Mayo or Mayo Abbey () is a village in

County Mayo County Mayo (; ) is a Counties of Ireland, county in Republic of Ireland, Ireland. In the West Region, Ireland, West of Ireland, in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Connacht, it is named after the village of Mayo, County Mayo, Mayo, now ge ...

Ireland Ireland (, ; ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe. Geopolitically, the island is divided between the Republic of Ireland (officially Names of the Irish state, named Irelan ...

. Although the

county A county () is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposesL. Brookes (ed.) '' Chambers Dictionary''. Edinburgh: Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, 2005. in some nations. The term is derived from the Old French denoti ...

bears its name, it is not the

county seat A county seat is an administrative center, seat of government, or capital city of a county or parish (administrative division), civil parish. The term is in use in five countries: Canada, China, Hungary, Romania, and the United States. An equiva ...

, which is

Castlebar Castlebar () is the county town of County Mayo, Ireland. Developing around a 13th-century castle of the de Barry family, from which the town got its name, the town now acts as a social and economic focal point for the surrounding hinterland. Wi ...

. Mayo Abbey is a small historic village in south Mayo approximately 16 km to the south of Castlebar and 10 km north west of

Claremorris Claremorris (; ) is a town in County Mayo in the west of Ireland, at the junction of the N17 and the N60 national routes. As of the 2017, it was the fastest growing town in the county, having seen a 31% increase in population between 2006 and ...

. The village is in a

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government. Civil parishes can trace their origin to the ancient system of parishes, w ...

of the same name.

History

The village was an important centre in the

Gaelic Gaelic (pronounced for Irish Gaelic and for Scots Gaelic) is an adjective that means "pertaining to the Gaels". It may refer to: Languages * Gaelic languages or Goidelic languages, a linguistic group that is one of the two branches of the Insul ...

and

Anglo-Saxon The Anglo-Saxons, in some contexts simply called Saxons or the English, were a Cultural identity, cultural group who spoke Old English and inhabited much of what is now England and south-eastern Scotland in the Early Middle Ages. They traced t ...

Christian A Christian () is a person who follows or adheres to Christianity, a Monotheism, monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus in Christianity, Jesus Christ. Christians form the largest religious community in the wo ...

world in the seventh and eighth centuries. St. Colmán, Bishop of

Lindisfarne Lindisfarne, also known as Holy Island, is a tidal island off the northeast coast of England, which constitutes the civil parishes in England, civil parish of Holy Island in Northumberland. Holy Island has a recorded history from the 6th centu ...

, founded a monastery here for a group of Saxon monks, called the School of Mayo. Saint Gerald became its first abbot in 670. Danish raiders attacked the monastery in 783 and again in 805.The Heritage of Mayo by Áine Ní Cheanáinn 3rd edition 1988, page 94 Finally

Turgesius Turgesius (died 845) (also called Turgeis, Tuirgeis, Turges, and Thorgest) was a Viking chief active in Ireland during the 9th century. Turgesius Island, the principal island on Lough Lene, is named after him. It is not at all clear whether the na ...

completely destroyed it in 818 The village was the centre of the

diocese of Mayo Mayo often refers to: * Mayonnaise, a sauce * County Mayo, in the west of Ireland * Mayo Clinic, a medical center in Rochester, Minnesota, United States * Mayo (surname), includes a list of people with the name Mayo may also refer to: Places ...

from 1152. It was suppressed in the thirteenth century.Catholic Archdiocese of Tuam history site
/ref> Bishops were appointed, however, as late as the sixteenth century. One of its bishops,

Patrick O'Hely Patrick O'Hely () (born between 1543 - 1546, died 31 August 1579) was an Irish Franciscan priest from Creevelea Abbey, near Dromahair, County Leitrim, and illegal and underground Bishop of Mayo, who was tortured and executed as part of the ...

, who died in 1589, is numbered among the Irish martyr saints. The diocese was formally joined to the diocese of Tuam by papal decree in 1631.

Culture

The

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

four-part dramatisation of

John McGahern John McGahern (12 November 1934 – 30 March 2006) was an Irish writer and novelist. Known for the detailed dissection of Irish life found in works such as '' The Barracks'', '' The Dark'' and '' Amongst Women'', he was hailed by ''The Ob ...

's novel ''

Amongst Women ''Amongst Women'' is a novel by the Irish writer John McGahern (1934–2006). McGahern's best known novel, it is also considered his greatest work. Published by Faber and Faber, the novel tells the story of Michael Moran, a bitter, ageing Iris ...

'' was filmed in Mayo Abbey using the Old Catholic Church, the graveyard and the post office/shop.

Sport

Mayo Gaels is the local

Gaelic football Gaelic football (; short name '')'', commonly known as simply Gaelic, GAA, or football, is an Irish team sport. A form of football, it is played between two teams of 15 players on a rectangular grass pitch. The objective of the sport is to score ...

team. They compete at all underage levels as well as senior and junior football.

Annalistic references

* 726 - ''Gerald, of Magh Eo, died on the 13th of March.'' * 726 - ''Muireadhach, son of Indreachtach, was slain; he was Bishop of Magh Eo.'' * 905 - ''The oratory of Magh-eo was burned.'' * ''M1209.1. Kele O'Duffy, Bishop of Mayo of the Saxons ... died.'' * ''M1478.1. The Bishop O'Higgin, i.e. Bishop of Mayo-na-Saxon, died.''

References

External links