friaries around castlebar swinford

Straide Friary was founded under the patronage of Jordan de Exeter around 1240 for the Franciscans, but at the insistence of his daughter-in-law, Basilia Birmingham, it was transferred to the Dominicans in 1252. The surviving church has a thirteenth century chancel with six small lancet windows, but the rest of the building dates from a fifteenth-century restoration. Its two treasures date from the restoration: a high altar with elegant decorations including a Pieta flanked by donors and a del...