Buildings

The building was originally known as Annaghdown Monastery in the Post Office district of Drumgriffin. The first group of Brothers to come in 1851 comprised of four members. They were led by Br. Elias Silke, a renowned teacher of Irish and History. Among those he taught at Errew Monastery, Castlebar was Canon Ulick Bourke who later became a leading professor of Irish at Maynooth and who left him a signed copy of his famous “The College Irish Grammar” as a token of appreciation for his former teacher of Irish. Br. Francis Kelly was a native of Kilkerrin, Ballinasloe. Another member of the founding group Br. John Concannon travelled to New York later where he joined the Franciscan Brothers in Brooklyn. Br. Clement Halloran was the fourth member of the original group. On their arrival from Errew Monastery they were granted a three acre site by Francis Blake of Cregg Castle, on which they were directed to erect a monastery and school. According to a written account,the site comprised of nearly three acres of bare, rocky land”. Immediately on their arrival, the Brothers began to teach “in a small thatched house across from the Chapel”. Shortly afterwards they purchased a farm from John Butler, Esq. of Tonagarraun, and built a temporary dwelling house there while they were completing their monastery. This was probably a small building where the local supermarket now stands.

St Brendan’s was dedicated on 12 July 1903 by Archbishop Healy of Tuam who referred to it by the name shown above – presumanly to distinguish it from St Brendan’s, Corrandulla. The dedication ceremony was described in The Tuam Herald and The Galway Express of 18 July 1903. It was, to quote the Herald, “a ceremony of great stateliness and pomp”. On 24 July 2003, there were centenary celebration ceremonies in St Brendan’s followed by a reception in Annaghdown school. A commemorative booklet was printed to mark the occasion – it includes the newspaper descriptions of 18 July 1903. The church ceremonies centered on Mass concelebrated by Canon Martin Newell, Parish Priest of Annaghdown, Fr Oliver McNamara, Curate of Annaghdown and Canon Michael Goaley – Parish Priest of Glenamaddy and a native of Annaghdown. A number of priests who had served in Annaghdown were present in the sanctuary.

Of the very many interesting functions of which the Archdiocese of Tuam has been the centre for some months past, none has exceeded in interest that which was witnessesd in one of its most remote parishes when on Sunday morning last his Grace the Most Rev. Dr Healy, Archbishop of Tuam, solemnly dedicated the new church of St Brendan in Annadown, in the presence of a large and edified gathering of parishioners and friends from the surrounding districts, including a strong contingent from Galway City. The new church, the building of which was begun in the early part of the year 1900, occupies a very fine situation in the centre of the Annadown district, around which place cling so many hallowed memories of much that is great and spirit-stirring in the glorious history of the birth and development of Christinaity in Ireland. Replacing, as it does, an old structure which was only intended for temporary use, pending the provision of a more suitable place of worship, the new Church of St Brendan, besides proving an ornament to its locality, will fill a want long felt in so far as the religious requirements of the people of Annadown are concerned.

The medieval monastery and bishopric of Annaghdown was once the most important ecclesiastical centre in Connacht after Tuam Archdiocese. The monastery of Annaghdown was founded by St Brendan and his sister St Briga around 550 AD in the territory of the little-known Delbhna Cuil Fabhair, on the south-east shore of Lough Corrib. This territory of Magh Seola (later the barony of Clare) was taken over after 800 by the Uí Briúin Seóla, ancestors of the Uí Fhlaithbertaig, and Annaghdown grew in power, attracting in the late 12th century two Continental monastic orders, the Arrouaisians and Premonstratensians, and rising after 1179 to become one of the five bishoprics of Connacht.

In 1659 the first service was established to convey mail from Dublin to Galway. By 1807 there was a regular mail coach service, taking almost 15 hours to complete the journey. With the completion of the railway in 1851, trains were then used for the transportation of letters and parcels.
In 1853 it became obligatory to use postage stamps. By 1872 there were 5 letter boxes in Galway city, at Rockbarton, Salthill, Nile Lodge, Mainguard Street and Eyre Square. At first all incoming mail had to be collected at the Post Office. It was not until the end of the nineteenth century that a free delivery service was set up. Postmen traversed their district daily on foot walking up to twenty miles. Cycle deliveries began in 1901, with the postman receiving 1 shilling weekly for cleaning and maintaining the bicycle. It was not until the 1960s that post vans were introduced into rural areas.

Below are two letters by John O’Donovan concerning the Parish of Annaghdown, part of his Letters containing information relative to the Antiquities of the County of Galway collected during the progress of the Ordnanace Survey in 1838 Vol. I. Links to each volume of O’Donovan’s Letters are available on the Ask About Ireland website.
“I have not yet sufficiently examined the antiquities of this parish having only passed through a few townlands of it on my way from Clare Galway to Tuam. I met one old church in the townland of Cill Chathail which bears the same name with the townland or rather which originally gave its name of Cill Chathail or Church of St. Cathaldus to the townland. It lies in a fieldto the left of the road as you go from Clare Galway to Tuam about 8 miles from the latter.”