The Story of St. John the Baptist Graveyard, Hospital, Co. Limerick

This graveyard and ruined church are located in the townland of Barrysfarm, in the parish of  Hospital and Herbertstown, and in the barony of Smallcounty. The site is located on the northern end of the town of Hospital, west of the Main St. The river Mahore flows immediately to the north.

 

The site is composed of the 19th century Roman Catholic Church, dedicated to st. John The Baptist, the Medieval church ruins and the adjoining graveyard. The Roman Catholic Church was built in 1852 in a Gothic revival style. It is cruciform in shape and has a pitched slate roof. 

 

The medieval church ruins were associated with the Hospital of Aney belonging to the Order of the Knights Hospitallers and was dedicated to St. John of Jerusalem. The complex was established in the 13th century and was deemed one of the most important preceptories in the country, after the preceptory at Kilmainham in Dublin. The church ruins are impressive, with the walls standing almost to full height. It is a rectangular building, around 26m long internally, with no evidence of transepts or internal division, with a present entrance to the church near the west end of the north wall (Cotter, 2015). Memorials in the form of effigial slabs and chest tombs can be found in the  church, though some probably not in their original setting.

 

The graveyard lies to the south and west of the ruined church. The modern church and car park are to the north and west. The graveyard is rectangular in shape and measures 54m N-S x 83m E-W.  It is enclosed by a railing and a post-1700 rough limestone wall with the entrance gate at the north east side.

 

A total of 352 memorials were recorded, dating from the mid-18th century. There are 14 memorials dating to the 18th century, the earliest  commemorating  the burial place of Denish McCarty who died in 1755, (memorial no. 0193). 

 

Surnames included Gaffney, Power, Conway, Mitchell, Madden, O’Toole, Moroney,  Leddin, Lodge, Hurley, Murphy, Meade, Bagnell, Baggott, Riordan, O’Loughlin and O’Dyer. 

 

Interesting Facts

The monasteries of the military orders are known as preceptories. There are two main types, Hospitallers and Templars. This is the site of a preceptory of the Hospitaller Order of St. John of Jerusalem. This preceptory and the one at Mourneabbey, south of Mallow in County Cork are considered the only two in the country retaining original buildings. Preceptories represent the combination of military service and monastic observance. The medieval church here on this site is the only surviving building of this preceptory. It would most likely have been one of many buildings enclosed either by substantial earthen banks or walls.

 

Geoffrey De Marisco, an Anglo-Norman knight, founded this Hospitaller preceptory of Aney in 1215. He died in 1245 in France and he is depicted on an effigial slab carved in high relief, now standing upright against a wall in a south west corner of the medieval church. Hunt (1974) dates the effigy to 1260. The body armour and shield can be clearly made out. Its original location may have been in a tomb niche in the north wall, where it would have capped a chest tomb.

 

A double effigy of an Anglo-Norman knight and his lady are carved in high relief on a limestone slab positioned on top of a tomb. According to Hunt (1974) it dates to the second half the 13th century and is said by him to be ‘the earliest double effigial tomb in Ireland, and perhaps earlier than any in England also’. Though badly weathered, a great amount of carved detail of their costumes remains. 

 

18th Century Memorials in St. John The Baptist, Hospital

0128 John Halloran 1785

0132 Ellen Hurley (nee Ryan) 1794

0138 John Hayes 1791

0149 Thomas Marnane 1792

0150 Elinor Fleming 1770

0154 William Malone 1772

0177 Simon Riordan 1772

0178 Mary Riordan 1773

0183 William Burk 1775

0193 Dinish McCarty 1755

0195 Richard Fitzgerald 1798

0196 Teobald Bourk 1769

0221 Cornelius Creed 1783

0223 Thomas Riley 1769 

 

 

References

Hunt, John, Irish Medieval Figure Sculpture, 2 vols. (Dublin, 1974) pp 199-201

 

 

Cotter, Eamonn, ‘The archaeology of the Irish Hospitaller preceptories of Mourne and Hospital in context’, in Soldiers of Christ, the knights Hospitaller and the Knights Templar in Medieval Ireland, by Martin Browne and Colman O Clabaigh (eds.) 2015 Four Courts Press.