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Clonmacnoise
Clonmacnoise, 6th–13th century, County Offaly, Ireland. Speakers: Dr. Lauren Kilroy-Ewbank and Dr. Steven Zucker. Created by Smarthistory.
Video transcript
(soft music) - [Steven] We're at
Clonmacnoise in Ireland on a cold, rainy day. It looks spectacular. We're surrounded by magnificent, early medieval gravestones and buildings. - [Lauren] It is one of the
most important ecclesiastical or monastic sites in Ireland, and it's situated in the center of Ireland on the River Shannon, which is right at the edge of the complex. The River Shannon moves
from north to south, and then a very important
road went east to west, so it really was at the
crossroads of trade, at the crossroads of different
political boundaries, and it drew tons of people here. - [Steven] Clonmacnoise became wealthy. It attracted extraordinary artistic talent and intellectual talent. - [Lauren] It was founded
in the 6th century by St. Kieran, an important saint in Ireland's
early Christian history. He was a student of some of
the most important figures, who are now saints, who helped to establish not
only Christianity in Ireland, but monasticism more broadly. Christianity really begins
to spread around Ireland with St. Patrick in the 5th century. And then you have figures like St. Brigid who are helping to spread it as well. - [Steven] A monastery,
in the simplest sense, is the home to a community of monks, people who have devoted
themselves to religious prayer and live an introspective life. - [Lauren] And so while
we're looking at what remains of the stone buildings and
crosses and grave slabs, there were many other buildings made in wood that do not survive, and there was also a
vibrant craft economy. There were weavers,
stonemasons, metalworkers, among many other things, and that is because
people were living here, who were not monks, but who were creating objects
that could have been used by the monastic community or
that were engaged in trade, because being here on this
important intersection of the river and the road, you had lots of different
people coming and going, and trading objects. - [Steven] And one of the
most important communities of people that would visit
were religious pilgrims, and they would come here to venerate both sacred objects and sacred spaces. - [Lauren] So here at Clonmacnoise, we have several shrine
chapels, or temples, most famously the one
associated with St. Kieran. It's considered a sacred location that could be associated
with physical relics. Possibly, it marks the sight
of a grave underneath it, or it's one maybe that a
particular saint lived in, or somehow touched, a contact relic. But regardless of that, it's usually a small single-celled room, sometimes with a small additional
room to the side of it. And it would have attracted pilgrims who could come here to experience
some of that sacred aura that is associated with
figures like St. Kieran. - [Steven] Because
Clonmacnoise was located at the edge of two kingdoms, it had important royal patronage. - [Lauren] Clonmacnoise is basically right on the dividing line between
the lands of Connacht and the lands of Meat or Meath. Between the 9th and the 11th centuries, the high kings of Meath were funding much of the building that's happening here. For instance, what is now the cathedral that had been a smaller church beforehand was financed by the high king of Meath. And so too were several
of the high crosses, these large crosses with relief sculpture with different narrative scenes or interlace and abstract patterns that would have marked the inner sanctum, the most sacred land of Clonmacnoise. But it wasn't just the kings of Meath. Eventually, the monks at
Clonmacnoise shift alliances, because they were savvy. They realized that they needed money, and they could benefit
from royal patronage. So in the 12th century
is when you see the kings of Connacht financing different things here at Clonmacnoise, such as the Round Tower
built in the 12th century, as well as fine metalwork objects. And we even have two of the high kings of Connacht buried here at Clonmacnoise. - [Steven] One of the
most distinctive features at Clonmacnoise are these
beautifully incised grave slabs, and there are over 700 of them here. Some of the most important
are now inside the museum, and they speak to the multiplicity
of the communities here. There's one, for example, that
is a prayer for a craftsman. There's another that gives a
prayer for a man of learning. And so we have this wonderful reflection of the different communities that made Clonmacnoise so important. - [Lauren] And it really
does speak to the prestige of being buried here at Clonmacnoise, this important ecclesiastical site. And it also would've been
valuable to people buried here because people coming here, whether they're monks or pilgrims, would have prayed for
the souls of the dead. Even though this site was
founded in the 6th century, it really speaks to the longevity of these types of monastic communities in that most of the
buildings and the crosses and the graves and the towers
come from different centuries. This site isn't abandoned
until the 13th century when the political, and
even religious, landscape is shifting dramatically. It's easy to see why Clonmacnoise was so important in the 19th century to people who were involved with looking to what they thought was
their unique Irish heritage, this so-called Celtic revival. So George Petrie, for instance, was here painting the
different cross slabs, painting the different buildings. And this site is actually
conserved in the 1860s. And because of its significance, it becomes a national monument in 1877, because it becomes the
quintessential example of the early Irish church. (soft music)