Killeshin

Killeshin{{cite book|author=Samuel Lewis|title=A topographical dictionary of Ireland: comprising the several counties, cities, boroughs corporate, market, and post towns, parishes and villages ... : With an appendix describing the electoral boundaries of the several boroughs as defined by the act of the 2d. and 3d. of William IV.|url=https://archive.org/details/b22012333_0002|year=1840|publisher=Lewis|pages=[https://archive.org/details/b22012333_0002/page/143 143]–}} derives its English name from the Irish Cill Uisean. The place itself was named after one of the abbots of its famous monastery - Uisin or Uise. The place's name translates as "the Cell/church of Uise."

File:Romanesque Doorway Killishen - geograph.org.uk - 425807.jpg

Killeshin was an important centre for learning and culture as early as the 6th or 7th century when a monastery was founded there by either St. Comgan or St. Diarmait.{{cite book|author=John Lanigan|title=An Ecclesiastical History of Ireland: From the First Introduction of Christianity among the Irish to the Beginning of the Thirteenth Century|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SrpJAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA88|year=1822|publisher=Graisberry|pages=88–}}{{cite book|author=Saint Adamnan|title=The Life of St. Columba, Founder of Hy|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3mQJAAAAQAAJ&pg=PR70|year=1857|publisher=Printed at the University Press for the Irish Archaeological and Celtic Society|pages=70–}}{{cite book|author1=Wendy Davies|author2=Paul Fouracre|title=The Settlement of Disputes in Early Medieval Europe|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Hy4jDmhiDmYC&pg=PA171|date=23 April 1992|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-42895-8|pages=171–}}{{cite book|title=Christian Inscriptions in the Irish Language|url=https://archive.org/details/ChristianInscriptionsInIrishV1|year=1872|publisher=Royal Historical and Archaeological Assoc. of Ireland|pages=[https://archive.org/details/ChristianInscriptionsInIrishV1/page/n23 19]–}}

There are a number of references to Comgan and Diarmait in The Martyrology of Oengus the Culdee (1905) which state:

:February 27 Feast of Comgan...Comgan son of Diarmait...{{cite web|url=https://archive.org/stream/martyrologyofoen29oenguoft#page/78/mode/2up |title=The Martyrology of Oengus the Culdee (pg 78) |website=Archive.org |date=2010-01-17 |access-date=2017-01-07}}

:July 8 Feast of Diarmait...Modimoc...Glenn Uissen...{{cite web|url=https://archive.org/stream/martyrologyofoen29oenguoft#page/168/mode/2up |title=The Martyrology of Oengus the Culdee (pg 168) |website=Archive.org |date=2010-07-21 |access-date=2017-01-07}}

:Index of persons - Comgan, son of Diarmait, feb 27, of Glenn Uissen...{{cite web|url=https://archive.org/stream/martyrologyofoen29oenguoft#page/410/mode/2up |title=The Martyrology of Oengus the Culdee (pg 410) |website=Archive.org |date=2010-07-21 |access-date=2017-01-07}}

Killeshin or Gleann Uissen, was early known as a great scriptorium. In the Annals of the Four Masters the stratum of Leinster material of the 9th–11th centuries may have been originated at Killeshin.

While some four kilometres north west lie the ruins of Sleaty – Sleibthe,{{cite book|author=Elva Johnston|title=Literacy and Identity in Early Medieval Ireland|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RTARAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA56|date=15 August 2013|publisher=Boydell Press|isbn=978-1-84383-855-5|pages=56–}}{{cite book|author=Various|title=The Most Ancient Lives of Saint Patrick|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=eCtnoLCeR3cC&pg=PT110|access-date=13 December 2012|publisher=Library of Alexandria|isbn=978-1-61310-864-2|pages=110–}} home to reputedly the first bishop of Leinster – St.Fiacc (c418-498)

Killeshin Church is located off the main Carlow-Castlecomer road, adjacent to Killeshin village itself. The church at Killeshin is largely from the 12th century, although some parts show evidence of later rebuilding, including a late Gothic east window

The ancient monastery was destroyed in the 11th century and all that remains is a beautifully carved 12th-century doorway: one of the finest examples of hiberno-Romanesque architecture in Ireland.

No trace remains of the 105 ft round tower believed to have once been the tallest in Ireland which stood next to the monastery, it was demolished by an 18th-century landowner who was afraid that the tower could collapse and injure his cattle.{{cite book|author=Kilkenny and South-East of Ireland Archaeological Society|title=The Journal of the Kilkenny and South-East of Ireland Archaeological Society|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RcdJAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA303|year=1864|page=303}}{{cite book|author1=Joseph Kennedy|author2=Seosamh Ó Cinnéide|title=The Monastic Heritage & Folklore of County Laois|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SYIiAQAAIAAJ|date=1 January 2003|publisher=Lisheen Publications|isbn=978-0-9542331-5-0}} It is said that ten counties can be seen from atop Slievemargy, the hill above Killeshin.

From January 1st, 2023 Local Link route 897 Kilkenny - Carlow - Athy serves the village several times daily.

Until April 2019 the village was served by the Buggy Coaches Castlecomer-Crettyard-Carlow bus route with one journey into Carlow in the morning and one back in the afternoon.[http://www.journeyplanner.transportforireland.ie/nta/TTB/EFA03__00006299_TP.pdf ]{{dead link|date=January 2017}} On Saturdays there were two journeys each way.

The nearest rail services may be accessed at Carlow railway station approximately 6 kilometres distant.

Killeshin GAA is the local Gaelic Athletic Association club.

"Killeshin", a racehorse named after the village, competed in the Grand National steeplechase twice in the 1990s, finishing a remounted sixth in the 1998 Grand National.{{cite book|author=Stan Hey|title=An Arm And Four Legs: A Journey into Racehorse Ownership|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cWSk4VO-_yUC&pg=PT22|date=31 May 2012|publisher=Random House|isbn=978-1-4481-3923-1|pages=22–}}

There are a number of fishing spots in Ballyhide, and the River Barrow is nearby.{{citation needed|date=January 2020}}

• List of towns and villages in Ireland

{{Reflist}}

• [http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~irlcar2/Founding_of_Killeshin.htm "The Founding of Killeshin" - Rootsweb.ancestry.com]
• [http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~irlcar2/Land_of_Saints.htm "Killeshin - Land of Saints" - Rootsweb.ancestry.com]
• {{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ogQ-AAAAcAAJ&dq=killeshin+history&pg=PA376 |title=The History and Antiquities of the County of Carlow |author=John Ryan |year=1833 |page=376 |access-date=2017-01-07}}

{{County Laois}}

Category:Towns and villages in County Laois

Category:Townlands of County Laois

Category:Civil parishes of County Laois