Glare Island Survey — His for// and Archaeology . 2 15 



The church was entirely restored about 1480, the ceiling painted, an elaborate 

 tomb made in the north wall, and new windows inserted in the chancel. The 

 cell probably shared the fate of Knockmoy, which was dissolved in 1542. 

 Hugh O'Kelly, the last Abbot, made excellent terms with the Crown ; he was 

 to furnish the King with sixty horse, a battle of galloglasses, and sixty kerne, 

 whenever the Lord Deputy came to Connacht, and twelve horse and twenty- 

 four kerne for service outside the province, May 24th, 1542. Among the 

 Elizabethan Inquisitions relating to the Abbey we find more than once mention 

 of " the Island of Cleary," containing a quarter of land and tithes worth 

 13s. Ad. per annum, besides reprises. The second Exchequer Inquisition of 

 Co. Mayo, June 3rd, 1585, before Thomas Dillon, Chief Justice, 1585, states 

 that " the Island of Clere contains a quarter of land and divers appurtenances 

 of the Abbey of Knockmoy, and is worth per annum, besides reprises, 

 13s. 4:d." No further details are given, and it is probable that the O'Mailles 

 protected the monks, and kept the building in repair. Later monastic writers 

 have little to tell. Downing mentions " Cliera, about 2 leagues from the main- 

 land, a small Abbey of St. Bernard; Dermitius Caladus O'Maly and Morte 

 O'Conor were there buried." One of the Carew mss. gives a list in March, 

 1574, of the islands as — " Inysturke, Inyshourke (Shark), Cliei'a, and Aukilles, 

 held by O'Male — Abbeys — Clyera possessed by friars, or rebels, so as her 

 Majesty has no commodity by the same." 1 



In September, 1588, one of the ships of the Armada was wrecked on the 

 coast of Cliara, with 400 men on board ; seventy are said to have been slain or 

 drowned, and the rest were taken off by another ship, but Cliara is devoid of 

 all definite traditions of the wreck. Sir G. Fenton's final list of the Spanish 

 losses in September, 1588, names the following wrecks : — In Tirawley, one ship, 

 400 men ; in Clare Island, one ship, 300 men; in Fynglasse, O'Malley's country, 

 one ship, 400 men ; in Erris, two ships, none lost, because the men were taken 

 into other vessels, but the vessels and ordnance remain. This seems to 

 contradict the first account, nor does a third help us to a definite conclusion 

 by telling how the Clare Island wreck was of a ship of Don Pedro de Mendoza, 

 who refused to surrender, upon which Dovdara O'Malley (the father of Grania) 

 slew him and 100 men. 2 Nothing so definite as the fearful accounts of the havoc 

 in Sligo, or the story of the escape of the Zuniga, or of the two wrecks on the 

 coast of Clare, is preserved. The connexion of the famous sea queen, Grania 

 Uaile, with Cliara, is more a matter of tradition than of history, and Burrishoole 



1 Cal. State Papers, vol. i, p. 473 ; see the Fiants of Queen Elizabeth (they usually give mere 

 names, or allude to Cliara Abbey), notably Fiant 4844 of 1586. 



2 Cal. of State Papers, Ireland and Spanish ; also Knox, History of Mayo, pp. 220, 223. 



