Burrishoole Friary was founded in 1470 by Richard de Burgo of Turlough, Lord MacWilliam Oughter. It was built without the permission of Pope Paul II (term 1464-1471). In 1486, Pope Innocent VIII (term 1484-1492) instructed Uilliam Seóighe, the Archbishop of Tuam (term 1485-1501) to forgive the friars. Richard de Burgo resigned his lordship in 1469 and entered the friary which he had founded. He remained a friar until his death in 1473. This was not an uncommon occurrence, and serves to illustrate the connection between patrons and their foundations at the time.[1]
The church and the eastern wall of the cloister remain. The grounds of the friary are an actively used cemetery.[citation needed]
Burrishoole Friary is a few kilometers west of the town of Newport, County Mayo. It is often called Burrishoole Abbey, although this colloquial name is inaccurate as because the Dominican order did not have abbots, Dominican houses are not technically abbeys.[citation needed]
Almost all the friaries and abbeys across Ireland were suppressed in the wake of the Reformation in the 16th century. Very few were rebuilt after that time and now only the ruins survive, pleasing, if poignant, late Gothicrelics of what must have been among the most striking buildings in the countryside of pre-Tudor Ireland.[2]
