Religious house

According to Bradley et al. (1986 vol. 3, 251-53), the pre-Norman monastery of Kildare was primarily a community of nuns which survived until the Dissolution of the monasteries when an extent noted that the precincts contained a small castle or fortilage with a chapel, and that it was farmed by Francis Cosby and Raymond Oge (FitzGerald). The community was associated with a perpetual fire, first described by Giraldus Cambrensis in the late-12th century. In 1395, the community was addressed as the ‘prioress and convent of St Brigid de Fyrehouse of Kildare’ (Tresham 1828, 154 no. 47), and a ‘Firehouse’ (KD022-029) is named on the current OS 6-inch map just N of the Cathedral (KD022-029005-). Rocque’s 1757 map of Kildare town shows a ‘Fire Castle’, which is no longer extant, to the W of the Cathedral graveyard (KD022-029003-), and the nunnery may have been located in its vicinity. (Gwynn and Hadcock 1970, 320) Compiled by: Gearóid Conroy Date of upload: 9 February 2012