The Ross Errilly Friary ( ga, Mainistir an Rois, often
anglicised
Anglicisation is the process by which a place or person becomes influenced by English culture or British culture, or a process of cultural and/or linguistic change in which something non-English becomes English. It can also refer to the influen ...
in 18th and 19th century sources as ''Rosserelly'') is a
medieval
In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the Post-classical, post-classical period of World history (field), global history. It began with t ...
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 ...
friary
A monastery is a building or complex of buildings comprising the domestic quarters and workplaces of monastics, monks or nuns, whether living in communities or alone (hermits). A monastery generally includes a place reserved for prayer which ...
located about a mile to the northwest of
Headford
Headford () is a small town in County Galway, located 26 km north of Galway city in the west of Ireland. It is an angling centre for the eastern shore of Lough Corrib, and Greenfields, approximately 6.5 km west of the town, is its bo ...
,
County Galway
"Righteousness and Justice"
, anthem = ()
, image_map = Island of Ireland location map Galway.svg
, map_caption = Location in Ireland
, area_footnotes =
, area_total_km2 = ...
, Ireland. It is a
National Monument
A national monument is a monument constructed in order to commemorate something of importance to national heritage, such as a country's founding, independence, war, or the life and death of a historical figure.
The term may also refer to a spec ...
of Ireland and among the best-preserved medieval monastic sites in the country. Though usually referred to by locals as "Ross Abbey," this is not technically correct as the community never had an
abbot
Abbot is an ecclesiastical title given to the male head of a monastery in various Western religious traditions, including Christianity. The office may also be given as an honorary title to a clergyman who is not the head of a monastery. The fem ...
.
The church and bell tower are to the south of a small but well preserved central
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 ...
and domestic buildings are to the north. Amongst these are a kitchen (equipped with an oven and a water tank for live fish), a bake house, and a refectory or dining area. The dormitories are on the upper levels. One unusual feature is a second courtyard or cloister, built to accommodate the friary's growing population.
Like many other abandoned Christian sites in Ireland, Ross Errilly has continued to be used as a burial ground by area residents. In addition to tombs that date from the friary's active period, many graves dating from the 18th through 20th centuries can be found inside the church walls. In some cases, tombstones comprise the floors of walkways and crawlspaces.
History
Foundation
![Ross Friary East Range 2010 09 14](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7f/Ross_Friary_East_Range_2010_09_14.jpg)
Both
Luke Wadding
Luke Wadding, O.F.M. (16 October 158818 November 1657), was an Irish Franciscan friar and historian.
Life
Early life
Wadding was born on 16 October 1588 in Waterford to Walter Wadding of Waterford, a wealthy merchant, and his wife, Anastasia ...
and the
Four Masters (who refer to Ross Errilly in their Annals as ''Ros-Oirbhealagh'') record that the abbey was founded in 1351, but this date has been called into question by numerous historians. Architectural cues and documentary evidence have given rise to a modern consensus that the friary was founded sometime in the middle of the 15th century, perhaps around 1460. The earliest existing documentary evidence however comes from a reference to the friary in the will of Galway man John Blake, son of Henry, who bequeathed the sum of 40 pence to the friary in 1469. In any case, it is clear from the architectural evidence that any religious building that may have been on the site prior to that time was greatly expanded during the 15th century. Around 1473, a delegation of Franciscans from Ross Errilly went to Donegal at the request of the
Tyrconnell
Tyrconnell (), also spelled Tirconnell, was a kingdom of Gaelic Ireland, associated geographically with present-day County Donegal, which has sometimes been called ''County Tyrconnell''. At times it also included parts of County Fermanagh, Cou ...
clan and founded the Donegal Friary, where the Four Masters would later write their famous Annals.
After the English Reformation
Life at Ross Errilly was disrupted by 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 ...
. The Franciscans had loudly opposed
King Henry VIII's break with Rome, which would prove costly after the schism. In 1538, English authorities imprisoned two hundred of the monks and banished or killed an indeterminate number of others. The rest of the Franciscans' history at Ross Errilly would be marked by repeated evictions and other persecutions.
