hrough the meadows by the
river side, to the coenobium, or convent proper, which stood on the
opposite, or south side of the river, about a quarter of a mile distant.
This church was destroyed by fire, and the convent reduced to ruins in
1428. The extent and character of this first convent may be gathered
from O'Heyne, who says, it was a most extensive and magnificent
structure, as shown by the magnitude of the ruins still remaining in his
day (1750). The importance and influence which, in a very few years, the
abbey had been able to attain, may be inferred from the fact, that Bulls
were issued by several popes, granting indulgences to the faithful who
would contribute to its restoration.

Of these the Bull of Martin V., March 1429, informs us, that the convent
was of the "Strict Observance". From the Bull of Eugene IV., March,
1433, in the relation of the motives for granting the Indulgence, we
learn the character and extent of the disaster which had befallen Saint
Brigid's. "In consequence of the wars prevailing in these parts,
especially during the last six years, the church of St. Brigid at
Longford had been destroyed by fire, and all the other buildings of the
convent reduced to ruins. The necessary ornaments for decent celebration
of divine worship were wanting, and the Religious had been of necessity
compelled to pass to other houses". In a second Bull of the same pope,
July 1438, we are told, "the Church of Saint Brigid had been consumed by
fire, and _most_ of the convent buildings laid in ruins". The
devastation is thus in some sort limited, which in the first was
described as total.

The church was rebuilt, and the convent restored, but not at all on the
same scale of magnificence that O'Heyne so extols in the first. For
several centuries, however, it continued to exercise a great influence
on religion in the district, and to send forth able, fervent, and
illustrious pupils, to maintain and defend the faith, at home and
abroad. Thus we find Doctor Gregory O'Ferrall, an alumnus of Saint
Brigid's, Provincial of Ireland in 1644. Afterwards we find him lending
energetic aid to the confederate Catholics at Kilkenny. When the
treachery and intrigues of Ormond had seduced the Catholic chiefs into a
deceitful peace, without any guarantee for the free exercise of their
religion, the name of the Dominican provincial Gregory O'Ferrall is one
of the signatures to the spirited and indignant protest of the national
synod