DOWNPATRICK, an unincorporated
borough, market, and post-town, and parish, in the barony of LECALE,
county of DOWN, (of which it is the chief town,) and province of ULSTER 18
miles (S. E. by S.) from Belfast,
and 74 (N.) from Dublin. This
place, which was anciently the residence of the native kings of Ullagh or
Ulidia, was originally named ‘Aras-celtair’ and ‘Rath-Keltair,’ one signifying
the house and the other the castle or fortification of Celtair, the son
of Duach; by Ptolemy it was called ‘Dunum.’
Its present name is derived from its situation on a hill, and from its having
been the chosen residence of St. Patrick, who, on his arrival here in 432,
founded in its vicinity the abbey of Saul, and, shortly after, an abbey of
regular canons near the ancient ‘Doon’ or fort, the site of which was granted
to him by Dichu, start of Trichem, lord of the country, whom he had converted
to the Christian faith. St. Patrick
presided over these religious establishments till his death in 493, and was
interred in the abbey here, in which also the remains of St.
Bridget and St. Columbkill, the two other tutelar saints of Ireland, were
subsequently deposited.
The trail of St Patrick
St Patrick was born in Roman
Britain, where his father was a deacon. When he was about 16, he was
captured and taken as a slave to Ireland. He went back to Britain,
but summoned by a vision, (druids)
he returned as a missionary [Whithorn,
Sodor and Man, Peel,
German ,
Ballysally,
Douglas, Maughold;
the Celto-Latin church].
The rest is legend, mostly written down between AD 600 and 900. Patrick
is said to have returned to Ireland in AD 432. In the fifth century,
Clogher was the
Seate of the first Bishopric in Ireland. The first Bishop was St.
MacCartan, one of St. Patrick’s disciples. The Cathedral at the end
of the high street is named in his honour. The Cathedral still houses
one of the famous ’three stones of Erin’ to this day.
Stories link him to many parts of the island, including a cluster
of sites on the southern shore of Strangford Lough, Co Down. Patrick
is said to have sailed into Strangford
Lough, landing at the mouth of a small river, the Slaney. Today,
it is accessible via a footpath signposted as ‘Saint Patrick’s Way’.
Patrick met the chieftain, Dichu, who became his first convert. Dichu
gave Patrick a barn two miles away at Saul, sabhall meaning ‘barn’
in Irish. This became Patrick’s first church. The hill above the village
of SAUL is an ancient religious site. Its early Christian monastery
was burnt by the Vikings. It was later replaced by a medieval abbey,
but plundered by Edward Bruce. As Patrick neared death, he received
the sacrament from Bishop Tassach, whose church was at RAHOLP, two
miles east of Saul. Raholp is near two raths, or defended farmsteads,
and its Irish name, Ráth Cholpa, means ‘fort of the steer or
heifer’.
The ruins of a small church still stand in a field. Between Saul
and Raholp is SLIEVE PATRICK. Sliabh means ‘mountain’ in Irish and
it was previously known as Slievewilliam. In a secluded valley south
of Saul is STRUELL WELLS, from the Irish An tSruthail, meaning
‘the stream’. A ruined church stands enclosed by a stone wall. Two
holy wells are protected by stone huts, filled by an underground stream
called the Slán, meaning ‘health’. The monastic site of NEDRUM,
near Comber, is
an island reached by causeways. It is associated with Patrick through
its founder, St Mochaoi. According to legend, Patrick saw Mochaoi,
‘a tender youth herding swine’, and baptised him. Beside the River
Quoile, west of Downpatrick, are the ruins of INCH
ABBEY. John de Courcy founded this Cistercian abbey, on the site
of an earlier monastery, around 1180. A monk named Jocelin was commissioned
by de Courcy to write a new version of Patrick’s life, suitable for
readers of Norman French.
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The town was constantly exposed to the ravages of the Danes, by whom
it was plundered and burnt six or seven times between the years 940
and 1111; and on all these occasions the cathedral was pillaged by
them.
