friaries ireland

The Franciscan Friary at Fair Hill was built on the site known as Martyr's Hill, a place of public execution in the 17th century. The stained glass window over the main entrance is by the famous Irish artist Harry Clarke and is said to be one of the finest in Ireland. The church also has a magnificent high altar, beautifully carved in wood....

The Friary was founded in 1507 by the McDonaghs. The unusual church has almost identical windows at each end. The church was entered by doors in the north and south walls. The most remarkable feature of the church is the central tower and belfry, which also acted as a rood-screen, with a narrow passage and two rooms on the ground floor, and an arrangement of three arches (the central one being taller than the other two) on the first floor which is only reachable by a dangerous set of steps on...

This is an attractive old world village, a National Tidy Town winner, set at the entrance to Multyfarnham Friary. The Fransciscans have a long association with this place, having set up a monastery there in the early 14th century. Despite the dissolution of the monasteries in 1535 and havig been evicted a number of times, they always returned and now run a modern agricultural college.

The church, recently restored in the traditional Franciscan style, incorporates original sections d...

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 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...

Overlooking Lough Arrow, this Dominican friary was founded in 1507 and stands today as a complete16th century ruin with no later appendages. There is a headstone in the nave dating from 1717....

One of the finest and best preserved of the Franciscan Friaries in Ireland this was founded for the Franciscan Third Order friars around 1440. A finely carved west doorway leads to the single-aisled church which has a graceful east window. In the south chapel is another fine window. In the south-east corner of the chancel is a double piscina, unique in that it has a Round Tower carved on one of the pillars. Other carvings on the piscina include tow angels and the Instalments of the Passion....

Situated beside an inlet of the sea, this Friary was founded in 1486 by Richard Burke, MacWilliam Iochtair, for the Dominicans. The church consists of a nave, chancel and south transept, the last two of which have well-preserved windows of the period. The stubby low tower is almost more Cistercian than Dominican in character. The eastern wall of the cloister, with its almost rounded windows, is preserved up to first-floor level; the other domestic buildings have vanished. A 15th century seal...

A Carmelite friary founded by MacSwiney, Lord of Fanad, in the 15th century. It consists of a nave-and-chancel church with south transept and some domestic buildings. The friars still seem to have been in occupation as late a 1595 for in that year George Og Bingham raided it and took 24 Mass Vestments, church plate and other things.

It was leased to Captain Ralph Bingley in 1602, when it consisted of one ruinous church, a steeple, a cloister, a hall, three chambers, an orchard and one...

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....