Slides used by Tadhg O'Keeffe during his paper (St Thomas’ Abbey and the chronology of Early English Gothic in Ireland) at Dublin City Council's medieval symposium on The Abbey of St Thomas the Martyr, 14 October, 2017. Listen to the podcast of the paper at http://historyhub.ie/thomasabbey

1. St Thomas’s Abbey
and the chronology of Early English Gothic in Ireland
Prof. Tadhg O’Keeffe
School of Archaeology, UCD

2. What I will do today:

3. What I will do today:
1. Early English Gothic and Ireland

4. What I will do today:
1. Early English Gothic and Ireland
2. Newtown Trim Cathedral and its architecture

5. What I will do today:
1. Early English Gothic and Ireland
2. Newtown Trim Cathedral and its architecture
3. What did St Thomas’s Abbey look like?

6. Part 1 Early English Gothic and Ireland

7. York Minster, 1984
1

8. Canterbury CathedralYork Minster, 1984
1

9. Canterbury Cathedral choir,
by William of Sens, post-1174
1

10. Salisbury Cathedral, 1220+
Byland Abbey,
post-1177
1

11. Salisbury Cathedral, 1220+
Byland Abbey,
post-1177
1

12. Salisbury Cathedral, 1220+
Byland Abbey,
post-1177
1

13. Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin
1

14. A timeline of Early English Gothic in England and Ireland
1

15. 1160 1180 1200 1220 1240 1260 1280 1300
1

16. 1160 1180 1200 1220 1240 1260 1280 1300
1
Canterbury Wells

17. 1160 1180 1200 1220 1240 1260 1280 1300
Westminster
1
Canterbury Wells

18. 1160 1180 1200 1220 1240 1260 1280 1300
Grey, 1193
Westminster
1
Canterbury Wells

19. 1160 1180 1200 1220 1240 1260 1280 1300
Inch, c. 1200Grey, 1193
Westminster
1
Canterbury Wells

20. 1160 1180 1200 1220 1240 1260 1280 1300
Inch, c. 1200Grey, 1193
Duiske, c. 1205
Westminster
1
Canterbury Wells

21. 1160 1180 1200 1220 1240 1260 1280 1300
Inch, c. 1200
Duiske, 1204 +
Fethard, 1305+Grey, 1193
Duiske, c. 1205
Westminster
1
Canterbury Wells

22. 1160 1180 1200 1220 1240 1260 1280 1300
Inch, c. 1200
Duiske, 1204 +
Fethard, 1305+Grey, 1193
Duiske, c. 1205
Westminster
1
Canterbury Wells
Problems of chronology, 1190-1210:
• Few exact foundation/consecration dates
• Cannot be sure that foundation = construction
• Missing buildings (St Mary’s; Tristernagh…)
• Our study of forms/motifs has not been detailed enough

23. 1160 1180 1200 1220 1240 1260 1280 1300
Inch, c. 1200
Duiske, 1204 +
Fethard, 1305+Grey, 1193
Duiske, c. 1205
NEWTOWN TRIM, c. 1205
Westminster
1
Canterbury Wells

24. Why the study of Early English Gothic in Ireland is important for historians
1

25. Why the study of Early English Gothic in Ireland is important for historians
• It is the aesthetic fingerprint of English lordship
New Ross parish church, c. 1205+ Buttevant Friary, c. 1250+
1

26. Why the study of Early English Gothic in Ireland is important for historians
• It is the aesthetic fingerprint of English lordship
• It can be used to map the progression and stabilisation of English culture
Rathfran Friary. 1274+
Ballyboggan Priory, 1200+
1

27. Why the study of Early English Gothic in Ireland is important for historians
• It is the aesthetic fingerprint of English lordship
• It can be used to map the progression and stabilisation of English culture
• It can inform us about identity-formation in the aftrernath of the invasion
Cong Abbey, 1203+ Athenry Friary, 1241+
1

28. Part 2 Newtown Trim Cathedral and its architecture

29. A potted history
2

30. A potted history
• 1192 Simon de Rochford appointed - elected? - Bishop of Meath (Clonard)
• The convent of St John’s Priory, Clonard (fd 1183), assumes the role of chapter
2

