Europe
Ireland
Drogheda
priory of Saint Dominic

A brief description.

The Magdalene Tower (right) is the only surviving piece from the Dominican priory established ca. 1224 by Luke Netterville, ArchBishop of Armagh. It seems to have been a large precinct with extensive building work. Within the precinct was a hospital dedicated to St. Mary Magdalene. It was in the Dominican priory that King Richard II received the submission of the powerful O'Neill of Ulster as well as various other chieftains. These new subjects were then treated to feasting and pageants in Dublin. In 1399 the Dominicans of Drogheda received a royal confirmation of the priory's  possessions. 
 
Also in that year Pope Boniface IX granted indulgences to all who visited its church or the chapel of the Virgin Mary adjacent to it.  This indulgence was renewed in 1401.
In 1467 the Earl of Desmond was interred here after his execution in Drogheda. Because of the almost constant state of warfare in Ireland the priory fell into disrepair.  So in 1468 a Parliament held in Drogheda granted the priory an annuity of twenty marks for the repair and maintenance of the house.

St. Mary Magdalen's (Dominican Church), situated on Dominic Street.

This is where the present day Dominican inhabitants of Drogheda reside. The church is of a Victorian Gothic design. 
After the Reformation the Dominicans of Drogheda disappeared for a while but appeared again in the Drogheda records in the 1620s but kept a low profile. 
Only after Cromwell died is there evidence of a Dominican priory again. They lived in a thatched house in Mill Lane which they  abandoned in 1786 when they bought a shop and yard in what was then called Linenhall lane. 
 

Beside the shop a long narrow passage led to the new chapel at the back, well hidden from the street too avoid public notice. The site of that Linenhall chapel is precisely that of the present priory today.

 

Philately

Medieval view of Drogheda 1194-1994, with the Magdalene Tower, the only surviving piece from the Dominican priory established ca. 1224 by Luke Netterville, ArchBishop of Armagh. On the right the Dominican church St. Mary Magdalene of the present Dominican priory today.

Ireland 1994, Mi 872, Sc 939.

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