Founded 1488

The first Dominican foundation in Connacht was Athenry (1241). It was from Athenry that they came to Galway in 1488. It is rather surprising that they took so long to settle in Galway. During the 14^thth century saw quite a spate of new Dominican houses, no fewer than seven in Connacht alone before the Dominicans came to Galway. century, probably because of the Black Death, there was only one new foundation made in the entire country; but the 15

Almost all had native Irish, rather than Norman, founders; and many were the product of a reform or ‘observant’ movement within the Order, which perhaps explains why they were small houses in particularly remote places such as Tombeola on the western edge of Connemara. The priory in Galway was almost the last foundation in the whole of Ireland before Henry VIII suppressed the monasteries.

The Dominicans got possession of an old abandoned chapel of ‘the Blessed virgin outside the walls’, otherwise called ‘St Mary on the Hill’, occupied by the Premonstratensian Canons of Tuam from 1235. The Order thus obtained not only the site of their present premises but also the title of their church, St Mary’s, from the Premonstratensians. In later times it came to be called ‘the West Convent’, or ‘St Mary’s outside the gates’. On the whole, Dominicans in Ireland preferred to live outside the gates of walled towns. They could find a cheaper site, more space, freedom from tolls, and come and go as they wished. The patronage of the wealthy Lynch family, extended thirty years earlier to the visiting friars of Athenry, was maintained in the new foundation.

Most Irish Dominican houses, particularly in Leinster and Munster, were effectively suppressed under Henry VIII about 1540 and did not really recover until the 1620s. Ulster and Connacht, being largely beyond English control, were not affected by the campaign of suppression until the reign of Queen Elizabeth (1558 – 1603). The Corporation of Galway acquired a lease of the Dominican ‘friar-house’ in 1570, but there is no reason to believe that St Mary’s church was put to other uses or demolished.

Between 1590 and 1610, because of increasing persecution under Elizabeth and James I, Dominican activity in Galway was eclipsed, if it did not completely die. The number of Dominicans in Ireland had dropped to about forty, practically all of whom were in Connacht or west Ulster. What saved the situation was a new policy, adopted about 1610, of sending young recruits to receive the habit and pursue their studies in priories on the continent. In the course of time, and against considerable opposition, the Irish Dominicans obtained three foreign colleges of their own: Louvain (c. 1623), Lisbon (c. 1635), and Rome (1677). Whenever possible, these recruits made their novitiate in Ireland first and were ordained after solemn profession. By this stratagem, they might say Mass and support themselves on stipends wherever they might go.

From the year 1617 the picture is one of gradual consolidation and recovery, despite occasional proclamations and even persecution. By 1622 Galway had the largest Dominican community in the country, with ten friars. They also seem to have recovered their church, which very few other communities managed to do.