Murphy Devitt Stained Glass from Franciscan Abbey, Clonmel.

Over recent months I have been blogging pictures of stained glass mainly (but not exclusively) from Tipperary churches. These photos are taken with my phone and I cannot claim to have cracked how best to do this, often they are taken in a somewhat rushed manner as I am a little self conscious about this at times. These churches are after all places of worship and I am loath to disturb or distract.

I started this meaning to record, as best I could, what is very much a neglected art form. Even the smallest Irish village will have a church, and often multiple churches, which will feature stained glass. Some of these images have struck me as exceptionally moving and beautiful, some aesthetically interesting, some culturally interesting (from instance the way the image of St Monica and St Augustine in the Augustinian Abbey in Fethard is based on a popular religious painting of the time)

There is also the sheer joy of discovery of, for instance, the stained glass in the Church of the Visitation, Cloneen, or of the fact that the stained glass in the stained glass in the Chapel of St Anthony in the Franciscan Abbey in Clonmel was from Murphy Devitt studios.

Since then I corresponded with Reiltin Murphy, daughter of John Murphy, and found out there are other examples of Murphy Devitt glass not only in Tipperary but in Clonmel. Indeed some is in the main body of the church in the very same Franciscan Abbey: