pages 555 to 683 (4602 Kb) - Limerick City Council

644 HISTORY OF LIMERICX. . .
ancestor, Edmond Sexton, they were granted. White's MSS. assert that,
from the ruins of the monastery of the Canons Regular, the Irish fired
upon the soldiers of King William, as they approached the city from the
heights of Park.
In 1691, we find there were a communit and convent in Limerick,
De Burgc alludes to a lawsuit between the rior of the convent of St.
Augustine, in Limerick, and one William Lysaght, as to the possession of
their convent. In that year, the Prior was the celebrated Bernard
O'Kennedy, subsequently Provincid of the Order in Ireland. He afterwards
fled to Spain from the horrors of the persecution of William III.,
where he died in 1704. In a aetter which he wrote a little before his
death to the province of Ireland, for he was then the Provincial, he
states that he left in trust with a friend in Ireland, a chalice and suit of
vestments for the convent of Limerick, which is a proof that a convent had
been there before his departure from Ireland. We find that almost all the
regular clergy, notwithstanding the numbers banished in 1698, continued
in their native land. It was not, however, until the end of the reign
of George I., that regular clergy began to live in community and to erect
chapels in the princ~pal towns in Ireland. In the next reign, as before
mentioned, and for the last century, we find the Augustinians living in community
in Limerick.
In 1736 the Dominicans and Franciscans of Limerick applied to Dr.
O'KeefTe, the bishop, for redress against the Hermits of St. Augustine,
who, as they alleged, had settled themselves in the city without having
any title for so doing, asserting they never had a convent of their order in
the city. The bishop, attended by his secular clergy, often examined
both parties on the merits of this affair, and ultimately passed sentence
against the Augustinians. The Augustinians appealed to Cashel, and
from thence to the Primate of Armagh. The Dominicans and Franciscans
would not acknowledge the Primate's jurisdiction in Limerick, and therefore
they appealed to the Sacred Congregation de Propaganda; but nob
withstanding their appeal, the Primate's commissary in absence of the contending
parties, pronounced a sentence of absolution in favour of the
Augustinians, who, by virtue thereof, opened their chapel, and ever since
continued to officiate in the city. In some time after, the Augustinians produced
a decree of the Holy Congregation, declaring their censures suspended
usque ad emiturn causae; they required this decree in their favour
to be published in all the chapels, which Dr. John Lehy, the Vicar-
General, refused doing, as the Congregation did not send the decree to
him. However, the Augustinians still continued to have their chapel open
and officiated in town equally with the rest of the friars in 1755.'
In 1778 the Hermits of St. Augustine erected a neat chapel and chapelhouse
in Creagh Lane, which they occupied until 1893. Their community
were never less than three, and were sometimes four. Their chapel
was the first in the city in which an organ wag erected.
The removal of the community from Creagh Lane to George's Street,
which occurred in 1823, was occasioned by the pressing demands for increased
accommodation, and by an opportunity which now occurred of
purchasing the new theatre, which had been recently built, in consequence
White's MSS. The MSS. particulars of the controversy are extant. Fitzgerald statea that
the question in dispute waa "set at rest for ever in 1739 or 1740, by the Canons Regular of
St. Angagtine ceding to the said Hermits all their rights, privileges, and immaeitiea".
HISTORY OB LIMERICK. 645
of the burning of the old one, and which was now brought to the hammer
for the liquidation of arrears of debt. The theatre had been built by subscription
in 1810, at the expense of £4,000, but the Very Rev. Father
Cronin, the prior, aided by public liberality, purchased it for 2400, and
having insured the premises, employed an architect to make such alterations
as would fit it for the service of religion. In negociating this purchase
the prior was assisted by the Rev. D. O'Connor, now Bishop of
Saldes, a distinguished member of the order, and in a few weeks, the work
having been complete, the church was opened with great solemnity, and
consecrated by the bishop of the diocese, the Right Rev. Dr. Tuohy, the
sermon being preached by the celebrated Dr. Doyle, Bishop of Kildare
and Leighlin, who was himself an Augustinian, and whose successful appeal
on this occasion considerably assisted to liquidate the building debt. The
alterations and improvements cost about £600 in addition to the purchase
money. The interior is about ninety feet in length and sixty in breadth.
The gallery is supported by metal columns and is in the form of a horseshoe.
The new and costly altar of marble, etc., is ornamented by the fine
~ainting of the Ascension by the celebrated artist, Timothy Collopy, a
native of the city, of whom we have already written fully (see p. 344).
This excellent church is principally lighted from the roof.
Of the fathers of the convent who have always been held in deserved
respect by the citizens of Limerick, it is only necessary to mention the
names of the Very Rev. Thos. Walsh, the Very Rev. Augustine Aylmcr,
the Rev. Patrick Green, the Rev. Thos. Connolly, the Very Rev. Father
Stephen Egan, and the truly estimable Father Augustine Cronin, who were
all distinguished for piety, learning, and amiability. Father Walsh, who built
thc old convent about one hundred years ago, was Provincial of his Order,
lived to the age of ninety years, and said Mass every day almost to his
death. Father Cronin, who was the principal means of removing the
convent from the old to the new town, did great service to religion by the
establishment of confraternities. He died regretted by all who knew him
in 1835.l
The following is an accurate list of the priors from 1760 to 1865 :
1760-Very Rev. Thomas Walsh.
1770 ,, ,, James Byrne.
1778 ,, ,, Thomas Walsh.
1786 ,, ,, Augustine Aylmer.
1811 ,, ,, Stephen Egan.
1815 ,, ,, John Augustine Cronin.
1819 ,, ,, Stephen Egan.
1823 ,, ,, John Augustine Cronin.
1835 ,, ,, Robert Dore.
1839 ,, ,, James Dundon.
1843 , ,, Robert Dore.
1855 ,, ,, James Dundon.
1859 ,, ,, Robert Dore.
1863 ,, ,, James Dundon, the present prior, 1865.
The Very Rev. Fathers Epn and Cronin are interred in the old vault on the n~rth
side of
St. Patrick's churchyard. The former died on the 26th of June, 1832, sged 76 years; the
latter on the 23rd February, 1835, aged 64 years.