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St Molaise, Kilmolash

Kilmolash
pre-1974 traditional (Republic of Ireland) Waterford
now Waterford
medieval not confirmed
  • Rachel Moss
16 Sept 1996

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Description

Nave and chancel church. The nave and E wall are largely 15thc., the side walls of the chancel (5.5m x 4.4 externally) are 12thc. The fabric incorporates two early cross inscribed slabs and an ogham stone.

History


The monastery was plundered by Norsemen in 833. In 912 Cormac Mac Cuileannan, bishop and vice abbot of Lismore, King of Déisi and abbot of Cell-Mo-Laise was martyred here.


Features

Exterior Features

Doorways

Interior Features

Arches

Chancel arch/Apse arches

Loose Sculpture

Comments/Opinions


The rosette, now occupying a secondary position over the doorway is comparable to rosette motifs found at Cormac's Chapel Cashel, Roscrea and Coole, Co. Cork (O’Keeffe, 1994). Power (1898) suggested that it might have been part of the arm of a cross. It is more probable that, like at Roscrea and Cashel, it was a decorative insert in the wall of an earlier building. Buckley (1896) mentions a font carved with a 'fret-like' motif part of which was used to build a wall, another part of which was preserved in the ambury of the chancel. It is possible that the curved fragment described above is part of this font. Buckley also mentions a carved head with a tonsure surmounting St. Columcille's well about a mile away in Curraghroche townland. The head is now missing, but may have belonged to the church at Kilmolash.


Bibliography


M.J.C. Buckley, 'Notes on Kilmolash Church, near Cappoquin County Waterford'. Journal of the Waterford and South-East Ireland Archaeological Society, 2, (1896) 212-20.

A. Gywnn and R.N.Hadcock; Medieval Religious Houses Ireland. (London, 1970) 394

T. O'Keeffe, 'Lismore and Cashel: reflections on the Beginnings of Romanesque Architecture in Munster'. JRSAI, 124, 1994, 118-151

P. Power, 'The Ancient Ruined Churches of Waterford'. Journal of the Waterford and South-East Ireland Archaeological Society, 4, 1898, 89-92.