At the beginning of the reign of
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 ...
, the abbey was confiscated and given to Richard Burgh, the 2nd
Earl of Clanrickarde. Burgh, a descendant of the de Burghs who had helped found the abbey, quietly gave it back to the Franciscans. In 1572, an enclosing ditch and wall were constructed around the friary.
In 1584, the English crown again confiscated the monastery from the Franciscans and gave it to an English noble who evicted the monks and plundered the building's contents. In 1586, the Earl of Clanrickarde purchased the monastery and again returned it to the Franciscans.
By the end of the century, however, the crown had once again expelled the monks and converted the monastery into an English garrison for use during the
Nine Years' War
The Nine Years' War (1688–1697), often called the War of the Grand Alliance or the War of the League of Augsburg, was a conflict between France and a European coalition which mainly included the Holy Roman Empire (led by the Habsburg monarch ...
.
In 1604, Ulick Burke, 3rd Earl of Clanrickarde, continuing to honour the de Burgh tradition of supporting Ross Errilly, financed the rehabilitation and reoccupation of the monastery by the Franciscans. Their stay was short-lived; in 1612 Lord Arthur Chichester,
Lord Deputy of Ireland
The Lord Deputy was the representative of the monarch and head of the Irish executive (government), executive under English rule, during the Lordship of Ireland and then the Kingdom of Ireland. He deputised prior to 1523 for the Viceroy of Ireland ...
, ordered the
Protestant 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 ...
, William Daniel, to expel the monks and to demolish the abbey's altars. Daniel apparently complied with the order, but sent advance word to the residents of Ross Errilly and advised them to evacuate the abbey's most precious items.
In 1626, the monks returned to Ross Errilly and enjoyed a quarter-century of relative peace. Records of the
OFM in Ireland indicate that the community at this time consisted of just six priests and two brothers. One piece of evidence for the friary's occupancy during this period is a handwritten
testimonium
In law and in religion, testimony is a solemn attestation as to the truth of a matter.
Etymology
The words "testimony" and "testify" both derive from the Latin word ''testis'', referring to the notion of a disinterested Third-party source, thir ...
, dated 27 November 1636, and signed by a Boetius Mac Egan, then a
prelate
A prelate () is a high-ranking member of the Christian clergy who is an ordinary or who ranks in precedence with ordinaries. The word derives from the Latin , the past participle of , which means 'carry before', 'be set above or over' or 'pref ...
in residence at the friary.
Rebellion and the Cromwellian era
On 18 February 1642, Ulick Burke and the monks were involved in the rescue of about 40 Protestant refugees of the
1641 uprising, including the family of Dr. John Maxwell, the Protestant bishop of
Killala
Killala () is a village in County Mayo in Ireland, north of Ballina. The railway line from Dublin to Ballina once extended to Killala. To the west of Killala is a Townsplots West (known locally as Enagh Beg), which contains a number of ancient ...
. The refugees were being led from the town of
Shrule
Shrule (, also anglicised to ''Shruel'', usage deprecated) is a village on the N84 road in County Mayo in Ireland. The county boundary between Mayo and County Galway follows the course of the Black River on the south side of the village.
The r ...
when the Catholic soldiers comprising their escort massacred them. It's not reliably known how many were killed, but one estimate placed the number of victims at 65. Burke and the monks brought the survivors back to the Headford area and obtained shelter for them among the townspeople until safe passage to England could be arranged.
The
Irish campaigns of
Oliver Cromwell
Oliver Cromwell (25 April 15993 September 1658) was an English politician and military officer who is widely regarded as one of the most important statesmen in English history. He came to prominence during the 1639 to 1651 Wars of the Three Ki ...
brought an end to this era of English tolerance of the Catholic Church in Ireland. For a few nervous years, Ross Errilly served as an informal refugee shelter for Catholic clergy who had been flushed out of other parts of Ireland by Cromwell's forces.
