County Kilkenny - Towns

Kilree is 2 km from Kells and may have formed portion of an early Christian system in Ossory. It was a monastery founded by St. Brigid of Kildare, patroness and "Mary of the Gael". The environs are steeped in Brigidine lore. Kilree (Cell Righ in Irish) makes certain its former importance is not overlooked by the presence of a lofty 10th century round tower. That alone means that in this important and ancient place there was need of lookout vigilance and a need for protection of precious objects.

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4.5 km beyond Jerpoint Abbey is another village associated with a different great Order of the medieval church. A foundation was made here by the Earl of Ormond, James Butler, for the Carmelite Order of Friars in 1356. Although suppressed by 1540, the Carmelites continued to replace and appoint friars to serve the area until they were finally expelled in Cromwell's wake in 1654. Nonetheless, the convent called St. Saviour's, was in being as recently as 1737 in a tradition repeated by this dedicated Order elsewhere. The tower and doorway of St. Saviour's still stand but some of the friary remnants have been included in a more recent residence. The Carmelites have a house and church in the village.

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Named for the power of its mills in the Blackwater river valley, Mullinavat's cosy situation is increased in tranquillity by the dominant Walsh Mountain. Where the sparkling tributary, the River Assy, meets the Blackwater an angle is formed and in that space there was an ancient court, later the castle of Inchacarrin. It was the home of Sean MacBhaiteir Breathnach (1580 - 1660) one of the most important and powerful gaelic poets of that age, the more intriguing in that he was of Welsh descent. (Breathnach is Irish for Welsh, a distinction spelt variously as Welsh, Walsh, Walshe or Wallace.)

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