Holy Trinity Abbey Church

— Adare

PorchSouth AisleTowerProposed Blessed Sacrament ChapelNaveChancelLady ChapelNorth AisleTranseptSacristy

Holy Water StoupsBaptismal FontPiscinaScreen

West WindowsEast Windows

2

3

1

4

5

6

7

8

A

B

C

D

i

ii

Church Interior—

2 3

6 7

9 10

4

8

5

1

A

Bi

i

i

ii

ii

C

D

C

A

N

9

10

Introduction—

Holy Trinity Abbey Church is part of our heritage here in Adare; we view it with pride and gratitude. We are thankful to those who have gone before us, for their dreams and for what they have established and we hope to be true to their vision.

It has witnessed our baptisms, sheltered us in sorrow, confirmed the young, celebrated committed love, and prayed over the remains of those who have gone to the Lord. It has expressed the dream, the vision, the reaching out towards God, of the people of this parish and their visitors over the generations. Why build a church? After all Jesus said it was “in spirit and in truth” that the Father is worshipped and not in temples of stone. But in every place a community needs somewhere they can call their own, somewhere to meet in prayer, especially that prayer we offer together. There are times, when we need the support of a believing, worshipping community. We need to come together and for that we need a place.

It is the Lord, who invites and welcomes us to this house of prayer and worship, invites us to pause...to acknowledge his presence in the silence of our heart,to admire the beauty and workmanship here,to seek inspiration in this place, to find here peace and refreshment for life’s journey,to be able to look forward with confidence to the challenges of that journey. As we approach the bicentenary of our church as a place of worship, not only do we look back, we also look forward. We are the authors of a new chapter in the history of our church. May our contribution be as unique and as significant as that of our predecessors.

Sanctuary area

The History—

Plan of the church, pre 1800

St John de Matha and St Felix of Valois founded an order dedicated to the Holy Trinity outside Paris in the late twelfth century, which was approved by Pope Innocent III in 1198. Their intention was to help the poor and to ransom captured Christians taken by pirates or during the Crusades. The Trinitarians or White Friars, as they were known because of their white robes emblazoned with a red and blue cross, spread quickly, establishing 43 foundations by 1218.

There is no record of the precise date of the Adare foundation, which would be the only Trinitarian Abbey in Ireland, but sources suggest that it was established between 1230 and 1240. The house, dedicated to St James, established a church and a hospital and owned land within and beyond its precincts. Dissolved in the 1560s, the Trinitarian Abbey in Adare passed through many hands and became a ruin, dominated by the massive square tower of the church. Behind the church stood the cloister and the remains of the residential buildings, including two smaller towers incorporated into the present buildings. There is a restored circular conical-roofed dovecote or columbarium to the west of the buildings. It is windowless but has an opening in the roof for the birds to come and go, and niches (columbaria) set within the walls in a dense chequerboard pattern.

The origins of the church

By 1683 the abbey was in the possession of the Earl of Kildare who granted it to Thady Quin (1645-1725), a lawyer descended from the O’Quins of Inchiquin. His great grandson, the glamorous figure, Valentine Richard Quin (1752-1824), became the 1st Earl of Dunraven and rescued the church from ruin in 1811. The Earl subsequently bestowed the abbey upon the Catholic Church in Adare, then in the care of the honourable Fr John Lee.

The church consisted of a roofless chancel with a thirteenth-century east window, a substantial part of the walls of the nave topped with projecting battlements, the walls of a north transept and the tower. The tower had the remnants of stepped battlements with a narrow stair in the north wall giving access to four cells. They were placed above the groin vault, still visible from inside the church, which terminates on hexagonal-shaped corbels resting on crudely carved heads. Two of the small pointed traceried windows (probably fifteenth-century) on the south wall also survived. Little now remains of this relatively simple restoration as 40 years later much of the work was redone.

The church from the 17th to the early 19th century

Plan of the church c. 1811

An etching by JR Jobbins, depicting the church in the 20th century. Kindly supplied by Michael Maguire on behalf of the Limerick City Library.

In 1852 the 3rd Earl of Dunraven (1812-1871), a Catholic convert and an antiquarian (whose book on Irish antiquities - Notes on Irish Architecture - was unfinished at his death in 1871), engaged the English architect Philip Charles Hardwick (1820-1890) to renovate and enlarge the church. Hardwick worked in the exacting Gothic Revival tradition established by A.W. Pugin. He rebuilt the chancel, putting back the triple lancet window in the east wall, and incorporating a new and a medieval piscina in the south wall. He added a Lady Chapel and Sacristy to the north (both replaced in the 1880s). He re-roofed the nave, lengthening it by twelve feet and installing a west window with early medieval-style

intersecting tracery. He added a south porch, and designed a baptismal font and two holy water stoups at the entrance. This work can be seen today. Memorials of Adare, written by the 3rd Earl and his mother, Caroline, state that ‘care was taken to preserve as far as possible the ancient character of the buildings.’ Hardwick did this by working with the existing structure of the church, by reinstating (chancel), reusing or copying existing windows and by using Early English Gothic detailing. At the same time the 3rd Earl also paid for the renovation of the residential friary buildings as a school. Also designed by Hardwick in 1852, it was converted into a convent for the Sisters of Mercy and incorporated a school for girls.

