Plary Monastery in Ruins — Ballymore

There are doubts about the Ordnance Survey designation of this monument which records that these buildings marked the site of 'Plary Monastery' which was an Augustinian priory of the non conventual order dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary (Costello 1909, 82) and known as 'Clary alias Loughsewdy'. In 1682 Sir Henry Piers recorded that the Priory of Ballymore was located on the same site as the nunnery (WM024-181----) of Lough Sewdy which would place the priory in a different location to the site marked on the OS 6-inch map. The abbey building is depicted on the 1656 Down Survey map of Ballymore parish (NLI MS 723-4) where it is shown located on the E side of the River which runs S from Lough Sewdy. On the 1656 Down Survey map of Rathconrath barony the 'ruinous abby' is depicted standing inside a D-shaped enclosure or field boundary on the E side of the river (NLI MS 723-4). On this map of Rathconrath barony a large building is shown standing in the field to the W of the river which corresponds with the upstanding building today. If the 1656 Down Survey is correct the monastery was located in the adjoining fields to the SE of the current location. If the monastery was located to the E of the river then the ruins at 'Plary Monastery' would represent the probable remains of Lough Sewdy Castle (WM024-182----). The terrier of the 1656 Down Survey map of Ballymore parish states that 'on the lands of Balllimore stands the ruins of an old abby and a ruined church (WM034-005----) there is also a towne (WM034-179----)' (NLI MS 723-4). The Urban Survey of Westmeath (Bradley et. al. 1985, 69) concluded that the remains of the buildings marked in this field as 'Plary Monastery' were in fact the remains of a stone castle (WM024-182---) which had been mistakenly identified by the Ordnance Survey as the site of the Augustinian Priory of Plary/Lough Sewdy. These masonry remains probably represents the building depicted on the 1656 Down Survey map of Rathconrath barony. According to the Urban Survey of Westmeath (Bradley et. al. 1985, 68-9) the founder and date of the foundation of this monastery are unknown but Gwynn and Hadcock (1970, 153) suggest that it was established about the middle of the thirteenth century. In 1306 the ecclesiastical taxation of Ireland valued the ‘Temporalities de Cary’ as worth 30s a year (Cal. doc. Ire., 258). Gwynn & Hadcock (1970, 153) stated that there 'was a priory of Cistercian nuns here (WM024-181----) and about a half a mile from it a priory of Augustinian canons. The latter seems to have been small, with only a few canons who possibly acted as chaplains to the nuns, and it may have been connected with Tristernagh priory, which had land in Loughsewdy in the mid-thirteenth century. Gerald or Thomas, son of Nicholas Lord of Kerry, who died 1324, was prior. The mon.[astery] was burned by Cathal Og O'Conor in 1363 and by the O'Kelly family in 1394. In 1395 there is a reference in the Calendar of Papal Letters to the 'Augustinian prior and convent of Dristenach [Tristernagh] and in the similar gift of the Augustinian prioress and convent of Lochsed[Loughsewdy], in the diocese of Meath' (Cal. papal letters 4, 513). In 1508 there is a reference to William O’Daly, Prior of St. Mary’s, Loughseudy, of the order of Regular Canons of St. Austin (Costello 1909, 104). On 8 Oct. 1540, they reported from statements of the late prior, Thomas Tuyt, that there was a ruinous church, and a small stone belfry on the 1-acre site, while the possessions included 9 carucates and 3 q[ua]r[ter]s. with the tithes of 11 rectories. In 1541 the crown granted Thomas Tuite, ‘late prior of B.V.M. of Loughsewdy; of a pension of £4, issuing out of the rectories of S. Patrick of Mymor and Clonkyshe’ (Nicholls 1994, 25). In 1542 a 21 year lease was issued to Walter Tirrell, a Dublin merchant ‘of the site of the priory of loghsewde’ (Nicholls 1994, 37). In 1542/3 the crown granted ‘Hugh Dale, conventual