Magdalene Tower, Drogheda

Magdalene Tower is a landmark located at the highest point of the northern part of Drogheda, County Louth, in Ireland.

The importance of this friary is signified by the fact that it was here that O'Donnell, O'Hanlon, McMahon, O'Neill and the other Ulster chiefs acknowledged their submission to Richard II of England, at the end of 14th-century.

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'.

[2] In 1412 its Abbot, Father Bennett, was the peacemaker in the conflict between the people on either side of the River Boyne leading to the uniting of Drogheda.

1832