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The Churches of Cork City

An Illustrated History

The History Press

The Monastery of St Finbarr

Cork's skyline is dominated by three prominent ecclesiastical structures. On the north side of the city the pepper-pot steeple of the Church of Ireland St Anne's Shandon and the nearby tower of the Catholic Cathedral of St Mary and St Anne have been prominent landmarks since they were constructed in the 1720s and the early 1800s respectively. South of the river, the triple-spire Church of Ireland Cathedral of St Fin Barre, although younger than the other two edifices, is nevertheless a third outstanding feature of Cork's landscape and marks the location of the earliest monastic settlement, from which the modern city developed.

Named in honour of the monastic founder and patron saint of the city, the present St Fin Barre's Cathedral is the most recent of a number of churches that have stood at the site. It is but one of many places named in honour of the city's founder: the Catholic church of St Finbarr's South on Dunbar Street is another, as are St Finbarr's Cemetery in Glasheen, St Finbarr's Bridge off the Western Road and a variety of other roads, housing estates and areas, such as Kilbarry to the north-east of the city. One of Cork's most famous Gaelic Athletic Association clubs is named in St Finbarr's honour and the city's patron saint has also been celebrated in song and in story.

St Finbarr, then, is part of the lifeblood not just of Cork's past, but of the present too and although his very existence has been questioned by some historians, he exists nonetheless in the hearts and minds of Cork people. It is therefore appropriate that a history of Cork's churches should begin with a brief account of who he was and how he came to found a monastery in what was at the time a marshy wasteland known as Corcach Mór Mumhan, the Great Marsh of Munster.

Lóan of the Fair Hair

Finbarr is said to have been born near Innishannnon in County Cork sometime between AD 550 and 560, the son of a metalworker named Amairgen, who was originally from the west of Ireland. Since contemporary records are virtually nonexistent, this information, along with so much else from Finbarr's life story, has to be treated with caution. Amairgen was employed in the service of the King of Rathlenn in the mid-west Cork area of South Munster. While in this position, Amairgen had a relationship with one of the king's handmaids. He was unaware however, that the king had expressly forbidden that anyone should engage with the woman.

When it became known that she was pregnant, both she and Amairgen were condemned to death by being cast into a great fire. When the time came for the execution, however, such was the ferocity of the rain that the fire could not be lit. At this point the child spoke from his mother's womb, saying, 'O King, do not this wicked deed, for thou wilt not be the better loved by God, though thou do it'. Upon hearing this, the king relented and in due course the woman delivered a baby boy. Immediately after being born the child again spoke to the king; he said that his father and mother should be released from service and given their liberty. Again the king granted the request of the child. After this the child did not speak again until he had reached the normal age.

Free now from servitude, the parents left the Innishannon area with their young baby and moved to Achad Durbcon, identified as 'at or near Macroom on the Sullane River less than a mile from the north bank of the Lee'. When the time came for the child's baptism, the name that he was given was Lóan or Lochan. For the next seven years the young Lóan lived with his family, which also included a brother named Modichu and a sister named Lasair. After these seven years had passed, three holy men from Leinster, named Brendan, Lochan and Fidach, visited the home of Amairgen and, on seeing the child Lóan, declared that 'the grace of the Holy Spirit shines in his countenance and it would be a great pleasure to teach him'. Amairgen and his wife agreed and in due course the holy men took Lóan back with them to Leinster. While journeying there, the boy became thirsty; a doe appeared on the nearby hillside and was milked to provide sustenance for the boy. This was interpreted as a miracle by the holy men, who immediately decided that it was a fit place for the boy to be tonsured and begin his journey towards becoming a monk. As they cut his hair, one of the men said that 'beautiful and fair is the crest of Lóan; for this shall be his name henceforth, Findbarr [Fair-crest]'. So it was that the young boy was no longer known by his baptismal name of Lóan, but by his new name Finbarr.

