Ballintubber Abbey, County Mayo, Ireland

About seven miles south of Castlebar (the county town of Mayo), lies a village called Ballintubber. Ballintubber's history goes back to pre-Christian times, people came from the east through Ballintubber on their way to the holy mountain on the west coast now called Croagh Patrick. Ballintubber - in Irish Baile an Tobair (the 'town' of the well) - gets its name from a well dedicated to St Patrick the patron Saint of Ireland.

When St Patrick brought Christianity to Ireland in c.441AD, he founded a church at Ballintubber. The present Abbey, founded in 1216 by King Cathal O'Conor, was built for the Canon Regulars of St Augustine and is dedicated to the Holy Trinity. It is the only church in Ireland still in daily use that was founded by an Irish king.

C. Day Lewis wrote a poem in the 1960s where he describes Ballintubber Abbey as "the Abbey that refused to die" – a reference not so much to structure and stonework of the church, as to the living faith of the people and community who have sustained its heart and soul to the present day. Through its many vicissitudes, including burning by Cromwell's army in 1653, the Abbey has remained a place of worship despite years of continuous attacks and religious repression.
The Abbey is the parish church for the local community. It invites parishioners and visitors to engage in quiet time, prayer and contemplation. Its unique acoustics have brought many choirs to Ballintubber to enrich the liturgies in the Abbey. The church has also been the venue of choice for many recordings of choral music.

History

Apart from a fire in 1265, history is comparatively silent about life in the medieval community. In 1542, its last abbot was forced to submit to the orders of King Henry VIII to close down the monastery, but the monks somehow managed to stay on in occupation until Queen Elizabeth I finally took possession of it in 1585. Despoiled by Cromwellians, the roofless Abbey continued as a centre for Mass devotion throughout the Penal Days of the eighteenth century. The Nave was restored in the 1960s, by the Reverend Thomas A. Egan. Imogen Stuart's attractive polychrome Stations of the Cross were added to the interior decoration together with stained glass windows by renowned artists.

The church itself is a masterwork of a group of masons known as 'The School of the West' who worked on many Connacht buildings in the early 13th century. They are noted for their closely-fitting ashlar masonry and decoration in a Romanesque mode at a time when the pointed Gothic was already replacing this style. This is the last gasp of the roundarched Romanesque, characterised by attractive geometrical ornament and fabulous animals as seen in the chancel and in the triple east windows. The doors in the east wall of the cloister range are also a product of these masons' artistry. Ballintubber Abbey and the associated ecclesiastical sites embody a continuous Christian presence and practice for well over 1,500 years in the West of Ireland. It also connects this Christian tradition with the Celtic spirituality and heritage dating back even further.