St Mary on the Hill, Claddagh

History

The Dominicans came to Galway in 1488 from Athenry, their first Connacht foundation, which dated from 1241. The community's history records that they took possession of an abandoned chapel of the Blessed Virgin outside the walls, otherwise called St Mary on the Hill, which had been occupied by the Premonstratensian Canons of Tuam from 1235. In later times the house came to be called the West Convent, or St Mary's outside the gates. The patronage of the Lynch family, extended thirty years earlier to the visiting friars of Athenry, was maintained in the new foundation. The priory in Galway was probably the last Dominican foundation in Ireland before the suppression of the monasteries under Henry VIII.

Most Irish Dominican houses, particularly those in Leinster and Munster, were effectively suppressed about 1540, but Connacht was not affected until the reign of Elizabeth I. The Corporation of Galway acquired a lease of the Dominican friar-house in 1570, though the community's history states there is no reason to believe that St Mary's church was put to other uses or demolished. Dominican activity in Galway was reduced between 1590 and 1610, after which young recruits were sent to priories on the Continent for their studies.