Manister parish is situated to the east of the town of Croom, that is close enough to the centre of county Limerick. It would be fair to say that it has struggled over the years to keep its identity as autonomous and equal to other parishes in the county. I have had occasion recently to check out the listed buildings contained in the ”Limerick County Development Plan” and of many listed within the parish, only one is deemed to be located in Manister and even then it is shown as Monasternenagh – there is no reference anywhere to Manister or Monaster. It is a small parish undoubtedly, but this is no reason to ignore its existence.
Early in 2000 a likeminded group got together for the purpose of documenting a history of the parish with the intention of presenting it in book form to the “church” for its jubilee year. At first glance it would appear that this was going to be a simple enough proposition as getting around this small parish was no big deal and we had all summer to do it. The jewel in the crown for this historical group as they set out was of course the Cistercian Abbey, founded here in 1148 by Turlough O’Brien, King of Munster, and if there was no more than this extensive ruin from whence Manister got its name to write about, surely, this was reason enough to embark on the project.
As we raced to the close of 2000 and yet more and more historical subjects coming to attention, pre Christian monuments; social upheavals; early Christian settlements, together with many others, some “more recent” shall we say, but of no less interest for those of us who seek knowledge of our own place. After some late nights and a hasty bundling of the material, and with a sigh of relief, it was handed over to the printer with instructions to get the whip out to meet our deadline. And while we admired some beautifully reproduced photographs, lovely text etc., the duplication and missed pages were never going to be a runner. With the disappointment of missing the deadline after a year’s hard work, there was one consolation; we had a glimpse of what was possible and we had a new whole year to do it!
The decade has now passed into history and the book is still in the making. We must be the only history group ever that met regularly for the first year of its existence and hasn’t met at all in the intervening ten years; well, not formally anyway. We do on occasion meet at funerals. For the impatient who wish to see the book, it is a bit of a nuisance but on the positive side, there is always that little bit of additional information to add to what is now a very large volume of work. If you were in discussion with someone like me who was retired when this project began and introduced the subject to them, you may well be greeted with a vacant expression and the query; “what history book?"
To be involved in this project was and still is exciting, not only for the reminder of what a rich heritage we have all about us, but what is of particular satisfaction to me and comes about largely because of being born and raised in this place and armed with the intimate knowledge of the terrain here and the experience of other investigators in similar circumstances and places, we have been able to unearth previously undocumented information in respect of our ancient and not so ancient past in Manister.
Can all this gathering of information over more than a decade be lost to the wider public? Well of course it can, and certainly so if it were to remain in jotters, copybooks, and computers even. History is made every day, and those of us that document it are history tomorrow!
If the outcome of all this data gathering is to end with the publication of a book, then the material has to be retained and jealously guarded to bring about the desired result – there is to be no drip feeding, and this has largely been the position over the past ten years – until now that is. I have decided to break with tradition and produce one item; one of very many, but one that will show how we went about our business; how we were able to resolve important and difficult issues and bring them to a satisfactory conclusion.
In posting this introductory piece to the “history item” below, it is my wish that everything will go according to plan. With this “introduction” I plan to publish a very beautiful photograph taken at Rathmore in the summer of 2000, it is of an ancient fort surrounded by bales of hay, with the Galtee Mountains in the background. I will now have to have a further look at the historical piece and see if I can post it after all?
This is Danny’s Quaint Ireland and it is Cóipcheart © Cois Má 2010
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