friaries ireland

The site is intimately associated with the lighting of the first Paschal Fire in Ireland by St. Patrick in 433, thus symbolising the triumph of Christianity over paganism.
St. Erc founded a monastery here in Early Christian times, and there was also a medieval abbey here, but little is known about the history of the place until it was rebuilt in its present form in 1512 when Sir Christopher Flemming founded a small Franciscan Third Order friary here....

The Friary was founded for the Franciscan Friars by Donchad Cairbreach O'Brien, King of Thomond, sometime shortly before his death in 1242. In the following decades, the church must have suffered much damage, for the only considerable part remaining from the earliest foundation is the choir with its beautiful 5-light east window. Donchad's opponent and successor, Turlough O'Brien, repaired the church and enlarged on his predecessors work in 1287 and again in 1306, and put in blue stained glass...

The Franciscan Friary was founded in the 15th century and is in a remarkable state of preservation. The tower was added after the church was built and is the only Franciscan tower in Ireland which is as wide as the church. The cloister and its associated buildings are complete and an old Yew Tree stands in the centre. The monks were finally driven out by the Cromwellians in 1652.

There are guided tours available on request.

There is a public car park close to the site.

The Friary was founded by permission of Pipe Nicholas for the Observantine Franciscans in 1460. The founder may have been MacWilliam Burke or one of the Barrett family. The church consists of a rectangular nave and chancel with an eastward extension of the nave which is wider than it. The west doorway was added in the 17th century. There is also a chapel running southwards from the east end of the church. The tower was added later, though apparently planned originally as part of the church....

Founded by the Vikings in the 9th century, the town was granted to the Fitzgeralds in Norman times, though the Byrnes held sway there for a considerable time up to 1542, and burned the town in 1580. Romanesque Doorway: In the 18th century Church of Ireland church of St. Thomas, a fine Romanesque doorway of mid 12th century date has been inserted in the porch, though some of its stones have been wrongly re-set. It comes from a medieval church which was dedicated to St. Thomas, and some of it...

This Franciscan Friary was founded in 1353 on the site of an older monastery founded by St. Conall in the sixth century. The buildings consists of a church with nave, choir, south transept and aisle, and some domestic buildings.

There are two fine tomb niches in the north wall of the church. Tradition says that the friars were expelled from the monastery only a few weeks before the Battle of Aughrim in 1691....

The Ennis Friary, is a Franciscan Friary founded by the O'Briens Kings of Thomond, in the 13th century. The site was originally on an island in the River Fergus aroudn which the modern town of Ennis has grown. Its monuments are famous, notably the McMahon tomb (15th century) with carvings of the Passion of Our Lord....

The Castle:
this Norman castle was built by Robert de Ufford, Lord Justice of Ireland, in 1269. But it passed into Irish hands seven years later when it was taken by Hugh O'Conor, King of Connacht. It was restored in 1280. The O'Kellys gained possession of the castle in 1308 when Donogh O'Kelly slaughtered many of the inhabitants. But the O'Conors took it again in 1341. Taken by the Earl of Kildare on an expedition to Connacht in 1499, it was granted to Mac William Bourke in 154...

A church which stood on the site was burned in 1278, but two years later DeClare built it up as a castle forming a square with massive rounded towers at the corners. Parts of these towers still survive. In 1236 the garrison killed an Irish chief called O'Liddy, whereupon the Irish under Cuvea Macnamara attacked and ransacked the castle. By 1350 another church was built on top of the castle ruins, but much of this church was renewed by Sioda Cam Macnamara around 1433 when the Franciscans were...

This Franciscan Friary, founded by Owen O'Rourke and his wife Margaret in 1508, was the last Franciscan friary to be founded in Ireland before the Suppression of the Monasteries. The church has a nave, choir, tower and south transept. The west doorway and the window above it are well preserved, as is also the east window, but the windows in the south transept have vanished. The transept has a number of recesses. The tower was converted into living quarters in the 17th century. To the north...