Jan 182009
Near Drogheda, the first Cistercian monastery in Ireland. It was founded in 1142 by Christian O’Conarchy, the first abbot, and Saint Malachy O’More, and was modelled after Clairvaux. It prospered and founded other monasteries, and at the English invasion there were 25 great Cistercian abbeys in Ireland. During the 13th and 14th centuries it declined but recovered in the 15th, to be confiscated by Henry VIII, 1539. Today only ruins remain.