Quin Monastic Friary

Quin Friary, better known locally as Quin Abbey, consists of a complex of buildings beside the Rine River, around which Quin village is centred. The Friary began construction about 1350, being built on the ruins of the Anglo-Norman Thomas de Clare’s large fortification. This was razed by the Gaelic McNamara’s in 1308. A Bull or edict of Pope Eugene IV given to the Franciscans of the Regular Observance in 1433 by Maccon McNamara firmly planted the Franciscans in the Friary. Maccon died the same year.

Over the following tumultuous centuries they maintained a presence in Quin until 1820. The Friary, which is one of the best preserved of its kind in Ireland, was in use until the 16th century. The local MacNamara clan were its greatest benefactors over the years. It was formally suppressed by King Henry VIII in the 16th century.

Following its formal dissolution in 1541, the Friary was granted to Conor O’ Brien Lord Ibricken, but he protected the friars, as did his son Tadhg after his death in 1548, though at this time it was described as “The precincts of the late house of Francis friars at Queyne in Thomond conteyninge 1 acre, in which is one great church now ruinose covered with sclate and stepill greatlie dacied, a church yard and cloister and 1 great haul, fower chambers, two cellars, and ruinous dortor, with an orchard and other edifices and also 1 watermill ruinose, and prostrate and ten cottages in Queyn village.” In 1578 it was confirmed to the Earl of Thomond.

Suppression of some Irish churches seems not to have been as absolute as in Britain, so much so that Quin Friary was renewed about 1640. The building became a college, providing for hundreds of students. Oliver Cromwell’s forces arrived 10 years later, killing most of the friars and destroying the Friary. In 1671 the building was again restored, but never regained its former status.

In 1760, the friars were again expelled, although the last friar, John Hogan, remained there or nearby at Drim until his death in 1820, by which time the buildings had fallen into ruin.

Thomas Dinelly’s sketch of Quin Friary in 1681

Perhaps the most traumatic event associated with the Friary was that in 1584 Sir John Perrot, Lord Deputy of Ireland, had Donnchadh Beag O’Brien, who had been harassing the English in County Galway during the Second Desmond Rebellion (1579–1583), half-hanged from a cart, his bones broken with the back of an axe, and hung, still alive, from the bell tower of Quin Friary.

Some Architectural features of Quin Friary

Three of the four bastions from the original castle are still in place and have been incorporated into the Friary structure.

The south bastion at Quin Friary

Remains of bastion to the south east

Plan of ground floor

The entrance to the Friary is at the western end of the church through a round-headed doorway with graduated hood-moulding and a pair of lancet-windows above.

Inside is a substantial nave and chancel arch, topped by its central tower. The church comprises a nave and chancel with a tall slender crossing tower and belfry.

The underside of the tower has one set of tierceron (secondary) ribs and holes for the bell ropes. The south and east walls are unusually wide (2.8m) as they utilise the foundations of the earlier castle.

The remains consist of a chancel at the south with a transept added to the south wall and a sacristy north of the chancel.The original high altar is still in place under the east window.

The grave of Hugh MacNamara, at the left of the chancel.

The Sacristy is at the north side of the High Altar.

The Cloister Garth

The magnificent cloister lies to the north of the nave.

The refectory, showing s stone table and large fireplace. At the window are steps and a raised platform where a friar would read from the gospels while the others ate.

A sedilia or tomb niche on the south wall of the chancel is surmounted by traces of a 17th-century stucco crucifixion scene.

The upright stones are likely remains of stones legs from tables.

A gallery in the west end of the nave, evidenced by corbels, gave a privileged vantage point to guests staying in the west range of the Friary.

The grave of John ‘Fireball’ MacNamara (1)

The grave of John ‘Fireball’ MacNamara, last of his clan, in the south transept.

Much more can be written about Quin Friary. This article is intended as a part of the extraordinary story that this ancient building, first commenced in the thirteenth century, has to tell.

The Friary is open every day during the summer. It is well worth a visit.

