ERENAGH abbey, Down was was founded in 1127 by Niall Mac Dunlevi, king of Ulster. It was the first abbey of an order, recognized by Rome, to be established in Ireland after 1111. The abbey was in the diocese of Down which meant that it came under the jurisdiction of St. Malachy, and must therefore have been approved by him. It is thought that Malachy visited the Savigniac community at Tulketh (before its removal to Furness) in 1126-7 and made arrangements with the abbot in lieu of a foundation in Ireland. Upon his return to Ireland he persuaded Niall Mac Dunlevi, who was killed in 1127, to be the founder of Erenagh. A colony of monks arrived in the same year, although it is not known whether they arrived from Tulketh or came directly from Savigny.

In 1147 the order of Savigny was united with the house of Citeaux, and the community at Erenagh and Inch Abbey joined the Cistercian Order as a daughter house of Furness. When Evodius, the first abbot of Erenagh, was dying he asked the brethren to bury him at Inch, foretelling that his abbey would be there after Erenagh had been destroyed.

DOWNPATRICK CATHEDRAL, COUNTY DOWN. -The Cathedral or Downpatrick is built, according to tradition, on the ancient church in which were deposited the remains of St. Patrick-McGee, in his History of Ireland, says he was burried at Armagh-St. Bridget and St. Columbkill. It was destroyed by fire during the wars of Edward Bruce against the English, in the early part of the Fourteenth century; was restored in 1412 and again burned by Lord Deputy De Grey in 1538. Its final restoration was begun in 1790. The edifice is an imposing and massive one-the chief material being "rock-faced" stone.

The building is strongly buttressed and comprises a nave, choir and aisles. The tower, embattled and pinnacled, can be seen from a great distance, as the structure stands on an elevation. Interiorly, it is magnificently finished. The windows of the aisles are divided by a single mullion and the splendid east window, divided into twelve compartments, is said to be all of the original church that remains. Near the Cathedral is situated the gigantic rath, called in Gaelic Dunlethglas-Dun of the Broken Fetters-vulgarized to "Down," with the name of Patrick added, to show the connection of the Saint with the locality. The "dun" is 60 feet high and three-fourths of a mile in circumference, including outworks. [COMBER, Down]