Historic Abbey of Athenry

Source: The Connacht Tribune, Friday, July 26, 1991

1991 marks the 750th Anniversary of the coming of the Dominican Friars to Athenry and the Anniversary will be duly celebrated in the Ancient Dominican Abbey of SS Peter and Paul in Athenry on Sunday August 18.

To mark the occasion The Connacht Tribune this week begins a special series of articles on the history of the Dominicans in Athenry and subsequently in Esker, some four miles outside the town. In total, the three-part series covers a period over 650 years from their arrival in 1241 until their final departure from the locality under 100 years ago in 1893.

The history is based on the work of Ambrose Coleman, O.P., which was published in the early years of this century. However, as the text will make quite clear, it is based almost entirely on the much earlier manuscript material dating from 1619.

From an old manuscript, preserved in the British Museum, entitled Registum Monasterii Fratrum de Athenry, we are able to gather more detailed and interesting information than is available for almost any other abbey in Ireland. It contains particulars of the founder, benefactors and donations as well as obits of the friars and great men, and incidentally throws light on the life led in the abbey in those times. It consists of twenty three closely written folio pages, and was probably compiled in 1619, by the fathers in Athenry for Sir James Ware, from old documents, annals and obit lists belonging to the abbey, which at the time were still in their possession.

We attribute the compilation of this account to 1619 from the fact that Dr. Burke discovered a similar compilation made in the same year by three of the fathers there and also because the information regarding St. Saviour’s in Limerick was written about the same time.

The following account of the abbey, up to the time of the suppression, is taken entirely from this manuscript, with the exception of the Papal briefs.

The Bermingham barons of Athenry were the great benefactors of the abbey in the early times and Myler de Bermingham, second baron of Athenry, founded the abbey in 1241, under the invocation of SS Pater and Paul, buying the site from Robert Braynach (Walsh) for 160 marks, and giving another 160 towards the building, besides gifts of wine, English cloth, and horses for drawing the stones. He also induced the knights and soldiers to contribute to the work, each according to his ability. The work must have progressed very quickly, as a provincial chapter was held in the abbey in 1242, only a year after the foundation.

Phelim O’Conor, King of Connaught and founder of our abbey at Roscommon, build the refectory, the dormitory was erected by Eugene O’Heyne, the chapter house by Cornelius O’Kelly, the cloister by Walter Husgard, the infirmary by Arthur Mac Gallyly, and the great guesthouse by Bernard O’Trarasay (?) and his wife. Rodolph Hallatune gave the altar in the chapel of the Blessed Virgin. Florence MacFlynn, archibshop of Tuam, who died in 1256, was a great benefactor of the friars. He built a “house of scholars’ for them (probably a theological school) and left behind him wise rules for the management of it. They had a friend too in Thomas O’Kelly, bishop of Clonfert, who was buried in the abbey in 1263. Besides other benefactions he built the vault near the north side of the high altar.

The abbey soon became a favourite burial place for the principal families in the country round about. Myler de Bermingham, the founder, who died in 1252 near Cashel, was buried here. Such was the attachment of that family to the abbey, that when one of them, Thomas, had died and was buried in Trim, his remains were afterwards exhumed and carried to Athenry. Such too were the feelings of the burgesses of Athenry. A certain David Wedir, of Athenry, one of the benefactors of the abbey, had died in Bristol and was buried in the Dominican abbey there. His widow, however, commissioned the lector of Athenry Abbey, Friar Norse, to bring his remains back to Athenry, where she obsequies celebrated for him for a whole fortnight, attended by Dominicans from Roscommon, Sligo, Straide, Dublin, Lorragh and Portumna, as well as Augustinians and Carmelites. It became also the burial place of the Burkes of Claricard, and has remained so to this present day.

The Berminghams gave tithes of their possessions for the support of the friars, and this practice was followed by others. Grants of lanc were made here and there, all of which are carefully recorded.

The benefactors had other means too of showing kindness and giving help. One gave 40 marks for food in a time of scarcity; some used to entertain two or more friars at their table regularly; others entertained two or more every day during Lent. One Sylina Lynch used to send a barrel of fish and a pipe of wine every Lent and Advent and kept up the custom for more than twenty years. One Nicholas Godsun, a burgess of Athenry, besides giving them tithes, used to keep the twenty four friars of the abbey in cloaks made of English cloth, while his wife used to keep them in habits of the same material, and this they continued for more than twenty two years. They also had four friars at dinner during Lent and two for the rest of the year.

Gifts of chalices, brass candlesticks, candles for the midnight office of matins, a crucifix, a statue of St. Dominic, and a silk cappa for the cantor, worth sixteen marks, are also recorded for this period. Mac a Wallayd ( Mac Walter?) de Bermingham built the chapel of the Blessed Virgin up to the sills of the windows, about the end of the thirteenth century. It was finished by William Wallace, who left 140 marks and a pipe of wine for keeping the windows in repair. The latter also made the campanile as far as the roof of the church. After his death, in the beginning of the first pestilence, in 1344, his widow remained till her death in the infirmary and got the eastem portion of it tiled. This fact, as recorded, would lead us to infer that the infirmary was for externs and not exclusively for the friars.

