Qualla: Clonard Abbey https://qualla.com/clonard-abbey en-us © 2026 Bendyline Wed, 08 Jul 2026 02:40:12 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/e/0/clonard-abbey-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: Clonard Abbey https://qualla.com/clonard-abbey Clonard Abbey: Introduction https://qualla.com/clonard-abbey/ Photo credit Andreas F. Borchert, CC BY-SA 4.0. An angel told Saint Finnian where to build. The site was a stretch of meadow on the south bank of the Boyne in what is now County Meath, and the angel said this would be the place of his resurrection. Finnian arrived around the year 520, put up a single cell, and stayed. Within his lifetime, a hymn written in his honour claimed that 3,000 pupils were studying at Clonard at any given time. Most of what remains today is visible only from the air - a faint geometry of vanished walls in the green field, marking where one of the great monastic schools of Christian Europe used to be.

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Image: Andreas F. Borchert | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/e/0/clonard-abbey-wp/gce0-clonard-abbey-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Clonard Abbey: The Saint and His School https://qualla.com/clonard-abbey/ Photo credit CC BY-SA 3.0. Finnian was well-travelled before he came to the Boyne. He had studied at Tours in France, the great centre of Western monasticism, and at Llancarfan in Wales. He brought both traditions home with him - a continental discipline laid over a Welsh emphasis on learning - and built C...

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Image: CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/e/0/clonard-abbey-wp/gce0-clonard-abbey-the-saint-and-his-school.mp3 0:06 2 full Clonard Abbey: On the Esker Riada https://qualla.com/clonard-abbey/ Photo credit Sarah777 at English Wikipedia, Public domain. The location was not random. Clonard sat on the Esker Riada, a ridge of gravel left by the retreating glaciers and used since prehistoric times as Ireland's main east-west road. Travellers heading from Dublin to Galway, or from the kingdom of Leinster to the kingdom of Connacht, ...

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Image: Sarah777 at English Wikipedia | Public domain

]]> Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/e/0/clonard-abbey-wp/gce0-clonard-abbey-on-the-esker-riada.mp3 0:06 3 full Clonard Abbey: Burnt, Rebuilt, Burnt Again https://qualla.com/clonard-abbey/ Photo credit Trounce, CC BY-SA 2.5. Part of Finnian's abbey burned in 764, before the raiders had even arrived. In 838 the Danes destroyed the place outright and put the surviving clergy to the sword. They returned in 888 to do it again. In 939, Ceallachan, King of Cashel, came up from the south with Danish allies ...

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Image: Trounce | CC BY-SA 2.5

]]> Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/e/0/clonard-abbey-wp/gce0-clonard-abbey-burnt-rebuilt-burnt-again.mp3 0:06 4 full Clonard Abbey: What the Field Remembers https://qualla.com/clonard-abbey/ Photo credit William Wilde, Public domain. Today, if you drive the N4 west out of Dublin and turn off near the village of Clonard, you reach a quiet stretch of road, a parish church, and a field that looks like any other field in Meath. From the air, the outlines of long-vanished walls and earthworks are still visible as ...

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Image: William Wilde | Public domain

]]> Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/e/0/clonard-abbey-wp/gce0-clonard-abbey-what-the-field-remembers.mp3 0:06 5 full