As it happens, my visit is halting and hurried because Duchas (in its current nameless form) is tackling a restoration project which al least is a good opportunity for another call. From this flat greensward around the friary the loveliest sight is that of steepled, Catholic, Gothic-Revival parish church of St Peter and Paul, built in 1879. Eye-catching though this is, perhaps even more deserving of attention are the broken outlines, just across the river, of the Church of Ireland collegiate parish church, also St Peter and Paul, and, dating, like the friary, from the 13^th century.

Until quite recently the chancel, built circa 1300, was used as the parish church; there is a belfry, built like a round tower, which is reputed to be of pre-Norman origin and although the poet Seamus O Cinneide lived in Kilmallock, it is another 18^th-century poet Andrias Mac Craith who is buried in this churchyard.

But this church of St Peter and Paul, quietly though its stands on the banks of the Loobagh river and surrounded now by the headstones and monuments of many generations, is a site which resounds through Irish history. It was here, in 1600, that the FitzGeralds of Desmond entered the final chapter of their convulsive odyssey through the 16^th century; although James Fitzthomas FitzGerald had stayed aloof from the Desmond Rebellion of 1583, his loyalty to the Crown brought no restitution of the lands and status he had already lost.