Ardpatrick an ancient abbey of which there is no historical account.
In the thirty second of Elizabeth, this abbey was found to be seized of the lands of Ballingowsee, Ballycowsynye, Ballnanyone and Bally gertayne, containing forty acres of the great measure annual value besides reprises 6s 8d.
In the thirty ninth of Elizabeth, it was found that the hill named Ardpatrick containing three acres of the large measure or twenty one of the small measure was in former times granted to the Corbeship or Termonland founded in the church of Ardpatrick that the said office of Corb or Erenach had continued by succession from time immemorial in the sept of the Langanes and that Maurice Langane was at that time the possessor.
There was a noble castle belonging to the FitzGeralds, earls of Desmond, situated on the river Askeaton in the barony of Conillo and on the river Deel formerly a walled town now a depopulated village. Many of the towns of Ireland owed their origin to the monasteries and since the destruction of those religious establishments those towns have gradually disappeared.
James the seventh earl of Desmond founded AD 1420 this monastery which adjoined the castle for conventual Franciscans. In 1490 it was reformed by the strict observants.
AD 1564 while persecution was raging in all its fury under Elizabeth, a provincial chapter of the order was held in the convent of Askeaton. It was soon after suppressed and in its ruins reminds the beholder of that tenacity with which the Irish Catholic has constantly adhered to the ancient faith and of the unavailing efforts of the persecutor to extinguish that creed.
