THE CEMETERY OF ST PETER AND PAULS CATHEDRAL IN TRIM
Visit the cemetery of St. Peter and Paul`s Cathedral you will discover an impressive altar tomb dating from around 1592. The tomb known locally as “the Jealous man and Woman” is the resting place of Sir Lucas Dillon and his wife Lady Jane Bathe. In reality the tobm could be better described as being what is left of Newtown Clonbun Parish Church.
Sir Dillon was a leading Irish Barrister and judge during the Elizabethan era. He held the offices of Attorney General for Ireland and Chief Baron of the Irish Exchequer. He was held in high regard by the Crown and Queen Elizabeth was said of think highly of him. However there were many accusations of corruption and claims that he handled some of his work carelessly.
Why the tomb became known as ‘the jealous man and woman” remains a mystery. However, Dillon`s second wife Marion Sherle is buried in an identical tomb with her first husband Christopher Barnwell at Lusk, Co. Dublin. Locals believe that perhaps one of the tombs was built as a jealous response to the other tomb. Who was jealous of who remains uncertain. The most intriguing folklore surrounding the tomb remains its unusual curative power for warts.
Locals believe that if you stroke a wart with a pin or needle and leave it in the tomb the wart will disappear as the pin rusts. Be warned though, if you take somebody elses pin off the tomb for your own use youll not only keep your warts but youll inherit the warts of the pins rightful owner.
Newtown Abbey is located about 1.2 km (¾ mile) east of Trim town centre, on the north bank of the Boyne. The main building is the Church of St Peter and St Paul (sometimes called a cathedral). The abbey church features lancet windows, with Norman-style sedilia to the right of the altar, and a double piscina for washing communion vessels. A smaller church in the east of the monastery is the parish church of Newtown Clonbun. This is the burial site of Lucas Dillon (1530 – 1592), Attorney General for Ireland and Chief Baron of the Irish Exchequer, and his first wife Jane Bathe. Their tomb effigies are separated by a sword of state, and so they gained the local nickname of the “jealous man and woman”.
THE TOMB OF THE JEALOUS MAN AND WOMAN AND A CURE FOR WARTS [THE CEMETERY OF ST PETER AND PAULS CATHEDRAL IN TRIM]-226395-1
THE TOMB OF THE JEALOUS MAN AND WOMAN AND A CURE FOR WARTS [THE CEMETERY OF ST PETER AND PAULS CATHEDRAL IN TRIM]-226393-1
THE TOMB OF THE JEALOUS MAN AND WOMAN AND A CURE FOR WARTS [THE CEMETERY OF ST PETER AND PAULS CATHEDRAL IN TRIM]-226394-1
THE TOMB OF THE JEALOUS MAN AND WOMAN AND A CURE FOR WARTS [THE CEMETERY OF ST PETER AND PAULS CATHEDRAL IN TRIM]-226396-1
May 30th 2019 Alex Findlater died following a riding accident in Punjab, India and headline read as follows: “Mayo man dies after horse riding accident in India”.
In 1823 Alex. Findlater & Co. began trading in Dublin. The company was founded by Alexander Findlater, a hard working spirit merchant. He set up his business on Burgh Quay opposite the Custom House. From humble beginnings, the business grew rapidly and extensively not just in Dublin but into the United Kingdom also, expanding into other fields; trading in Wines, Teas, Coffees and Groceries.
In Dublin, the Findlaters prospered. By 1906, the company had expanded into groceries, tea and provisions, with 14 shops. They built Findlater’s Church on Parnell Square, as well as the Todd Burns department store on Mary Street. Their Mountjoy Brewery, established in 1852, was Dublin’s second-largest exporter of stout by 1866. They also operated hotels in Howth and Bray.
Today I brought my Sony A7RIV which I have not used for more than a year, maybe much more more. The camera is a very high resolution device as I was trying to capture the feel of the place rather than absolute detail I decided to use a Zeiss Batis 25mm lens.
If you get a guided tour on St Patrick’s College and the graveyard you may be informed that there are two unusual burials in the cemetery these being the graves of former Maynooth students who died under strange circumstances. In 1841, a student by the name of Sean O’Grady died after falling from his window in a building called Rhetoric House on the Maynooth Campus. Twenty years later, another student by the name of Thomas McGinn was housed in this same room. While in this room, McGinn cut himself with a razor, and jumped out of the same window. Before he died of his injuries it is claimed that he said that demonic occurrences in the room convinced him to end his life. Over the years I have heard many variations of the story but I have not located the graves.
Newtown Abbey is a medieval monastery and National Monument located in Trim, County Meath and it is a much visited location at Christmas. I visited the location on Christmas Day as well as today the 26th December.
It is Saint Stephen’s Day here in Ireland but it is known as Boxing Day in the United Kingdom. I mentioned this as a number of people asked me how do we celebrated Boxing Day here in Ireland.
Saint Stephen’s Day, also called the Feast of Saint Stephen, is a Christian saint’s day to commemorate Saint Stephen, the first Christian martyr or protomartyr, celebrated on 26 December in Western Christianity and 27 December in Eastern Christianity. The Eastern Orthodox churches that adhere to the Julian calendar mark Saint Stephen’s Day on 27 December according to that calendar, which places it on 9 January of the Gregorian calendar used in secular contexts. In Latin Christian denominations, Saint Stephen’s Day marks the second day of Christmastide.
It is an official public holiday in Alsace-Moselle, Austria, the Balearic Islands, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Catalonia, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Norway, Poland, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Sweden, Ukraine, Switzerland and Newfoundland. The date is also a public holiday in those countries that celebrate Boxing Day on the day in addition to or instead of Saint Stephen’s Day, such as Australia, Canada, New Zealand, South Africa and the United Kingdom.
St. Mary’s Abbey was home to “Our Lady of Trim”, a wooden statue reported to work miracles. The statue made Trim a major pilgrimage site from at least 1397. During the Reformation, the statue was burned and Henry VIII dissolved the abbey. The abbey’s bell tower, the “Yellow Steeple”, is the primary remnant of St. Mary’s.
The Maudlin Cemetery which was the site of the Leper Hospital of Mary Magdalene, and later a cemetery which was used as a burial ground for the poor who died in the workhouse.
I have visited the Trim many times as my mother’s immediate family live in Trim or are from the area but I was unaware of this old cemetery until I came across it today.
In 1892 Lord Walter Fitzgerald produced an account of this cemetery and here is a short extract: “This burial ground contains the old church of St. Mary Magdalen of which the chancel arch still survives. It is situated close to the town of Trim on its south side and seems now to be only used as a burial place for paupers who die in the trim workhouse nearby. Only two tombstones seem to have survived and they are situated to the east of the church ruins”.
I think that there are a few Maudlin Cemeteries in Ireland but I know, without doubt, that there is one in Naas which I have yet to photograph. The name is archaically spelled Maudlings; derives from Mary Magdalene, often depicted in art as mourning for Jesus after his crucifixion, and thus associated with burial grounds (cf. maudlin).
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