A visit to Monasterevin, Co. Kildare in 2012

Описание: A slideshow of photos I took during my first visit to Monasterevin in County Kildare on Saturday 17th November 2012.

Monasterevin (Irish: Mhainistir Eimhín) is a town in County Kildare. The town lies on the River Barrow and the Barrowline, a canal branch of the Grand Canal. Monasterevin had a population of 4,246 in the 2016 Census.
Situated 63 km from Dublin on the R445 road, Monasterevin has been relieved of much through traffic by the opening of the M7 Monasterevin Bypass. Monasterevin has a railway station which is served by Dublin-Portlaoise trains as well as some intercity trains.

Monasterevin is a small town, with Georgian houses, on a flat expanse of country, and occupies a right angle bend on the river Barrow, as it changes direction from east to south. Due to its unusual number of
bridges, and the arrival in 1786 of the Grand Canal, the town is sometimes
referred to as "The Venice of Ireland".
Monasterevin is situated just east of the Kildare-Laois border.


A monastic settlement was founded by St. Abban by the banks of the River Barrow at Rosglas. St, Abban gave it into the charge of his protégé Evin.
St. Evin brought a number of monks with him from his native Munster. This gained the settlement the name Rosglos-na-Moinneach (the green wood of the Munstermen). Saint Evin was politically astute; today he would be called a spin-doctor. He secured special status for the Monasterevin area placing it outside the common law, making it a sanctuary. His famous bell was used for swearing oaths and was much in demand by tribes of the region for guaranteeing peace treaties. St. Evin also co-authored the “Tripartite life of St. Patrick”. Other writing by Evin survives including the “Cain Emhin”.
St. Evin’s monastery died out about the time of the Viking raids in Ireland. Its importance continued. In 903 AD the battle of Ballaghmoon was fought for the ownership of the church.

The next religious establishment on the site was in the 12th century when the Cistercian Abbey was founded in Monasterevin under the patronage of Dermot O’Dempsey. The O’Dempsey’s remained involved with the Abbey providing the last abbot in Monasterevin Hugh O’Dempsey.

Once again the importance of Monasterevin as a crossing point on the Barrow asserted itself and the town came under the opposing influences of the O’Mores of Laois, the Hiberno Norman Earls of Kildare and the English Pale. Abbots of Monasterevin therefore had to inherit St. Evin’s talent for politics. Abbots of Monasterevin held a seat in the Irish Parliament while assisting outlaws and rebels against the crown of England.

By 1427 Rosglas had fallen on hard times and in 1541 the Abbey was handed over to Henry the VIII of England as part of his reformation. He in turn leased it to his nobles. During the Elizabethan period there were several occupants including Sir Robert Devereaux,
Earl of Essex after whom Essex Bridge is named (commonly called the Pass Bridge because he passed over it on his way to his disastrous campaign against the native Irish in Munster. It is not recorded whether he passed that way again on his way to the headsman block in the Tower of London.

King James I granted the Abbey and demesne of Rosglas at Monasterevin to Sir Adam Loftus in 1613. The Earls of Drogheda married into the Loftus family. Charles Lord Moore Earl of Drogheda married Jane Loftus in 1699. Their son Edward became the Forth Earl who sold the Mellifont estates and transferred the family seat to Monasterevin.
The coming of the Moores marks an important point in the history of Monasterevin. Its rise as the “Venice of Ireland” was encouraged by the many improvement works undertaken by the family and the influx of a mixed Protestant and Catholic merchant class. The First Earl had laid out the streets at the center of Dublin, Sackville ( O’Connell)
Street Moore Street, Henry Street and Mary Street. His descendants continued this tradition of town planning by laying out the grid-pattern of the town with the parallel Main Street and Drogheda Street which were connected by several crossing streets and lanes some of which have disappeared.
Monasterevin has an unusual number of Bridges giving rise to the appellation the Venice of Ireland.
Arriving in 1786 the Grand Canal lends support to this name. Originally the
spur connecting the main line the Barrow in Athy was carried down the bank by locks in to the Barrow and up the other side.

On 25 May 1798, insurgents from the surrounding countryside marched on the town of Monasterevin in an attempt to capture it. The Battle of Monasterevin took place in the Main Street opposite St. John's church, which had been fortified by local yeomanry and militiamen. A charge by the Monasterevin Yeomanry Cavalry routed the insurgents.