Religious house — Augustinian canons in Commons (duleek Lower By.)

An abbey of Augustinian canons dedicated to the Blessed Virgin was established c. 1150 by Muircertach O’Kelly, king of Brega. It may have been a double monastery as it was confirmed to the Arroasian nuns at Clonard in 1195. The church was re-founded or at least enriched by Hugh de Lacy c. 1182 when he also endowed the Augustinian abbey of Llanthony Seconda in Gloucestershire with lands around Duleek where they established a priory centred on their church of St. Michael (ME027-038011-). Priors of St. Mary’s are recorded up to 1283, after which abbots are occasionally mentioned (Gwynne and Hadcock 1970, 314). St. Mary’s abbey was dissolved in 1537 when the precinct is not described but it was leasing out land and collecting dues which produced a total annual income of almost £30. About a third came from Duleek, but other townlands named – Corbally, Caillaghton (Colierstown), Ridder, Foulerston, Milton, Davisland (Daw) constitute the divided parish of Duleek Abbey (White 1943, 317-8), which has no known parochial centre within its bounds. This parish retained its integrity into the late 17th century, and according to the Civil Survey (1654-6) it was almost entirely owned by John Draycott of Monrnington in 1640 (Simington 1940, 24-5). Ussher (1622) describes the church and chancel of St Marie’s as ruined (Erlington 1847-64, 1, lxvii). According to the Dopping and Regal Visitations (1682-5, 1693) the church of the Blessed Virgin was a parish community that was accommodated within the large church with aisles that was called St. Cianán’s (ME027-038013-), and which was ‘fenced with stone’ (Ellison 1971, 33). The location of the abbey cannot be established, unless the abbey, or at least the nun’s part of it, was moved from Duleek to the church at Colierstown (ME027-028----) (Hadcock 1964, 125-8). Compiled by: Michael Moore Date of upload: 22 December, 2014