Local history: Errew Monastery dates back to 1840

By Tom Gillespie

THE 1972 annual Castlebar Parish Magazine carried an interesting article on the historic Errew Monastery, outside Castlebar, which was researched by Brother Rupert, O.S.F.

He wrote that the following inscription is engraved on a plaque over the monastery’s hall door: ‘Under the special patronage of His Grace, the Most Illustrious Lord John Mac Hale, Archbishop of Tuam, the first stone of the monastery was laid by James Hardiman Esq. on the 21st day of July, 1840, AD.’

James Hardiman, a Mayo man, was a noted literary figure of his day and in 1840 was Librarian of Queen’s University, Galway.

His mother, Marcella Hall, was a native of Errew and owned a considerable amount of property there.

Having inherited this property from his mother he donated 10 acres - Irish Plantation Measure - of it to the Franciscan Brothers with the express intention as stated in the Transfer Deed: "To erect a Monastery and school thereon."

This was the first attempt to introduce formal education to the Errew district since the easing of the degrading, dehumanising Penal Laws.

With the approval of Dr. Mac Hale, Brother Bernard Garry, a native of Ballindine, and Brother Paul O’Donnell, a native of Newport, were sent to Errew to establish and supervise the new foundation.

With the active cooperation of the people of the area the buildings were ready for occupation in 1842.

It is a pleasing duty to record the unstinting support of the local people. Down the years that have manifested, in many ways, the same spirit of support which is gratefully remembered and appreciated.

It might be asked why did Hardiman establish and endow a private school when there was a State system already in operation?

The reason that the controversial Education Act of 1831, which established the national school system in this country, was unacceptable to some of the Irish bishops.

There was plenty reason for this hostility. According to one of the Commissioners of Education of the time the aim of the Act was to wean the Irish from the abuse of poverty and John Mitchel has recorded that the more subtle aim was ‘to denationalise the Catholic chidden’.

No wonder, therefore, that Dr. Mac Hale, from the outset, resolutely refused to approve or accept the new system.

Despite the distrust and suspicion of many people national schools sprung up throughout the country.

To keep in line with this development Dr. Mac Hale had to rely on private means to provide education for his people. Help from well-off individuals like James Hardiman was more than welcomed by the Archbishop.

As already mentioned, the monastery school became operative in 1842 and must have attracted pupils from a wide area. In a copy of a letter, still preserved, dated April 1844, Brother Bernard mentions that there were 266 pupils attending the school at that time.

This is a remarkable number for a rural school of more that century ago but it has to be remembered that the population of Ireland prior to the Famine was double that it is now.

It is also pertinent to remark that the Brothers had embarked from the beginning on a continuation school somewhat on similar lines to what is known nowadays as ‘Primary Top’. This also was the first attempt at post-primary education in west Mayo.

One of the more notable scholars of the pre-Famine period was Canon Ulick Bourke, P.P. of Claremorris. He was taught the rudiments of the classics and of the Irish language in Errew. In 1856, when he published his College Irish Grammar, he presented an autographed copy, still preserved, to the monastery.

The Great Hunger, bitterly remembered by the Irish as Black 47, dealt all but a death blow to the monastery and its educational activities.

To ease the dreadful plight of the people, Brothers Bernard and Paul went on a questing mission to America. When they retuned home three years later they found immense changes had taken place.

These changes are vividly illustrated in the New Ireland by A.M. Sullivan when he wrote: "I doubt if the world ever saw so huge demoralisation, so great a degradation, visited upon a once high-spirited and sensitive people."

In the local context, many houses were vacant, quite a number in the area had died of hunger and the plague, the number of school children had dwindled and the emigration haemorrhage had begun.

It took the Brothers and the people almost a decade to get on their feet again.

About 1880 re-fanning of the smouldering embers took place. The school’s primary and post-primary began to flourish again.

One of the more outstanding scholars of this period was Dr. Higgins, a native of Ballyheane and later Auxiliary Bishop of Tuam. A member of the Errew community at that time was Brother Sylvester Gilmartin, an uncle of the future Archbishop.

Unrelenting to the end in his opposition to the national school system, Dr. Mac Hale died in 1881. The new Archbishop, Dr. McEvilly, reversed the policy of his predecessor. As a consequence, in April 1884 the monastery primary school came under the supervision of the Board of National Education. For some reason the post-primary section was discontinued.

Under the new conditions the average enrolment for the first year was 71 and there was a steady increase to a little beyond the 100 mark.

After the first decade a gradual decline in the numbers set in. The trend continued until World War II but since then the average enrolment has remained fairly constant.