31. A potted history
• 1192 Simon de Rochford appointed - elected? - Bishop of Meath (Clonard)
• The convent of St John’s Priory, Clonard (fd 1183), assumes the role of chapter
• 1200 Clonard ‘burned’ by the Irish
2

32. A potted history
• 1192 Simon de Rochford appointed - elected? - Bishop of Meath (Clonard)
• The convent of St John’s Priory, Clonard (fd 1183), assumes the role of chapter
• 1200 Clonard ‘burned’ by the Irish
• 1202 Bishop Simon moves the diocesan centre to Nova Midia, now Newtown Trim
• Canons join from St John’s Priory, Clonard, and St Thomas’s Abbey, Dublin
2

33. A potted history
• 1192 Simon de Rochford appointed - elected? - Bishop of Meath (Clonard)
• The convent of St John’s Priory, Clonard (fd 1183), assumes the role of chapter
• 1200 Clonard ‘burned’ by the Irish
• 1202 Bishop Simon moves the diocesan centre to Nova Midia, now Newtown Trim
• Canons join from St John’s Priory, Clonard, and St Thomas’s Abbey, Dublin
• 1216 Bishop Simon convenes a synod at Newtown Trim
2

34. A potted history
• 1192 Simon de Rochford appointed - elected? - Bishop of Meath (Clonard)
• The convent of St John’s Priory, Clonard (fd 1183), assumes the role of chapter
• 1200 Clonard ‘burned’ by the Irish
• 1202 Bishop Simon moves the diocesan centre to Nova Midia, now Newtown Trim
• Canons join from St John’s Priory, Clonard, and St Thomas’s Abbey, Dublin
• 1216 Bishop Simon convenes a synod at Newtown Trim
• 1223 Hugh II de Lacy arrives back in Ireland from France, precipitating war
2

35. A potted history
• 1192 Simon de Rochford appointed - elected? - Bishop of Meath (Clonard)
• The convent of St John’s Priory, Clonard (fd 1183), assumes the role of chapter
• 1200 Clonard ‘burned’ by the Irish
• 1202 Bishop Simon moves the diocesan centre to Nova Midia, now Newtown Trim
• Canons join from St John’s Priory, Clonard, and St Thomas’s Abbey, Dublin
• 1216 Bishop Simon convenes a synod at Newtown Trim
• 1223 Hugh II de Lacy arrives back in Ireland from France, precipitating war
• 1224 Bishop Simon dies
• Without de Lacy support, the project is abandoned, the cathedral unfinished
2

36. A potted history
• 1192 Simon de Rochford appointed - elected? - Bishop of Meath (Clonard)
• The convent of St John’s Priory, Clonard (fd 1183), assumes the role of chapter
• 1200 Clonard ‘burned’ by the Irish
• 1202 Bishop Simon moves the diocesan centre to Nova Midia, now Newtown Trim
• Canons join from St John’s Priory, Clonard, and St Thomas’s Abbey, Dublin
• 1216 Bishop Simon convenes a synod at Newtown Trim
• 1223 Hugh II de Lacy arrives back in Ireland from France, precipitating war
• 1224 Bishop Simon dies
• Without de Lacy support, the project is abandoned, the cathedral unfinished
• 1255 Pope Alexander IV records that Meath has no cathedral
2

37. A potted history
• 1192 Simon de Rochford appointed - elected? - Bishop of Meath (Clonard)
• The convent of St John’s Priory, Clonard (fd 1183), assumes the role of chapter
• 1200 Clonard ‘burned’ by the Irish
• 1202 Bishop Simon moves the diocesan centre to Nova Midia, now Newtown Trim
• Canons join from St John’s Priory, Clonard, and St Thomas’s Abbey, Dublin
• 1216 Bishop Simon convenes a synod at Newtown Trim
• 1223 Hugh II de Lacy arrives back in Ireland from France, precipitating war
• 1224 Bishop Simon dies
• Without de Lacy support, the project is abandoned, the cathedral unfinished
• 1255 Pope Alexander IV records that Meath has no cathedral
Rhiannon Carey Bates & Tadhg O’Keeffe,
‘Colonial monasticism, the politics of patronage,
and the beginnings of Gothic in Ireland’,
Journal of Medieval Monastic Studies 6 (2017)
2