On 10 August 1656, Cromwellian forces finally made their way to Ross Errilly. The 140 Franciscans living there had fled a few hours earlier, but the soldiers ransacked the grounds, destroying crosses and other religious iconography and even defiling tombs in search of loot. Legend maintains that the fleeing monks somehow found the time to remove the bell from the bell tower and sink it in the nearby Black River, where it remains today. The
English Restoration
The Restoration of the Stuart monarchy in the kingdoms of England, Scotland and Ireland took place in 1660 when King Charles II returned from exile in continental Europe. The preceding period of the Protectorate and the civil wars came to be ...
in 1660 brought
Charles II to the throne. His nominally tolerant policies towards Catholics allowed the reoccupation and repair of the abbey in 1664.
Final years
![Ross Friary Cloister Garden NW Corner 2010 09 14](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/be/Ross_Friary_Cloister_Garden_NW_Corner_2010_09_14.jpg)
The
Glorious Revolution of 1688
The Glorious Revolution; gd, Rèabhlaid Ghlòrmhor; cy, Chwyldro Gogoneddus , also known as the ''Glorieuze Overtocht'' or ''Glorious Crossing'' in the Netherlands, is the sequence of events leading to the deposition of King James II and ...
, which deposed Charles' younger brother, the Catholic
James II James II may refer to:
* James II of Avesnes (died c. 1205), knight of the Fourth Crusade
* James II of Majorca (died 1311), Lord of Montpellier
* James II of Aragon (1267–1327), King of Sicily
* James II, Count of La Marche (1370–1438), King C ...
, eventually led to the
Popery Act of 1698, which placed a
bounty
Bounty or bounties commonly refers to:
* Bounty (reward), an amount of money or other reward offered by an organization for a specific task done with a person or thing
Bounty or bounties may also refer to:
Geography
* Bounty, Saskatchewan, a g ...
on Catholic clergy. Once again, the Franciscans of Ross Errilly became fugitives and abandoned the premises.
Local records indicate that by 1712, Franciscans had returned to the abbey. Some sources indicate that the abbey was abandoned again in 1731, for reasons which are unclear. What's certain is that by 1753, they had returned to the site. The property was now owned by Lord St. George, a local noble, who picked up where the Clanrickardes had left off and secretly patronised the abbey. By this time, the
Penal Laws were in effect and St. George risked life imprisonment by supporting the monks. A vengeful family who had lost a
lawsuit
-
A lawsuit is a proceeding by a party or parties against another in the civil court of law. The archaic term "suit in law" is found in only a small number of laws still in effect today. The term "lawsuit" is used in reference to a civil actio ...
to St. George reported to the authorities that he was sheltering Catholic religious at the monastery. St. George learned of the accusations and the monks evacuated the monastery for the last time. Before authorities arrived at the abbey, St. George had the abbey's interior whitewashed and had employed a group of
weavers
Weaver or Weavers may refer to:
Activities
* A person who engages in weaving fabric
Animals
* Various birds of the family Ploceidae
* Crevice weaver spider family
* Orb-weaver spider family
* Weever (or weever-fish)
Arts and entertainment
...
and their
loom
A loom is a device used to weave cloth and tapestry. The basic purpose of any loom is to hold the warp threads under tension to facilitate the interweaving of the weft threads. The precise shape of the loom and its mechanics may vary, but th ...
s inside the building. The inquiry was ended without further incident, but the sham factory was soon closed and the monks never returned again.
The monks built cabins of wood and stone on a small island in the Black River, about one mile (1.6 km) downstream from the abbey. The island (which no longer exists) was known informally as "Friars Island," and the community supported the monks with food, fuel and clothing via a wooden drawbridge. For 36 years, the monks continued to celebrate Sunday
Mass
Mass is an intrinsic property of a body. It was traditionally believed to be related to the quantity of matter in a physical body, until the discovery of the atom and particle physics. It was found that different atoms and different elementar ...
in the deteriorating abbey building. In 1789, a Henry Lynch of
Ballycurrin cheaply leased to the dispossessed monks at the foot of a hill in the
townland
A townland ( ga, baile fearainn; Ulster-Scots: ''toonlann'') is a small geographical division of land, historically and currently used in Ireland and in the Western Isles in Scotland, typically covering . The townland system is of Gaelic origi ...
of Kilroe, near Headford. By 1801, only three monks remained, though Mass continued to be said at Kilroe until 1804. There were still three monks in the community when it was closed in 1832.
