NUNS
Twelfth Century
Many early Irish nunneries survived until the twelfth
century, when church reforms by Irish churchmen
included the introduction of continental religious
orders for both men and women. Secular leaders and
reforming bishops were instrumental in founding con-
vents to house the women who wanted to join these
revitalized nunneries in the twelfth century. One of
the first women’s communities to be founded under
the Arroasian observance of the Augustinian rule was
St. Mary’s at Clonard, County Meath, founded by
Murchad Ua Maél Sechlainn, ruler of Meath in asso-
ciation with Malachy of Down. St. Mary’s had monks
and nuns living in separate buildings and worshipping
in the same church. Diamait Mac Murchadha also
founded important nunneries in his territories in
Dublin (St. Mary del Hogges) and near Waterford
(Kilculliheen). These nunneries and their smaller
dependencies formed loose federations that main-
tained some connections throughout the medieval
period. After the Anglo-Norman invasion, religious
houses were often refounded or reinvigorated with
donations of money and land from their newly con-
quered territories. Nunneries were included in this
pattern of monastic foundations, and there were
important, well-endowed convents founded in the late
twelfth and early thirteenth centuries in County Dublin
(Grace Dieu), Meath (Lismullin), and Kildare (Graney
and Timolin).
Thirteenth to Sixteenth Century
In the late twelfth and early thirteenth century there was
renewed interest by Gaelic Irish kings and bishops in
including nunneries in their own reorganization of local
monastic houses. Two major foundations dating from
this time are the Ua Briain convent of Killone (Co.
Clare) and the Ua Conchubair convent at Kilcreevanty
(Co. Galway) and its dependencies. Both of these
houses were well endowed with land and buildings and
were staffed with women from the founders’ families.
There were some small convents for nuns follow-
ing other rules. There were Cistercian convents at
Ballymore (Co. Westmeath), Derry, Downpatrick and
St John’s in Cork followed the Benedictine rule. The
majority of nunneries in the later medieval period
were Augustinian, usually using the Arroasian obser-
vance of that rule, either from the time of their foun-
dation or not long afterward. These nuns were under
the care of the local bishop and were subject to visi-
tation and correction of any lapses of adherence to
their rule. Most of the recorded lapses were for break-
ing enclosure or neglecting monastic property, though
there were also nuns who broke their vows of chastity.
Nuns in later medieval Ireland were usually enclosed,
at least officially. That is, they were not permitted to
leave the convent walls nor were lay people permitted
to enter. However, for these nuns, as with their sisters
in the rest of medieval Europe, enclosure was often
not closely followed, as it proved difficult for nuns to
manage their properties and negotiate with secular
leaders if they remained inside their walls.
These nuns were involved in their local lay com-
munities by providing prayers for their founders and
lay patrons, educating children who were destined for
the church, and giving hospitality and alms to travellers
and those in need. Some nunneries prospered through-
out the later medieval period, retaining the support of
the local laity, either the Gaelic kings or Anglo-Norman
landholders. When nuns did not have this lay support
they were more vulnerable to diminution of their
income and, ultimately, to closure. Nuns who lived
under formal vows were mostly from relatively
wealthy families, and there were probably never more
than 12 at any one time. By the time of the dissolution
of the monasteries in the 1540s, most nunneries had
only a handful of nuns. There were also many vowed
women who lived privately, either in their family
homes or beside churches, throughout Gaelic and
Anglo-Norman Ireland. These women have left few
traces of their existence.
Although some nunneries such as Grace Dieu tried
to survive the tide of change at the dissolution, by the
end of the sixteenth century the medieval nunneries of
Ireland had faded away, the nuns themselves had died
out, and their estates and buildings were sold or given
away. There are physical remains of some of the nun-
neries, particularly in the west of Ireland, however
none have been excavated to date.
D
IANNE
H
ALLReferences and Further Reading
Bitel, L.
Land of Women: Tales of Sex and Gender from Early
Ireland. Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press, 1996.
Hall, D.
Women and the Church in Medieval Ireland, c. 1140–1540.
Dublin: Four Courts Press, 2003.
Harrington, C.
Women in a Celtic Church : Ireland 450–1150.
Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002.
Gwynn, A., and R. N. Hadcock.
Medieval Religious Houses:
Ireland. Harlow: Longmans, 1970.
Bitel, L. “Women’s Monastic Encloussre in Early Ireland: A
Study of Female Spirituality and Male Monastic Mentalities.”
Journal of Medieval History 12 (1986): 15–36.