Qualla: Monasterevin

Monasterevin: Introduction

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Wanfried-Dublin, CC BY-SA 4.0. In 1826, Irish canal engineers did something audacious. They carried the Grand Canal over the River Barrow on a stone aqueduct - one waterway flying above another, sixty feet of arch and parapet, with boats moving in two different directions on two different elevations. They added a lift drawbridge where the R424 main road crosses the Barrowline. The result is Monasterevin: a small town in County Kildare with more bridges per resident than almost anywhere in Ireland, nicknamed the Venice of Ireland for reasons that become clear the moment you stand on Main Street and watch the water flow in three different planes around you.

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Image: Wanfried-Dublin | CC BY-SA 4.0

Monasterevin: The Spin Doctor Saint

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Alan James, CC BY-SA 2.0. In the sixth century, Saint Abban of New Ross - a contemporary of Patrick - founded a monastery at a place called Rosglas, on a curve of the Barrow. He put it in the charge of his protégé, a young monk named Evin. The name comes from the Irish word eimh, meaning swift or active; ...

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Image: Alan James | CC BY-SA 2.0

Monasterevin: The Earls Who Built the Streets

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Jonathan Thacker, CC BY-SA 2.0. Saint Evin's monastery faded around the time of the Viking raids. A Cistercian abbey took over in the twelfth century, under the patronage of Dermot O'Dempsey. The abbots of Monasterevin held seats in the Irish Parliament while quietly assisting rebels against the English crown -...

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Image: Jonathan Thacker | CC BY-SA 2.0

Monasterevin: Whiskey, Canal, Rebellion

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Sarah777 at English Wikipedia, Public domain. The Grand Canal arrived in 1786, connecting Monasterevin directly to Dublin and points west. The town became a transport hub overnight, and the Cassidy family built a distilling empire on the back of cheap canal freight. Cassidy whiskey and St. Patrick Cross Pale Ale travelled th...

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Image: Sarah777 at English Wikipedia | Public domain

Monasterevin: British Racing Green

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Robert Linsdell from St. Andrews, Canada, CC BY 2.0. On 2 July 1903, the Gordon Bennett Cup ran through Monasterevin. It was the first international motor race ever held on the islands of Britain or Ireland, organized by the Automobile Club of Great Britain and Ireland because racing was illegal on British public roads. Kildare was...

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Image: Robert Linsdell from St. Andrews, Canada | CC BY 2.0

Monasterevin: Hopkins on the Bridge

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Colin Park, CC BY-SA 2.0. Gerard Manley Hopkins - the English Jesuit poet of "The Windhover" and "Pied Beauty," the inventor of sprung rhythm, the most original lyric voice in Victorian verse - visited Monasterevin seven times in his final years. He had been posted to University College Dublin in 1884, an...

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Image: Colin Park | CC BY-SA 2.0