HOW ABBEYFEALE GOT ITS NAME.
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Abbeyfeale – Mainistir na Feile – The abbey of the Feale.
It is said that the River Feale derives its name from a beautiful young maiden called Fial, who was the wife of local chieftain, Lughaidh Mhic Lotha. Legend has it that one day, while bathing in the river, Fial was startled by the sudden approach of her husband, whom she did not recognize due to the overgrown and secluded nature of the area in which she swam. To hide her modesty, she struck out for the centre of the river but got into difficulty, and drowned before the anguished Lughaidh could reach her.
This touching and tragic story has been passed from generation to generation, down through the centuries and, like many such legends, may very well be based on fact.
In 1188 a band of monks from Mellifont Abbey in Co. Louth, built a monastery on the banks of the Feale under the patronage of Briain O`Brian. The Cistercian Abbey – known as Mainistir Na Feile "The Abbey Of The Feale" – was situated in the middle of the old graveyard in The Square.
For nearly four hundred years, the Cistercian Monks resided in Abbeyfeale, praying and fasting and tending the sick and studying. In 1580, Crown Forces led by their commander, Sir William Pelham, camped at Purt Castle as they paused in their pursuit of the doomed Earl of Desmond and his retreating troops. Pelham then sacked Abbeyfeale (what there was of it) and destroyed the monastery, causing the monks to flee.
Sadly, no trace of the abbey now remains, although it is claimed that part of one gable was still visible in the graveyard up to the beginning of 1900. No records, artefacts or manuscripts have ever been recovered. Mention has been made of the abbey in various historical documents, and there even exists a crude sketch of the ruins from a surveyor’s parchment dated 1655.
What a shame that the internet had not been invented nine hundred years earlier. Perhaps some enterprising monk might have set up a local web site (he might even have called it Abbeyfeale On Line!) and chronicled these historic events for posterity, and not have us racking our brains here, and nearly tearing out our hair, trying to figure out what exactly happened.
Anyhow, the story of the fair Fial, bathing in the river, and of the humble monks, eking out a meagre existence in their modest abbey by the river bank; these stories have survived and have given our town the beautiful name that it retains to this day – Mainistir Na Feile – The Abbey Of The Feale – Abbeyfeale.
(See Mairead Reidy`s original illustrations on the above subject in the ABBEYFEALE ART section of the PHOTO ALBUM.
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