The History—continued

A plan of the church as it looked in the mid 19th century

The church in the mid 19th century

B

A

1

2

3

4

5

6

8

7

An etching by JR Jobbins, depicting a plan of the church in the 20th century. Kindly supplied by Michael Maguire on behalf of the Limerick City Library.

In 1852 the 3rd Earl of Dunraven (1812-1871), a Catholic convert and an antiquarian, engaged the English Gothic Revival architect, Philip Charles Hardwick (1820-1890) to renovate and enlarge the church.

Ordnance Survey map of Adare© Ordnance Survey Ireland/Government of IrelandCopyright Permit No. MP 001510

In 1856, just a few years after the work on the church was completed, the 3rd Earl commissioned Hardwick to radically extend the church. Surviving drawings reveal an ambitious scheme which would have given the church a high nave lit by a clerestory, with two east-facing apses inspired by French medieval churches, as well as a private pew at the side of the altar for the Dunraven family. Elements of that scheme were incorporated into the work which was finished after the Earl’s death and blessed by the Most Rev Dr Butler in March 1884.

In the newly enlarged church the north nave wall was replaced with circular columns and pointed arches in local limestone, and the nave was moved into the new section. Hardwick rebuilt the Lady Chapel behind the newly located altar, separated from it by a bronze screen. He added a north aisle. The internal plaster was painted by James Hodkinson, ecclesiastical decorators in Limerick, with geometric patterns in what the Munster News described as ‘disciplined colouring’. The Chancel and Lady Chapel ceilings still display painted decoration.

The church in thelate 19th century

A present day shot of the church in winter

The History—continued

The additions to the church not only increased the size but also the complexity of the interior, and made the medieval tower, which until then had been central to the church, into a part of what had become the south aisle. The new stonework is distinguishable from the mid-nineteenth-century work; the stones are squared and have punched faces and drafted margins, and the windows are more elaborate, with geometrical tracery, usually found in Ireland in the fifteenth century. A plan of the church c1864 indicates that no major structural changes have taken place in Holy Trinity Abbey Church since the late 1800s and so our place of worship today is indeed steeped in history. This does not mean, of course, that the development of the church has stagnated since then. The installation of electricity and heating and the post-Vatican II adaptation of the sanctuary area, were all milestone developments in their time. Various plaques on the church walls remind us of the great contribution of the priests and people of Adare parish down through the years, maintaining, refurbishing and enhancing the sacredness of God’s house, thus ensuring the dignity and grace of Divine worship, here. It is fitting and necessary that we undertake another phase of essential repair and renewal now, as we prepare for the bicentennial celebrations.

A plan of the churchc. 1864

C

D

1

2

3

4

5

6

In 1856, just a few years after the work on the church was completed, the 3rd Earl commissioned Hardwick to radically extend the church.

The Stained Glass—

Holy Trinity has a rich variety of stained glass windows. In the south aisle there is a striking sequence of windows in strong primary colours made by Hardman & Co of Birmingham, focusing on the east window, installed in 1854 by the parishioners as a tribute to the 3rd Earl’s work in restoring the church and building two schools. It depicts the Adoration of the Magi. The single lancet in the south wall, portraying the birth of Jesus, was donated in memory of John Downey who died 9 November 1857, aged 72. In another, incorporated into medieval tracery, we see Jesus driving the sellers out of the temple with the words; ‘My house is a house of prayer, but you have made it a den of thieves’, a reference to the story that the 1st Earl was inspired to restore the church because of a contemporary plan to convert it into a market.

The window near the porch is modern. It depicts the Coronation of Our Lady and was installed on the Feast of the Immaculate Conception on 8 December 1980. The centerpiece of the church is the large Lady Chapel window, executed in a subtle palette of colours with Christ in majesty in the central light. It was installed by Fr Stanislas Flanagan in 1894: ‘To the greater glory of God in memory of Edwin Richard 3rd Earl of Dunraven, the restorer of this church and a great benefactor of this parish.’ The window, decorated with the Dunraven Crest and Motto, includes panels depicting the action of the Holy Spirit, Jesus, the Alpha and the Omega, sending his disciples out to preach and baptize. One of the upper roundels refers to the work of the Trinitarians and depicts a ransomed Christian captive holding out his broken chains, whilst the other roundel shows St. Patrick and the coming of Christianity to Ireland.

