346 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Acadenuj. 



The reign of Edward III., ho^vever, was destined to end in disaster 

 for the English colony in Ireland ; the Macnamaras inflicted a disas- 

 trous defeat on Clanricliard. Even in the records of the Chancery 

 Eolls of 1377^ this war has left its mark. The " dry bones live " ; we 

 seem to see the stir of the government, the march of the nobles and 

 knights, the foot-soldiers, hobilers, and archers, the great droves of 

 oxen, heifers, horses and carriages converging on Limerick. ILessen- 

 gers fly with letters to the leading men, and supplies are "comman- 

 deered " on every side. The mayor and citizens of Limerick take 

 heart, and work energetically; rumours fly about what " O'Erien and 

 Macomarth" and the other fierce chiefs are doing to the north of the 

 river. Everything foretells a great war — perhaps the reduction of 

 Thomond, when — nothing further is done, and the army disbands. It 

 was the last flicker of the fire of the Plantagenets ; henceforth the 

 main •* victories" will be nominal submissions of Irish chiefs to the 

 Crown, with presents of falcons and hounds,^ and peace obtained by 

 the Limerick citizens only by paying rent and blackmail to the 

 neighbouring chiefs. The documents relating even to church matters 

 dwindle to nothing, till the energetic reign of Henry YIII. and his 

 vast changes in Church and State flood us once more with records, for 

 nearly all the fifteenth and a third of the sixteenth century remain 

 nearly blank in our rolls and cartularies. 



This is the more remarkable that in Limerick (as in Clare, ^ and 

 elsewhere in western Ireland) numerous churches and monasteries 

 were extensively re-edified in the fiiteenth century, and peel towers, 

 with identical architectui'al features to those found in the churches, 

 remain everywhere. Save in the cases of St. Mary's Cathedral and 

 the Franciscan Convent at Adare, the builders and dates of these works 

 go unrecorded by annalist or notary-. 



After the dissolution the churches, with very few exceptions, fell 

 to ruin, and no attempt seems to have been made till the days of 

 Eishop Eernard to reconstitute the churches and cathedi^al of the war- 

 wasted City and County of Limerick, half depopulated after the 

 frightful Desmond wars. 



^ Calendar of Chancery Eolls, &c., of Ireland. 

 E.g. Bryen O'Bryan Princeps Thotomon de canibs et falconibs Mem. Scac 

 Term S. Trin., xviii Eic. II. 



3 See Proc. E.I.A., Ser. iii., vol. vi., pp. llC-117. It is strange to find the 

 windows, doors, and other features in the greater castles {e^g., Adare and Askeaton) 

 practically identical with those in the monasteries, just as in the similar features in 

 the peel towers and lesser churches. 



