Castle Dermot, Co. Kildare.
.jpg)
RUINS OF CASTLE DERMOT ABBEY.
THE ancient Gaelic name of the locality in which the noble ruins pictured above are situated was Disert Diarmade, which means in English the Secluded, or Sequestered Place of Diarmid or Dermot.
The word disert was borrowed originally from the Latin "desertum," which means a desert or wilderness. The Gaelic form means a lonely hermitage.
Castle Dermot Monastery was founded about the year 500 by Diarmid, a pious grandson of King Aedh Roin of Ulidia. During the long was with the Danes and Anglo-Normans the monastery was repeatedly plundered and burned, only to be again and again restored. Finally, in 1650, the sacriligious forces then devastating the country, prevailed and completed the destruction of the famous monastery, leaving only a portion of the walls standing.
Cattle Dermot Abbey is often mentioned in the "Annals of the Four Masters" and other annals handed down to us from ancient times. The famous Cormac Mac Cullinnan, afterwards King of Munster and Archbishop of Cashel, was educated here. He was slain in 907 and buried within its walls.
It was the chief residence of the O'Tooles, and on the English invasion was with other territories of that sept given to Walter De Riddlesford, who here erected a castle and founded a priory for Crouched Friars, which with its possessions, was granted at the Dissolution to Sir Henry Harrington, Knt.
In 1264 such was the power of the Geraldines that Richard De Rupella, Lord Justice of Ireland, Lord Theobold Boteler, and Lord John Cogan were taken prisoners by Maurice Fitzgerald, and Fitzmaurice.
In 1312, a Franciscan firiary was founded here by Thomas, Lord Offaley.
In 1316, John, eldest son of the Earl of Kildare, died at Lathrach Ui Bhrian and was buried here. Same year the Scots, under Robert and Edward Bruce destroyed the town, but were soon after defeated by Lord Edmund Butler.
In 1328 Thomas, second Earl of Kildare, died and was buried here with his wife, daughter of De Burgh, Earl of Ulster.
In 1499, a parliament was held here, and an act passed inflicting penalties on such of the nobles as rode without saddles. A mint was also established here for coining money.
It was taken for Cromwell by Colonels Hewson and Reynolds in 1650, since which time its extensive ecclessiastical buildings have been in ruins.
The first charter school in Ireland was opened here in 1734 for forty children.
In May, 1798, the town was attacked by a party of Kildare and Wicklow insurgents. They were badly armed and failed to capture it from Captain Mince and a detachment of the Sixth Regiment, who defended it
In Rawson's "Statistical Survey of the County of Kildare," published in 1807, we find an itemized account of the rental of the Earl of Kildare's estates in the seventeenth century. "The manor of Castledermot set to William Holme and William Wright for 41 years, from May 1st, 1657. at £100-0-0 the first year and £120-0-0 the remainder, a fat ox, and forty couple of rabbits."