38. The plan
2

39. The presbytery
2

40. The nave
2

41. The nave
2

42. The nave
2

43. The nave
2

44. The nave
2
Clerestorey window
and string course are
contemporary

45. The nave
2
The vault support is
an insertion

46. The nave
2
The moulding profile in
the vault-rib cluster
is western English
in origin
(probably via Bristol)

47. What did Newtown Trim look like in 1223?
2

48. What did Newtown Trim look like in 1223?
2
Cross-section of the cathedral church looking south
East end West end
Explanations for aspects of this reconstruction are available upon request!

49. What did Newtown Trim look like in 1223?
2
Although unaisled, the elevation has three registers, imitating the
conventional scheme in a large aisled church, but:
(a) all the registers here of equal height
(b) The triforium is a row of windows
Explanations for aspects of this reconstruction are available upon request!

50. What did Newtown Trim look like in 1223?
2
Wall passages through the nave,
but not for liturgical circulation
Explanations for aspects of this reconstruction are available upon request!

51. What did Newtown Trim look like in 1223?
2
East end West end
Presbytery/choir vaults original… probably
Explanations for aspects of this reconstruction are available upon request!

52. What did Newtown Trim look like in 1223?
2
East end West end
Nave vaults inserted
but the string-courses giving horizontal articulation
are original
Explanations for aspects of this reconstruction are available upon request!

53. What did Newtown Trim look like in 1223?
Explanations for aspects of this reconstruction are available upon request!
2
A small window west of the presbytery vaults

54. What did Newtown Trim look like in 1223?
Explanations for aspects of this reconstruction are available upon request!
2
Pulpitum

55. What did Newtown Trim look like in 1223?
Explanations for aspects of this reconstruction are available upon request!
2
Choir stalls
ran across crossing arches

56. Where did this architecture come from?
2

57. Where did this architecture come from?
St Thomas’s Abbey
2

58. Where did this architecture come from?
St Thomas’s Abbey
The 1177 priory church must have been Romanesque
2

59. Where did this architecture come from?
St Thomas’s Abbey
The 1177 priory church must have been Romanesque
2

60. Where did this architecture come from?
St Thomas’s Abbey
The 1177 priory church must have been Romanesque
therefore
The 1192 abbey church must have been a Gothic rebuild, at least in part
Tadhg O’Keeffe,
‘A cryptic puzzle from medieval Dublin’,
Archaeology Ireland 31, 2 (2017), 39-43.
2

61. Part 3 What did St Thomas’s Abbey look like?

62. 3
1177 – Romanesque church

63. 3
1177 – Romanesque church
1192– Gothic enlargement, with
vaulting, imitated in part at
Newtown Trim after 1202, and
then more extensively for the
synod in 1216?
=
=
=
=
=
=

64. 3
1177 – Romanesque church
1192– Gothic enlargement, with
vaulting, imitated in part at
Newtown Trim after 1202, and
then more extensively for the
synod in 1216?
=
=
=
=
=
=
=
=
=
=
=
=
1230 + – Gothic enlargement, in
preparation for the translation of
relics?

65. 1160 1180 1200 1220 1240 1260 1280 1300
Inch, c. 1200+ Fethard, 1305+Grey, 1193
Duiske, c. 1205
NEWTOWN TRIM, c. 1205
Westminster
3
Canterbury Wells

66. 1160 1180 1200 1220 1240 1260 1280 1300
3

67. 1160 1180 1200 1220 1240 1260 1280 1300
Canterbury
3

68. 1160 1180 1200 1220 1240 1260 1280 1300
ST. THOMAS’S ABBEY, 1192
Canterbury
3

69. A final word…. was St Thomas’s influential?

70. A final word…. was St Thomas’s influential?
‘Overall, Canterbury was to prove more important for its general effect
than for its particular combination of architectural features’
(Peter Draper 2006, 33)

71. A final word…. was St Thomas’s influential?
‘Overall, St Thomas’s was to prove more important for its general effect
than for its particular combination of architectural features’