Ирландиядағы Мо́настерэвин қаласының тарихы мен географиясы

Town in County Kildare, Ireland

Monasterevin , also Monasterevan, and Mevin is a town in County Kildare, Ireland. The town lies on the River Barrow and the Barrowline, a canal branch of the Grand Canal. In the 20 years between the 2002 and 2022 census, the population of Monasterevin more than doubled, from 2,583 to 5,307 inhabitants. Evidence of the early Stone Age is sketchy but there are traces of Neolithic man in the area. A dolmen, now collapsed, once marked the burial of some important tribal potentate in a local townland. During the Barrow drainage, hundreds of stone axe heads were found on the river bed at each of the three major crossing points that occur within the town. Their presence may indicate the importance of Monasterevin as a fording point on the mystical Baru. Neolithic travellers may have sacrificed the valuable axe heads to the spirit of the Barrow or Baru. Or they may have been placed in the shallow water to mark the significance of crossing the boundary between two peoples. The Bronze Age in Monasterevin was the age of the small farmer as evidenced by several earthwork enclosures. One such is the earthwork enclosure just above the town referred to as the Aquafort, resting as it does on the spit of land where the River Figile joins the River Barrow. At the time it would have been in use the water level was much higher meaning that approaching the defences was more difficult. The pattern of fortified settlement continues into the Iron Age. We also know that by this time the bogland around Monasterevin was fully formed. Traversing these areas would have been difficult but the importance of the fords on the Barrow meant that some solution had to be found. The equivalent of the M7 motorway was needed and indeed it was provided by what is known as "The Danes Road". It was built by laying large rough hewn planks and a foundation of brushwood on boggy ground. This base spread the weight of the gravel layer on top, allowing the roads to be used by chariots. St. Brigid is said to have ordered the construction of such a road.

Saint Abban of New Ross, a contemporary of Saint Patrick, established a monastic settlement by the banks of the River Barrow at Rosglas and gave it into the charge of his protégé Evin (Éimhín; the name is a diminutive of the adjective eimh "swift, active", Latinized Eminus). Saint Evin brought a number of monks with him from his native Munster. This gained the settlement the name Rosglos na Moinneach (the greenwood of the Munstermen). Saint Evin was politically astute; today he would be called a spin doctor. He secured special status for the Monasterevin area placing it outside the common law, making it a sanctuary. His famous bell was used for swearing oaths and was much in demand by tribes of the region for guaranteeing peace treaties. St. Evin also co authored the "Tripartite Life of St. Patrick". Other writing by Evin survives including the "Cain Emhin". Although St. Evin's monastery died out about the time of the Viking raids in Ireland, its importance continued. In 903 AD, the Battle of Ballaghmoon was fought for the ownership of the church. The next religious establishment on the site was in the 12th century when the Cistercian Abbey was founded under the patronage of Dermot O’Dempsey. This began a long connection with Mellifont in County Louth the Cistercian motherhouse overall Ireland and Baltinglass in County Wicklow, the motherhouse of Monasterevin. At this time the O’Dempseys were the rulers of the area, which was part of the territory of Clanmaliere. The O’Dempseys remained involved with the Abbey providing the last abbot in Monasterevin Hugh O’Dempsey. Once again the importance of Monasterevin as a crossing point on the Barrow asserted itself and the town came under the opposing influences of the O’Mores of Laois, the Hiberno Norman Earls of Kildare and the English Pale. Abbots of Monasterevin, therefore, had to inherit St. Evin's talent for politics. Abbots of Monasterevin held a seat in the Irish Parliament while assisting outlaws and rebels against the crown of England. By 1427 Rosglas had fallen on hard times and in 1541 the Abbey was handed over to Henry VIII of England as part of his reformation. He, in turn, leased it to his nobles. During the Elizabethan period, there were several occupants including Sir Robert Devereaux, Earl of Essex after whom Essex Bridge is named (commonly called the Pass Bridge because he passed over it on his way to his disastrous campaign against the native Irish in Munster). It is not recorded whether he passed that way again on his way to be beheaded at the Tower of London.

King James I granted the Abbey and demesne of Rosglas at Monasterevin to Sir Adam Loftus in 1613. The Earls of Drogheda married into the Loftus family. Charles Lord Moore Earl of Drogheda married Jane Loftus in 1699. Their son Edward became the Fourth Earl who sold the Mellifont estates and transferred the family seat to Monasterevin. The coming of the Moores marks an important point in the history of Monasterevin. Its rise as the "Venice of Ireland" was encouraged by the many improvement works undertaken by the family and the influx of a mixed Protestant and Catholic merchant class. The First Earl had laid out the streets at the centre of Dublin, Drogheda Street (O'Connell Street), Moore Street, Henry Street, and Mary Street. His descendants continued this tradition of town planning by laying out the grid pattern of the town with the parallel Main Street and Drogheda Street which were connected by several crossing streets and lanes, some of which have disappeared. Monasterevin has an unusual number of Bridges giving rise to its nickname of the Venice of Ireland. Arriving in 1786, the Grand Canal lends support to this name. Originally the spur connecting the mainline the Barrow in Athy was carried down the bank by locks into Barrow and up the other side. The Grand Canal allowed the local distilling industry to flourish. The captains of this industry were the Cassidy Family whose whisky and their St. Patrick Cross Pale Ale became world famous. The wealth they acquired gave them considerable influence in the locality. In 1798, Cassidy was the local magistrate. On 25 May 1798, insurgents from the surrounding countryside marched on the town of Monasterevin in an attempt to capture it. The Battle of Monasterevin took place in the Main Street opposite St. John's church, which had been fortified by local yeomanry and militiamen. A charge by the Monasterevin Yeomanry Cavalry routed the insurgents. Later in the year Fr. Edward Prendergast was arrested and condemned to death for ministering to the insurgents in their camp in Iron Hill near Nurney. He was hanged in the garden of Monasterevin House and buried there. Captain Padraig O’Bierne and a group of Derryoughter boatmen stole into the town under cover of darkness and removed the body to his home place of Harristown.

The 19th century was marked by further improvements to the town infrastructure including the building of a new Town Bridge in 1832 and the arrival of the railway. The area was largely unaffected by the widespread mass evictions of the era, the Droghedas being generally regarded as good landlords. An aqueduct built in 1826 carries the Grand Canal over the River Barrow, preceded by a lift drawbridge where the R424 main road crosses the Barrowline branch of the Grand Canal, the only such main road bridge to do so on the Grand Canal. Monasterevin is noted for its unusually high number of bridges in such a small semi rural area, earning it the name of Venice of Ireland. The Great Famines of the 1840s also left the area relatively un ravaged. The poet Gerard Manley Hopkins visited the town on seven occasions.

On 2 July 1903, the Gordon Bennett Cup ran through Monsterevin. It was the first international motor race to be held in either Ireland or Great Britain. The Automobile Club of Great Britain and Ireland wanted the race to be hosted in Britain or Ireland, and Ireland was suggested as the venue because racing was illegal on British public roads. After some lobbying, Kildare was chosen, partly because the straightness of the roads was seen as a safety benefit. As a compliment to Ireland, the British team chose to race in Shamrock green which thus became known as British racing green.