Claregalway Franciscan Friary

Claregalway Abbey is a nave and chancel church founded by Norman knight John de Cogan for the Franciscan friars. De Cogan founded Claregalway in c.1240, and by 1252 had received a license to have a weekly market and annual fair. The church dates from the 13^th to the 15^th century. In the late 13^th/early 14^th century, the Abbey was protected by the Irish lords of the region, the O’Flaherty’s. By the 16^th century it was the Earls of Clanricard protecting the friars. The dissolution of the monasteries saw the friary sacked by crown forces who raided and plundered the site of all value. In 1570 Richard Burke, 2^nd Earl of Clanricarde, was granted Claregalway Abbey, only to have the Lord President of Connaught, Sir Richard Bingham, take their territory in 1589. Bingham converted Claregalway Abbey into a barracks in 1589 for his forces, ejecting the friars. The abbey was regranted back to the Earls of Clanricarde, with the friars returning in the early 17^th century. At the end of 1847 the last two friars had left Claregalway Abbey.

The north transept, aisle and three-storey tower all date to the 15^th century. The original entrance was via the west gable through a pointed arched doorway with overhead traceried window. The nave was separated from the church by a four-pointed arch and within the nave are three tomb-niches and a piscina. The chancel has six pairs of lancet windows, dated to the 13^th century, with a large traceried window in the east gable dated to the 15^th century. The chancel houses a piscina, aumbry, sedilia and the tomb niche of the de Burgos. This is a canopied niche with short half columns, moulded capitals of small heads, dating to the 1400’s. A wall monument set into the niche bears the Burke coat of arms, and has a Latin inscription dedicated to the de Burgos, dated 1646. Graveslabs, both inscribed and plain, are found within the church and date from the  13^th to 17^th centuries. In the southern portion of the site the cloister and domestic buildings are found, and further south again leads to the garderobes and watermill.

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This national monument is protected in accordance with the National Monuments Acts 1930 to 2014