Ballintubber Abbey

Ballintubber Abbey Visit

We went to Ballintubber Abbey for our Confirmation retreat on Tuesday 28^th February. First, we were greeted by Fr. Frank Fahy. We went into a room and we sat in a circle and a lady talked to us about how the monks used to live there. We prayed for a while and afterwards we went outside to walk around the grounds of the Abbey. We learned about the history of the place. There was an old church that we went in to and the seat covers were made from sheep’s wool.  The lady explained how the priest used to say mass with his back turned to the people. Most people were outside the church for mass and when the priest was giving out communion they had to go into the church to receive it.

The Abbey is 802 years old. It was burnt down by Cromwellian soldiers in 1603 who didn’t want religion in Ireland so they thought that if they burned down churches there would be no religion practiced. 

Seán na Sagart was a priest killer who after a stealing a horse was given a sentence to kill priests. He was eventually killed himself and is buried in Ballintubber Graveyard. His grave faces north where the sun never rises. A tree grew on his grave and crushed three other graves and divides the graveyard in two. The people were in fear at how he still caused damage after he died.

Gráinne Uaile’s son was also buried in the vault in the sacristy of Ballintubber Abbey.

There was a hut called Elizabeth’s House where a lady had a vision that an angel told her that the Holy Family would visit her. She cleaned her house and a group of people came to the door while she was getting ready. They asked if they could come in for food and she refused them and told them she was expecting someone special. She waited and nobody else came. The angel visited her again and told her that the people who had come earlier were the Holy Family.

After our tour we went back inside and lit some candles and we brought these home. On our way home from Ballintubber we stopped in Castlebar for our dinner. We had a wonderful day in preparation for our Confirmation.

By Caoimhe