Corpus of Electronic Texts Edition
A History of the Franciscan Order in Ireland (Author: Donagh Mooney)

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{journal issue 4:10}

A History of the Franciscan Order in Ireland.
By very Rev. Donagh Mooney
Introduction

Among the many treasures of priceless value to Ireland, which rest on the shelves of the Burgundian library i.e. the Royal Library in Brussels is a manuscript entitled: ‘ A History of the Franciscan Order in Ireland’. It is numbered vol. vii. (3195),Number 3195 is given by L, but the MS number is 3497. and contains one hundred and one leaves, large folio, closely written on both sides. It appears to have been written by Father Anthony Purcell, a learned professor in the College of Louvain, from notes supplied by Father Donagh Mooney. The latter was for many years Provincial of the Irish Franciscans, and devoted what time he could spare from his duties to the collection of materials for a history of the Order in his native land. He visited Louvain in 1617, and confided the precious records to Father Purcell, with instructions to prepare them for publication. This manuscript was the result.1

It cannot be called with accuracy, a ‘ History of the Franciscan Order in Ireland’, as it is styled in the catalogue. It is rather a sketch of the different convents, and their

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disastrous fate in the sixteenth century, with brief notices of members of the Order, eminent for learning or sanctity. The details are often meagre. It could not well be otherwise, considering the circumstances under which Father Mooney gathered his information. A violent persecution raged, and woe betide the friar who fell into the hands of the soldiers of Queen Elizabeth or James. ‘Hold me excused,’ the good Father pathetically writes, ‘that I have not done better. But Church and State have been brought to ruin in this unhappy land, and I had to hurry through my visitation, surrounded by the alarms of persecution, so that I was unable to collect more than the fragments of what is necessary for such a work as this.’ Imperfect as it may be, every lover of the Franciscan Order and of Ireland must be deeply grateful to the venerable priest for rescuing from destruction, under such difficulties and dangers, so many memorials of the past, which would otherwise have perished.

Father Mooney's manuscript has never been translated into English. It forms, indeed, the ground-work upon which Father Meehan has elaborated his charming book, The Rise and Fall of the Irish Franciscan Monasteries. But in writing that work he has only culled from our author those incidents and descriptions which pleased his fancy or suited his purpose, while he has introduced a large amount of material from other sources.

I am confident that the readers of the Tertiary will be pleased to have the graphic scenes and life-like pictures of this interesting manuscript placed before them. There are few counties in Ireland in which the ruins of a Franciscan monastery may not be found. Some almost perfect in their simple grandeur, needing, it would seem, but a roof to fit them once more for the abode of some pious brotherhood. Such are Quin, Timoleague, and many others which will occur to the minds of our readers. Of others there remain but crumbling walls and scattered stones,

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as Donegal, around which cling, closer than the ivy, so many memories of the work done for Ireland. Some, alas! have been perverted into places of Protestant worship, and the bald religion of Henry VIII. is preached within those walls which once echoed to the living words of the children of St. Francis. While not a few, thank God, have never been wrested, or but for a time, from the possession of the Order. In Clonmel the square tower, erected six hundred years ago by the pious munificence of the people of the town, casts even to-day its protecting shadow over a church worthy of the ancient glory of the Irish Province. Cromwell stabled the horses of his troopers in the church of Wexford. Now the successors of the Franciscans whom he martyred preach the faith which he would have extinguished in blood in the very spot that he desecrated. The pages of Fr. Mooney give life to these venerable monuments of the past, and we rise from their perusal with a new interest in the vivid ruins of which he has so much to tell of.

I have added a few notes, which seem necessary for the elucidation of the text. These are signed L.

This book was composed by Br. Antony Purcell, in obedience to the command of the Very Rev. Father, Br. Donagh Mooney, Provincial Minister, of the Friars Minor, of the Regular Observance, in Ireland, on the 2nd of November, 1617, in the College of the Irish Friars at Louvain. Pious reader, in charity, pray for his soul.