Ballindoon Friary

The monastery Ballindoon (Irish Prióreacht Bhaile to Dún, English Ballindoon Priory ) was a Maria hallowed house of the Dominicans on the northern shores of Lough Arrow in County Sligo, which was founded in 1507 by Thomas O'Farrell and lifted around 1585 during the Reformation.

Geographical location

While the earlier foundations of the Dominicans in the 13th century were mainly in urban centers or church, it came in the 15th and 16th centuries to favor rural and isolated areas, which facilitated a strict adherence to the mendicants ideals. The monastery is situated on the northern shore of Lough Arrow, only about half a kilometer away from Ballindoon Castle, a fortification that was conquered and destroyed in 1352 by Hugh O'Conor, but was later rebuilt by the MacDonaghs again that there at the time of their founding had seat. While on the Northeast side of the monastery rises the terrain slowly, it falls to the sea side about six feet steeply down.

History

Ballindoon is the final establishment of the Dominicans in Ireland before the Reformation. Since the land belonged to MacDonaghs, gives the name of the founder, Thomas O'Farrell, puzzle, because it is attributed to the Longford family. O'Sullivan points to an entry in the Annals of Connacht, in which a Thomas O'Farrell is mentioned as Prior, who is killed along with his three sons. However, as would be the connection of its own, as prior to a secular family life only in the form of a Kommendarpriors permitted again the question remains of how he was able to take a position in a foreign dominion.

The assessment in 1585, the church, a cemetery and about four acres of land was found, whose value was estimated at 6 shillings and 8 pence. As Melaghlin Oge MacDonagh died in 1588, the property passed as a fief to his widow. Later Ballindoon fell to Sir Francis Crofton.

Architecture

Access to the monastery via a passageway with a chamfered pointed arch and is roofed on the outside in the north wall of the nave. In the nave are two windows, one with a three-membered Gothic tracery on the west side and a simpler two-tier window with ogee arches.

The monastery impresses with its unusual tower, so Leask, because of its low height and unusual design is not really a tower, but rather a screen between the nave and the choir, which can hold at its tip a bell, but only slightly above the other church roof rises. He is unusually narrow from east to west and has ridges to the north and south sides and in the middle a raised area, which also had gable to the west and east. In addition to the passage in the middle of the choir are two arcs left and right of it, which served apparently side altars. In the first floor are also three openings, which act like a gallery. Leask assumed here that the left and right statues have been in the openings and in the middle of a crucifix, which contrasted with the underlying illuminated choir. This design is unique in Ireland.

The choir is, however, carried out two windows on the north side and a central window on the east side, which is similar to that on the west side four members. The narrow window of the north side are trimmed on or bipartite and arches. On the south side is a passage that can be reached by the stone from an outside staircase leading to the gallery on the first floor of the tower.