and were found at sea by fishermen from Cape Clear Island, by which time two of them had died. A box was left with the fishermen by the surviving friar, with instructions that they not open it as he would one day return for it, though he never did. It was re-opened in 1860 and found to contain a set of severely deteriorated vestments and a chalice "black with age". The chalice is engraved with the words "ffr'MinConv de Thimolaggi" ("Friars Minor Convent of Timoleague"). In 1892, 250 years after the chalice was removed from the town, it was returned to the parish priest of Timoleague. It has remained in the safekeeping of his successors, and an exact replica of the chalice is on permanent display in the local Catholic church. In culture William Ashford depicted the friary several times: first in a pencil sketch, and then again among his earliest landscape works, which include a rough drawing of the friary, titled Timoleague (abbey ruins), which he followed with two 1776 watercolours of the ruins. The Irish writer Seán Ó Coileáin wrote the c. 1913 poem about the ruins. James Hardiman described it as one of the "finest modern poems in the Irish language" in 1831. It has been translated to English several times, including as The Mourner's Soliloquy in the Ruined Abbey of Timoleague and as Lament over the Ruins of the Abbey of Teach Molaga by Sir Samuel Ferguson. A bronze cast of one of the verses in the original Irish is located at the entrance gate of the ruins. Gallery References Notes Sources External links Lament over the Ruins of the Abbey of Teach Molaga an English translation of Machtnadh an Duine Dhoilghiosaich, a poem written in 1814 by Seághan Ó Coileáin about the friary, translated by James Clarence Mangan. Franciscan monasteries in the Republic of Ireland Buildings and structures in County Cork Religion in County Cork Ruins in the Republic of Ireland National Monuments in County Cork Tourist attractions in County Cork