In 1177, John de Courcy took possession of the town, then the residence
of Mac Dunleve, Prince of Ullagh, who, unprepared for defence against
an invasion so unexpected, fled precipitately. De Courcy fortified
himself here, and maintained his position against all the efforts
of Mac Dunleve, aided by the native chieftains, for its recovery.
In 1183, he displaced the canons and substituted a society of Benedictine
monks from the abbey of St.
Werburgh at Chester. Both he and Bishop Malachy III.; endowed
the abbey with large revenues; and in 1186 they sent an embassy to
Pope Urban III. to obtain a bull for translating into shrines the
sacred reliques of the three saints above named, which was performed
with great solemnity by the pope's nuncio in the same year.
De Courcy having espoused the claims of Prince Arthur, Duke of Brittany,
assumed, in common with other English barons who had obtained extensive
settlements in Ireland, an independent state, and renounced his allegiance
to King John, who summoned him to appear and do homage.
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In 1205, Hugh de Lacy was made Earl of Ulster, and for a while fixed his
residence at the castle erected here by De Courcy. In 1245, part of the abbey
was thrown down and the walls of the cathedral much. damaged by an earthquake.
A desperate battle was fought in the streets of this town, in 1259, between
Stephen de Longespee and the chief of the O'Neils, in which the latter and
352 of his men were slain. Edward Bruce, in his invasion of Ulster, in 1315,
having marched hither, plundered and destroyed the abbey, and burnt part of
the town: he again plundered the town three years afterwards, and on that
occasion caused himself to be proclaimed King of Ireland at the cross near
the cathedral.
| To subdue the opposition raised by the stealthy abbots of
this district, under Primate Cromer,
against the spiritual supremacy of Hen. VIII., Lord Grey, then lord-deputy,
marched with a powerful army into Lecale,
took Dundrum and seven other castles, and in May 1532, having defaced
the monuments of the three patron saints and perpetrated other acts of
sacrilege, set fire to the cathedral and the town; three years afterwards,
this act was made one of the charges on which he was impeached and beheaded.
On the surrender of the abbey m 1539, its possessions with those of the
other religious establishments in the town, were granted to Gerald,
eleventh Earl of Kildare. In 1552, the town was plundered and partially
destroyed by Con O'Neil, Earl of Tyrone; and two years afterwards it was
assaulted by his son Shane, who destroyed its gates and ramparts. |
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Downpatrick had a corporation at an early period, the existence of which
is recognised in 1403, when letters of protection were granted to it by Hen.
IV., under the title of the “Mayor, Bailiffs, and Commonalty of the city of
Down, in Ulster." The borough returned two members to the Irish parliament
so early as 1585.
During the war of 1641, the Protestants of the surrounding district having
fled hither for protection, the town was attacked by the Irish under the command
of Col. Bryan O'Neil, who burnt a magnificent castle erected by Lord Okeham,
and committed a great slaughter of the townsmen; many that escaped were afterwards
massacred at Killyleagh. The town is built upon a group of little hills, on
the south shore of the western branch of Lough Cone or Strangford
Lough, and consists of four principal streets rising with a steep ascent
from the market-place in the centre, and intersected by several smaller streets
and lanes : on the eastern side the hills rise abruptly behind it, commanding
views of a fertile and well cultivated tract abounding with richly diversified
and picturesque scenery. It is divided according to ancient usage into three
districts, called respectively the English, Irish, and Scottish quarters,
arid contains about 900 houses, most of which are well built: tile streets
are well paved, and were first lighted with oil in 1830; and the inhabitants
are amply supplied with water.
An Ancient ferry across the western arm of Strangford lough connected this
town with the neighbourhood to the north until a bridge was erected about
one mile from the town, with a tower gate-house upon it, which was destroyed
and the bridge itself greatly damaged in 1641. A public library and news-room
was erected by subscription in 1825; and races are held in July alternately
with Hillsborough,
under charter of Jas. II., on an excellent course one mile south of the town.
The members of the Down Hunt hold their annual meetings in a handsome building
in English street, called the County Rooms, which is also used for county
meetings, &c.