Under the tutelage of the three holy men, Finbarr studied the psalms. During this time, there was a heavy snowfall and he became snowbound in the hut in which he was studying. Finbarr is said to have remarked that he would like the snow to remain around the hut until he was finished learning all of the psalms. Although the snow melted everywhere else, it remained around his hut until he had completed this part of his studies. Following this, Finbarr returned to Munster and made his way to Coolcashin in Tipperary, where he marked out a place for a church and made contact with the local Bishop MacCuirp. There he completed his studies on the Gospel of St Matthew and other ecclesiastical subjects. While with Bishop MacCuirp, a local king, Fachtna Fergach, said to Finbarr, 'I want you to bless my two children, my blind son and my dumb daughter.' Finbarr blessed them both and they were healed. Then, while conversing with the king, there arose a great lamentation and the king said his wife had just died. Upon hearing this, Finbarr told the king that God was able to raise her from the dead. He blessed water, which they used to wash the queen, whereupon she arose from the dead as if she had been sleeping.

It was while under the tutelage of Bishop MacCuirp that Finbarr was ordained to the priesthood, after which he made his way to Loch Irce in West Cork (today we know Loch Irce as Gougane Barra). Among those listed as spending time at Gougane with Finbarr are Eolang (Olan) from Aghabuloge, Coleman, Baichine, Nessan, Garban, Fachtna and 'the great majority of our South Munster saints'. Finbarr, however, was not destined to remain at Gougane. He was visited by an angel of the Lord who said to him 'not here shall be thy resurrection' and so, led by the angel, he left the hermitage and school at Gougane and followed the course of the river until he came to the hills overlooking a marshy valley where the river spread about a number of islands. This was Corcach Mór Mumhan, the Great Marsh of Munster.

Finbarr arrived in Cork sometime between the years 600 and 606 and, on his arrival, kept a fast for three days. According to one source, however, he went to Rome before this 'to receive Episcopal orders together with Eolang, and Maedoc of Ferns and David of Cell Muine and twelve monks with them'; however, when Pope Gregory made to raise his hand over Finbarr, a flame came from heaven and Gregory said to Finbarr, 'Go home and the Lord himself will read Episcopal orders over thee.' And thus it was fulfilled.

It was common practice at this time for the leaders of different clans to encourage holy men to settle in their areas and to establish places of worship and education there. This is essentially what happened at Cork. Finbarr was offered two tracts of land. The first was offered to him by Aedh, son of Comgall of the Uí Mic Ciair clan, south of the river and overlooking the marshy valley. Then, Aedh Mac Miandach offered him a place called Foithrib Aedh Magh Tuath, north of the river, a forested area between Shandon and Glanmire. Finbarr accepted the first offer from Aedh of the Mic Ciair. An angel marked out the place for a church and blessed it; although, the precise location of this church has never been ascertained. Two possible locations are where the Protestant St Finbarr's Cathedral now stands and Gill Abbey, where there was once a medieval monastery, as we shall see later in this study. The land Finbarr took stretched from University College Cork in the west to the graveyard of St Finbarr's Cathedral in the east and southwards to the lough. Soon, many people came to join Finbarr at his foundation, which was a place of worship and contemplation, as well as of learning. His students were not only the sons of neighbouring chiefs, but he also 'had with him there a great school of saints', many of whom went on to found their own churches. Among these were St Fachtna, St Eltin Mac Cobthaig, St Fergus Finnabrach and St Coleman of Kinneigh near Cloyne. St Finbarr's monastery at Cork was therefore an important seventh-century institution as it was where many important holy men were educated. Due to the large number of people that came to visit and subsequently settle in the surrounding lands, the place became the centre of a developing community. Within the monastery grounds, and indeed for the community at large, the church would undoubtedly have been a very important building where prayer, Mass and other liturgies took place.

St Finbarr died sometime between 623 and 630, having spent almost twenty years as the spiritual leader of the monastery he had founded at Cork. He was interred in the graveyard adjacent to his church.

This day – the day of Bairre's death – was prolonged to the elders. God did not allow the sun to go beneath the earth for twelve days afterwards.

Then the angels of heaven came to meet his soul and carried it with them with honour and reverence to heaven where he shines like the sun in his company of patriarchs and prophets in the company of the Apostles and disciples of Jesus ...

After his death, Finbarr was succeeded at Cork by St Nessan. Over the following centuries, up until the arrival of the Normans, some fifty abbot-bishops followed in the footsteps of the founding saint at Cork. The monastery continued to grow in strength and importance, but difficult times were ahead.