Abandonment and neglect
In the meantime, the long-abandoned friary continued its descent into ruin. In 1835, English tourist John Barrow described the abbey as "a remarkably fine old ruin ... in a disgracefully neglected state." In particular, Barrow was astonished by the large amount of unburied human remains at the site, which included "moss-grown skulls and human thigh and leg-bones strewed about so plentifully that not a step can be taken without encountering them." Geographer
Samuel Lewis noted the continued decay in 1837, writing that the abbey was "partially covered in ivy" and that the roof had collapsed in 1812. Despite the neglect, Lewis was able to report that "one of the windows is still perfect".
William Wilde
Sir William Robert Wills Wilde FRCSI (March 1815 – 19 April 1876) was an Irish oto-ophthalmologic surgeon and the author of significant works on medicine, archaeology and folklore, particularly concerning his native Ireland. He was the fath ...
visited the abbey ruins in July 1866. Like Barrow, he described "heaps of skulls and bones" in the church and claimed that the site had become notorious for its unburied remains. Wilde noted with dismay that further "desecration" was being effected by sheep and cattle, which roamed freely through the ruins. He also credited a nearby resident, Oliver Burke, with some early efforts to preserve the site by "removing obstructions from between the
mullion
A mullion is a vertical element that forms a division between units of a window or screen, or is used decoratively. It is also often used as a division between double doors. When dividing adjacent window units its primary purpose is a rigid supp ...
s of the beautiful windows" and making "repairs to the tower, thereby rendering it accessible to the top." In 1868, Burke, a
barrister
A barrister is a type of lawyer in common law jurisdictions. Barristers mostly specialise in courtroom advocacy and litigation. Their tasks include taking cases in superior courts and tribunals, drafting legal pleadings, researching law and ...
by profession, wrote his own account of the friary's history.
Modern use
Today, the ruin of Ross Errilly is maintained by the
Office of Public Works
The Office of Public Works (OPW) ( ga, Oifig na nOibreacha Poiblí) (legally the Commissioners of Public Works in Ireland) is a major Irish Government agency, which manages most of the Irish State's property portfolio, including hundreds of ow ...
and is open to the public free of charge.
It has been used as a filming location for ''
The Quiet Man
''The Quiet Man'' is a 1952 American romantic comedy-drama film directed by John Ford. It stars John Wayne, Maureen O'Hara, Barry Fitzgerald, Ward Bond and Victor McLaglen. The screenplay by Frank S. Nugent was based on a 1933 '' Saturday ...
'' (1952), the TV series ''
Reign
A reign is the period of a person's or dynasty's occupation of the office of monarch of a nation (e.g., Saudi Arabia, Belgium, Andorra), of a people (e.g., the Franks, the Zulus) or of a spiritual community (e.g., Catholicism, Tibetan Buddhism, N ...
'' (2013),
and films like ''
Moving Target'' (2000) '',
The Suicide Club (2000 film)
''The Suicide Club'' is a 2000 American-Irish film based on the story ''The Suicide Club (short story collection), The Suicide Club'' by Robert Louis Stevenson. It was directed by Rachel Samuels.
It was from Concorde Anois and was shot in Ireland ...
'' and ''
Bad Karma'' (2002).
See also
*
List of abbeys and priories in Ireland (County Galway)
*
Soraca Jonin
Footnotes
Notes
References
*
*
External links
Ross Abbey at Irish Franciscans OFM
The Irish Ecclesiastical Record, Vol. V, No. I, October 1868at Library Ireland
The Dublin Penny Journal, Volume 1, Number 33, February 9, 1833at Library Ireland
at University College Cork
{{Authority control
Franciscan monasteries in the Republic of Ireland
1351 establishments in Ireland
Religion in County Galway
Buildings and structures in County Galway
Ruins in the Republic of Ireland
Christian monasteries established in the 14th century
National Monuments in County Galway