Part 2 of A History of the Franciscan Order in Ireland

Corpus of Electronic Texts Edition

A History of the Franciscan Order in Ireland (Author: Donagh Mooney)

The Very Rev. Donagh Mooney arranged the following particulars regarding the Franciscan Province of Ireland, while he was Provincial, and had come here to set in order the affairs of the College of St Antony.

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The Divisions of the Kingdom of Ireland

Subsection 1

1

The Kingdom of Ireland consists of one island, the largest of the ocean, except Great Britain, which includes

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England and Scotland. It was formerly divided into territories corresponding to the divisions of the various races which occupied its soil at different times. The government was always monarchical, but there were a number of subordinate kings, each of whom ruled in his own district. In ancient times there were two divisions of Ireland of special importance. By the first of these the island was divided into two almost equal parts. The southern half called Leath-Mogha, comprised Leinster, the two Munsters,⁵ and a part of Connaught. The northern half, called Leath-Cuinn, included Ulster, Meath, the greater portion of Connaught and a small extent of Leinster. By the other it was divided into five provinces, and the territory of Meath, which belonged of right to the reigning king, and was not looked upon as a province. Ulster is situated towards the north, Connaught towards the west, the two provinces at Munster, called East and West Munster, towards the south-west; Leinster towards the south-east, while Meath occupies the centre of the island, bordering on the five provinces, and reaching to the sea on the eastern side.

Another division has recently been made by the English, who have appointed royal officers to preside over certain localities. Thus Munster and Connaught are each governed by a president, and the whole kingdom has been divided into a large number of districts, each of which has been committed to the charge of an officer called a sheriff. These divisions are generally known by the name of counties.

Thus Meath has been divided into two counties, East and West Meath. The official business of the former is transacted in the Franciscan convent at Trim, and of the latter in the Dominican Convent at Mullingar.

Ulster has been divided into the County of the Town of Drogheda, the counties of Louth, the court of which sits at

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Ardee, Armagh, Monaghan, Antrim, Down, Derry, Donegal, and Fermanagh.

The following counties belong to Connaught: — Sligo, Leitrim, Cavan.⁶ In these the official business is transacted respectively in the Dominican Convent of Sligo and the Franciscan Convents of Creevlea and Cavan; Roscommon, Mayo and Galway. In this last the court is held in the very choir of the Franciscan church, and the judges sit on the high altar itself. How like unto the abomination of desolation set up in the holy places. The county of the town of Galway, the court of which is held in the town hall and Clare,⁷ the court of which is held in the Franciscan Convent of Ennis.

The two Munsters comprise the following counties: — The County of the City of Limerick, Limerick, Kerry, Cork, the County of the City of Cork, Waterford, the County of the City of Waterford, Tipperary, or the County Palatine of Ormond as it is sometimes called, and the County of the Cross-lands of Tipperary, which had been lately formed. Before the spread of heresy this district was subject to the Archbishop of Cashel, whose officials exercised judicial powers within its borders. The English have now deprived the Archbishop of all jurisdiction, and erected the cross-lands into a county.

The following are the counties of Leinster: — Kilkenny and the County of the City of Kilkenny. The official business of the former is transacted in the Dominican Church of that city, and of the latter in the town hall; Carlow, the court of which holds its sittings at Ross; Wexford, the official assemblies of which meet in the Franciscan Convent at Enniscorthy; Wicklow, the court of which sits in the Franciscan convent of that town; Kildare, the court sitting

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at Naas; King’'s County, the court sitting at Dangan;⁸ Queen’'s County, the court at Fort-Leix;⁹ Dublin, the court at Kilmainham; and the County of the City of Dublin, the court of which is held in the City Hall.

Thus the whole kingdom has been divided into counties, in accordance with the English mode of government. It is worthy of note that, where at all convenient, the official assemblies and courts of law, where all criminal cases are tried, even murder, and others in which the punishment is death, are held in the churches, those of St. Francis and St. Dominic being especially selected for profanation in this and other ways.