abbey of Mellifont
Near Drogheda, the first Cistercian monastery in Ireland . It was founded in 1142 by Christian O’Conarchy, the first abbot , and Saint >Malachy , and was modelled after Clairvaux . It prospered and founded other monasteries , and at the English invasion there were 25 great Cistercian abbeys in Ireland . During the 13th and 14th centuries it declined but recovered in the 15th , to be confiscated by Henry VIII , 1539 . Today only ruins remain.