This church was erected at the expense of the celebrated Dervorgilla, wife of Tiernan O’Rorke, King of North Connaught. It appears to have been completed in A.D. 1167, and probably occupied the site of an older church belonging to the nuns of Clonmacnoise, for, as we have seen, we find reference made to the garden of the abbess so early as A.D. 1026, when the causeway was constructed from her garden to the Three Crosses, near the great Church of Clonmacnoise. A.D. 1082, we are told that the “cemetery of the nuns of Clonmacnoise was burned with its stone church, and with the eastern third of the entire establishment.” The cemetery here means the enclosure surrounded by the cashel, portions of which still remain; it contained not only the church, but also the cells in which the nuns dwelt, and the other buildings necessary for their accommodation. The causeway, too, can still be traced from the nunnery to the Carn of the Three Crosses, which was surmounted by a stone bearing the following Irish inscription:—
OROIT AR THURCAIN LASAN DERNAD IN CHROSSA.
(Pray for Turcan, by whom this Cross was made.)
The striking features of the Nuns’ Church are the western door-way and the chancel arch. This door-way is the principal entrance to the nave, which is 36 ft. in length, and nearly 20 ft. in breadth; the walls are 3 ft. thick. The chancel, like that of Tuam, is nearly a square—14 ft. 6 in. by 13 ft. in breadth; the walls are 3 ft. 3 in. thick, and built of hard limestone, hammer-dressed.
Lord Dunraven thus describes the door-way and chancel arch:—
“The door-way at the west end is 7 ft. in height, to the springing of the arch; 2 ft. 10 in. wide at the base, and 2 ft. 8½ in. at the top of the jambs. It is deeply recessed, and of four orders; the two inner jambs are rectangular shafts, the outer are rounded into pillars, with shallow bases and imposts. The external shafts had a plain chamfered abacus, and the hood moulding, or outer arch, terminates with heads of the same character as those in the small church at Rahan. The jambs were richly ornamented with incised chevrons and other designs. The outer arch was enriched with pellets, the inner with chevron blocks, incised with bold lines; the third with heads with rolls in their mouths, or with beak-head, or cat’s-head moulding, deeply undercut, and the front face enriched with incised traceries and chevrons, and pellets upon the soffit of the arch. The door-way had eel-heads terminating the zig-zags, but they are not so distinct as those on M‘Carthy’s Church close by, where they had been covered with accumulated earth until lately.
“The chancel arch, which was of sandstone, was 9 ft. 2 in. wide at the base, and 7 ft. 6 in. in height, to the top of the impost, making the arch about 12 ft. high. It was 15 ft. 6 in. wide from one outer pier to the other.” The ornamentation, mainly consisting of zig-zag and chevron, with a pear-shaped ornament in the inner order, is very striking, and “the capitals and ornaments of the piers,” says Lord Dunraven, “are totally unlike anything in England, and, if taken by themselves, would appear to be of much earlier character than the arch.”
This church was built, as the Four Masters tell us, by Dervorgilla in A.D. 1167. The abduction or flight of that false fair lady took place in A.D. 1152, when MacMurrough caused her to be carried to his own castle of Ferns. But next year Turlough O’Connor led an army against MacMurrough, when Dervorgilla was given up, and restored by that prince to her own friends in Meath, and shortly afterwards was taken back again by her injured husband. It is highly probable that the erring dame built the Church of the Nuns at Clonmacnoise, the foundation of her own royal ancestors, as a penance for her sins; and it may be she found grace and pardon within that holy shrine. She survived her husband several years, and died at the advanced age of 85 in the monastery of Mellifont, to which she had presented many valuable offerings during her long and eventful career.
We have already referred to the sculptured crosses in the graveyard, which are some of the finest specimens of ancient art in this country. But besides these there were numerous other objects of the highest antiquarian interest, which were produced or preserved at Clonmacnoise, to which we shall presently refer.
Under the head of Sculpture we include sculptured gravestones, high crosses, and architectural ornamentation in relief. Clonmacnoise exhibits in its churchyard more sculptured stones, and in greater variety, than all the rest of Ireland together. The first volume of The Christian Inscriptions in the Irish Language, deals exclusively, and very fully, with those found at Clonmacnoise; but as we have already referred to this part of our subject, we shall pass on to give an account of the crosses and architectural ornaments in sculpture at Tuam and Cong, which belong to the artistic School of Clonmacnoise.
The first is the celebrated high Cross of Tuam, now standing in the market place. Of this Dr. Petrie remarks[406] that “it is of far greater magnificence and interest (than the Cross of Cashel); and may justly rank as the finest monument of its class and age remaining in Ireland.” It is made of sandstone, and measures in its pedestal five feet three inches in breadth, and three feet eight inches in height; but including the shaft, which is ten feet long, the entire cross is thirteen feet eight inches high.