Search Results for 'bridge of IIlanaltenagh'

The exact origins of the Poor Clare Sisters in Galway are not easy to trace. We know there was a convent of Clares, if not Poor Clares, here before 1640, based on an inscription on a headstone which read “Here lieth the body of Elizabeth Lynch, the Foundress of the Order of St. Clare who died 14th December 1626”. James Hardiman describes another headstone inscribed thus: “Here lieth the body of R. Mother Maria Gabriel, alias Helen Martin, first Abbess and religious of the Poor Clares of Galway who died on 14 January aged 68 in religion for 40. Pray for her Soul.” This suggests the nuns were in Galway since 1632 when she entered the order.