Holy Trinity has a rich variety of stained glass windows. In the south aisle there is a striking sequence of windows in strong primary colours made by Hardman & Co of Birmingham, focusing on the east window, installed in 1854 by the parishioners as a tribute to the 3rd Earl’s work in restoring the church and building two schools. It depicts the Adoration of the Magi. The single lancet in the south wall, portraying the birth of Jesus, was donated in memory of John Downey who died 9 November 1857, aged 72. In another, incorporated into medieval tracery, we see Jesus driving the sellers out of the temple with the words; ‘My house is a house of prayer, but you have made it a den of thieves’, a reference to the story that the 1st Earl was inspired to restore the church because of a contemporary plan to convert it into a market.

The window near the porch is modern. It depicts the Coronation of Our Lady and was installed on the Feast of the Immaculate Conception on 8 December 1980. The centerpiece of the church is the large Lady Chapel window, executed in a subtle palette of colours with Christ in majesty in the central light. It was installed by Fr Stanislas Flanagan in 1894: ‘To the greater glory of God in memory of Edwin Richard 3rd Earl of Dunraven, the restorer of this church and a great benefactor of this parish.’ The window, decorated with the Dunraven Crest and Motto, includes panels depicting the action of the Holy Spirit, Jesus, the Alpha and the Omega, sending his disciples out to preach and baptize. One of the upper roundels refers to the work of the Trinitarians and depicts a ransomed Christian captive holding out his broken chains, whilst the other roundel shows St. Patrick and the coming of Christianity to Ireland.

Inside TheChurch—

Timber trusses rest on hexagonally shaped limestone corbels

The medieval origins of the church are most vividly present in the stone vaulting of the tower and the narrow door to its mural steps high on its north side. The interior space is dominated by the two nineteenth-century timber roofs. Their trusses – different in each section – rest on geometrically carved limestone corbels, variations on the medieval corbels at the base of the tower vaults. Exquisite stone-carved details characterize the decorative embellishments of the nineteenth century, designed by Hardwick. The holy water stoup inside the entrance, has red marble pilasters and a polished black marble base, terminating in a floriated ornament whose sinuosity echoes the unusual detailing at the ends of the mouldings below the west window, constructed at the same time. The baptismal font dates from the same period.

The Pieta

Close up of the holy water stoup from the 1850s echoes the same details below the west window from the same period

Baptismal font

The church was more comprehensively decorated in the 1870s and 1880s. Apart from the painted walls and ceilings, there were the Stations of the Cross, designed and made by Mayer & Co of Munich, and the encaustic tiles decorated with fleur-de-lys set in the floor of the Chancel. The high point is the delicately detailed bronze screen behind the High Altar, separating the Chancel from the Lady Chapel which was donated by the 4th Earl. Under the traceried openings stand beautifully constructed hooded angels, and the whole is surmounted by a crucifix. Delicately veined marble was used for the High Altar tabernacle and the tripartite marble frieze constructed under the Lady Chapel window which was originally the front of the 1852 Lady Chapel altar.

Close up of the hooded angels on the bronze screen behind the altar

Holy Trinity Abbey Church is part of our rich heritage, a place of living faith, of hope and of love. Our church community invites you to stay awhile and pray.

Detail of the sanctuary screen with its rows of angels under gothic canopies

Glossary—

Aisle The subsidiary lateral division of a church

ApseThe semi-circular or polygonal termination of the chancel or other part of a church

BattlementAn intended parapet

ChancelThe eastern arm of a church, in which the altar is placed

ClerestoryThe upper storey of the nave above the aisle roof

CloisterA covered walk around an open space

CorbelsA support projecting from the face of a wall

Encaustic tileGlazed and decorated earthenware tiles, mainly used for flooring

Fleur-de-lysA formalized lily

FloriateFlower-like

Lady chapelA chapel dedicated to the Virgin Mary

Lancet windowA tall narrow pointed window. Triple lancet. A group of three lancets

MouldingContinuous band used to ornament a wall

NaveThe main body or central aisle of the church. The word comes from the Latin navis, meaning ship

PilasterA representation of a column in shallow relief

PiscinaA shallow basin with a drain, in which the sacred vessels are washed. Generally placed in a niche

SacristyA room in, or attached to, a church, in which are kept the sacred vessels and vestments

StoupVessel for the reception of holy water, usually placed near the door

TraceryPattern of arches and geometrical figures

Intersecting tracery A pattern of Y-shaped tracery

VaultAn arched roof

Groin vaultA type of vaulting that takes its name from the arched diagonals or groins formed by the intersection of two barrel vaults at right angles

TranseptTransverse arm projecting at right angles from the nave

TrussA frame made up of several members and placed at intervals to support the rest of the roof fabric

Donations gratefully appreciated.

Please contact the Parish Office on +353 (0)61 396172 or at holytrinityabbeychurchadare@eircom.net Photos: pages 1, 10, 11 & 12, ©Kieran Clancy/Picsure

Holy Trinity Abbey Church, Adare, Co. Limerickwww.holytrinityabbeychurchadare.comPrice: €5.00

Quam Dilecta Tabernacula Tua Domine Virtutem—

How beautiful is your dwelling place, Lord God of Hosts—