Thomas Bovanter, who gave twenty pounds sterling ad opera monasterii, besides a missal and chalice and other gifts, was buried under the altar of St. Peter Martyr O.P., in 1413. William Canus de Burgh, who gave 100 marks towards building the facade of the church and also lengthened the choir by twenty feet, was buried under the pulpit from which the gospel used to be read. Other benefactions are recorded in the old manuscript which would take too long to record.

That the prosperity of the friars excited envy is not to be wondered at. This came to a head in 1297 when the friars felt called on to defend themselves and did so successfully. The following summary of their case will be of interest: 1297. The archbishop of Tuam and his archdeacon were summoned at the suit of the friars of Athenry for libellous and injurious treatment. The archdeacon, it appears, in Athenry, Galway, Clare and other places, had made a public prohibition against giving food or other alms to the friars, or even selling anything to them or receiving them into their houses, and had also forbidden the people to attend their church under grave penalties. The archbishop pleaded on his part that he had never acted with hostility against the friars, but had always defended their interests, and promised to make the archdeacon revoke his words in the presence of the chapter.

To be continued next week.

Source: The Connacht Tribune, Friday, August 16, 1991

Next Sunday (August 18) the people of Athenry will celebrate the 750th Anniversary of the coming of the Dominicans to the town. This foundation was the seventh Dominican foundation in Ireland and the first west of the Shannon.

Our first chapter (Connacht Tribune July 27) told the story of the Priory for the first 110 years of its existence. This chapter completes the story up to 1893 when the Dominicans left the area.

These extracts are edited from the work of Ambrose Coleman, O.P., which was published in the early years of this century. His work, however, is based on two earlier manuscripts — the first of these dates from 1619 and the second from 1735.

The following Pontifical brief show how the Athenry Abbey was held in esteem by the Popes:- 1400. Boniface IX granted an indulgence to all the faithful, obtainable on several festival days throughout the year, who should pay a pious visit to the church and give some alms towards the preservation of the fabric.

1423. Martin V granted an indulgence of a similar kind, owing to the church and abbey having lately been consumed by an accidental fire.

1445 Eugenius IV renewed the indulgence granted by his predecessor, Martin V, on the occasion of the accidental fire which had destroyed the church and abbey. In this brief it is mentioned that the friars of Athenry were generally about thirty in number.

A determined and successful effort was made in the fifteenth century to rebuild the abbey and church after the fire. A long account of benefections for the purpose is recorded in the old manuscript from which we cull the following:

William Butler and Agnes Bovanter, his wife, gave twenty marks, besides buying a beautiful picture in Flanders for the church, for forty marks. Nicholas O’Kearney gave twenty marks and a good silk chasuble. The widow of David Wedir glazed the large window behind the high altar and all the windows in the choir, the work costing more than 100 marks. She also built a stone bridge over a stream leading to the town. John Reed furnished a crucifix, a statue of the Blessed Virgin, and one of St. John the Evangelist, at a cost of 30 marks, besides providing a tabernacle for the altar. Walter Lynch, of Galway, who used to entertain the friars whenever they went thither, gave two gold chalices with silver gilt patens. He also gave a stone altar and made several new windows in the wall near it. Johanna Kelly gave a gilt ciborium and a new gradual.

Father Maurice y mochan Morral, the first Provincial of the Irish Province, erected in 1484, built a small chapel in honour of St. Catherine of Sienna.

Gifts of land are also recorded, as well as a donation of sixty cows from Richard Burke. Vestments, chalices, books, candlesticks and candles are among the minor benefactions. Thomas Bermingham, baron of Athenry, and Anabella, his wife, gave three silver marks towards the building of the church organ and repaired the rooms of the English bachelors of theology. They also, at the provincial chapter of 1482, held in the abbey, entertained twice on the same day the 280 friars who were present and their servants, and did the same good work at the chapter of 1491, also held in the abbey, besides giving the priors on the latter occasion, twenty pence each. Richard Burke at the provincial chapter of 1542, entertained thrice the 360 friars who were present at it, as well as their servants.

At the time of the Suppression of the monasteries in Ireland, the friars of Athenry petitioned not to be suppressed and their petition was granted:-

1541 (218) Anthony Sentleger.

“Memorandum that the 7th date of July, in the XXXIll year of the most prosperous reyne of our moost dread and sovereigne lord, King henry the eitht, by ye grace of God, King of England, Ireland and Ffrance, defendor of the faith, and in earth, supreme hed under God moost worthie, of the church of England and Ireland. In consideration that the monasterie or house of ffriars of Athenrie is situated amongst the irishry and that by the dissolution thereof, our saide sovereign lord shoulde have lyttle or no profit, and being not surveyed by any of the king’s commissioners, by reason of the same so standeth amongst dissobeysence”. (Record Office Dublin).

The Abbey, however, fared less well during the reign o Elizabeth 1.

