The tenor and Moore Abbey
John McCormack
John McCormack was born in Athlone in 1884 and became one of the most celebrated voices in the world — opera, oratorio, Irish song, American popular music. He performed at Carnegie Hall, sang for two popes, and recorded hundreds of records. From 1925 to 1937 he lived at Moore Abbey, the Gothic revival house on the edge of Monasterevin, with his wife Lily and their children. He recorded albums in the Great Hall. In 1931 he filmed scenes there for 'Song of My Heart', the first sound film made in Ireland. He was created a Papal Count in 1928 — hence 'Count McCormack'. He died in 1945 and is buried at Glasnevin Cemetery in Dublin. Moore Abbey is now the Muiríosa Foundation. The town holds the memory quietly.
Seven visits, one phrase that survives them all
Gerard Manley Hopkins
Hopkins visited Monasterevin at least seven times between 1886 and 1888, staying with the Cassidy family at Monasterevin House. He was at the time a Jesuit priest in Dublin, teaching at University College, and largely miserable — the city exhausted him, his poetry was going nowhere he could see, and his health was poor. Monasterevin was where he recovered. He called the place and its hospitality 'one of the props and struts of my existence'. He died in Dublin in 1889, aged 44. His poetry was published posthumously by his friend Robert Bridges in 1918, and by then it was clear that Hopkins had been one of the most original poets of the Victorian era. The Monasterevin Hopkins Society has run an annual festival celebrating the connection since 1988, typically in late July.
Canal over river, built in the 1820s
The aqueduct
The Grand Canal reached Monasterevin in 1786, but the problem of crossing the River Barrow remained awkward for decades — boats had to be lowered into the river and then hauled back up, which was slow and unreliable. The solution was the limestone aqueduct completed in 1827/28, built by the contractors Henry, Mullins and McMahon. Three arches carry the canal over the Barrow, high enough for river traffic to pass beneath. A manually operated drawbridge at the road crossing functioned until 1982 — the only such drawbridge on the entire Grand Canal system. Stand at the towpath at the south end of town and the strangeness of the thing is apparent: the river is below you, the canal is at your feet, and they are the same water at different heights with different purposes.
The monastery that named the town
Saint Eimhín and Rosglas
In the sixth century, a monk from Munster named Eimhín established a monastic settlement at this River Barrow crossing, at a place called Rosglas — 'green wood'. The settlement gained sanctuary status, placing it outside common law, and the fame of Eimhín's bell spread across the surrounding territory. Vikings destroyed the original monastery in the ninth century. The Cistercians built a substantial abbey on the site in 1189, founded under the patronage of Dermot O'Dempsey — the Abbey of Rosglas became one of the wealthier religious houses in Leinster, with its abbots holding seats in the Irish Parliament. The abbey was surrendered to Henry VIII in 1541. The town's name is the memorial: Mainistir Eimhín, the monastery of Eimhín.