Item 22 - Memorandum on the Future of Ard Mhuire Friary

3 pp; Typescript

A memorandum outlining ‘some reasons for retaining our foundation in the Diocese of Raphoe’. The document provides bullet points on the rationale for retaining Ard Mhuire Friary. The document notes:
'To give up Ard Mhuire would not be good for the Province. It would mean bad distribution of Friars in the country, virtually confining them to three cities, Cork, Dublin and Kilkenny. Ard Mhuire can now be said to be our only country house. … Ard Mhuire is [also] one of the few foundations of clerical religious in Northern Ireland'.
Reference is also made to the attitudes of the local parish clergy and lay community who are very favourably disposed to the friars remaining in the locality.