Inislounaght Abbey

Inislounaght Abbey
Inscribed stone, thought to be grave marker of Crusader interred at Abbey.
Country	Ireland

Inislounaght Abbey, (Irish Inis Leamhnachta trans. 'island of the fresh milk'), also referred to as Innislounaght, Inislounacht and De Surio, was a 12th-century Cistercian settlement on the river Suir, near Clonmel in County Tipperary, Ireland. It was originally dedicated to the Blessed Virgin.

The abbey was founded between 1142 and 1148 on lands donated by Malachy O'Phelan lord of the Decies (part of which was in present-day County Waterford), and Donald O'Brien, king of Munster. It was located in rich agricultural land, about three kilometres west of Clonmel, on the northern bank of the river Suir. In 1240, a group of English monks from Furness Abbey were sent to replace the former abbot who had been excommunicated in 1234 following a legal dispute with the abbot of Dunbrody. Nine years later responsibility for the Abbey was transferred from Mellifont to Furness. In 1397, the Earls of Desmond and of Ormond met here to seal a treaty of peace. As with similar treaties between them, it did not last long.

In the 16th century, the Abbey lands came under the direct control of the Butler dynasty. According to Burke, "Amid the hundreds of religious houses which studded the country at the time of the Reformation, Innislounaght stood distinguished and alone in evil prominence".

That in the same quarter of Tipperary, how James Butler, Abbey of Inislounaght and Dean of Lismore, hath sundry times disobeyed the King's writ and is a man of odious life, taking yearly and daily men's wives and burgess' daughters and keepeth no divine service but spends the goods of his church in voluptuosity, and mortgages the lands of his church and so the house is all decayed , and useth coyne and livery.
From the Jury of the city of Waterford to the King's Commissioners. October 12 1537.