What did the Anglo Normans ever do for us?

We are well aware of the impact of the Anglo-Norman invasion on our history, the undermining of Gaelic society and the replacement of our native structures. Poor old Diarmuid MacMurrough takes a lot of blame for all of this, despite the fact that Henry II in England had already sought and had been given approval by Pope Adrian to invade and civilise us. Henry was just waiting to finish his war in France before sorting us out!

Anyway, in they came, conquered, settled, married and eventually becoming more Irish than even ourselves, ‘níos gaelaí ná na Gaeil féin’! But besides building towns and castles, robbing our women (and probably taking our jobs!), what did the Anglo-Normans do for us – if anything?

Well, for one, they gave us a whole new suite of names, both forename and surname, to choose from.

The Norman influence on Irish surnames

Following the invasion of 1169, a large number of Anglo-French first and last names entered into Ireland. Many, such as Power, Browne, Fleming, Joyce, Burke, Barry, Costello, Nagle, Nugent, D’arcy, Roche and Walsh/Welsh/Wallace, are nowadays considered Irish and are commonly found in Clare. So, too, are those with the Fitz prefix such as Fitzmaurice, Fitzgerald, Fitzgibbon and Fitzpatrick which most people would regard as Irish as the shamrock. Fitz, meaning ‘son of’, can be considered the Norman version of Mac (it derives from the Latin/French ‘fils de’, meaning ‘son of’). Burke came from de Burgh, Roche from de Roiste, Power from de Paor.

In 1366, a law was passed that “Every Englishman do use the English language, and be named by an English name, leaving off entirely the manner of naming used by the Irish.” This was introduced to dissuade the settlers from adopting Celtic prefixes or forms of surname. It didn’t have much affect as many settler families added Mac or ‘O’ and Norman names evolved into an Irish form (eg McHenry, McArthur).

In 1465 a law was passed enacting “that every Irishman that dwells betwixt or amongst Englishmen in the County of Dublin, Myeth, Vriell, and Kildare … shall take to him an English Surname of one town, as Sutton, Chester, Trym, Skryne, Corke, Kinsale; or colour, as white, blacke, browne; or arte or science, as smith or carpenter; or office, as cooke, butler ….”

Many of the trades of the early medieval period such as Archer, Butler, Cooper, Carpenter, Draper, Skinner, Tanner found their way into our surnames. Other introductions from this period came from the mercenary soldiers who accompanied the Norman invasion: Walsh (meaning Welsh), Joyce and Fleming (from Flemish mercenaries) are examples.

Incidentally, the Normans usually took their surnames from the place of their family origins. So, D’arcy originates in Arcy in Normandy. De Clare originates in Clare in Suffolk where the Anglo-Norman family were based. While De indicated their place of origin, Le was used to describe them, eg Le Poer meant ‘a poor person’.

De Burgh – Burke – from a placename in Suffolk, France

Le Botilier – Butler – Occupation bottle steward

De Barra – Barry – from an estate in Wales

Le Waleys – Walsh – the Welshmen

De Angulo – Costello/Nangle – from Nangle Pembrokeshire

What of their influence on forenames?

Many of the Normans forenames introduced here were of a biblical or European saintly origin.

In 1922, Reverend Patrick Woulfe wrote extensively on the topic of Irish name origins as follows:

In the same manner Norman and English names became current in Irish families during the thirteenth and subsequent centuries. These have now almost completely supplanted the old Gaelic names. The names borne by the Normans and by them introduced into Ireland, were of three kinds :

(1) names of Scandinavian origin which their ancestors had carried with them to Normandy ;

(2) names of Germanic origin which the Frankish conquerors had brought across the Rhine and which had ousted the old Celtic and Latin names from France ; and

(3) Biblical names and Latin and Greek names of saints,, which the Normans began to adopt about the beginning of the eleventh century.

