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| ASKEATON ABBEY, CO. LIMERICK. -The sacred structure, whose relics are pictured in the sketch, is one of the many erected by the different branches of the illustrious Geraldine family, who became "more Irish than the Irish" after a generation or two of them had been "by Irish mothers nursed." Askeaton Abbey was founded by James, the seventh Earl of Desmond, in 1420, as a Franciscan moneastery. Subsequently it passed into the possession of the Observatine Friars, and continued a place of importance, in the ecclesiastical sense, until it shared the sad fate of nearly all the Irish monasteries at the period of the Reformation. The ruins stand close to the banks of the river Deal, and are even still of considerable extent, although they have been almost totally neglected since 1649, when the Catholic Confederates, who attempted to restore them, were utterly crushed by Cromwell. The old church is surrounded by other sacred ruins, covered with venerable ivy. Some of the windows are in a tolerable state of preservation, especially that facing the east, which is one of the finest remains of medieval art to be found in Ireland. There are also numerous imposing arches, and many old tombs, where the dust of sundry warlike knights of the Fitzgerald family mingles with kindly Irish earth. |
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