Dominicans

Dominicans (the order of Preachers), established their first Irish house in Dublin in 1224 and by 1305 numbered 25 communities, all but five of which had Anglo‐Norman founders. In 1275 the Irish friaries were constituted a vicariate subject to a vicar appointed by the English provincial of the order. Subsequent attempts to gain independence were opposed by English interests and an independent Irish province was not established until 1536.

A further expansion occurred with the foundation of ten new houses, principally in the west of Ireland, between 1385 and 1507. Their isolated locations suggest a desire for reform and their foundation corresponds with the emergence of the Observant movement. In 1503 an Observant friar from Holland was appointed vicar of the reformed houses in Ireland but the number of these is difficult to determine as reformed and unreformed friars coexisted in many friaries.

In 1536 there were 38 friaries in Ireland, 20 of which were suppressed between 1539 and 1542. Some houses in Gaelic areas were not dissolved until the reign of Elizabeth I (1558–1603).

In the 17th and 18th centuries the friars lived in small communities in the vicinity of their former houses. Novices continued to be received in Ireland and were sent to the colleges at Lisbon (founded 1615), Louvain (1624), and Rome (1677) to pursue studies. The closure of the Irish novitiates in 1751 (see religious orders) initiated a process of decline which lasted until the mid‐19th century.

Colmán N. Ó Clabaigh