As with all of the other monasteries in the country, the arrival of the Vikings heralded a period of violence, uncertainty and change. Viking attacks on Ireland occurred in two phases, beginning early in the ninth century. They first attacked Cork in the year 820, following which the settlement was plundered again in 838 and 845. From about 850, 'the great raids of the ninth century were over'. The second phase of penetration came early in the tenth century. This time many of those who came stayed. Their assimilation into Irish society over the ensuing century can be sketched in broad strokes. Across the country groups formed alliances with local kings and were 'drawn more and more into Irish affairs, playing their own parts in the complex and shifting alliances of the little kingdoms'. Others formed bases in harbours along the coast and developed centres of trade. Thus the Norse settlements of Waterford, Wexford, Cork, Limerick and Dublin, among others, came to be and 'the population of the Norse towns turned Christian and finally in speech and habit almost Irish'.

In the Great Marsh of Munster, a new centre of population developed, generally believed to have been where the town of Cork would in time grow up, in the North and South Main Street areas of today's city. In particular the Norsemen were thought to have settled on the mainland where St Nicholas' church stands today, and then to have moved across the river onto the southern island of the old town. Just downstream was 'the little wooden harbour ... where small ships and boats put in'; this was used by Cork's 'Hiberno-Viking merchants engaged in trade'.

The assimilation of the Vikings into Irish society did not mean that all was peace and light for the monastic settlements. Inter-clan rivalry still led to many violent incidents and the monasteries and their inhabitants were occasionally victims during such wars. It is recorded that 'in 1081 Cork was burned with houses and churches'. Evelyn Bolster writes that 'Corcach Mór Mumhan, with its houses and churches, was subjected to raids, as much from local princes as from foreigners, down to the end of the eleventh century when the ancient abbey of Saint Finbarr was finally destroyed'. From the ashes it would rise again, just one of many late medieval churches in the developing town of Cork.

St Finbarr's Abbey Refounded and Norman Beginnings

Following the assimilation of the Vikings into Irish society, there was bitter enmity between Connaught, which was under the rule of the O'Connors, and Munster, the kingship of which alternated between the McCarthy Kings of Desmond of Cork and the Dalcassians or O'Briens of Thomond. Between the Battle of Clontarf in 1014, which is said to have finally broken any remaining power that the Vikings had in Ireland, and the arrival of the Normans in 1169, there was considerable conflict. The high kingship of Ireland was at issue and among those that sought the title were the O'Connors of Connaught. Turlough O'Connor, King of Connaught, was 'frequently on campaign for months on end' and between 1115 and 1131 he 'destroyed the power of Munster'. Over time, however, O'Connor's power weakened and in 1131 Cormac McCarthy was restored to the Munster throne. By 1134 he felt strong enough to lead an assault on Connaught. During this campaign an event occurred that had a direct impact on the future of churches in Cork. 'In the course of this attack on the Western Province the abbey of St Mary at Cong was pillaged' and in the ensuing peace Cormac was obliged to make reparation for the destruction at Cong. 'This reparation was to consist in the erection of an abbey in Cork dependent on that of Cong'.

St Finbarr's Abbey is Refounded

Cormac complied with the stipulation and built an abbey for the canons regular of St John the Baptist at or near the site where the former abbey of St Finbarr had stood until it was destroyed at the end of the eleventh century. As part of the agreement, the abbot at Cong had the right to confirm or veto whosoever was chosen to be abbot at Cork. Regarding the reconstituted abbey at Cork, Bolster quotes Sir James Ware as saying that 'this abbey, its former name – the Abbey of St Finbarr's Cave – having been many years antiquated, is called Gill Abbey, from Gil-Aeda, an Abbot of great name and afterwards Bishop of Cork'. Windelle says that in 1134:

... one of its most celebrated abbots about this time was Gilla Aeda O'Muighin, a native of Connaught, who held the See of Cork and presided over the Abbey until 1172. From him it has been called Gill-Abbey.

In 1138, Cormac McCarthy, founder of the abbey, was killed in battle in County Limerick. His successors included his son Dermot, grandson Cormac Lehenagh and son-in-law Dermot O'Connor. Under their kingships over the following decades, a number of grants were made to the abbey, which expanded the size of the monastery itself and the areas from where it could acquire income in the form of livestock and produce. Among the lands given to the abbey was Cloghan or Clochán, which extended roughly from Grattan Street through the Mardyke to Victoria Cross. This was a wooded area at the time, which was significant because wood was of paramount importance for a variety of usages, not least of which was the construction of buildings.

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Excerpted from The Churches of Cork City by Antóin O'Callaghan. Copyright © 2016 Antóin O'Callaghan. Excerpted by permission of The History Press.
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