LISMORE, an island of 9600 acres, about 10 miles long and averaging 1∣ miles broad, with a population in 1881 of 630, lying south-west and north-east at the entrance of the Linnhe Loch in Argyllshire, Scotland. The name means the great enclosure (whether “garden,” as the Scotch, . or “fort,” as the Irish authorities suppose, is uncertain), and occurs in Ireland in the Waterford Lismore and ten other places. “Lis” is one of the most frequent words in compound Irish names, there being one thousand four hundred townlands or villages which begin with it. A Columban monastery was founded there by St Moluag about 592 (Reeves, Adam n a n , p. 34), whose bell is perhaps that found in 1814 at Kilmichael Glassary, and whose crozier or staff is in the possession of the duke of
Argyll. About 1200 the see of Argyll was separated from Dunkeld by Bishop John “the Englishman,” and Lismore soon after became the seat of the bishop of Argyll, sometimes called “Episcopus Lismoriensis” (Skene, Celtic Scotland, ii. p. 408 sq.), quite distinct from the bishop of the Isles (Sudreys and Isle of Man), called “Episcopus Sodoriensis” or “Insularum,” whose see was divided into the English bishopric of Sodor and Man and the Scottish bishopric of the Isles in the 14th century (Keith’s Catalogue, p. 173). The monastic establishment of Lismore, at one time consisting of Culdees (Reeves, Cul∙ dees, p. 49), was converted into a chapter of canons regular and a dean, whose right to elect the bishop was recognized as early as 1249 (Baluze, Miscel., vii. p. 442; Orig. Paroch. Scot., ii. pt. 1, p. 161)....
Lismore has an accidental celebrity from the Book of the Dean of Lismore, a MS. collection of poems, Gaelic and English, made by James M‘Gregor, vicar of Fortingall and dean of Lismore (1514-51). A selection of the Gaelic poems, with translations by Rev. T. M ‘Lauchlan, and introduction by Mr W. F. Skene, published 1862, is of value both for the language and the contents. The language is the Gaelic of the West Highlands, spelt phonetically, as spoken in the beginning of the 16th century, and its variations from ancient Irish on the one hand and modern Gaelic on the other are of much interest to Celtic scholars. Its contents are Ossianic fragments, some of Irish, others of Scotch origin, and a few more recent Gaelic verses. The publication of this work, and J. F. Campbell of Islay’s collection from oral sources of the existing traditional Gaelic poetry, have for the first time given a genuine historical solution of the Ossianic problem (see Ossian). There are remains of three castles on Lismore :—at Tireforr a fort of two concentric circles of dry stones, supposed to be Norse or Danish; at Achindown a square keep with walls 40 feet high, believed to be the palace of the bishop; and on the west side of the island Castle Corffin, mentioned in a grant to Campbell of Glenurqhay in 1470 (Orig. Par. Sc., ii. p. 109).
LISMORE, a market-town and seat of a diocese, partly in Cork but chiefly in Waterford, Ireland, is beautifully situated on a steep eminence rising abruptly from the Blackwater, 40 miles west-south-west of Waterford. At the verge of the rock on the western side is the old baronial castle, erected by King John in 1185, which was the residence of the bishops till the 16 th century. It was besieged in 1641 and 1643, and in 1645 it was partly destroyed by fire. To the east, on the summit of the height, is the cathedral of St Carthagh, erected in 1663 by the earl of Cork, in the Later English style, with a square tower surmounted by a tapering spire. There are a grammar school, a free school, and a number of charities. Some trade is carried on by means of the river, and there is a salmon fishery. The population of the town in 1871 was 1946.
The original name of Lismore was Maghsoiath. Its present name was derived from a monastery, founded by St Carthagh in 633, which became so celebrated as a seat of learning that it is said no less than twenty churches were erected in its vicinity. In the 9th and beginning of the 10th centuries the town was repeatedly plundered by the Danes, and in 978 the town and abbey were burned by the Ossorians. Henry II., after landing at Waterford, received in Lismore castle the allegiance of the archbishops and bishops of Ireland. In 1518 the manor was granted to Sir Walter Raleigh, from whom it passed to Sir Richard Boyle, afterwards earl of Cork. From the earls of Cork it descended by marriage to the dukes of Devonshire. It was incorporated as a municipal borough in the time of Charles I., when it also received the privilege of returning members to parliament, but at the Union it was disfranchised, and also ceased to exercise its municipal functions. Lismore is the birthplace of Robert Boyle, but its claim to be the birthplace of Congreve does not rest on a sufficient foundation.
[510 words — estimated reading time: 3 minutes]