Notebook - Ireland

Healy, Elizabeth. Round Towers & High Crosses, Ireland of the Welcomes, July/August 2006.

In Victorian times, Round Towers and High Crosses acquired almost iconic status in representations of Ireland.

These towers and crosses are products of the monasteries of the Early Christian period, that era which gave us the illuminated manuscripts and other masterpieces of art. The towers and crosses, usually seen together, are the most enduring features, and very often the only elements that are left standing today.

Sometimes there were several of the intricately-carved stone crosses within or on the edge of the monastic enclosure. They varied in height up to seven meters (over 20 feet).  Their chief purpose would have been for the inspiration and instruction of the faithful - picture-books, if you will, for a usually illiterate congregation - but they were often positioned as boundary markers. 



The best known have a ring circumscribing the intersection of the arms and stem of the cross, a pattern that has come to be known as the Celtic Cross. While each High Cross is different and totally individual, they mostly follow a similar pattern. They are carved in panels, representing subjects of the Old and New Testaments. In addition there are intricately incised interlace and other patterns on any bit of spare space, whether immediately visible or not.  

The earliest crosses were relatively simple, and were no doubt based on existing wooden crosses.  As time went on they became more and more elaborate, reaching their finest flowering in the Cross of Muiredach at Monasterboice. 

Muiredach's Cross was carved, it is though, in the early 10th century, making it now well over a thousand years old.  The whole thing is carved from a single massive sandstone block. Every surface is carved, underneath the arms and even where you can't see, on top of the arms. It is 18 feet high.  On the east face, reading from the top is a church-shaped capstone inside which are two figures, possibly St. Paul and St. Anthony.  Then, in the center of the intersection, a magnificent depiction of Chirst in Majesty presiding over the last judgment. Just below St. Michael weighs a soul, while the devil tries to upset the balance.

In descending order, below the last judgment, come well-known biblical scenes 

• Adoration of the Magi
• Moses striking the rock
• David killing Goliath
• Adam & Eve with Cain & Abel

The base has animal and other decoration.

The west face shows in descending order:

• Crucifixion & Resurrection of Christ
• Peter's denial of Christ
• Christ with Peter and Paul
• Risen Christ 
• Soldiers mocking Christ

The cross gets its name from an inscription just above the base on the west face: Or do Muiredach lasndernad . . . ro - "a prayer for Muiredach for whom this cross was made."  

The West Cross, or Tall Cross as it is known, is taller again by 1.5 meters and is much more slender.  There are about 100 High Crosses still surviving in varying states of weathering and damage.  

The slender tapering self-standing Round Towers that are so often associated with the High Crosses, as at Monasterboice, are also pretty well unique to Ireland, apart from a few Scottish examples clearly derived from them.  

Remains of St. Declan's Cathedral in Ardmore, Co. Waterford
 with one of the best-preserved round towers in Ireland beside it.

Like the High Crosses, Round Towers vary in detail but follow a common pattern. Their height varies from a little over 15 meters (50 feet) to 38 meters (125 feet) though most of them tend towards the taller end of the scale.  Circumference averages 15 meters, with walls about a meter think at the bottom, getting thinner towards the top. Inside, there are some four to seven storeys, which would have had wooden floors. Each floor has a window, while the top floor usually has four, looking out over the cardinal points. The doorway is almost always at the second floor level, to be reached by a ladder which could be pulled up inside if unwelcome visitors were expected.  The tower was surmounted by a conical cap, but there are only a few examples now where the original cone survives. 

For centuries scholars, and non-scholars too, argued about the purpose of these towers.  They appeared to be ecclesiastical structures, but were they tombs? Or temples? Or belfries? Were they astronomical observatories? The rational explanation, which now appears so obvious to us, is that they fulfilled the dual purpose of belfries and refuges from raiders. In a sparsely populated and thickly forested landscape, they announced the location of the church.  From the top windows, a monk could ring the Mass-bell and it would be heard over quite a distance. And in times of the dreaded Viking raids, the monks could climb up in the towers taking their books, relics and other precious objects with them, pulling up the ladder behind them, to wait until the adversaries had finished their devastation and departed. As records show, however, it did not always save these holy men from the danger of fire, if the raiders could get a flaming brand or arrow inside. 

There are 65 Round Towers, or their remnants scattered around Ireland and it is known that there were many more that have vanished.  

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Mitchell, Brian. A New Genealogical Atlas of Ireland, Baltimore, MD: Genealogical Publishing Co., Inc. 1986.

