On a cold Spring morning on the west coast of Ireland, replete with intermittent showers of sleet, I travelled to the small town of Claregalway, just outside Galway city. Standing on the outskirts of the town are the impressive ruins of a Franciscan Abbey, whose origins date as far back as 1250 A.D.
The story behind its building and destruction is typical of the complicated history of Ireland and England. A generation or so after the Anglo-Norman invasion, an Anglo-Norman knight John de Cogan founded the Abbey, later founding a Carthusian Charterhouse elsewhere. De Cogan participated in the armies led by Maurice Fitzmaurice and Richard de Burgh sent to conquer Connacht and defeat the last remaining Gaelic lords.
