Brothers’ legacy

Franciscans celebrate 200 years in Mountbellew

THE Franciscan Brothers have been in Mountbellew for two centuries and, on Saturday July 1, the bicentennial anniversary of their founding was celebrated.

The Franciscan Brothers came about in 1820 when Christopher Dillon Bellew of the Bellew Estate asked the Franciscan Friars Minor in Dublin to send Brothers to Mountbellew to run a school in the area. Christopher Dillon Bellew gave them 10 acres and a site for a monastery.

The bicentennial anniversary of their arrival to Mountbellew was postponed due to Covid, but last Saturday week, the celebration was held with mass in St Mary’s Church in Mountbellew, before those in attendance made their way across the road to the Mountbellew Agricultural College for a meal.

The Franciscan Brothers set up the agricultural college in Mountbellew in 1904. It was the first educational institute in Ireland devoted solely to agricultural practices.

The 200th anniversary commemorations…

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