creevelea franciscan friary

This Franciscan Friary, founded by Owen O'Rourke and his wife Margaret in 1508, was the last Franciscan friary to be founded in Ireland before the Suppression of the Monasteries. The church has a nave, choir, tower and south transept. The west doorway and the window above it are well preserved, as is also the east window, but the windows in the south transept have vanished. The transept has a number of recesses. The tower was converted into living quarters in the 17th century. To the north of the church a number of domestic buildings surround the cloister. The cloister is irregular in shape, and in the centre of the north side there are a number of interesting carvings on the pillars. One of these shows St. Francis with the stigmata, and with an inscription crossing his body. Another shows the same saint in a pulpit with birds perched on a tree; legend says that he understood the language of the birds. On the east side of the clositer are three rooms, that nearest the church being a sacristy, and beyond these rooms is a passage joining the cloister with the outside world.