Religious house - Franciscan friars

The National Monuments Service's description

On the gentle N-facing slope of a fertile ridge in pasture. Gwynn and Hadcock (1970 , 278) refer to a 17th century place of refuge from Quin Friary (CL042-027002-) in Drim townland. The OS Name Books (1829-34) note ‘The Ruins of a Franciscan Convent on this Tld. This convent was built when Quin Abbey was secondly burned in 1200…Authority Patrick McDonnell, Drim.’ According to more recent local information (pers. comm. Martin Breen, August 2025) the ruins of a house at ITM 540111, 676539 is remembered locally to have been used as the refuge by the last Franciscan friars from about 1740 to 1820 when the last friar, Fr. John Hogan, died and was buried at the abbey. A house is depicted at this location on the 1840 OS 6-inch map. On the ground only the lower portions of the N (L c. 8m), W (L c. 7m) and E (L c. 3m) walls remain (H 1.2-1.5m) and there are no apparent architectural features. A wooden rosary and a white gold ring with a stone (which according to a Limerick jeweller was of an ecclesiastical type) were found in one wall of the ruin in the 1970s. These items are no longer extant.

Compiled by: Mary Tunney

Date of upload: 17 November 2025

References

OSNB - Ordnance Survey Name Books. Pro-forma books arranged by Civil Parish for recording townland and other name-forms and compiled in the course of the OS 6-inch survey 1824-1841. The name books also include minor names and incidental references to antiquities. National Archives of Ireland. Gwynn, A. and Hadcock, R.N. 1970 (Reprint 1988) Medieval religious houses of Ireland. Dublin. Irish Academic Press.