The Claregalway Friary () is a ruined medieval

Franciscan The Franciscans are a group of related Mendicant orders, mendicant Christianity, Christian Catholic religious order, religious orders within the Catholic Church. Founded in 1209 by Italian Catholic friar Francis of Assisi, these orders include t ...

abbey An abbey is a type of monastery used by members of a religious order under the governance of an abbot or abbess. Abbeys provide a complex of buildings and land for religious activities, work, and housing of Christian monks and nuns. The conce ...

Claregalway Baile Chláir or Baile Chláir na Gaillimhe (anglicized Claregalway) is a Gaeltacht village about 10 km north of Galway city in County Galway, Ireland. Claregalway was founded on the banks of the River Clare, hence the derivation of its ...

, County Galway,

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

. The abbey site features an east-facing, cruciform church (minus a south

transept A transept (with two semitransepts) is a transverse part of any building, which lies across the main body of the building. In cruciform churches, a transept is an area set crosswise to the nave in a cruciform ("cross-shaped") building wi ...

) with a 24-metre (80 ft) bell tower. The ruins of the living quarters and

cloister A cloister (from Latin ''claustrum'', "enclosure") is a covered walk, open gallery, or open arcade running along the walls of buildings and forming a quadrangle or garth. The attachment of a cloister to a cathedral or church, commonly against a ...

are situated to the south of the church building.

History

Claregalway friary was founded circa. 1240, and was definitely in extant prior before 1250. Though some sources attribute the founding of the friary to John de Cogan II, it was in fact founded by his father,

John de Cogan John de Cogan was an Anglo-Irish knight who lived in the period between 1220 and 1278. De Cogan was a grandson of Milo de Cogan (died 1182) and Christina Pagnel; his parents were Richard de Cogan (died after 1238) and Basile de Riddlesford. ...

I. In 1326, John Magnus de Cogan (John de Cogan III) is recorded as calling himself the founder of the friary. This is understood as either he was the monastery's patron or he substantially enlarged the monastery. The Franciscan community at the abbey lived under the patronage of the de Cogan clan until 1327, after Magnus de Cogan gave them the building and surrounding lands. In return for this favour, the monks were asked to present a rose to de Cogan and his descendants on the

Nativity of John the Baptist The Nativity of John the Baptist (or Birth of John the Baptist, or Nativity of the Forerunner, or colloquially Johnmas or St. John's Day (in German) Johannistag) is a Christian feast day celebrating the birth of John the Baptist. It is observe ...

. The friary was renovated in the 15th century, at which point the tower and the chancel's east window were added. The community flourished until the mid-16th century, when the

English Reformation The English Reformation took place in 16th-century England when the Church of England broke away from the authority of the pope and the Catholic Church. These events were part of the wider European Protestant Reformation, a religious and poli ...

disrupted the Catholic establishment in Ireland. From that time on, the monks of Claregalway struggled to keep the abbey viable against political and economic forces. On 11 July 1538, forces under the command of Lord Leonard Gray ransacked and looted the abbey while marching to

Galway Galway ( ; ga, Gaillimh, ) is a City status in Ireland, city in the West Region, Ireland, West of Ireland, in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Connacht, which is the county town of County Galway. It lies on the River Corrib between Lo ...

. In 1570,

Queen Elizabeth I Elizabeth I (7 September 153324 March 1603) was Queen of England and Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death in 1603. Elizabeth was the last of the five House of Tudor monarchs and is sometimes referred to as the "Virgin Queen". El ...

granted possession of the monastery to Sir Richard de Burgo. Circa. 1589, the monastery buildings were turned into a barracks under the administration of the English provincial governor,

Sir Richard Bingham Sir Richard Bingham (1528 – 19 January 1599) was an English soldier and naval commander. He served under Queen Elizabeth I during the Tudor conquest of Ireland and was appointed governor of Connacht. Early life and military career Bingham ...

. During the reign of King James, the property was given to the Earl of Clanrickarde. By 1641, the Franciscans had reoccupied the abbey, but the building was in poor repair and the community lacked the ability to renovate it. In 1731, Edward Synge, Anglican archbishop of Tuam recorded that "there is a friary in Claregalway, where three at least are always resident." The High Sheriff of the county, Stratford Eyre, reported in 1732 that the monks "lived close" to the abbey. Church records indicate that the community numbered about 220 religious in 1766, but this number had declined to about 150 by 1782. French diplomat Coquebert de Montbret wrote in 1791 that "the monks are settling down among the ruins." The size of the community continued to dwindle. By 1838, it was down to only two members. Archives of the Galway Vindicator, a local newspaper, indicate that the community's last two monks departed for a larger community in Galway in November 1847. For some years after the monastery closed, members of the Galway friary continued to travel to the site on feast days to celebrate Mass and hear confession, but these activities had ceased by 1860. In 1892, a Lord Clanmorris donated the property to the Commissioner of Public Works under the provisions of the Ancient Monuments Act of 1882.

Architecture

aisle An aisle is, in general, a space for walking with rows of non-walking spaces on both sides. Aisles with seating on both sides can be seen in airplanes, certain types of buildings, such as churches, cathedrals, synagogues, meeting halls, parl ...

of four pointed-

arch An arch is a vertical curved structure that spans an elevated space and may or may not support the weight above it, or in case of a horizontal arch like an arch dam, the hydrostatic pressure against it. Arches may be synonymous with vaul ...

bays was added to the

nave The nave () is the central part of a church, stretching from the (normally western) main entrance or rear wall, to the transepts, or in a church without transepts, to the chancel. When a church contains side aisles, as in a basilica-type ...

of the church. The

pillars A column or pillar in architecture and structural engineering is a structural element that transmits, through compression (physical), compression, the weight of the structure above to other structural elements below. In other words, a column i ...

are cylindrical and feature simple moulded capitals.

Burials

* Muiris Ó Fithcheallaigh,

Irish Irish may refer to: Common meanings * Someone or something of, from, or related to: ** Ireland, an island situated off the north-western coast of continental Europe ***Éire, Irish language name for the isle ** Northern Ireland, a constituent unit ...

theologian Theology is the systematic study of the nature of the divine and, more broadly, of religious belief. It is taught as an academic discipline, typically in universities and seminaries. It occupies itself with the unique content of analyzing the ...

and

Archbishop of Tuam The Archbishop of Tuam ( ; ga, Ard-Easpag Thuama) is an archbishop which takes its name after the town of Tuam in County Galway, Ireland. The title was used by the Church of Ireland until 1839, and is still in use by the Catholic Church. Histor ...

, . * Tomás Ó Maolalaidh, Bishop of Clonmacnoise (-1514) and Archbishop of Tuam (1514–1536).

References

Notes

Sources