ecclesiastical building in Ireland, having a length from east to west of 226 ft., and a breadth along the transepts from north to south of 123 ft. It occupies an eminence at the western extremity of Irishtown. It is a cruciform structure mainly in Early English style, with a low massive tower supported on clustered columns of the black marble peculiar to the district. The building was extensively restored in 1865. It contains many old sepulchral monuments and other ancient memorials. The north transept incorporates the parish church. The adjacent library of St Canice contains numerous ancient books of great value. A short distance from the south transept is a round tower 100 ft. high; the original cap is wanting. The episcopal palace near the east end of the cathedral was erected in the time of Edward III. and enlarged in 1735. Besides the cathedral the principal churches are the Protestant church of St Mary, a plain cruciform structure of earlier foundation than the present cathedral; that of St John, including a portion of the hospital of St John founded about 1220; and the Roman Catholic cathedral, of the diocese of Ossory, dedicated to St Mary (1843–1857), a cruciform structure in the Early Pointed style, with a massive central tower. There are important remains of two monasteries—the Dominican abbey founded in 1225, and now used as a Roman Catholic church; and the Franciscan abbey on the banks of the Nore, founded about 1230. But next in importance to the cathedral is the castle, the seat of the marquess of Ormonde, on the summit of a precipice above the Nore. It was originally built by Strongbow, but rebuilt by William Marshall after the destruction of the first castle in 1175; and many additions and restorations by members of the Ormonde family have maintained it as a princely residence. The Protestant college of St John, originally founded by Pierce Butler, 8th earl of Ormonde, in the 16th century, and re-endowed in 1684 by James, 1st duke of Ormonde, stands on the banks of the river opposite the castle. In it Swift, Farquhar, Congreve and Bishop Berkeley received part of their education. On the outskirts of the city is the Roman Catholic college of St Kyran (Kieran), a Gothic building completed about 1840. The other principal buildings are the modern court-house, the tholsel or city court (1764), the city and county prison, the barracks and the county infirmary. In the neighbourhood are collieries as well as long-established quarries for marble, the manufactures connected with which are an important industry of the town. The city also possesses corn-mills, breweries and tanneries. Not far from the city are the remarkable limestone caverns of Dunmore, which have yielded numerous human remains. The corporation of Kilkenny consists of a mayor, 6 aldermen and 18 councillors.
Kilkenny proper owes its origin to an English settlement in the time of Strongbow, and it received a charter from William Marshall, who married Strongbow’s daughter. This charter was confirmed by Edward III., and from Edward IV. Irishtown received the privilege of choosing a portreeve independent of Kilkenny. By Elizabeth the boroughs, while retaining their distinct rights, were constituted one corporation, which in 1609 was made a free borough by James I., and in the following year a free city. From James II. the citizens received a new charter, constituting the city and liberties a distinct county, to be styled the county of the city of Kilkenny, the burgesses of Irishtown continuing, however, to elect a portreeve until the passing of the Muncipal Reform Act. Frequent parliaments were held at Kilkenny from the 14th to the 16th century, and so late as the reign of Henry VIII. it was the occasional residence of the lord-lieutenant. In 1642 it was the meeting-place of the assembly of confederate Catholics. In 1648 Cromwell, in the hope of obtaining possession of the town by means of a plot, advanced towards it, but before his arrival the plot was discovered. In 1650 it was, however, compelled to surrender after a long and resolute defence. At a very early period Kilkenny and Irishtown returned each two members to the Irish parliament, but since the Union one member only has been returned to Westminster for the city of Kilkenny.
The origin of the expression “to fight like Kilkenny cats,” which, according to the legend, fought till only their tails were left, has been the subject of many conjectures. It is said to be an allegory on the disastrous municipal quarrels of Kilkenny and Irishtown which lasted from the end of the 14th to the end of the 17th centuries (Notes and Queries, 1st series, vol. ii. p. 71). It is referred also to the brutal sport of some Hessian soldiers, quartered in Kilkenny during the rebellions of 1798 or 1803, who tied two cats together by their tails, hung them over a line and left them to fight. A soldier is said to have freed them by cutting off their tails to escape censure from the officers (ibid. 3rd series, vol. v. p. 433). Lastly, it is attributed to the invention of J. P. Curran. As a sarcastic protest against cock-fighting in England, he declared that he had witnessed in Sligo (?) fights between trained cats, and that once they had fought so fiercely that only their tails were left (ibid. 7th series, vol. ii. p. 394).
KILKENNY, STATUTE OF, the name given to a body of laws promulgated in 1366 with the object of strengthening the English authority in Ireland. In 1361, when Edward III. was on the English throne, he sent one of his younger sons, Lionel, duke of Clarence, who was already married to an Irish heiress, to represent him in Ireland. From the English point of view the country was in a most unsatisfactory condition. Lawless and predatory, the English settlers were hardly distinguishable from the native Irish, and the authority of the English king over both had been reduced to vanishing point. In their efforts to cope with the prevailing disorder Lionel and his advisers summoned a parliament to meet at Kilkenny early in 1366 and here the statute of Kilkenny was passed into law. This statute was written in Norman-French, and nineteen of its clauses are merely repetitions of some ordinances which had been drawn up at Kilkenny fifteen years earlier. It began by relating how the existing state of lawlessness was due to the malign influence exercised by the Irish over the English, and, like Magna Carta, its first positive provision declared that the church should be free. As a prime remedy for the prevailing evils all marriages between the two races were forbidden. Englishmen must not speak the Irish tongue, nor receive Irish minstrels into their dwellings, nor even ride in the Irish fashion; while to give or sell horses or armour to the Irish was made a treasonable offence. Moreover English and not Breton law was to be employed, and no Irishman could legally be received into a religious house, nor presented to a benefice. The statute also contained clauses for compelling the English settlers to keep the laws. For each county four wardens of the peace were to be appointed, while the sheriffs were to hold their tourns twice a year and were not to oppress the people by their exactions. An attempt was made to prevent the emigration of labourers, and finally the spiritual arm was invoked to secure obedience to these laws by threats of excommunication. The statute, although marking an interesting stage in the history of Ireland, had very little practical effect.
The full text is published in the Statutes and Ordinances of Ireland. John to Henry V., by H. F. Berry (1907).
KILLALA (pron. Killálla), a small town on the north coast of county Mayo, Ireland, in the northern parliamentary division, on the western shore of a fine bay to which it gives name. Pop. (1901), 510. It is a terminus of a branch of the Midland Great Western railway. Its trade is almost wholly diverted to Ballina on the river Moy, which enters the bay, but Killala is of high antiquarian and historical interest. It was for many centuries a bishop’s see, the foundation being attributed to St Patrick in the 5th century, but the diocese was joined with Achonry early in the 17th century and with Tuam in 1833. The cathedral church of St Patrick is a plain structure of the 17th century. There is a fine souterrain, evidently connected with a rath, or encampment, in the graveyard. A round tower, 84 ft. in height, stands boldly on an isolated eminence. Close to Killala the French under Humbert landed in 1798, being diverted by contrary winds from the Donegal coast. Near the Moy river, south of Killala, are the abbeys of Moyne and Roserk or Rosserick, both Decorated in style, and both possessing fine cloisters. At Rathfran, 2 m. N., is a Dominican abbey (1274), and in the neighbourhood are camps, cromlechs, and an inscribed ogham stone, 12 ft. in height. Killala gives name to a Roman Catholic diocese, the seat of which, however, is at Ballina.
