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I Location

II General Description

The church consists of a nave measuring 17.25 m x 6.8 m internally and a chancel 5.76 m in length. A later range of conventual buildings lies S of the E end of the nave. The N wall of the nave collapsed in the 15thc. and was rebuilt further S, in line with the N wall of the chancel. There is a doorway near the W end of the N wall of the nave and two doorways near the E end of the S wall of the nave, one leading into the sacristy, the other to the exterior. (Leask’s plan also shows a W doorway). There is a doorway near the W end of the N wall of the nave and two doorways near the E end of the S wall of the nave, one leading into the sacristy, the other to the exterior. (Leask’s plan also shows a W doorway).

III Exterior Features

2. Windows

(i) E window

Two narrow round-headed lights linked by a pointed blind arch. Of three orders.

First order

Recessed, chamfered

Second order

Keeled, continuous nook roll followed by flat surround.

Third order

Each window has three-quarter angle shafts which continue around the sills. The capitals are flared blocks, with necking and a square impost.

The arch is hollow-chamfered. The windows are joined by a pointed chamfered arch, springing from the central capitals.

First order, interior

Double, round-headed window of two orders, widely-splayed. The window is framed by a keeled roll followed by a wedge, with a roll forming a string-course extending from the springing of the arch along the splay to the first order impost. A continuous nook roll frames the window, keeled except for the central shaft.

L capital: the keel moulding of the shaft continues onto the necking. Round multi-scallop capital (six scallops) with asparagus-like stems between the cones.

C capital: round necking, from which rise four twining stems terminating in overhanging half-palmettes.

R capital: the keel moulding of the shaft continues onto the necking. (as on the N capital) Symmetrical half-palmettes on three straight sheath-like stems.

In the arch, a keeled roll, as if continuing from the nook shaft.

Second order, interior

Heptagonal shafts resting on a roll with a deep hollow which continues across the base of the windows. Chamfered, flared block capitals.

In the arch, a roll edged by a fillet, deeply cut into by a hollow on the soffit, with half-palmettes in the hollow just above the capitals.

(ii) S window

Tall, narrow opening, chamfered, with hollow-chamfered label.

Interior

Round-headed, splayed. A chamfered moulding extends from the springing of the arch to the outer edge.

The label has a keeled roll terminating in small, chamfered, flared, block capitals. The sill is chamfered, with spiral decoration on a terminal at the R and a possibly unfinished terminal at the L.

3. Exterior Decoration

d. Miscellaneous

(i) E façade angle shafts

Square plinth, bases with a long shallow chamfer bordered by a roll and with a torus. Keeled three-quarter shaft flanked by wedges. (The keel moulding of the shaft continues onto the base)

Capitals: the keel moulding of the shaft continues onto the necking. Flared blocks with a square impost.

(ii) NE angle of original nave wall

The base and one course of the angle shaft remains. Similar to E façade angle shafts.

IV Interior Features

1. Arches

c. Chancel arch/Apse arches

(i) Chancel arch

Tall jambs of two coursed orders. The arch is missing. Square plinth, bases with a long shallow chamfer bordered by a roll and with a torus. The N side was rebuilt with the N nave wall and the plinth is lower than on the S side.

First order

Filleted half-shaft, the torus of the base continues the fillet on the half-shaft. There is a half-palmette carved halfway up the W face of the S shaft, on the third course from base.

N capital: the necking continues the fillet on the half-shaft, with alternating large and small pairs of twining stems with half-palmettes emerging from a sheathed collar and curled at the top stiff-leaf style. The larger half-palmettes form an upper register overhanging the smaller ones. There is a square impost integral with capital.

S capital: necking as on N capital, with tall upright palmettes and half-palmettes.

Second order E

Three-quarter angle shaft on the chamfered face of the order with a deep hollow on the inner side.

N capital: Very damaged, stiff-leaf type.

S capital: Reeded with stiff-leaf type curl of foliage at top. Composed of undercut, joined inverted lilies with triple berries beneath.

Second order W

As second order E.

N capital: foliage similar to first order N, but with suspended lilies on faces. On the angle are two upside-down dragons, one biting the nose of the other. The eyes are tear-drop shaped, with rounded pupils.

S capital: reeded, stiff-leaf type with holed pellets on the reeds and with the remains of suspended lilies and a bunch of three berries on the SW and NE angles. There are two rough uncarved projections on the W face, purpose unknown.

V Furnishings

3 Piscinae/Pillar piscinae

(i) Piscina

Set in wall on S side of chancel, a block capital with square necking and chamfered edge. On top, a hollow and a drain, with traces of foliage. Diagonal tooling on sides of capital.

VII History

A monastery was founded in the 7thc. by St. Colman mac Duagh. The Augustinian abbey was built to replace the early monastery, which was ruined in the early 13thc. by William Fitz Adelm de Burgo. Archdall, Brash, and Fahey attribute the foundation to Bp. Maurice Ileyan (1254-84). Leask, based on architectural evidence and on the traditional association with Owen O’Heyne (d.1253), suggests a date in the second quarter of the 13thc., and proposes that Bp. Maurice may have built the E range of the conventual buildings. The N wall of the church was rebuilt after a partial collapse in the 14thc. or 15thc.

VIII Comments/Opinions

The sculpture is characteristic of the 'School of the West'. The exterior angle shafts are found on earlier Romanesque buildings, for example at Monaincha, Temple na Hoe at Ardfert, Tuamgraney and Rathblathmaic. The continuous window mouldings are similar to examples at Inishmaine and Temple Melaghlin, Clonmacnoise, and the arrangement of two framed lights linked by a gable on the exterior of the E window is similar to the E window of Clonfert Cathedral (Galway). The keeled and chamfered mouldings at Kilmacduagh however suggest a somewhat later date than Clonfert. The chancel arch capitals are more complex and three-dimensional than those of the E window, and comparisons for the foliage designs can be made with the capitals and corbels at Corcomroe and Killaloe Cathedral (Clare). Leask (1960, 35) compared the foliage on one of the chancel arch capitals to an example at Monasteranenagh (Limerick), but there are closer comparisons for this inverted lily motif at Killaloe Cathedral (S tower arch, E corbel; chancel N side, corbel 2). The iconography of fighting beasts or dragons can be compared to examples at Boyle (Roscommon), Ballintober and Inishmaine (Mayo), and Drumacoo (Galway); the tear-drop shape of the eyes is similar to the dragon on a capital of the doorway at Drumacoo (E jamb, first order). Kalkreuter compares the dragon heads to those at Boyle and Drumacoo, and the interlocking necks to those at Ballintober; she suggests that the biting dragons at Kilmacduagh may have been influenced by a late Romanesque panel in Clonfert Cathedral carved with two fighting beasts. Based on stylistic analysis, Leask suggested a date sometime in the second quarter of the 13thc., before the death of Owen O’Heyne in 1253. Harbison favours an earlier date, based on his dating of the Clonfert panel to 'probably within the second decade of the 13th century' and the generally-held assumption that Kilmacduagh is a later work by the same mason. Kalkreuter considers the work to be by the same masons as Corcomroe and Drumacoo and proposes ‘a date between the temporary cessation of building activity in Corcomroe in 1227 or 1228 and the work on the south porch in Drumacoo around 1235’. A date in the late1220s - mid1230s seems most likely on the basis of style.

IX Bibliography