An tOspideal - The Hospital (of St. John of Jerusalem)

The village is along the R.513, on the Mahore River, 11 km south-east of Lough Gur, 8 km south of Herbertstown. It derives its name from an establishment of the Knights Hospitallers of St. Jerusalem founded in 1215 by Geoffrey De Marisco (1171 - 1248) to care for pilgrims visiting the Holy Land. The Knights Hospitallers comprised of three sections - Armed and Mounted Knights, Chaplins catering for the spiritual welfare of the order and Infirmarians who tended to the sick. The mediaeval ruins, beside the Catholic Church, are well preserved and contain three interesting Tombs. Two of these dating back to the 13th century are De Marisco Tombs; one has an effigy of a Mailed Knight, another a Mailed Knight with his Lady. This establishment at Hospital, which was one of the largest founded by Knights in Ireland, in its time, was dissolved by 1540. A Marian Shrine is built into the old ruins and the ruins incorporate part of a later 17th Century Church.