A a simple nave-and-chancel church with a tall slender tower which contains a sedilia and some windows. Nothing remains of the domestic buildings or the cloister.
Donough Cairbreach O’Brien, King of Thomond, founded a friary for the Franciscans here early in the 13th century.
The church is a simple nave-and-chancel church with a tall slender tower which contains a sedilia and some windows. Nothing remains of the domestic buildings or the cloister.
Galbally was a late Conventual foundation, begun in 1471. After its suppression in 1540, the new owner, the Earl of Desmond, left the friars in peace until Sir Humphrey Gilbert burned the building in 1569, and Sir Henry Sidney again in 1570.
The friars did not return until 1645. Expelled by the Cromwellians, they were back in 1658 and remained (with a short break during 1680-4) until 1748.
Following a rather complicated dispute with Fr. James Butler, V.G. of Cashel diocese, the friars of Galbally withdrew across the mountains to Mitchelstown, where the last friar of Galbally community died, probably in 1804.
Galbally
County Limerick
