquainted with St. Patrick before he became King. He became a Chrisian. His son Eoghan Srebh became King of Connaught in 482. Duach Galach died in 427, this would mean St. Patrick was here before 432.
In the 5th century Aghamore was classed as being the equal of Athlone, Tuam and Clare, coming after Roscommon and Loughrea. Englishmen of noble birth came to be educated at Mayo Abbey. We have heard that Aghamore too was a place of knowledge and learning and that some of its members went to England and European countries helping to christianise and educate the people there. The monks led peaceful lives and prospered in the centuries before the Danes and Norsemen came.
Thanks to the efforts of the Medaievan Church Restoration Committee (Established 2002), works of restoration have saved the old church from total dereliction. The structure will soon be floodlit at night and there are plans to build a ceremonial altar.