person of the late priory of the B.V.M. of Loghsewde; of a pension of 26s 8d. out of the possessions of the priory’ (Nicholls 1994, 39). In 1545 three churches of Tristernagh were appropriated to the newly created cathedral of Loghsewdy or Ballymore. In 1542 the 'abbey' had a church with belfry, a dormitory, hall, three chambers, kitchen and two stables. A lease to Francis Shaen in 1593 includes the priory of Clare (r. Plare), al. Loughseaudy [Lough Sewdy], val. £18' (Gwynn & Hadcock 1970, 160). In 1597 the crown regranted an 86 year lease to Francis Shaen of Ballymore Loughsewdy ‘of the site of the priory of the B. V. M. of Clary alias Loughsewdy’ (Nicholls 1994, 300). In 1612/13 King James I granted Sir Francis Shane ‘the late monastery or priory of the B. V. Mary of Clarie otherwise Loghsewdy, with all the site thereof, a church and steeple, with other buildings, containing 1a of the great country measure, and a large garden near the said site, Clonibane, 1 plowland, containing 120a of the great measure; Farrenecrosse otherwise Crosse-lands, 4 plowlands, with the tithes thereof’ (Cal. pat. rolls Ire., Jas I, 244). In 1682 Sir Henry Piers described the priory as ‘adjoining to this town is the old dissolved monastery of Plary; here was formerly both a friary and nunnery (WM024-181----), but in separated buildings, both of the Cistercian order; the land hereunto belonging are said to belong to the bishop of Meath, yet are witholden from the see, either by the adventurer, or the Lord Netterville' (Vallancey 1786, 79-80). According to the Urban Survey of Westmeath (Bradley et. al. 1985, 69) the 'site marked on the Ordnance Survey maps as Plary is the one pointed out to O'Donovan in 1837 but there are difficulties in the identification. The surviving remains seem to be those of a castle (WM024-182----) rather than a monastery and O'Donovan was troubled by this because he remarks that 'though it presents all the appearances of a strong military tower, [it] is insisted on by tradition to be a part of the monastery of 'Plary' (Walsh 1957, 16)'. Described in 2009 as 'Directly south of the village of Ballymore and Lough Sewdy is the small ruined tower held as a Jacobite outpost. It represents the surviving ruins of Plary Monastery as marked on the 1837 and 1910 editions of the OS 6-inch map. A newly built housing estate has encroached somewhat on the visual aspect of this site, although the tower itself remains greenfield'.(Report on the Battlefield of Ballymore Co. Westmeath 2009, 10). The site of a medieval church (WM024-005----) is located 446m to the north, while a 17th century bastioned fort (WM024-004001-) and an Anglo-Norman motte (WM024-004----) are located 700m and 985m to the north respectively. The clustered settlement of Ballymore (WM024-179----) is located 210m to the north. In 1598 Brian O'Rorke destroyed Ballymore Castle and its fortifications when he had wasted the country from the borders of Annaly to Mullingar and then westwards to Ballymore (Butler 1942, 73). It is not clear if these ruins represent the remains of an Augustinian priory or the remains of a castle as it is depicted on George Story's sketch map of Ballymore 1691 as 'The round Castle' where it is illustrated as a circular shaped castle with the ruins of a structure immediately to the east of the circular castle (Story 1693, 318). According to Story in 1691 the 'a Serjeant and fifteen men being in an old Castle nigh a quarter of a mile to the south-west of the Fort [WM024-004001-), after all hopes of being relieved, was cut off; the Serjeant fired upon some of our men and killed one or two, for which, as soon as the Castle was surrendered, he was hanged, (Story 1693, 88-9). Although these remains are indicated as 'Plary Monastery (in Ruins)' on the ordnance survey 6-inch map this designation appears to be a mistake and are in fact the remains of a circular tower house. No ecclesiastical buildings are indicated in this area on George Story's sketch map of Ballymore