The History of Women Religious of Britain and Ireland network is a lively community of scholars that includes academics, archivists, students and others interested in the history of women religious from medieval to modern times. The network hosts an annual conference which in 2018 will return to Galway for a second time where it will be […]
Three seventeenth-century books from the Galway Dominican convent library collection
The library belonging to the Dominican convent at Taylor’s Hill in Galway was recently acquired by the James Hardiman Library at NUI Galway. A substantial acquisition, consisting of over 150 books and volumes dating from the seventeenth, eighteenth, nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the collection offers a valuable insight into the spiritual and intellectual world […]
The Galway Poor Clares
Last month, the Poor Clare community in Galway celebrated its 375th anniversary. As the longest surviving community of women religious in Ireland, the Galway Poor Clare convent holds an important position in the history of Irish monastic foundations. An enclosed contemplative order, the Galway Poor Clares trace their presence in Ireland as far back as […]
The Irish Dominican Convent of Nossa Senhora do Bom Sucesso, Belém, Portugal
Located on the west coast of Portugal about ten kilometres north of Lisbon city in the parish of Belém, is the Irish Dominican convent of Nossa Senhora do Bom Sucesso (Our Lady of Good Success). Founded in 1639 by the Irish Dominican Fr Dominic O’Daly (1595-1662), the convent holds an important position in the history […]
How to be understood in an English convent abroad
Since October I have been working on material held in the Archive of the Archdiocese of Mechelen (AAM) from the English Benedictine Convent of the Glorious Assumption, which was founded in Brussels in 1599 by Lady Mary Percy. In this archive are several hundred letters written over the course of the seventeenth century by various […]