Major Administrative Divisions of Ireland

• County - this division reflects the imposition of the English system of local government in Ireland. Begun in the 12th century, the 32 county framework was completed with the creation of Wicklow in 1606.  County boundaries usually reflected the lordships of major Gaelic families. The four provinces of Ireland - Ulster, Connaught, Munster, Leinster - owe their origin to the pre-eminence of the families of O'Neill (Ulster), O'Connor (Connaught), O'Brien (Munster) and Mac Murrough (Leinster).  It was these families that strived for the High Kingship of all Ireland in the centuries before the Norman invasion of the 12th century. The Irish families reflected in the county divisions owed allegiance to these provincial kings.
• Barony - this is now obsolete division, but in the 19th century it was widely used. There were 331 baronies and they also tended to reflect the holdings of Irish clans. Baronies and counties became established in the government land surveys of the 17th century.
• Poor Law Union - Under the Poor Relief Act, 1838, Ireland was divided into districts or "unions" in which the local rateable inhabitants were to be financially responsible for the care of all paupers in their areas.  These unions, which didn't respect county boundaries, were usually centered on a large market town. By 1850, 163 unions had been created.  The Local Government (Ireland) Act, 1898, adopted the poor law union as the basic administrative division in place of the civil parish and barony. The poor law unions of Ireland were subdivided into 829 registration districts and 3,751 district electoral divisions. Townlands were now arranged according to these divisions, with parishes and baronies being retained only as a means to make comparisons with records gathered before 1898.
• Civil Parish - from the 17th century the so-called civil parish, based on the early Christian and medieval monastic and church settlements, was used extensively in various surveys. By the mid-19th century the pattern of civil parishes was well established. By 1841 due to population increases boundaries were changed.  New parishes were created by either subdividing larger ones or by withdrawing townlands from adjoining parishes. For example, in 1765 Montiaghs Parish in County Armagh was separated from Seagoe Parish, while in Londonderry Carrick Parish was created in 1846 by withdrawing eleven townlands from the adjoining parishes - three from Balteagh, three from Bovevagh and five from Tamlaght Finlagen. The civil parish essentially covered the same area as the established Church of Ireland. The Roman Catholic Church, owing to the Reformation of the 16th century, had to adapt itself to a new structure centered on towns and villages. The parishes depicted in this volume, 2,508 in all, are civil parishes. Civil Parishes frequently break both barony and county boundaries, indicating they were drawn up at an earlier period.
• Dioceses - 3 ecclesiastical synods - Cashel in 1101, Rathbreasail in 1111 and Kells in 1152 - imposed a diocesan organization of four provinces:  Armagh, Cashel, Dublin and Tuam, each headed by an archbishop and under them 21 bishops in charge of as many dioceses.  These diocesan boundaries have remained virtually constant to the present day and are in use by both the Catholic and Anglican Churches.  The number of dioceses has, however, varied with consolidation through time by both the Catholic and Anglican Churches. Dioceses have little or no relation to the boundaries of the counties, the latter having been created long after the dioceses. It is the Church of Ireland dioceses, as existing in the mid-19th century, that are mapped here. Until 1834 the dioceses of the Church of Ireland were grouped into four provinces.  The number of provinces was then reduced to two, Armagh and Dublin.
• Probate Districts - in 1858 a principal registry and eleven district registries were established for the purpose of proving wills and granting administrations. 

Major Record Sources

• 17th Century Surveys - such as the Civil Survey of Ireland carried out between 1654 and 1656, were arranged by county, barony and parish. Perhaps the most useful 17th-century record is the Hearth Money roll, which exists in full for the Ulster counties of Antrim, Armagh, Donegal, Fermanagh, Londonderry, Monaghan and Tyrone. Compiled by parish, these rolls were drawn up between 1663 and 1666 to list all householders who had a fireplace, which was liable to a tax of two shillings.
• Wills - from the time of the Reformation in 1536 until 1858 eccleastical courts of the Church of Ireland based in each diocese were responsible for all matters of probate. To identify a will, therefore, it is necessary to determine in which Church of Ireland diocese the family lived. If the deceased had property valued at more than £5 in a second diocese the will had to be proved or the administration granted in the Prerogative Court presided over by the Archbishop of Armagh. Only the indexes to these wills, not the wills themselves, have survived. 
• Parish Registers - dependent upon location and religion - The record of parishes in this volume is of civil parishes and not ecclesiastical. However, by use of A Topographical Dictionary of Ireland, by Samuel Lewis (London, 1837); it is possible to locate all churches within their civil parishes. The civil parishes covered by each Catholic parish is likewise listed. 
• Marriage License Bonds - under the jurisdiction of the Church of Ireland and before the Bishop would grant a license for a proposed marriage he required a guarantee or bond that there was no impediment to the marriage. The indexes to these bonds are compiled by diocese and arranged alphabetically by the name of the groom.

Sources for the Atlas

• Irish County Maps Showing the Location of Churches 
• Index of Surnames of Householders in Griffith's Primary Valuation & Tithe Appointment Books
• Thom, Alexander. General Alphabetical Index to the Townlands & Towns, Parishes & Baronies of Ireland, Baltimore, MD: Genealogical Publishing Company, 1984

The atlas is arranged with 3 maps for every county, or part of a county. 

1. civil parishes - numbered & listed alphabetically
2. baronies & dioceses & parishes
3. poor law unions & parishes within probate districts

Our known ancestors are from Armagh County which is in Ulster Province.  There is an ecclesiastical diocese called Armagh as well as a probate district.  And there is an Armagh parish in Armagh County as well as a city . . .