Founded 1227

The founder of the Dominican priory of Limerick is said to have been Donagh Carbreagh O’Brien, then king of Thomond, though there is some doubt about this. He died in 1241 and is buried in St Saviour’s. His tomb was described as ‘magnificent,’ but after Limerick’s sieges nothing remained of this tomb. “It is said that the soldiers of King William broke in pieces the statue of Donagh Carbreagh.” When the Dominican historian de Burgo inspected the site, around 1754, he commented sadly: “Now, as I have seen, only a very few traces remain of this superb building, amidst which the soldiers of the garrison have their barracks.”

The burial of the founder in St Saviour’s started a long tradition of using the priory as a burial ground for the famous. The Geraldines particularly favoured it, as did the chiefs of the MacNamaras. Ten Munster bishops also lie buried there.

Clearly, the early Limerick Dominicans had the favour of state and civil authorities. King Edward I made them generous grants. The king’s belief that his own ancestors, and not Donagh Carbreagh O’Brien, had really been the founders of St Saviour’s in 1227, clearly inspired his generosity. This generosity inspired some jealousy on the part of the Corporation. Old St Saviour’s was built so close to the east side of the city wall that it inevitably suffered severely in the fairly frequent commotions of turbulent times. But royal grants for repair work rarely reached the Dominicans, whose buildings were almost on the front line. In 1377 Edward III had to issue a mandate to the corporation to pay them forty shillings yearly out of the grant. The is probably the devastation caused by their being so close to the city walls that led to the complete re-building of St Saviour’s in 1462.

It is relatively easy to chronicle the famous dead buried in St Saviour’s, but the life lived in the priory is almost unrecorded. Preaching, praying, studying, and collecting their livelihood – or ‘questing’, as it was called – must have been their main activities. Referring to custom throughout the Order the Dominican historian Mandonnet wrote: “Within each conventual district, secondary – not having the rank of convents – might be opened, where for the whole year, or part of a year, religious resided for the purpose of preaching to the people within a given radius.” This may have been how Kilmallock priory came to be founded on 3 October 1291. A chalice from Kilmallock priory is still in use in the present St Saviour’s. Another such establishment was found at Sixmilebridge. O’Heyne stated, “This chapel belongs to the Dominicans of Limerick, but has not been kept up or inhabited for a long time: that is, from about the beginnings of the war in 1641.”

Irish, of course, was the spoken language; and both Franciscans and Dominicans incurred official wrath for their insistence on speaking the language of people in their ordinary preaching. These were early centuries in the colonisation of Ireland, and Anglo-Irish insecurity readily saw any cultural identity as a threat to its political ascendancy. A document about Irish affairs of around 1285 complains that Irishmen were being chosen as bishops to maintain their language, and that the Dominicans were very active in supporting the use of the native language.

However, for over two hundred years the work continued, through all the turbulent events of Irish history, some of which affected Limerick very deeply. The Bruce invasion, the Statutes of Kilkenny, the Geraldine rule, the beginnings of an Irish Parliament: all of these were not without their effect on the religious life in a rarely peaceful country. Provincial Chapters were held in Limerick in 1279, 1294 and 1310.