Magdalene

The Magdalene Tower stands at the highest northern part of Drogheda and is a landmark for many miles around. It once served as the belfry tower to a large Dominican friary which was founded around 1224 by Luca de Netterville, the Archbishop of Armagh. The tower itself was constructed in the 14th century and may have been a later addition to the monastery. It is set above a Gothic Arch and consists of two storeys connected by a spiral staircase, with the entrance high up above the ground. The battlements of the tower were badly damaged by Cromwell's cannon during the siege of 1649.

It was within the Domincan friary that Richard II received the submission of the Ulster chiefs O'Donnell, O'Hanlon, McMahon, O'Neill and others. The English novelist William Makepeace Thackery, who visited the Magdalene tower in 1842, described a manuscript at the British Museum 'which shows these yellow mantled warriors riding down to the King, splendid in his forked beard, peaked shoes, and long dangling scalloped sleeves down to the ground. They flung their skenes or daggers at his feet, and knelt to him and were wonder-stricken by the richness of his tents and the garments of his knights and ladies'.

This is just about 50 yards from my hotel but today was my first chance to get up close. There is a real sense of history to the scene, and it looks strong enough to stand for another 800 years or so.