Cloyne

Cloyne, a small market town of Co. Cork, Ireland, in the east parliamentary division, 15 m. E.S.E. of the city of Cork. Pop. (1901) 827. It gives its name to a Roman Catholic diocese, the cathedral of which is at Queenstown. Cloyne was the seat of a Protestant diocese until 1835, when it was united to that of Cork. It was originally a foundation of the 6th century. The cathedral church, dedicated to its founder St Colman, a disciple of St Finbar of Cork, is a plain cruciform building mainly of the 14th century, with an earlier oratory in the churchyard. It contains a few handsome monuments to its former bishops, but until 1890, when a monument was erected, had nothing to preserve the memory of the illustrious Dr George Berkeley, who held the see from 1734 to 1753. Opposite the cathedral is a very fine round tower 100 ft. in height, though the conical roof has long been destroyed. The Roman Catholic church is a spacious building of the early 19th century. The town was several times plundered by the Danes in the 9th century; it was laid waste by Dermot O’Brien in 1071, and was burned in 1137\. In 1430 the bishopric was united to that of Cork; in 1638 it again became independent, and in 1660 it was again united to Cork and Ross. In 1678 it was once more declared independent, and so continued till 1835. The name, Cluain-Uamha, signifies “the meadow of the cave,” from the curious limestone caves in the vicinity. The Pipe Roll of Cloyne, compiled by Bishop Swaffham in 1364, is a remarkable record embracing a full account of the feudal tenures of the see, the nature of the impositions, and the duties the puri homines Sancti Colmani were bound to perform at a very early period. The roll is preserved in the record office, Dublin. It was edited by Richard Caulfield in 1859.

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