Together with these came in a few Celtic names from Brittany, a small number of Anglo-Saxon names, some Danish and Norse names from England, and one or two British or Welsh names. These were nearly all very rare and most of them soon died out. Of the Anglo-Saxon names, only two, Edmund and Edward, survived. Alfred has been revived in recent times. At the period of the Invasion, Frankish names were by far the most popular among the Normans, but Biblical and saintly names were coming rapidly into favour.

The following is a list, in order of frequency, of the more common names borne by the early Anglo- Norman invaders, the Biblical and saintly names of Latin and Greek origin being printed in italics :

William, Robert, Richard, John, Walter, Roger, Ralph, Adam, Hugh, Henry, Thomas, Nicholas, Gilbert, Geoffrey, Elias, Peter (Piers), Osbert, Reginald, Jordan, Simon, Alan, Stephen, Philip, David, Arnold, Alexander, Laurence, Baldwin, Herbert, Martin, Maurice, Godfrey, Andrew, Alfred, James, Samson, Turstein, Warin, Ailward, Daniel, Edward, Gregory, Bernard, Benedict, Hamon, Matthias, Michael, Gerard, Gervase, Lambert, Wilkin, Patrick, Edmund, Edwin, Hubert, Ivor, Joseph, Oliver, Mark.

The following in alphabetical order were rare :

Abraham, Adelard, Ailmer, Antony, Augustine, Brian, Clement, Constantine, Estmund, Eustace, Everard, Gocelin, Isaac, Leonard, Luke, Matthew, Miles, Milo, Odo, Osbern, Osmund, Pagan, Ponce, Randulf, Redmund, Rodulf, Silvester, Turold, Ulf, Vincent.

The following names only came in, or at least became popular, at a later period :

Bartholomew, Christopher, Francis, Gerald, George, Paul, Roland, Theobald.

Women’s names among the Normans were nearly all of the Biblical or saintly class:

Agnes, Alice, Amelina, Anastasia, Annabella, Catherine, Cecily, Christina, Dorothy, Egidia, Eleanor, Evelyn, Frances, Honora, Isabella, Johanna, Matilda, Margaret, Susanna.

The name Mary does not seem to have come into use in Ireland before the end of the16th century. Brigid only began to be used about the same period.

Extracted from ‘Sloinnte Gaedheal is Gall’, Patrick Woulfe 1922

Out with the old, in with the new

The Anglo-Normans also brought with them new animal species such as the rabbit and fallow deer, new foods such as wheat, orchard fruits, mutton and farming practices such as hay-making. They introduced us to continental European religious saints and practices of the Roman Church. European religious orders soon followed such as the Franciscans, Augustinians, Cistercians, Dominicans etc. These replaced the structures of the native Irish Christian Church.

Up to then, the Irish natives did not adopt the name of saints as they considered this to be placing themselves on a par with the saint. Such naming convention was reserved for those of higher status in the monasteries. This was circumvented by use of the prefix Maol or Giolla meaning follower or servant. The Normans changed all of that and it was now acceptable to be called Peter, James, Michael, John, Mary, Brigid or Margaret.

Very few of us to this day do not have either a forename or surname that is not of Norman origin. Eventually, arising from the Gaelic Revival in the late 19^th century, new Irish language versions of these forenames appeared such as Séan, Seamus, Peadar, Máire, Bríd, Mícheál, Cathal and many more appeared.

The Irish Church did not condemn the practice of slave-trading by the Irish until the invasion by the Anglo-Normans and the encroachment of the Roman Church. The story of Patrick (Patricius, son of a Roman administrator), which was introduced here after the Norman conquest, presents the native Irish as uncivilised pagan slavers who needed to be brought to heel. So the Normans inadvertently gave us our native saint and a forename for a good chunk of our population for generations following.

Out with the new, in with the old

Children are rarely given these European saint names today. Authentic Gaelic forenames are much more popular. We are nevertheless, unlikely to see the demise of the Anglo-Normans surnames that were introduced here. But all of us Mikes, Jimmies, Johnnys, Paddys, Kittys, Cathys, Maggies and Bridies can thank the Normans for what they brought us!

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