Burrishoole Friary was a Dominican

Dominican Order

The Order of Preachers , after the 15th century more commonly known as the Dominican Order or Dominicans, is a Catholic religious order founded by Saint Dominic and approved by Pope Honorius III on 22 December 1216 in France...

 friary in County Mayo

County Mayo

County Mayo is a county in Ireland. It is located in the West Region and is also part of the province of Connacht. It is named after the village of Mayo, which is now generally known as Mayo Abbey. Mayo County Council is the local authority for the county. The population of the county is 130,552...

, Ireland

Ireland

Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...

. Its ruin is a National Monument

National Monument (Ireland)

The Irish state has officially approved the following List of National Monuments of Ireland. In the Republic of Ireland, a structure or site may be deemed to be a "National Monument", and therefore worthy of state protection, if it is of national importance...

.

Burrishoole Friary was founded in 1470 by Richard de Burgo of Turlough, Lord MacWilliam Oughter. It was built without the permission of the Pope

Pope

The Pope is the Bishop of Rome, a position that makes him the leader of the worldwide Catholic Church . In the Catholic Church, the Pope is regarded as the successor of Saint Peter, the Apostle...

. In 1486, the Pope instructed the Archbishop of Tuam

Archbishop of Tuam

The Archbishop of Tuam is an archiepiscopal title which takes its name after the town of Tuam in County Galway, Ireland. The title was used by the Church of Ireland until 1839, and is still in use by the Roman Catholic Church.-History:...

 to forgive the Friars. Richard de Burgo

Richard Burke

Richard Burke is a former senior Irish Fine Gael politician and a European Commissioner.Dick Burke was born in New York in the United States in 1932. He was raised in Tipperary and educated at the Christian Brothers School, Thurles, University College Dublin and King's Inns. He worked as a...

 resigned his lordship in 1469 and entered the friary he had founded where he remained a friar until his death four years later. This was not an uncommon occurrence and serves to illustrate the connection between patrons and their foundations at this time.

The church and the eastern wall of the cloister

Cloister

A cloister is a rectangular open space surrounded by covered walks or open galleries, with open arcades on the inner side, running along the walls of buildings and forming a quadrangle or garth...

 remain. The grounds of the Friary are an actively used cemetery

Cemetery

A cemetery is a place in which dead bodies and cremated remains are buried. The term "cemetery" implies that the land is specifically designated as a burying ground. Cemeteries in the Western world are where the final ceremonies of death are observed...

.

Burrishoole Friary is a few kilometers west of the town of Newport, County Mayo

Newport, County Mayo

Newport, historically known as Ballyveaghan , is a small picturesque town in the Barony of Burrishoole County Mayo, Ireland with a population of 590 in 2006. It is located on the west coast of Ireland, along the shore of Clew Bay, north of Westport. The N59 road passes through the town. The...

, Ireland. It is often called Burrishoole Abbey, however, this colloquial name is inaccurate as the Dominican order

Dominican Order

The Order of Preachers , after the 15th century more commonly known as the Dominican Order or Dominicans, is a Catholic religious order founded by Saint Dominic and approved by Pope Honorius III on 22 December 1216 in France...

 did not have abbots, therefore Dominican houses are not technically abbeys.

Almost all the friaries and abbeys across Ireland were suppressed in the wake of the Reformation

Reformation

- Movements :* Protestant Reformation, an attempt by Martin Luther to reform the Roman Catholic Church that resulted in a schism, and grew into a wider movement...

 in the 16th century. Very few were rebuilt after that time and now only the ruins survive, pleasing, if poignant, late Gothic

Gothic architecture

Gothic architecture is a style of architecture that flourished during the high and late medieval period. It evolved from Romanesque architecture and was succeeded by Renaissance architecture....

 relics of what must have been among the most striking buildings in the countryside of pre-Tudor Ireland.

See also

• Dominicans in Ireland
  Dominicans in Ireland
  The Dominican Order has been present in Ireland since 1224 when the first foundation was established in Dublin. This was quickly followed by Drogheda , Kilkenny , Waterford , Limerick and Cork...
  
  
• List of abbeys and priories in Ireland (County Mayo)