KILMALLOCK

 

Cill Mocheallog - the church of Mocheallog

   Kilmallock is 10 km from Bruff on the R.512 road. The town's name has its roots in an ancient monastery founded by St. Mocheallog. The ruins of this and a somewhat later church are located 1 mile northwest of the town, signposted off the approach road from Bruff.

   The mediaeval town was fortified by stone walls, with four gate-towers called John's Gate, Water Gate, Ivy Gate and Blossom Gate, and a portion of the mediaeval walls survive. Blosom Gate in Emmet Street, overlooks the Charleville road and is in a good state of repair. John's Gate or John's Castle, is a four-storey tower at the junction of Sarsfield St and Sheares St. Sheares St. was named after the patriotic brothers, Henry and John Sheares, hanged in 1798. The mediaeval town was destroyed during the Williamite Wars in 1690 by the Jacobite army in advance of the Seiges of Limerick. In the following centuries, Kilmallock was referred to as a ghost town. To-day, Kilmallock is a busy town set in the rich fertile lands of the Golden Vale.

   The ecclesiastical ruins of note in the town are the Dominican Priory and the Collegiate Church of St. Peter and Paul, on either side of the Loobagh River north of the town. The Priory was founded in the 13th century and flourished. However it was eventually destroyed in 1648 during the Cromwelian Wars - the Priory ruins are accesible by footbridge over the river. The ruins of the Collegiate Church, founded in the 13th century, consists of an aisled nave, south transept, the remains of a round tower belonging to the pre-Norman monastery of St. Mocheallog in the burial grounds and an impressive 5-light east window in the chancel. This foundation was partly destroyed in the 1650's and the chancel was much later used as a Protestant church into the 1930's. At the west side of the south doorway is the grave of the 18th century Gaelic poet, Andrias MacCraith who died in 1795. MacCraigth was one of the Maigue Poets and konwn as An Mangaire Sugach, The Jolly Pedlar.

   Other points of interest in and around Kilmallock. The Catholic Church of S.S. Peter and Paul, built between 1879 and 1889, is an impressive neo-Gothic structure - the interior has beautiful stain glass windows (two in the sanctuary, including that with reticulated tracery, are copied from windows in the Dominican Priory), mosaics on either side of the high altar and, to the left of the main entrance, a beautiful Pieta. In the vicinity of John's Castle, is a small local museum in a 19th century town cottage; the remains of an Elizabethan stone mansion (lately acquired by Duchas), and the new Friars Gate Theatre in Sarsfield Street. The Museum houses a model of the walled town of Kilmallock c. 1597 and other artefacts of local interest.