1574 July 8. Grant to the provost and burgesses of Athenry, co. Galway, the site of the monastery of St. Dominic, or house of the Friars Preachers of Athenrie, a water-mill, twelve cottages and land in Athenry, land in Ballydane and Glue, and the chapel of Tollabane in Connaught. – Fiants, Eliz.

A short historical account of the fortunes of the Athenry community during the seventeenth century was written in 1736 by Fr. Edmund Burke, an alumnus of that house, where he made his solemn profession in 1683. As for several of his statements he quotes for Dominic Burke O.P., bishop of Elphin, who received the Dominican habit in the same house in 1641, its authenticity is beyond doubt. It appears from this account that Father Ross Mageoghegan, the Provincial, and some other fathers, petitioned Ulick Burke, the earl of Clanrickard, for some place to dweel in near their old abbey in Athenry. he gave them a wood in an unfrequented place between two lakes, called Coilascail (or Brosk), where they erected a small convent and began to receive novices. After being established there for some years, they began courses of the classics and of philosophy and theology, and were able to introduce Regular Observance. Driven from their retreat by the Cromwellians, they returned at the Restoration and approached the successor of the earl of Clanrickard about their convent. he generously gave them as a free gift the wood and adjoining land, on the sole condition that they should offer three masses annually for himself and his family. The fathers, thereupon, settled down and began as formerly to receive novices. In 1678 they opened their school on a much larger scale and it became so famous in a short time that students flocked to it from every part of the kingdom. Several of these afterwards became bishops and other ecclesiastical dignitaries, and others made a mark in the professions of law and medicine. The students were scattered here and there in the wood and adjoining country, living in small batches, each batch under the direction of a tutor, in little wooden huts constructed by themselves, their food and clothing being sent to them by their friends. In the morning they all came together in an open space in the wood for lessons and dispersed again to their huts when the work of the day was over. The school was begun and ended with prayer, the Rosary of the Blessed Virgin being always recited before the students dispersed for the evening.

This school was broken up for a few years, during the persecution consequent on the ‘Popish Plot’, but was resumed in 1683. The school had to be closed in 1691 owing to the Jacobite war in Ireland, and the confiscation of the Clanrickard property was followed by the eviction of the fathers from their place of refuge.

From the provincial records and other evidence, it is probabe that the Dominican Order was always represented in Athenry in unbroken succession from olden times. In 1619, there was at least one very old father attached to it, who may have been received into the order before the dissolution of the monastery in Elizabeth’s time. It is curious, however, that it is not mentioned three years later in the Provincial’s report. In 1629, there were five fathers here, two of them very old, as well as two young clerics and a laybrother. In 1644 it was ordered by the provincial chapter that it should be made into a general house of studies, but this project fell through owing to the Cromwellian war. In 1669 a provincial chapter was held here.

In 1685 the old abbey was again recovered, but the fathers did not hold it long as they shared the general exile of 1698 and it was never afterwards in their possession. In Molyneaux’s Journey Through Connaught he speaks of Sir T. Montgomery having part of his house made out of a wing of the old abbey. Archdall says:- “The ruins which remain of this priory prove it to have been a sumptuous building. Part of it was taken down, to erect in its room the present barracks, and the cloisters probably stood where the barrack-yard is now”

In the old Rosary Confraternity Book of Esker, there is written a contemporary account of the events affecting the fathers of the Athenry community from 1697 till 1712. It appears that two of the fathers, on account of their advanced years, were exempted from the general exile of 1698, but they soon succumbed, and, after their death, Father Anthony Mac Hugo, who had remained concealed all along with a laybrother, was the only representative of the community till three fathers returned from Spain, in 1707. After a short time some other fathers returned from Louvain, the community was formed again, and the friars, after trying here and there in vain for a place to settle in permanently, were able to rent a solitary spot in Esker, between two lakes, from Mr. Denis Daly, of Carrumakelly, where they built a small cabin. Some novices were received here, but in 1715, an accidental fire having destroyed their poor dwelling, they moved to Esker na pay (of the cows) three miles from the old abbey of Athenry, where they built a better house. Their poverty at this period may be gauged from the fact that in 1723 they were obliged to sell seven of their old silver chalices. In 1753, their house, having been badly built from the first, tumbled down, but was soon replaced by another. A large community lived there during the greater part of the eighteenth century. In 1723, it numbered nine fathers, and in 1767 the number had risen to twelve.

In the Lords’ Committee Returns of 1731, it is stated that there is “another (friary) belonging to Athenry, whose number is reputed to be about twenty. But they have lately removed their habitation to a wood about two miles from the town, where they now have their house.”

In 1826, poor schools were built by Father Peter Smyth, afterwards the Provincial, for three hundred children, and in 1847 he opened a college for the sons of the gentry. The college flourished for only a short time as the gentry of the west of Ireland became impoverished by the great famime. In 1850 there were six fathers attached to the community and in 1859 Regular Observance was introduced and the house was made a noviciate. In 1895 the place not being then considered suitable to the needs of the Order in Ireland, was given over — church, convent, college and schools — to the bishop of the diocese, and from him it passed to the Redemptorists in 1901. The Dominican Order, to the great regret of the people, thus severed its connection with Athenry after having been represented there without a break for 654 years.