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| THE MAGDALENE STEEPLE, DROGHEDA. -The lofty and imposing ruin pictured in the foregoing sketch, is one of the most venerable of the many archaeological relics of Drogheda. It is known as the Magdalene Steeple of the Dominican monastery, all of which has disappeared but the tower itself. The edifice was founded by the Archbishop of Armagh in 1224, for the Order of Preaching Friars. It was still in perfect condition a hundred and seventy years later, when Richard II. received beneath its roof the alleged "submission" of the Ulster Princes, who, in fact, owed him no allegience whatever, and continued to fight against the English for generations after the unhappy son of the Black Prince was murdered by his loving cousin, Henry IV, at Pontefract Castle. The Magdalene was one of the churches in which the wretched garrison and people of Drogheda sought shelter after Cromwell took the city, in 1649. They were hunted like wolves, and nearly all put to the sword. One beautiful virgin, according to the narrative of a Cromwellian captain, appealed to him for protection, which he granted. As he was leading her up the stairs to the steeple, a soldier impaled her on his sword. Then the English captain, Thomas Wood, according to his confession (see Mitchel's reply to Froude, published by the Sadliers) robbed the dying girl of her trinkets, and flung her bleeding body over the parapet into the street! See, also, "Cromwell in Ireland," by the Rev. Dennis Murphy, S. J. |
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