Religious house - Augustinian friars

The National Monuments Service's description

On the N side of Barrack St., in Dunmore town (GA017-002----). This Augustinian friary, a National Monument, is first mentioned in 1425 and it is reputed to have been founded in that year by Walter de Bermingham (Gwynn and Hadcock 1970, 299). Of the monastery, only the much-modified church survives. Rectangular in plan (E-W; L 35.2m), it comprises the nave and chancel with traces of a S aisle; only a short section (L 2.75m) of the W wall of the latter survives. The division between the nave and chancel is marked by a centrally placed tower that was inserted in the 16th century. There is a fine 15th-century doorway in the W gable, in the S jamb of which is a holy water stoup. The doorway is decorated with three shallow orders which have fluted chamfers and moulded capitals. The side pinnacles and that at the centre of the ogee-form hood are tall and slender and terminate in carved poppy-heads (Leask 1960b, 76). Above the doorway there is the recess for a memorial tablet (GA017-005002-) to the de Berminghams and a single-light pointed arch window. On the S side of the nave (L 15.85m, Wth 6.45m) three large arches that formerly accessed the S aisle were blocked up. Windows subsequently inserted into the central and eastern-most arches were also blocked up. A beautiful carved female head with an elaborate head dress was reused as quoin stone in the eastern window. The tower, of three storeys, springs from a pointed chancel arch flanked by the corbels which supported the rood screen. Some of the original plaster and wicker-centring survives on the underside of its vault and a small carved head is visible on its SE pier. The chancel (L 15.15m, Wth 6.3m) was in use as a Protestant church from the 18th to the early 20th centuries (Neary 1914, 96, 100-1, also 103-4). The three blocked round-headed window embrasures in the N and S walls all date from this period, though they probably occupy the sites of the originals. The E window is also blocked up. A cross-slab (GA017-005004-) (Higgins 1987, 361, no. 83) and two medieval graveslabs (GA017-005003- and GA017-005005-) are associated. See also GA017-138----. (O' Flanagan 1927, Vol. 1, 23-4; Harbison 1975, 91)

The above description is derived from the published 'Archaeological Inventory of County Galway Vol. II - North Galway'. Compiled by Olive Alcock, Kathy de hÓra and Paul Gosling (Dublin: Stationery Office, 1999). In certain instances the entries have been revised and updated in the light of recent research.

Updated by: Olive Alcock

Date of revised upload: 24 May 2018

The following images have been appended:

GA017-005001-_01.jpg Overall view from SW
GA017-005001-_02.jpg Overall view from SE
GA017-005001-_03.jpg Crossing tower from E
GA017-005001-_04 jpg Detail of carved stone head

This monument was taken into Ownership under the National Monuments Acts 1930 to 2014 - National Monument 273.

References

O'Flanagan, Rev. M. (Compiler) 1927 Letters containing information relative to the antiquities of the county of Galway collected during the progress of the Ordnance Survey in 1839. Typescript in 3 vols. Bray.

Gwynn, A. and Hadcock, R.N. 1970 (Reprint 1988) Medieval religious houses of Ireland. Dublin. Irish Academic Press.

Harbison, P. 1975 (2nd. ed. 1992 reprint) Guide to the national monuments in the Republic of Ireland. Gill and Macmillan, Dublin.

Higgins, J.G. 1987 The Early Christian cross slabs, pillar stones and related monuments of County Galway, Ireland, 2 vols. British Archaeological Reports, International Series 375. Oxford.

Leask, H.G. 1960 (Reprint 1967 and 1990) Irish churches and monastic buildings, vol. II. Gothic architecture to A.D. 1400. Dundalk. Dundalgan Press.

Neary, J. 1914 On the history and antiquities of the parish of Dunmore in the baronies of Dunmore and Ballymoe, Co. Galway. Journal of the Galway Archaeological and Historical Society 8, 94-128.